By John Altenbern, CJ&N President This time of year the Midwest presents special challenges. Saturday morning, as a steady trickle of water came down my garage wall from melting ice dams on the roof, I resigned myself to watching a slow-motion domestic disaster unfold. Water always finds a way in. Just 24 hours before, I [...]
In the local news world, we’re good at chasing that shiny object. The latest shiny object is OTT – Over The Top.
By John Altenbern, President – CJ&N, Inc. It’s a debate with renewed life in every market: What’s the point of traditional “sweeps months” four times a year when electronic ratings measurement is constant? With the advent of electronic ratings every 30 days throughout the year in every market, the obvious answer would seem to be [...]
By Steve Schwaid, CJ&N VP of Digital Strategies During a recent interview for Showtime’s 4-part series The Fourth Estate, Dean Baquet, executive editor of the New York Times, spelled out what he sees as the expectations of users in the digital news world: Tell us what’s going on as it happens. This mantra of the [...]
By Steve Schwaid, CJ&N VP of Digital Strategies We’re clearly in the midst of summer TV doldrums. On broadcast and cable on any given night, it’s an assortment of reruns, reality and a smattering of summer shows. Broadcast and cable viewership looks like it’s down or flat. But the streaming services? They thrive during the [...]
By Steve Schwaid, CJ&N VP of Digital Strategies As the Facebook privacy story unfolds, viewers and users are searching for more information. Not how it happened, but what can they do right now to protect their privacy and information on Facebook. We can’t get the “stolen” data back. That’s already in the hands of marketers, [...]
For mobile users, apps are their connection to the world. With a click, they can see local restaurants, nearby movies, the weather, news and an assortment of other content created for the user. For years, stations have looked at their apps as a way to gain digital users and expand their news audience. But are [...]
Have you seen HQ? I’m talking about the app called HQ. Actually, I hadn’t seen it until my 34-year-old son showed it to me last week. It seems to be hot among millennials. Chances are GMs, station managers and news directors will say the same thing I did: Why didn’t I think of that? The [...]
Amazing. Unbelievable. Engaging. The live images we saw from the local stations and cable networks covering the Hurricane Harvey aftermath were almost overwhelming. Technology has pushed live reporting to a new level. Crews weren’t stuck to a stationary position tethered to a microwave or satellite truck. Viewers were taken live into the middle of the [...]
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 [...]
