Tonight I got a rare opportunity to spend some time with three major market TV News Directors. On behalf of the blogging and podcast "communities" can I tell you that there were no punches thrown? None of them had horns and no I'm not going to tell you what we talked about. For-profit TV stations are businesses and a business survives when it makes more money than it spends. That each of these three stations makes money means that they are servicing a customer base that values what they deliver, most of the time.
Does that mean that TV news is doing the right thing in local markets? Don't get me started. News Directors are people too, they know what they like, what they would like to do and what they have to do to attract numbers. Is there a willingness to accept some new ideas in TV and local news coverage? Yes and the timing could not be better for those of us who want to suggest some ideas. TV and Radio have noticed blogs and podcasts. They are willing to try some of these technologies within their traditional frameworks. While the mass media and the long tail may not be able to wag in unison; there is no need for them to beat on each other.
We can still find much to be critical of in each of our chosen media, but when there are ways to blend these technologies we should be working together. The results may surprise us.