Webinar: Local TV News Survival Guide
Local TV news is at a crossroads: Younger audiences still care about news but overwhelmingly consume it on digital platforms — especially smartphones and social media — rather than traditional TV. Research with 18-34-year-olds shows that local stations are mostly missing this audience because content and formats are still built for linear broadcasts.
In this webinar, Northeastern University’s Mike Beaudet, along with academic and industry partners, say that reposting TV stories online is not a real digital strategy. Instead, they make a data-based case for a new, high-impact role in newsrooms: a digital-first multimedia journalist who reports in the field, creates platform-specific versions of stories (web, social, on-air, and coaches colleagues in digital storytelling. A case study from one station shows how this role quickly drove big audience gains and culture change, including viral breaking-news and explainer content.
They outline practical tactics for successful digital video: short runtimes (around 50 seconds), strong hooks, informal and authentic delivery, vertical formats with subtitles and behind-the-scenes/process pieces, especially around high-interest topics such as weather and breaking news. Finally, they detail the business upside: growing revenue from platforms like YouTube and streaming, increased audience engagement that feeds back into TV viewership and the long-term necessity of investing in digital innovation to keep local TV news relevant and financially viable.
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