In 2023, Market Share posted 260 columns. Find out which ones were the most read and what is was about them that drove them to the top.
What drives readership to TVNewsCheck’s Market Share column?
Is it the title? The subject matter? What do readers want to know?
Who’s reading Market Share? Local TV creatives, news staff, sales personnel, GMs, group CEOs?
I think about these questions when I write most Market Share columns.
How do I decide what to write about? I trust my curiosity. If I’m interested in the story, I believe it will be of interest to readers. I want to write about success, innovation, and creativity in the local TV community, in news coverage and marketing. What’s new? What’s changed? What’s worked?
(If you have a story that fits into this criterion, and want to share it, let me know at [email protected], or 817-578-6324.)
I gave up handicapping what I thought would be a highly successful story in terms of readership. I’m often surprised that one story generated thousands of views while another did not.
But like when I was in local TV news marketing, it’s the results that matter. News ratings growth was the measure of success then when I was working in local TV. Readership is the measure of success now.
So I keep a close watch on how the Market Share stories do in terms of readers.
In 2023, Market Share posted 260 columns. To see all Market Share columns from the most recent on back, CLICK HERE.
When I look at the top 10 most viewed Market Share stories of 2023, a few things stick out. Of the top 10 stories of 2023, the word “promo” appears in the title of four columns. Of the top 10 stories of 2023, news ratings growth is part of the title in a couple.
So let’s see which Market Share stories were the most popular in 2023, and what reasons may have driven them to the top.
At the top of the list is a story that doesn’t have the promise of promos or news ratings growth. But what it does have is the promise of innovation, something different: An evening newscast that starts with a 15-minute investigation without commercials.
I have worked at stations that have started the newscast with a 10-minute investigation without commercial interruption, usually on the first day of a ratings period.
In addition, I’ve advocated that local TV news ought to open the newscast without a news open and go directly to a series of story previews of what’s in the newscast — reporter stand-up teases, sound bites, compelling video, a weather tease — to create a thirst for news and to show viewers that you appear to be everywhere covering it. This is an especially good strategy is you’re not the top choice for news at that time.
The network news, especially ABC, does an excellent job of this night after night.
In looking back at the most viewed story of 2023 published in November, WDIV Detroit Launches Newscast With 15-Minute, Commercial-Free Investigation, I’m struck by the fact that the 15-minute investigation that aired without commercials came about somewhat serendipitously. The reporter needed the time to tell the story right and went to management.
WDIV had never aired a 15-minte story without commercials before.
The 15-minute commercial-free segment on WDIV’s 5:30 news was the highest rated quarter hour of the early news on that day.
The second most-viewed Market Share story of 2023 also comes from a Detroit station.
I’m sure the title and the picture had something to do with its success, and it probably appealed to local TV station marketing and creative services more than anyone else: No B-Roll, No Problem: WXYZ Goes Experimental In Standout Promo.
The third most-viewed story, Quad Cities’ WQAD Hires Major Market News Director To Fill In As Temp, is one of my favorites because I knew the main character in the story and I think what happened was innovative on the part of the station, and its owner.
It didn’t promise any promos or news ratings growth, but the idea was unique. And if I were king, this might be a method I would try to maintain stability whenever there is a department head opening at one of my stations.
I’d be interested in providing something similar to a station if you sent me a parachute.
The fourth most-read column, WPVI Promos Find Humor For Anchors Replacing Retired Jim Gardner, combines a situation every station faces from one of the most successful TV stations in the country.
How do you replace a legendary main anchor who’s retiring after 44 years on the anchor desk? The station turned to humor to promote his replacements.
The fifth most-viewed column concerns AI, the use of artificial intelligence. I was stunned by this story, Local TV Sales Use AI To Recruit New Advertisers.
Since that story came out in March, it seems the use of AI has reached the mainstream. And the company featured in this article has since signed deals to provide its services to several well-known broadcast companies.
I went to the company’s website and created these two ads for TVNewsCheck in five minutes with just a few keystrokes.
Of the remaining five stories that made the top 10 list, four of the five mentioned ratings growth and promos in the titles.
KARE’s Morning News Formula Grows Viewers In Four Months
How WCAX Pulled Off A ‘Back To The Future’-Themed Weather Promo
KAUZ’s Jaden Knowles Fulfills Dream, Is First Black Meteorologist In Wichita Falls
‘Dayton 24/7 Now’ Innovates, Experiments And Grows News Ratings
The Best Local TV News Promos According To Promax
These Market Share stories round out the top ten for 2023. Feel free to contact me with any suggestions, recommendations, or complaints about Market Share.
Happy 2024.
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