A Good Time to Test Your News App

By Steve Schwaid, CJ&N VP of Digital Services Summer. Finally. With no big political conventions, national elections or Olympics, this could be a “calm” summer for local newsrooms. Time to take a breath, recharge and look ahead. It’s also a great time to refocus on your station’s digital apps. In many shops, the news app [...]

Facebook Privacy and Your Viewers

As the dust settles on the latest Facebook privacy debacle, there is no question people are more and more concerned about what Facebook knows about them and is sharing with others. Many of us have shared, liked, tagged and commented on some of our most private thoughts, our political opinions and pictures of friends and [...]

Getting Your Web Site Users to Return

The biggest and most important social media challenge to you as a TV station is to use your platforms to increase ratings by getting new viewers to sample newscasts, and -  even more critically - getting current viewers to watch you more often. If they watched you once a week and now watch you three [...]

Facebook Vs. Your News App

Maybe it’s just me. But I don’t get it. Why do some TV stations continue making Facebook their primary platform for breaking news and especially breaking video instead of their own platforms? Why not make sure the content gets on the station’s revenue platforms? Facebook is a marketing platform. Sure, use it to tell people [...]

Harvey, Trump & Les Moonves

Sitting high and dry a thousand miles from the Harvey disaster unfolding in Texas gives you a different perspective on the story. As local stations in Texas and the networks do yeoman’s duty showing rescues and passing on information, our CJ&N colleagues are noting something else:  The most useful sources of information and help for [...]

Stations Can Save Lives with Social Media

Clients often ask: What are the best content elements to tweet or post on Facebook? The answer isn’t complicated: Obviously, breaking news and breaking weather. Stories that are top of mind, relevant and have viewer impact. Often, stations over-think it. Here is a great example of a post that is local, relevant and a potential [...]

Local TV: Wallflower at the Big Dance?

I just returned from a weekend trip out of state to see relatives – a whole house full of young couples, new babies and familiar old faces.  In addition to lots of food and laughter, it gave me new appreciation for how people who aren’t in the “media bubble” see the world these days. I love [...]

Facebook & TV Newsrooms: Advice That Will Surprise You

I’m so excited. I just got off a call with Mark Zuckerberg. Yes, THAT Zuckerberg, the brain of Facebook. He called to thank me and thank you. He talked about how stations have really embraced Facebook. “It’s so great that stations are putting so much of their video and producing content on Facebook live on [...]

Reaching Viewers With Your App Promotion

You’ll hear it in almost every newscast: “…And you can download our app for breaking news and weather.” In many newscasts, it’s said the same way every day around the same time. In fact, odds are the copy is in the “format master” so the producer or anchors don’t have to add it. Unfortunately, it [...]

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