A primer on news web site development for affiliate TV stations
Lost Remote references a WSJ article that highlights how local TV stations are struggling trying to keep up with establishing a presence and monetizing the Web. Having done such work for the past seven years at a fairly high level with a market that traditionally doesn't exactly embrace any new product off the bat, I've learned a thing or two about making integrated TV work.
It's critical to remember that the greatest single point of failure for any broadcast operation is the need for synchronicity. Once you sign off, either at the end of a newscast or for the night, you've effectively severed your connection with your audience. You have to have a 24/7 presence - if not on the air, then through the 'Net. Delivering constant accessibility is key in today's competitive marketplace.
So in developing an affiliate TV station's site, put emphasis on the following:
Textual versions of news stories - once you establish your presence as a readable, printable, Google-indexable medium, you put a major dent in the armor of the print industry by going head-to-head with newspapers and print media. But for most small affiliates this is a big challenge: rewriting stories into print-friendly grammar from the bastardized language that is TVspeak is a major obstacle for many small stations. We put a lot of time into the conversion of content for the Web; so much so that we've started writing TV stories as print articles to save time.
Search - ask any experienced software developer and they'll tell you that among the most difficult applications to build and maintain the right way is an effective search tool (see my earlier comments on how Google's made us all look bad). Have a strong full-text index of ALL your archives stories, for the benefit of your users. If you only provide the facilities to see today's headlines and a few days back, you're making the medium useless.
Multimedia - in no other industry is the need for cross-platform access to your stuff so contingent on your success. And that's the thing that will separate the infantile players from the serious competitors, being a favorite service of users (who wants to read when a story can be watched?) and of advertisers. At KUAM we do podcasting, streaming audio/video (live and archived), VOD, graphics, and a lot more much to our success. It's actually less of a stretch for us because we produce all the video anyway...we just convert it to an appropriate format and put it up.
RSS everything that can be - the main benefit of being online as a TV station isn't the complementary value of augmenting your on-air stuff...it's being archived for all time on the Web so that people can find your content 6 days, 6 weeks, 6 months or 6 years from now. And syndication is an evolution of this major driving force. And don't skimp on the RSS-ability of your content...really go all out with data, as long as it makes subscribing to a feed worth it.
Empower users with wireless access - not just for TV operations, but in the same vein create a presence for the mobile market. People flip for simple services like text-based programming schedules, weather/traffic reports and localized sports scores, via their phone; cool tools like alerts for breaking news and daily headlines via SMS text messaging; and more advanced services like streaming video clips or live TV.
Have a very charismatic sales effort - the one thing that's haunted people trying to capitalize on this whole Web thing is how to generate high, sustainable revenue. It takes some patience and a lot of creativity, but you can introduce new, integrated ways to bring money into the operation, and pass new value onto the client.
Embrace/leverage new media - the stations that truly set themselves apart not only from their direct contemporaries but the industry in general are the ones on the cutting edge. Doing things like podcasting, RSS, public APIs, encouraging mashups, on demand video, wikis, blogs, encouraging citizen journalism really establishes critical credibility with the Web community...which is you're prime audience in the first place.
Don't be afraid to break news online before on-air - lastly, so much of the difficulties stations experience are more due to social engineering than in technical engineering, and behaviorally adopting a new mentality for web publishing is a perfect candidates for such a sea change. Contrary to some industry opinion, it's not sacrilege to report news via Internet media prior to formally announcing it over traditional broadcast channels. Online media is more flexible in its natural asynchronicity, but for the most part TV is more preferred. So reporting news on a web site before a newscast isn't performing an act of cannibalism - its proper integration.
And finally, to borrow from the popular Microsoft rallying cry: GO BIG OR GO HOME. Even though technically KUAM is a news operation, I always tell people we're in show biz. By the nature of the businesses they're associated with, people naturally expect more from TV station sites in terms of flashy presentation, dynamic content and blow-me-away aesthetics, so there's a big responsibility in not only doing a site, but doing it right. That's not to say everyone's got to build an MSNBC.com, but there is a stigma involved with being on TV.
