The media continues to get hammered by the recession and changing patterns of news consumption by consumers.
According to TV Newser:
CNN bore the brunt of the downward trend the news networks experienced this month and for much of the first quarter, when compared to the busy first few months of 2011. For the month of March, CNN was down -50% in total viewers and down -60% in A25-54 viewers (Total Day).
That's a massive drop.
So what's causing the drop? I can only hypothesize, but the obvious answer is content.
The major media outlets in the US are not covering the stories that people are interested in. Additionally, they are often simply recycling talking points as opposed to doing investigative journalism.
Case in point, if you only watched the major news outlets you probably have no exposures to stories like:
- MF Global stealing customer funds
- The recent riots in Greece
- The NDAA
- The recent decision by the supreme court to allow strip searches for minor offenses (that's right, not wearing your seatbelt? The police now have the right to strip search you if they want).
- The real story behind unemployment numbers and why the stock market is up yet society doesn't seem to be recovering
And you could easily list another 50 significant news issues that you won't hear anything about on CNN. But if you're looking for coverage of what Sarah Palin is up to or which movies are hot or who said something silly today you'll find plenty of that on CNN.
The one thing CNN does well though is cover disasters. Hurricanes and tornadoes they are all over with the best coverage you could ask for.
As a result, people are not getting their news from said outlets as much as they use to.
I know I certainly don't. My fav news outlets are:
Zerohedge
Max Keiser Report
The Young Turks
Bloomberg
BNN
WSJ
Not to mention a variety of local outlets I read.
I should also note, I tend to scan YouTube based on topics I'm interested in. Since I don't have 'cable' tv I tend to get everything from the internet, and I have to say, I've found that I get a more educated analysis this way than I did when I use to have CNN running in the background.
Point is, the last place I get my news from is CNN simply because they never tell me the information that I want to know. I don't just want to know what happened, I want to know why it happened and I want to hear a variety of views on the issue.
With CNN you simply get an 'FYI this happened today' and at very best perhaps a single commentator's view on either why it happened or what it means going forward (but most of the time you don't even get that).
Anyway, PR folks need to really start re-evaluating which media outlets they consider 'big scores'. The future trend in my opinion is less about the big fishes and more about niche outlets in conjunction with direct communications tactics with your stakeholders.
Yes, CNN, FOX, ABC, these outlets cumulatively still 'make the news' but that trend is slowly changing as people turn to alternative outlets to get the detailed information they are looking for.
Case in point, take Ron Paul. When CNN does have him on they basically ask him "So when are you going to drop out of the race?"
Yet, the real story is that even though he can't win at this stage, thousands of people are still coming out to hear him talk.
Now if you watch CNN you'd have no idea that this was going on (what politician out there is drawing 8,000 youth to speeches about economics?).
Heck, unless you watched CNN 24 hours a day you probably wouldn't even know anything about Ron Paul. And what you would learn would be that he has no chance of becoming president. And while that may be true, it's not the story that matters because it's not what is happening out there (the real story is why are so many people still following a man who has 'no chance' at the presidency?)
Point is, CNN's ratings are dropping because people would rather cobble together their news from various internet outlets and get the details that they simply can't get from the major outlets.
According to TV Newser:
CNN bore the brunt of the downward trend the news networks experienced this month and for much of the first quarter, when compared to the busy first few months of 2011. For the month of March, CNN was down -50% in total viewers and down -60% in A25-54 viewers (Total Day).
That's a massive drop.
So what's causing the drop? I can only hypothesize, but the obvious answer is content.
The major media outlets in the US are not covering the stories that people are interested in. Additionally, they are often simply recycling talking points as opposed to doing investigative journalism.
Case in point, if you only watched the major news outlets you probably have no exposures to stories like:
- MF Global stealing customer funds
- The recent riots in Greece
- The NDAA
- The recent decision by the supreme court to allow strip searches for minor offenses (that's right, not wearing your seatbelt? The police now have the right to strip search you if they want).
- The real story behind unemployment numbers and why the stock market is up yet society doesn't seem to be recovering
And you could easily list another 50 significant news issues that you won't hear anything about on CNN. But if you're looking for coverage of what Sarah Palin is up to or which movies are hot or who said something silly today you'll find plenty of that on CNN.
The one thing CNN does well though is cover disasters. Hurricanes and tornadoes they are all over with the best coverage you could ask for.
As a result, people are not getting their news from said outlets as much as they use to.
I know I certainly don't. My fav news outlets are:
Zerohedge
Max Keiser Report
The Young Turks
Bloomberg
BNN
WSJ
Not to mention a variety of local outlets I read.
I should also note, I tend to scan YouTube based on topics I'm interested in. Since I don't have 'cable' tv I tend to get everything from the internet, and I have to say, I've found that I get a more educated analysis this way than I did when I use to have CNN running in the background.
Point is, the last place I get my news from is CNN simply because they never tell me the information that I want to know. I don't just want to know what happened, I want to know why it happened and I want to hear a variety of views on the issue.
With CNN you simply get an 'FYI this happened today' and at very best perhaps a single commentator's view on either why it happened or what it means going forward (but most of the time you don't even get that).
Anyway, PR folks need to really start re-evaluating which media outlets they consider 'big scores'. The future trend in my opinion is less about the big fishes and more about niche outlets in conjunction with direct communications tactics with your stakeholders.
Yes, CNN, FOX, ABC, these outlets cumulatively still 'make the news' but that trend is slowly changing as people turn to alternative outlets to get the detailed information they are looking for.
Case in point, take Ron Paul. When CNN does have him on they basically ask him "So when are you going to drop out of the race?"
Yet, the real story is that even though he can't win at this stage, thousands of people are still coming out to hear him talk.
Now if you watch CNN you'd have no idea that this was going on (what politician out there is drawing 8,000 youth to speeches about economics?).
Heck, unless you watched CNN 24 hours a day you probably wouldn't even know anything about Ron Paul. And what you would learn would be that he has no chance of becoming president. And while that may be true, it's not the story that matters because it's not what is happening out there (the real story is why are so many people still following a man who has 'no chance' at the presidency?)
Point is, CNN's ratings are dropping because people would rather cobble together their news from various internet outlets and get the details that they simply can't get from the major outlets.
Comments
Post a Comment