If a Tree Fell on Katie Couric, Would Anyone See it Happen?


Posted: December 5th, 2007 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: Media News | No Comments

Raise your hand (better yet, leave a comment on this post) if you watch a network TV 6:30 p.m. newscast on a regular basis.

I just read a very interesting article from this month’s American Journalism Review that contended that American national newscasts, specifically those from NBC, ABC, and CBS, are not actually behind the times … but that no one watches them anyhow…

It’s no secret that the nightly news audience is smaller and older than ever. ABC, CBS and NBC combined have lost more than half their viewers over the past 25 years as media choices have multiplied. Their combined audience of 25 million still dwarfs cable news, but the average age of their viewers is now just over 60. So it’s no surprise that much of the content — including commercials — skews old. But the audience didn’t change because the content did; if anything, it’s the other way around.

Besides, it’s a reach to suggest the programs offer nothing of interest to anyone without blue hair and dentures. All three networks have recently stepped up coverage of environment and consumer stories. In one recent week, NBC reported on SUV safety, CBS looked at African American college enrollment and ABC covered efforts to clean up Yosemite National Park — stories that could appeal to a wide range of viewers.

The real problem isn’t that younger viewers are turned off by the stories the newscasts cover or that they feel excluded by commercials for retirement funds and cholesterol drugs. The trouble is that the newscasts as they exist today just don’t fit into their lives.

“I think of watching network newscasts as something my parents do,” Jen Jablow, 22, told the Philadelphia Inquirer earlier this year. “I can’t imagine my friends sitting down to watch an actual network newscast at 6:30 because we’re doing other things at that time. It’s a lot quicker to go online.”

You can read the entire article here.

The article points out a cold, hard truth for the networks. The truth is that no matter what they do, they can’t win. Younger Americans would rather Google their news. The average 30 and 40-something (full time job or two .. couple of kids .. large mortgage), meanwhile, has never really had that kind of time but probably won’t tune in when they get older because there are other quicker ways to get their news.

My wife and I both used to work in the news industry — she as a TV news producer and I as a radio news anchor and, for a couple of years, a TV news producer. We used to watch the news voraciously before we had kids. Now I’m 37 years old, she’s 35, and we have two children. At 6:30 we’re either finishing up cleaning the dishes, bathing the kids, or refereeing the latest argument about little brother annoying big sister. And, the fact that we USED to be regular viewers is probably unusual. For most people we know, it’s just something our parents did.

So … if the 20, 30, and 40-somethings can’t ever be counted on to watch the evening news, what audience does that leave for the national network news? If you said “the 50-somethings and older”, then you’re right. They are the last generations to grow up in a world where the network news operations were dominant. Do the math and you’ll figure out that as the Boomers (who are probably too busy trying to look younger to watch the news anyhow) and Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation” pass away, the audience for the network news vanishes with them. That gives the networks 30 years or so to figure out how to stay relevant.

So, what will happen then? I don’t think network news operations will ever go away entirely, and the 6:30 p.m. newscast probably isn’t either. The networks provide a service and are absolutely necessary in times of crisis. However, I see absolutely no way for the 6:30 newscast, as it exists right now, to ever return to any prominence.

If you make changes to your news product and no one notices, are they changes at all?

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