Graeme Newell’s Blog
Effective Web Site Teases
Driving traffic to your web site is a priority task for most newsrooms these days. Front-line producers have developed sophisticated strategies to carry viewers from segment to segment, but effective web site teasing is rare in our business. In most newsrooms it is an afterthought - at best.
read moreJump-Start Tips When You Can’t Find the Teaseable Component of a Story
When writing a tease for a story, many producers will try to synopsize the entire story, searching for a way to compress a list of story highlights down to one pithy line of copy that will entice the viewer to stay tuned. The problem is that this is an almost impossible task. A good story will be loaded with interesting teaseable facts. Synopsizing a fact-rich story removes the interesting detail that is the lifeblood of any compelling package.
read moreDo You Have a True News Brand or Just a Slogan?
Hiding – the Latest Challenge in TV Marketing
After a few clicks on some broadcast web sites, you will be asked to "register." Some get very personal, asking for intimate facts like income, family size, contact information and personal interests. In these days of identity theft, registration is a very spooky process for many people. For years TV newscasts have warned that identity theft is rampant and viewers should never give out personal information over the internet. Yet some sites are asking audiences to ignore the warnings and trust them.
read moreThe Promo Producer’s Role in the Newsroom
The first deadlines of the news day always belong to the promotion staff. Most topical promos start at least a couple hours before the newscast. When you add in the time needed for writing, editing and production, the promo deadlines are three or four hours before the actual newscast. What this means is that most promos never get enough promotable material.
read moreUsing Metaphor in Television Promotion
Face it. Most newscasts aren't special. While news brands can be quite different, the newscasts themselves tend to be very similar in story selection, tone and pacing. This kind of ubiquity is true of most product categories. For decades, Madison Avenue has known that we tend to fall in love with product brands, not product features.
read moreNews Promotion that Breaks through the Clutter
Why is it that some news promos never seem to lose their freshness and others make viewers weary after just a few plays? "Ad fatigue" is a well studied science on Madison Avenue, but something that television stations rarely consider when designing news promotion campaigns for their products.
read moreDon’t give away the farm in the first sentences of your tease.
Sometimes, the most teasable parts of a story are the more common "background" facts that are laid out in the beginning sentences of the story. These facts are usually disclosed in the first sentence of the promo. We typically put an abundance of general story information in this first sentence. We feel the need to thoroughly explain the background details right off the top.
read moreAdvancing your Career as TV Audiences Shrink
"When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us." -Alexander Graham Bell
read moreHow Many Ratings Special Report Stories are Enough?
In last week's column, I talked about specific tactics that stations can use to optimize their on-air news advertising. Ratings have declined in recent years and our on-air schedules don't have the same ability to punch through the clutter. Many station still run their promotion schedule like it is the golden days of television. They promote every show, news report and anchor in the place. The result is that nothing gets enough critical mass to make a real impression on the viewer.
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