Last week’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the latest Nielsen ratings, concentrating on the battle between Channel 12 and Channel 4, but the real story is the incredible decline in the overall audience for TV news. For all that’s been written about the decline of newspapers, there is no form of journalism more endangered than TV news.
Since 1993, as a report by the Pew Research Center shows, the percentage of people getting their news regularly online has skyrocketed, from 2 percent to 37 percent. During that same time, the consumption of national TV news dropped by an incredible 52 percent, followed by newspapers (down 41 percent), local TV news (down 32 percent) and radio news (down 26 percent). Meanwhile, the viewership for cable TV news increased.
Nielsen ratings show Milwaukee’s combined audience for the 10 p.m. TV news has dropped by 23 percent during this time. That’s not as bad as the corresponding decline nationally, but it may mainly reflect an older average age for this metro area. Further declines are quite likely.
Across the nation, local TV anchors are getting fired as stations with declining audiences and revenue look to cut expenses, as a story in yesterday’s New York Times documented. You might argue that Channel 4 was ahead of that trend, saving money by nudging out higher-priced talent like Mike Gousha. (WTMJ executives vehemently deny they did this, but a Pressroom column in Milwaukee Magazine back in 2006 quoted station insiders claiming this was the case.) One thing is indisputable: No station in Milwaukee has been hit harder than WTMJ, which has seen its viewership drop by an incredible 43 percent since the mid-1990s.
Newspapers like the Journal Sentinel are struggling to sell enough ads online, but they are having considerable success attracting readers online. It seems only a matter of time before the revenue follows the audience (albeit at lower levels than the grand old days of print).
But how can local TV news replace the once-huge audience it had? For years, it depended on something akin to a captive audience: couch potatoes looking for something to end the day and faced with a choice of news, news, news, and perhaps a rerun on Channel 18. But the advent of cable and now the Internet offers countless other choices, and younger audiences overwhelmingly prefer them.
Once they stop watching the TV news show, how likely are they to turn to the station online? Some of the quirkier segments might get traffic, but how many will be attracted by such stirring segments as a video of Cedarburg residents digging out of a storm (a top story on TMJ’s Web site) or one about a Goodwill worker who found $7,500 (a top story on Channel 12 online). At its best, local TV news offered a semi-fun package of the day’s top highlights, but once separated into online segments, who is going to actually seek these out to view?
If newspapers, as has been suggested, must reinvent themselves, what then is the task facing TV news stations? Right now they seem headed for extinction.
The Silence of Supervisor Rice
Back in September, I wrote about the many monetary promises of Milwaukee County Supervisor Joe Rice.
When he first ran for office in 2004, Rice promised to donate $1,000 per month of his salary to a community cause. (Rice said he would earmark it for “parks work.”) He also promised to accept only half his salary. This meant he would have given $48,000 to charity and $101,360 in salary back to the county during his first term in office. In addition, he promised to turn down any pension or fringe benefits.
I’ve made numerous attempts to contact Rice to find out if he lived up to any of these promises, all to no avail. So I asked Harold Mester, spokesperson for the County Board, to check county records. Mester tells me Rice draws the same salary as every other supervisor.
Rice did apparently turn down health insurance, as no deductions were taken for this in 2004, but beginning in 2005 he began accepting health benefits. In 2007, he added dental care and since then has continued to get coverage for both dental and health care.
Rice did sign a waiver of the 0.5 percent pension sweetener for public officials, but has never signed a waiver for the rest of the pension, so he remains eligible for the fringe benefit as well.
I e-mailed this information to Supervisor Rice, asking if he had any corrections to make to this information, and once again was greeted with silence.
In more than 25 years of covering public officials, I don’t recall anyone who made more generous promises of a giveback to taxpayers and the community – or who failed so completely to inform the public of how he lived up to his pledges. In short, the situation seems quite newsworthy.
Walker Run for Governor?
Talk radio’s Mark Belling has done so much to advance the career of County Executive Scott Walker he should probably get a cut of Scott’s salary. Belling has just written a column letting us know that Walker will be kicking off a campaign for governor in November 2010 with a major fundraiser in January 2009. Belling believes Walker will be a formidable Republican opponent to incumbent Democrat Jim Doyle, running as a tax freezer against a governor facing a massive deficit for which he’ll likely have to raise taxes. I agree.
But the real problem for Walker has been getting through the primary. The GOP establishment clearly preferred Mark Green in 2006, and Walker had trouble raising campaign cash. Belling says Walker intends to start raising money early to scare off any Republican challenger. But will the GOP fat cats support Walker?
Some insiders believe the Tommy Thompson loyalists don’t like Walker and would rather see the return of Tommy yet again. But how many false sightings of candidate Tommy have we had over the last three years?
And if Tommy doesn’t run yet again, who does that leave as a viable candidate besides Walker? The Republican bench right now is awfully thin. Walker looks like the only true gubernatorial player on their team.
The Buzz
To assure there was no voter fraud on Nov. 4, the Milwaukee County Elections Fraud Task Force was created, comprised of members of the district attorney’s office, the Milwaukee Police Department and the Wisconsin Department of Justice. So how successful was the effort?
The two key members of the team pronounced it a success. “We have made substantial progress,” said Milwaukee County D.A. John Chisholm. Said Kevin St. John, who serves Republican state Attorney General JB Van Hollen: “There is no evidence to suggest the election results … were tainted or manipulated by fraudulent activity.”
So was this bipartisan consensus reported by the newspaper of record, the Journal Sentinel, the paper that has run countless front-page headlines at any sign of an election irregularity? Nope, the story and these quotes were reported in a Shepherd Express article . And not a word from Chisholm and St. John in the JS, which instead did a story saying there were a few votes under investigation for fraud.
Honestly, has the daily paper given up even the pretence of reporting this issue in an even-handed fashion?
And despite the Packers’ meltdown, the Sports Nut is actually thankful for, well, lots of things.
