When one of the largest owners of local TV stations in the country started doing a newscast without anchors, it understandably caused a lot of consternation, concern and criticism from those inside and those who used to be inside “The Business.”
Scripps, which owns 62 stations in 43 markets, recently announced it would lay off nearly 300 employees, about 12% of its staff, and implement more AI. It also debuted two newscasts per day – at 7pm and 11pm – without anchors at its station in Baltimore, the nation’s 29th largest market, WMAR-TV.
Through media monitoring software, I was able to watch some recent anchorless newscasts from WMAR-TV. I could feel the producers, reporters and weather anchors doing the best they could to drive the newscast along, using graphic elements as transitions and stand-up introductions to each segment. There were no live reporter elements, and even what felt like recorded anchor reads from other newscasts. But maybe that doesn’t matter as much as it used to, when we don’t expect social media content or online news to be live?
But mostly, it felt boring. Maybe it’s because long reporter packages about places I’ve never been and long weather forecasts for a place I don’t live (including one that led a newscast on a sunny day) just aren’t interesting. But also, a good news anchor, like any good broadcaster, like a talk show host or a sports play-by-play announcer adds value to the experience, as a trusted communicator and guide, with a personal touch.
The local TV business is a long way from where it was decades ago. We all know that. Anchors have been TV stations’ highest-paid employees. But viewership was also much higher, advertising richer. At the same time, a great anchor who could really make a connection with an audience was, essentially, the station’s brand, product differentiation and long-term connection to the community. While the parodies focused on the “happy talk” introductions of weather, the fact was that for decades, the stations with the most consistent, most popular and most trusted anchors were the most successful.
It’s also important to note that “more with less” is anything but a new strategy for TV station owners. 32 years ago, I produced a Saturday morning newscast with no live elements other than weather and, of course, a news anchor. I was supposed to use a full work day on Friday to find recorded stories to populate nearly the entire broadcast, except for headlines at the beginning of each hour. I can only assume that block of time was a cash machine for the station. And this anchorless experiment that feels like a trend in the current environment, is, let’s face it, designed for the same financial reasons.
But it sure feels like a quick fix to a permanent challenge, namely younger audiences. It’s not that younger consumers don’t care about local news. They do. It’s not that they don’t like the way TV stations do it. It’s that these newscasts are completely foreign to them. They don’t know the call letters (or what call letters even are). They don’t know the channel numbers (or what channel numbers even are). They don’t know the network affiliates
(or what TV networks even are). For the most part, at least for now, they don’t know who the anchors are (or what anchors even are).
I asked someone who in the last few days had a chance to talk to young people who actually want a career in broadcast news, however it ends up taking shape. Chris Velardi is a former TV news anchor, now an adjunct professor of broadcast and digital journalism at my alma mater, the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. This semester, he’s teaching seniors in their “capstone” class, the one design to propel them into jobs in the industry. Here’s what he told me:
“I asked the 18 students how many of them regularly watch local TV news. Eight of them raised their hands and that surprised me… because it’s a higher percentage of students than I’ve had raise their hands in other recent classes.”
Let that sink in.
Scripps wants to focus on streaming. Good idea. Other big market stations are making their anchors into something like podcast hosts, conducting live interviews on set to provide perspective to the news that their audience reads about online. That’s also a good idea.
But none of this will mean anything unless there’s a real commitment to somehow connect with potential audiences that don’t even know it exists.
In the social media lane, personalities like, hmmmmmm, let’s say like anchors, could really help with that.