NetNewsCheck

[Commentary] The litany of challenging news began recently with near simultaneous decisions by Gannett and Scripps to spin off their newspaper divisions, CBS announcing it would move its affiliation in Indianapolis from LIN Media’s WISH-TV to Tribune-owned WTTV, and Walt Disney putting its 23 radio stations on the block. At a time like this, it’s important to consider a few maxims about media.

First: The sky has never actually fallen. The media industry ecosystem echoes periodically with what I like to call Chicken Little Syndrome.

Second: It’s time to ramp up investment in digital. Legacy media companies need to invest aggressively in digital, and that means significantly more than the 1% of revenue that most consultants recommend.

Third: Branding and promotion are critical. Digital disruption has brought an exponential increase in the number of companies vying in the media industry, and, in particular, in the local digital media arena.

Fourth: Collaborate, on both content and promotion.

Fifth: Put the kids in charge. Legacy media needs a big infusion of 25-years-olds.

Sixth: Remember Darwin. It isn’t the strongest who survive. It’s the most adaptable.

Philadelphia’s WHYY is taking a solutions-based approach to its new collaborative, multiplatform community journalism project, which explores urban decline and renewal in the Keystone State.

The project, Keystone Crossroads: Rust or Revival?, began June 23 with reporting via radio, television, newspapers, Web and social media.

Since funding for the project, a $1.5 million grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, was announced in January, a staff of seven has been hired and partnerships with three other stations -- WESA in Pittsburgh, WPSU at Penn State and WITF in Harrisburg -- have been established. Pittsburgh’s WQED is an associate partner.

The goal, said Chris Satullo, WHYY vice president of news and civic dialogue, is to examine day-to-day life in Pennsylvania, where four out of 10 residents live in areas declared financially distressed. He said there has been little conversation about these issues in the state, and the timing is crucial, as gubernatorial and state legislative elections are coming up.

Total online political ad spending is projected to soar to almost a billion dollars in 2016 US political races that are expected to generate more than $12 billion for all contests -- almost $51 for every qualified voter -- according to a report from Borrell Associates.

Digital media still would account for less than 8% of all political advertising, the report says, but the way political advertising money is spent will change dramatically in 2016, affecting every level of spending -- from very local to presidential runs.

Cable and online are the only media choices projected to gain share in political ad spending in 2014, the report says.

A new study by GfK for Hearst Television finds that viewers have a high level of engagement and trust with local television news and this favorable environment plays a role in prompting viewers to research and purchase products advertised during newscasts.

Eighty-five percent of all respondents agreed with the statement “Local TV News helps me feel connected to my community.” Forty-five percent agreed that “I know when advertisers put an ad on Local TV News that they care about me and my community.” A key subset of respondents indicated local TV advertising inspires action: Nearly two-thirds of adult 25 to 54 respondents said they often or sometimes investigated or purchased a product or service advertised on or in local TV news.

Search engine sites and local television news were far and away the most cited platforms, at 64% and 62%, respectively.

[Commentary] Broadcasters had a chance to mine their frenemies relationship with Google, Facebook and Twitter more closely at the National Association of Broadcasters Show in a spirited back and forth exchange. To the social networks, the broadcasters could stand to be more experimental -- and engage more vigorously -- with their platforms. For the broadcasters, the social players could be more transparent in their own developing media strategies. Both camps, it was clear, need each other in an inextricably entwined media landscape. But broadcasters also need to take a highly differentiated approach to each social platform as they continue to iterate.