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Deconstructing Ad Age’s “Not Dead Yet” Editorial on Local TV

Hey, here's the good news: Ad Age says local TV's not--as has been reported--dead. The venerable trade pub starts its argument for continued life in local television with a cliche: "Add local TV to the list of those whose death rumors have been greatly exaggerated."

Ad Age, increasingly an example of what's dying rather than what's enduring, offers little more than cliches in its argument that it's hardly as bad as has been suggested in the local television world. "There is a glimmer of hope for this beleaguered media channel" (um, local television is a "channel" now?). "NBC's decision to move Jay Leno back to his late-night spot could be seen as a huge victory for the network's local TV affiliates, who detested the programming strategy as Mr. Leno's tanking ratings delivered smaller audiences to their evening news broadcasts."

Yes, okay. It could be seen as a "glimmer of hope." But hope for what? That given another colossal miscalculation by a network, the stations still have the strength to threaten pre-emption of a network show? That is--yes, in a way--a sign of strength. It is not, however, a sign that stations are financially strong. And having "power," but no "money" won't get you very far in this environment. "(NBC) listened to (stations) and reacted," Ad Age suggests. Sure did. Some of the stations that were getting killed were NBC owned-and-operated stations. And others simply said you know what? This affiliate agreement doesn't mean we'll drive our franchise off a bridge into oblivion. But is that "a glimmer of hope?" Or just "not dead yet?"

Well hold your hat, dear reader, because Ad Age has a few more arrows in the quiver. First: midterm elections! C'mon! You know that's going to be money in the bank! Always has, always will. Candidates need local TV, and it's a big payday for affiliates. Yeah, I suppose that's true, even though things weren't exactly a runaway profit machine back in 2008, when there were local candidates, congressional candidates, Senate candidates, and, in some markets, a flood of presidential advertising. 2009 still fell off the edge of the earth. Again, elections are events. A massive shift in how audiences get information--and how advertisers reach customers--well, that's far, far more important than the election cycle. (Anybody notice that candidates have discovered social media? More and more, they're going to find those wonderful local television ads to be simply not worth the money.)

But Ad Age says this is great news: "Ticked off voters, competitive congressional races and crucial gubernatorial contests in states such as California, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York could help inject more than $2.6 billion dollars of political ad spending into the market, the majority of it going to local TV." Yeah, listen up you general managers whose states were not mentioned in that short list! Stop yer bitchin' and look at the glimmer of hope! After all, New York stations might make some serious coin!

And Ad Age's last suggestion may be its most ridiculous. The pub suggests that elections will bring local television a "windfall" that will be turned around to fund upgrades and changes to maximize local television's ability to truly compete--especially against (ready for it?) newspapers.

Oh, for the love of God. Newspapers? Here's how Ad Age puts the rosy, cash-rich scenario: "Local TV stations are arguably better equipped to survive the media transformation than their newspaper counterparts and have an opportunity to reinvest this windfall of good fortune into their future. They should concentrate on broadening their distribution to the places people will be watching in the future -- according to Frank Magid Associates, more than half of U.S. mobile phone subscribers want to tune into live, local news broadcasts on their small screen -- and they should think of themselves as community hubs and useful digital experiences, taking advantage of the unique asset only they offer: a mass of engaged viewers seeking great, local video content."

So take that "windfall" and get yourself some cool iPhone apps for your station and fear not!

Yikes. As Ad Age continues to send its dated--and outdated--material to stations in print--just like they did in Don Draper's day--I sit here blogging on a Metro-North train headed into New York--connected via Wi-Fi and listening to live streaming Irish folk music on my iPhone from Ireland's RTE Radio 1. So here's your LocalNewser tip for stations: save yourself some badly needed cash by cancelling any and all subscriptions to Ad Age. If your sales force wants to know which way the wind is blowing, check out Mashable. (You can find it in this wacky new place: it's called the "internet.")