Both KXAN Austin, Texas, and KING Seattle have made investigative journalism the foundation of their branding. But what about the reporters who do the leg work? What’s their take on the stations’ branding?
Many news viewers of Nexstar’s KXAN Austin, Texas. and Tegna’s KING Seattle are used to seeing local TV news investigations that get results.
Both stations have made investigative journalism the foundation of their branding by consistently airing reports that provide solutions and use examples from those investigations in their marketing to prove their point.
A recent Market Share column revealed how both stations’ marketing executives are finding success as the stations that stand for investigative journalism in their markets.
In that column, Jay Yovanovich, marketing director for KING, says “Our brand is ‘We Stand for Truth’, and there is nothing more truth-seeking than great investigative work.”
And Joany D’Agostino, creative services director at KXAN, says KXAN’s investigative content is a “unique differentiator that makes KXAN different from the other stations in this market. It attracts attention and trickles down to other platforms and other coverage.”
But what about the reporters who do the leg work? What’s their take on the stations’ branding? And how do they hold the powerful accountable?
Susannah Frame is a 30-year veteran at KING. Prior to being the chief investigative reporter, she was a general assignment reporter and an anchor.
“In every story I do, I put the viewers first,” Frame says. “In our unit, we don’t choose a story unless we can see a tangible goal and I would say 95% of the time we hit it.”
Frame says Yovanovich’s branding efforts to position KING as the station that stands for truth is paying off.
“They cite it all the time, you guys are the ones that stand for truth,” Frame says.
Josh Hinkle, KXAN’s director of investigations and innovation, says his team goes beyond revealing the problem. “We have multiple reports until it gets to the end,” he says. “Viewers really appreciate that feeling of resolution. And that is another reason that viewers keep turning to us because we see accountability not just as exposing a problem, but getting a resolution, getting a solution in place, fixing that problem for people.”
Hinkle says KXAN tries to air the investigations on nights when the station’s entertainment programming going into the late news is highly viewed.
“We try to take advantage of those moments to collect more eyeballs than we normally do to show people the quality work that we produce,” Hinkle says. The thinking is viewers will continue to watch not just for the investigations, but because the station has a good news product in general.
Frame says the power in being a TV investigative reporter is public scrutiny.
In one case, a phone call from Frame got viewers the results that had been delayed six months.
“That is what investigative journalism is all about, exposing something that a group or person doesn’t want brought to public scrutiny,” Frame says. “Who wants that bad publicity?”
In another story, “24 hours after my first story aired, we got a very pivotal result,” Frame says.
Hinkle says 70% of the investigations KXAN does in a year come from tips. “When you do a story that is tip driven and you get results, you want to show that off. You are telling viewers this is what we can do for you and this is what we have done and keep sending us your tips and watching because we are going to keep doing more.”
Hinkle says many people face problems that they can’t resolve themselves until they are at their wit’s end. “They have tried everything,” he says. “They finally turn to a TV station because that is their last resort and we are actually able to help them.”
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