It's critical to remember that the greatest single point of failure for any broadcast operation is the need for synchronicity. Once you sign off, either at the end of a newscast or for the night, you've effectively severed your connection with your audience. You have to have a 24/7 presence - if not on the air, then through the 'Net. Delivering constant accessibility is key in today's competitive marketplace.
So in developing an affiliate TV station's site, put emphasis on the following:
Textual versions of news stories - once you establish your presence as a readable, printable, Google-indexable medium, you put a major dent in the armor of the print industry by going head-to-head with newspapers and print media. But for most small affiliates this is a big challenge: rewriting stories into print-friendly grammar from the bastardized language that is TVspeak is a major obstacle for many small stations. We put a lot of time into the conversion of content for the Web; so much so that we've started writing TV stories as print articles to save time.
Search - ask any experienced software developer and they'll tell you that among the most difficult applications to build and maintain the right way is an effective search tool (see my earlier comments on how Google's made us all look bad). Have a strong full-text index of ALL your archives stories, for the benefit of your users. If you only provide the facilities to see today's headlines and a few days back, you're making the medium useless.
Multimedia - in no other industry is the need for cross-platform access to your stuff so contingent on your success. And that's the thing that will separate the infantile players from the serious competitors, being a favorite service of users (who wants to read when a story can be watched?) and of advertisers. At KUAM we do podcasting, streaming audio/video (live and archived), VOD, graphics, and a lot more much to our success. It's actually less of a stretch for us because we produce all the video anyway...we just convert it to an appropriate format and put it up.
RSS everything that can be - the main benefit of being online as a TV station isn't the complementary value of augmenting your on-air stuff...it's being archived for all time on the Web so that people can find your content 6 days, 6 weeks, 6 months or 6 years from now. And syndication is an evolution of this major driving force. And don't skimp on the RSS-ability of your content...really go all out with data, as long as it makes subscribing to a feed worth it.
Empower users with wireless access - not just for TV operations, but in the same vein create a presence for the mobile market. People flip for simple services like text-based programming schedules, weather/traffic reports and localized sports scores, via their phone; cool tools like alerts for breaking news and daily headlines via SMS text messaging; and more advanced services like streaming video clips or live TV.
Have a very charismatic sales effort - the one thing that's haunted people trying to capitalize on this whole Web thing is how to generate high, sustainable revenue. It takes some patience and a lot of creativity, but you can introduce new, integrated ways to bring money into the operation, and pass new value onto the client.
Embrace/leverage new media - the stations that truly set themselves apart not only from their direct contemporaries but the industry in general are the ones on the cutting edge. Doing things like podcasting, RSS, public APIs, encouraging mashups, on demand video, wikis, blogs, encouraging citizen journalism really establishes critical credibility with the Web community...which is you're prime audience in the first place.
Don't be afraid to break news online before on-air - lastly, so much of the difficulties stations experience are more due to social engineering than in technical engineering, and behaviorally adopting a new mentality for web publishing is a perfect candidates for such a sea change. Contrary to some industry opinion, it's not sacrilege to report news via Internet media prior to formally announcing it over traditional broadcast channels. Online media is more flexible in its natural asynchronicity, but for the most part TV is more preferred. So reporting news on a web site before a newscast isn't performing an act of cannibalism - its proper integration.
And finally, to borrow from the popular Microsoft rallying cry: GO BIG OR GO HOME. Even though technically KUAM is a news operation, I always tell people we're in show biz. By the nature of the businesses they're associated with, people naturally expect more from TV station sites in terms of flashy presentation, dynamic content and blow-me-away aesthetics, so there's a big responsibility in not only doing a site, but doing it right. That's not to say everyone's got to build an MSNBC.com, but there is a stigma involved with being on TV.
posted by Jason Salas @ 10:52 AM
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