Lesson 7: News Promotion
Prepared by Michael Murrie , Pepperdine University
Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Explain the role and importance of promotion for broadcast news
- Identify kinds of promos including topical, image, sweeps and community
- Explain and discuss common shortcomings and controversies as they relate to news promotion
Teaching Materials
Instructor’s Guide
(Designed for 1-2 hour class period – can be adjusted by viewing more or fewer promotion examples.)
What if you produced a newscast or reported a story, but no one watched?
One of the most important functions of any enterprise – even non-profit organizations – involves spreading the word to attract interest. Electronic media try to attract audiences, which attracts advertising. Advertising funds media enterprises making revenue available to function and profits for investors.
News promotion seeks to build audiences for news programs. That’s become more complicated in recent years as audiences find more news from more sources delivered in new ways. Consequently, the news promoter’s work extends across media to promote a station’s brand on the Web and on other new, as well as traditional, media platforms.
For most local television and many radio stations, local news is the station’s identity. It is the dominant local programming and the vehicle the station uses to build a brand in a community. So news promotion often focuses on the image of a station’s news coverage and the qualities of the people who present it. We’ll talk about promotion mostly in the context of local television news, but many of the principles apply to other television, radio and even other media.
Value, audience flow
On a practical level ratings translate into revenue. Some experts say (McGaughy, 2003) good teases and promos can mean an additional ratings point for a program, and over a year in some larger markets a ratings point could mean a million dollars of revenue. So the traditional approach to television promotion seeks to keep existing viewers tuned to a station, bring channel surfers back and encourage non-viewers to tune in.
Kinds of Promos
What are common kinds of promos?
- Topical
To keep viewers tuned in, you often see topical promos that feature the stories a station plans for the upcoming newscasts, especially those that might appeal the most attractive demographic sought by the station – often women ages 18 to 49. News or promotion writers create several of these topical promos over the course of a typical day for a station that airs multiple newscasts in the mornings and evenings.
(Play example of topical promo; note distinctive characteristics)
- Image
Traditionally promos help audiences remember a station’s brand. They may emphasize the priority of news coverage (e.g. The news leader. Where news comes first, etc.) or the station’s role in a community.
Other kinds of image promos – sometime called proof of performance – work in reverse. They show evidence of a news operation’s quality by describing a station’s recent exceptional coverage of an important story.
(Play example of image promo; note distinctive characteristics)
Other promos emphasize certain competitive advantages in news coverage such as high definition newscasts, special weather forecasting capabilities or live helicopter coverage.
- Talent
Closely associated with the image promo are those that promote a station’s talent – anchors and reporters. The promos may portray them as capable, caring or personable. The thinking is that these promos build audience recognition of the talent which builds audiences.
(Play example of talent promo; note distinctive characteristics)
- Sweeps
Often, especially during ratings periods, newscasts run special reports and series of stories that seek to attract new viewers to tune in. Similar to the topical promos these sweeps series promos seek to pique viewer interest to make a special point to tune in to a specific newscast to watch a report of special interest (e.g. investigative report into fake IDs).
(Play example of sweeps series promo; note distinctive characteristics)
- Community
It is possible for promos to serve both as public service announcements as well as news promotions. These promos may use station talent to promote station sponsored community activity (e.g. community service awards) or a widely supported fund raising drive (e.g. United Way). Thus the station builds its brand and image by identifying the station with community service. At the same time the station fulfills its licensing responsibility to serve its community.
(Play example of PSA promo; note distinctive characteristics)
- Audience engagement
News operations invite audiences to participate to engage them and improve coverage. You can engage audiences to write letters, e-mails or blogs, to participate in polls or to contribute news content. These promos feature a news hotline or describe how viewers can contribute video shot by home camcorders or cell phones.
(No video example)
Practice
(If time, play other promo examples and ask students to classify and note distinctive characteristics. They appear on the DVD as:
- Identify 1 – Sweeps promo
- Identify 2 – Anchor promo
- Identify 3 – Sweeps promo
- Identify 4 – Topical promo
In addition to the promotions provided, instructors may want to start collecting their own from the local news outlets.)
Promotion challenges
Promotion’s greatest challenge, of course, is to persuade people to watch. Promo writers and producers must do so in ways that are appropriate, ethical, legal and avoid unintended consequences.
Channel surfing
People who change channels with their remotes present one of the greatest challenges to those who write promos and teases. Teases give reasons for viewers to stay through commercial breaks or at least switch back for later stories. A few newscasts focus on getting channel surfers to return by going into breaks showing a schedule of upcoming stories. The schedule lists the times the newscast plans to run the most significant stories.
Ad vs. journalistic writing
Teases and promos are more advertising than journalism, so it can be difficult for journalists to write them. They might lack the training or feel uncomfortable writing hype about a serious matter in the news. The ad writer, on the other hand, might be less sensitive to details that could misstate the facts.
Accuracy
Because teases and topical promos tell only a portion of a news story while striving to make it interesting, writers and producers must use extra caution to be sure they are accurate. Check the promo with the reporter or writer who best knows the story, or have an experienced producer review the promo.
Another kind of accuracy problems arises with the use of video in promos or teases. Does the video fit the tease, the story and its context? You don’t want to talk about sex offenders and show just any crowd of men. Be careful of showing people in false light. Take special care with items about criminal accusations, professional misconduct, loathsome disease, obesity or unemployment.
Legal
News receives broad legal protection from the U.S. Constitution, but commercial messages do not necessarily have such broad protection, and promos are more commercials than news even though they’re about the news. This is especially important with privacy and libel matters. What may be constitutionally protected in a news story may be more vulnerable to lawsuits in a promo.
Offending audiences
Mounting evidence suggests that promos and teases either individually or cumulatively can turn off viewers as well as build audiences.
Offending promos
- Imply a story comes in the next segment when it doesn’t, or string audiences along promising a story that never comes or comes at the end of the program.
- Promote a story suggesting it’s local when it’s not.
- Bait and switch. Exaggerate a story’s importance, especially when it turns out to be something else, short or inconsequential.
- Over emphasize fear and hate.
- Patronize viewers or insult their intelligence.
Exercise
(Students should choose a story they’ve been working on and write an effective topical promotion. If students are not working on stories of their own, the instructor can show a compelling news package in class and ask students to write a topical promotion for that story.)
Promotion trends
Promotion used to be newspaper ads, billboards, radio and television topicals and television image promos. The Internet has boosted the importance of cross promotion. This includes pointing a station’s Web page users back to a television newscast or directing news viewers to the Web for more details about a story. A promo may list the most read stories on the station’s Web page. E-mail and cell phone news alerts can build cross promotion, too.
Promotion as a career
If you’re interested in advertising and news, promotions may be a career for you. Often promotion personnel are actually located in a newsroom to keep track of the changes of the day’s coverage to make the promos as fresh as the news itself. If you’re interested, study the resources listed in the handout, look for a promotions internship, join the Radio Television News Directors Association as a student member and join the Student Alliance of Promax. The handout has details.
Wrap Up
It’s important for everyone involved in the production of a newscast to understand and value promotion. In this highly competitive media environment, news promotion can be an important factor in a news organization’s success.
© RTNDF Educator in the Newsroom Lesson Plans
Back
Print Story
Email Story
RSS Feed
