There is no doubt when it comes to the battle royale -- the internet is clobbering television in terms of sheer growth. The numbers don't lie, on "Cyber Monday" this year (the first Monday after Thanksgiving) a staggering 687 million dollars was spent by consumers online-- up from $484 million the year before. It's obvious that television and the web have a certain shared destiny. (Clearly I get it...I'm a television reporter blogging for my station's website). The question is...how do we toe the line?
As television journalists, we are always fighting with other stations to keep our "scoop". We don't want to release our information too early, for fear our competition will get a jump on it -- and a story that we want to label as exclusive, won't be anymore.
With the rise of internet use, that mandate has changed at 13News. Now, stories get published online by our W.W.W.'s (web wonder women) Dottie and Rachel as soon as they get approved by a producer.
Now, as journalists, we are slightly snoopy people...and we constantly check our competitors URL to see what they're working on. With early web publishing, it's almost as though we're revealing our hand...giving the other stations a chance to hedge their bets and play catch up.
On the flip side, publishing partial stories or previews online is a way to pique a viewers interest and get them to tune in. In fact, our evening producers used to record a video blog to let viewers know what they could expect on Pilot 13News at 10 and our 11 p.m. broadcast.
Where does that leave this blog? Frankly, at a stalemate. It's an interesting relationship that will need to be fine tuned to full 13News perfection over the years.
(Special thanks to W.W.W. Rachel for providing this blog with the technical lingo I'm utterly unfamiliar with)
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