I waited a few days to see if perhaps the initial reports were somehow out of context or perhaps lost in translation, but I can't find anything to dispute the move last week by the Romanian Senate to pass a law mandating that 50 per cent of all broadcast news be positive.
The law will be implemented by a national council, which will have the enjoyable task of determining what constitutes good and bad news.
As a news manager, I'm asked all the time why we don't carry more positive news. I typically reply that there is plenty there for the perusing: Sports sections chronicle athletic prowess, Arts sections examine creativity, Business sections look at the generation of wealth and entrepreneurial innovation, and the news sections contain all sorts of stories on advances in medicine and science and the betterment of society. The adage in broadcasting --- if it bleeds, it leads --- hasn't been effective for some time, even if newscasts often start with the most shocking developments to attract interest.
But I don't think anyone would like a quota of even five per cent. The community will decide if you're too negative by moving to some entity that isn't.
Steve Outing, the ahead-of-his-time Editor & Publisher columnist and entrepreneurial journalist/consultant, has an interesting post on the so-called individuated newspaper. He attended a conference on the topic last week. When I examine our Web traffic at vancouversun.com, it's obvious we're part of the experience of many people's workdays. How else to explain how our traffic soars around 9 a.m. and seems to subside around 5 p.m.? A leading edge of information consumer is the senior executive. How he/she believes data serve best is an important sign for media. Time was, that source was the newspaper. But a new study from Gartner and Forbes.com suggests the Internet is overtaking print as a principal first-thing-in-the-day source. There are a number of ways to interpret the British House of Lords report on media ownership: Hitwise, the online tabulator, is reporting that one of the largest growth areas in Web advertising is the lovely coupon. The over-50 generation will continue to nurture and support traditional media, and if anything their loyalty and longevity ought to help ensure survivability and transition. That conclusion comes from an analysis of a further public release of information from last week's massive annual PricewaterhouseCoopers media and entertainment forecast. When veteran newsman Neil Budde announced recently he was joining DailyMe.com, you had to expect good things would come about. This week the customizing news aggregator rolled out three products: DailyMe (your custom aggregation), DailyWe (a community-built aggregation) and a Top News (a sort of top-down approach aggregated by the editorial team). The rise of Internet advertising at some point had to overtake another medium, so radio is the next rung on the ladder. According to the Publicis advertising group, online will surpass radio this year. Magazines are next. Cinema and outdoors already were passed. Business Week weighs in with a take on the flap between The Associated Press and the blogosphere with a clearly argued take on how big media might soon expect a chunk of small media if the little guys use the big guys' material. |