There are some local TV news operations around the country that are referred to as “heritage” or “legacy” stations. These stations have a history of local news ratings dominance that goes back continuously for years, sometimes decades. Viewers tune into their newscasts religiously, habitually, faithfully, no matter the time of day or day of the […]
There are some local TV news operations around the country that are referred to as “heritage” or “legacy” stations. These stations have a history of local news ratings dominance that goes back continuously for years, sometimes decades.
Viewers tune into their newscasts religiously, habitually, faithfully, no matter the time of day or day of the week. These stations are impervious to news lead-ins, often out-performing whatever their network entertainment or syndicated programming delivers.
It is, or should be, what every local TV news operation aspires to be in their respective markets.
KSBW, the Hearst-owned NBC affiliate in Monterey-Salinas-Santa Cruz, Calif., continues to have the most-watched newscast in each time period, seven days a week, according to the just completed February 2015 Nielsen ratings.
And not just in February. According to the station, watching the news on KSBW has been a tradition for 60 years.
So what is it about KSBW that makes it the No. 1 choice for news viewers there?
I wanted to know. So I asked the station’s management team to tell me their thoughts.
KSBW’s management team consists of Joseph Heston, the station’s general manager for the past 16 years.
Lawton Dodd has been KSBW’s news director for 17 years, and Ed Everest has returned to KSBW as the station’s creative services director, a position he held for four years until 2011.
I first wanted to know why not much has been written in the national trades about KSBW’s success.
Heston said: “When you win every newscast in 28.5 hours of local news, and you’ve done it for six decades, you don’t get much written about you.”
We’re going to fix that.
In talking to KSBW’s management team, one of the main characteristics of their news operation is that they stand for something.
“The success for KSBW over the past 60 years comes down to good journalism, not gimmicks,” says Everest.
“When you spend 60-plus years building that franchise and you own the franchise of quality journalism, how is somebody going to come in and break that? They’re not going to do it with gimmicks,” Dodd says .
“We really try to make decisions based on what is best for the viewer, and the community,” adds Heston.
“It comes down to doing good journalism every day,” says Everest. “And not getting caught up in the latest national wave of research that says stations need to do this or that.”
According to Everest, knowing who you are, and sticking to that, makes all the difference.
“The station is successful because we have never been confused about who we are or what we do. I don’t have to market who we want to be, I only have to market who we are. And that resonates with our viewers.”
“We don’t engage in stunting,” Everest says, “or marketing trickery or any fads that a lot of TV stations will engage in in order to have short-term success.”
Another trait that Everest thinks is critical to KSBW’s success is stability in both the management team and in front of the camera.
“Our reporters and anchors have been here a very long time,” says Everest; “we don’t experience high turn-over.”
“They really know the market and they’re very plugged in to the community. So there’s a lot of credibility, trust and responsiveness from viewers. You can’t gain trust by clever marketing. You only gain trust by having a solid newsroom and solid product.”
(Next in part 2, KSBW’s role in the community, and how a press conference about libraries surprised the station).
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