CHANGING LOCAL NEWS

June 2000
		Should local TV news return to a simple, hard news approach? WBBM anchor Carol Marin and NewsLab Executive Director Deborah Potter take your questions.

Forum introduction Is commentary becoming more prevalent in local news? Can this "no frills" concept work elsewhere? Is television news losing out to the Internet? Has the pace of on-camera interviews increased? Why can't local news programs report the news without gimmicks?     Online Special Changing Local News Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the media     WBBM-TV -- Chicago American Journalism Review Online Journalism Review Columbia Journalism Review Freedom Forum

David Yntema of Atlanta, GA asks: I wished I still lived in Chicago so I could watch Marin's show. I hope you have plenty of copy-cats across America. Can your concept translate to other markets, especially those without Chicago's political and news traditions? Isn't Chicago an unusual case? Can it work elsewhere? Why or why not?   Carol Marin responds: Boy, we wished you lived in Chicago too, and had a rating book. You're right, there are some news towns in America like Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, Baltimore that are prime places for this experiment because they have tough-minded, newspaper-reading, blue collar self-educated constituencies who want serious news. But if my e-mail is any indication after the NewsHour piece last week, people all over the country from LA to Fort Lauderdale want less fluff, fewer cute animal stories, no network crossplugs and more straight news.   Deborah Potter responds: Good question. I'm not sure we can assume that WBBM's newscast will succeed even in Chicago, much less anywhere else. The 10 p.m. ratings in May were down substantially from a year ago. I believe it will take some time, maybe even a year, for the station to build an audience for the broadcast. Until they do, I suspect other stations will hesitate to follow suit. But I think you've raised a significant point, and one that underscores the importance of what WBBM is doing. Too many stations across the country not only mimic each others' presentation styles and slogans-thanks in part to the influence of paid consultants-but also copy each others' content. What WBBM has done is to look at its community and try to cover news that matters to that community in a style that might appeal to them. So what works in Chicago in terms of content probably should not work in every other community. But the approach they're taking, trying to appeal to the specific community they serve, certainly could.