The tech guys (and gals) at News 2 have brought my station website up to speed. Faith and Ethics now has a video player!
The coolness of this is that the people who missed the tv broadcast can go to the website and see the story whenever they want. They can also leave comments and read comments and look at links to information and websites relevant to the story.
A few years ago I thought this type of thing might be bad for tv stations. My point of reference comes from when I first discovered tv news in the early 1970s. We had 3 stations to choose from. Period. We had two newscasts to choose from on each of the two stations broadcasting news. If we missed the news at 6 or 10, we missed it.
There was no Headline News 2 minute local brief. No internet website. No 24-hour local cable repeats of local broadcasting. Miss it, and you miss it. No second chances. Period.
Now I’ve said all along that I thought all of these second chances (Headline News updates, 4, 4:30, 5, 6 and 10 o’clock newscasts, 24-hour local repeats, websites etc.) were bad for the local station because it dilutes the audience.
My thinking now? Story specific, or better yet, beat specific websites and blogs are good for the local station. We can’t expect people to drop what they’re doing to watch the local newscast anymore. Shoot, half the time I don’t realize it’s news time until the newscast is halfway over. I’m doing other things. Watching the baseball game (great catch by Chavez by the way), the football game or CMT while the news is going on.
What I’m finding is that after my stories have run during the newscast, people talk about it at work or church and the following day I get people wanting to see it. Now they can go to my blog and watch the story, and leave a comment if they want.
Plus, I’ve noticed many of my regular blog readers are out-of-market. Many of my stories aren’t only relevant to people of the Nashville market so I’ve noticed hits from Seattle, Canada, the Boston area and Florida. I also don’t know of another tv station with a full-time religion reporter so this type of story is rare for local tv.
Now, those folks can easily find the stories. It’s also good for station revenue as that’s where the ad dollars are going.
Plus, my mom and dad can see my work again.
So drop in if you’d like to see what I’m doing now. Leave a comment, add to the discussion. Another interesting thing is many of the comments left on the blog are from cynics, agnostics, atheists and others who despise people who have a faith in God, and particularly evangelical Christians.
Here’s the link: www.faithandethics.com