By Paul Greeley
817-578-6324, Paul@NewsBlues.com

NOTE: This is a Guest Commentary from Stan Knott, former COO of Standard Media.

News Blues does accept submissions for Guest Commentaries, but we reserve the right to publish or edit them. Send your commentary to Paul@NewsBlues.com

Want Local Television News that is More Engaging?

To do this, we must “matter”.

If we turned off our local stations today would we be missed?

I’ll start this article sharing a few of my thoughts today with more to come:
1-Know your audience!

Set your demo target at 35+.

• For the past 20 years I believed in shifting our demo focus from 25-54 to 35+. Young families come off much later today than they did when my family came of age. They just aren’t interested in daily engagement.
• In the early 80’s the average age of a first time marriage was around 23. Today, that average age is around 29.
• Generational research from the past 10-15 suggests “the coming of age” has continued to move older and older since the baby boomers.
• Everyone has to get this. The GM, The News Director, the Staff, the Lawn people, etc…

Regarding 35+, I leave the cap off of the back end of the demo for a few reasons.

• From a pure tonnage standpoint you have more viewers available who are interested in local news.
• The 50+ crowd is living longer and healthier lives and they control a significant amount of wealth and spending power. I recently read a statistic that revealed more than 70% of the nation’s wealth is in adults 55+.
• The 50+ crowd certainly cares about subjects important to them, but they are also interested in the schools, community and future of the world that their children and grandchildren inherit.

Now, take a step back and ask yourself if you know your target audience well enough to describe them to someone. The entire staff should answer that question.

Its all about content!

• Once you know your audience, develop content and chose community connections that engages your target.
• Don’t try to do too much, you need to be good at one thing.
• As I mentioned in an earlier article, be good at weather and breaking local news, but don’t stop there.
• This is a daily challenge that requires focus and discipline.

Recently, I watched a local story that featured lawyers and lobbyists for one side but no consumers.

The real impact of the story was on the pocket book of the customer. As a customer, I never saw myself in that story so I moved elsewhere to find more information.

Most of your audience is not a lobbyist, a lawyer or a politician.

You’ve got to figure out how all of that impacts your target audience then tell their story.

As an industry, I hear a lot of chatter on consolidation. I get it, I hope it happens. But, we will be back in the same financial space in 3-5 years if we don’t do a better job of connecting with the audience, no matter the platform.

At the end of the day we will be judged by what we do with what we have. We need raving fans who are interested in our product.

If you have questions or would like to discuss further, feel free to message Stan Knott on LinkedIn.

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