The Incredible Shrinking TV News Audience
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] The fight for your eyeballs just escalated among TV news people. New numbers out from the Pew Research Center say that now, only half of American adults rely on television for their news. That’s down from 57% in 2016. The biggest user losers? Local TV news stations, which dropped from 46% to 37% last year.
Where are viewers going? They’re doing what you and I do more and more often – getting news from smart phone apps, or from social media. It’s almost neck and neck – Pew says 43% of us get our news online instead of on TV now. It’s not just millennials and the Gen-Z people after them using online and mobile news sources. The fastest growing group of people getting their news from mobile devices is the 65+ demographic. And the number of people age 50-64 getting news from their smart phones doubled from 2016-2017.
There are two important implications here for anyone communicating in a crisis or helping audiences understand your side of a controversial issue:
- Don’t discount your local TV news people. You still need them when it’s critical that your messages get broadly disseminated. Local TV news may have taken a huge hit in users, but local still pulls a bigger audience than with network or cable TV. They’re still a powerful megaphone.
- Elevate the importance of your social media platforms and be certain they are front-and-center in your crisis management strategy. Increasingly, that’s where the world wants to get its news. Anytime. Anywhere. On any device. In a crisis, you absolutely have to be there, and be there as soon as possible.
Ignore these points at the risk of your company’s reputation – and perhaps, ultimately, its bottom line. If you’re slow to the draw getting a message out on social media, or you wait until the last minute to return a reporter’s phone call, you will lose control of the narrative arc of the story targeting your organization. You will be on the defensive, always in catch-up mode correcting misinformation. That’s a slippery reputational slope.
Social media trolls aren’t getting any less shrill or vindictive. And with shrinking TV audiences, local newsrooms can unwittingly act as crisis catalysts, latching onto controversial issues and breathlessly amplifying them to attract and retain ever-smaller audiences – particularly during “sweeps” ratings (the next important sweeps period begins on February 1).
The best way to be prepared when it hits the fan: have a crisis plan in place that has media statements and social media posts approved and ready for all of the ugly scenarios that keep you and your colleagues awake at night. Get to know local TV reporters. Watch all the local news. Read reporter bios on every station’s website so you know who you’re dealing with – and the way they approach covering stories – when they pop up in your voicemail and email. And stay on top of your brand in social media. Know what’s being said and don’t knee-jerk – be smart about when to respond. But when you know you need to respond, be prepared to do it immediately. If you’re not sure where to get started, please don’t hesitate to call us!