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Two major TV network honchos, in two separate articles, are suggesting today that network news needs to be more like blogs – opinionated and immediate. Would big bucks advertisers put up with opinionated news and commentary rather than lose their audience altogether? Doubtful, but stay tuned.
Although most blogs are certainly cash poor, they are having impact not only on the way news is delivered and perceived, but also on who is trusted and who is sought out for immediate news. MSM simply has to adapt or die.
60 Minutes Producer Don Hewitt has an OpEd piece in the New York Times today that asks “Why couldn’t a newscast follow a newspaper’s example and include commentary by bright, attractive articulate men and women of various political and ideological persuasions, with whom viewers – like newspaper readers – can agree, disagree, laugh at, sneer at or argue about when the newscast is over?” Hey, that’s what blogs do!
Dominic Basulto at Corante reports that Jeff Zucker, NBC TV president may create blogs for its top news anchors and celebrity interviewers.
Zucker agrees with Hewitt that “U.S. networks can no longer count on a “dinnertime” audience to watch their half-hour news broadcasts at an appointed time every night, given the inroads made by 24-hour cable news channels and the wide availability of breaking reports on the Internet.”
“I don’t know why Brian Williams isn’t blogging right now. We should be looking for a more interactive component … and be experimenting more.”
Wanna take bets on which bloggers get offered network jobs? I could be available. :>)