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Of Anchors and Alderaan
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A couple stories caught my eye today as I perused the Friday, Nov. 6th issue of The Daily Record and the Nov. 6-12 edition of the Baltimore Business Journal.
The Daily Record featured a front page story, “The Changing Picture of Local TV Newscasts: While still profitable, stations are facing increasing competition, decreasing revenue, distracted audience.”
All true. The story reports that the decline in advertising by auto dealers in light of the recession has hurt TV stations, but that’s not all. I can remember when I was a kid, you had Channel 2, Channel 11 and Channel 13 (no Fox til later), and TV wise, that was it. There were independent stations, like Channel 45 (remember The 1 O’Clock Movie? The Creature Feature? Captain Chesapeake?) and later WNUV-TV54, “Where Your Vote Counts” and “Pet of the Day.”
Anyway, as a result of this limited fare, people focused in on what was available and became fans of certain anchors, individuals who became the face of local news…folks like Jerry Turner and Al Sanders. You might watch them, not because you cared so much about whatever story they were investigating, but because you liked them. You wanted to hear what they said, because you trusted them. Call it the “Walter Cronkite effect.”
But now there are more ways to get news than there are points of lights in the sky, it seems, and the days of “anchor loyalty” are quickly going bye-bye. One way to cut costs is to axe the biggest salaries…and these are typically held by the top anchors. The Daily Record reports how reporters are now shooting and editing their own spots…how TV stations, even those of rival networks, are partnering to share news.
So what does all this mean to PR people? Right now, my advice is to continue to watch and wait. As the article concludes, with a quote from Dana Adams of Adams Broadcast Consulting, “People talk about the end of local news, and I don’t think that’s ever going to happen…it will always be around, but how we deliver it is going to change.”
How will they deliver it? I mentioned reporters doing the work of editors and camera people. Does this mean PR people should focus more on making pitches to reporters rather than editors…or will TV editors become “absorbed” as a profession, transmogrifying into a new animal, the reporter-editor? Should PR people therefore have more info, more visuals, more materials ready for reporters when they arrive on the scene than before? Again, we need to wait and see and stay in touch with our local news outlets…visit the stations (which you can do on your own or through an organization like the Baltimore Public Relations Council, www.baltimorePRcouncil.org, that typically schedules visits to all the local TV stations, offering opportunities to meet and chat with station managers, news room personnel, etc)…maintain and enhance your contacts with those in TV to see where the wind is blowing.
Switching to the BBJ, my geeky sci-fi-loving roots got the best of me as I read “Star Wars Convention Says No to City,” featuring a wonderful shot of a group of “Imperial Stormtroopers” on parade (perhaps from famed Legion 501, these guys are hoot in their George Lucas-camera-perfect uniforms, blasters at the ready).
The problem, unfortunately, is that while Santa may be coming to town, Darth Vader is taking a pass on Baltimore. Evidently, the 300,000 square foot Baltimore Convention Center is just too small to fit the Death Star. Remaining options include the 3 million square foot convention center in Chicago and Orlando’s 2.1 million square foot Orange County Convention Center.
A story like this is a real “ouch” if you’re the PR person for the Baltimore Convention Center. It makes you look “behind the times,” or antiquated, especially as the BBJ article notes that the original center was opened 30 years ago and expanded to 300,000 about 13 years ago. Do we need a whole new state of the art facility, something that’s not practically a historic monument?
When you consider that having the Star Wars convention here would have meant millions of dollars to Baltimore, enhancing tourist trade, filling hotel rooms, and bringing scads of media attention to the city…and now, it WON’T…that’s an ouch.
On the tourist industry side of things, Nancy Hinds of Visit Baltimore is quoted as saying, “We’ll find other business.” Stoic, but little consolation to all the Boba Fett and Chewbacca fans out there who will now likely have to hoof it to the Windy City or Florida to indulge in this particular brand of sci-fi fantasy.
As a PR person, my strategy in this case is to lay low. Talking about this only draws attention to the fact that you failed. You continue to play your strong hand and promote those events you have and work with upper management to see what can be done to enhance your facility.
Tom Noonan, head of the city tourist bureau, says “I’m not advocating for expansion, but at some point, we ought to be looking at what is the future of this city.” Good point. As the issue here is – and here’s a good PR response – beyond that of the Baltimore Convention Center. The issue isn’t a facility. It’s what Baltimore wants to be, how it wishes to be perceived in the national spotlight. Are we content being a mid-market town or do we have aspirations for something more? If the former, then no one should be surprised that we didn’t get the Star Wars convention, in fact, we shouldn’t even have bothered applying. However, if the latter, than something needs to be done, working with City officials and businesses, to take things up a level…use the Force, maybe. It worked for Luke…
