Last Updated: April 06, 2000
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A look at media
convergence
Experiment with TV leads to cable channel
The Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune first partnered
with a TV station, but when it started doing the work itself, things got
interesting
By Allen Parsons
When the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune decided to experiment with broadcasting
news in the early 1990s, it joined forces with a local television station.
The paper supplied several of its stories each night for the network affiliate’s
newscast. In exchange, the TV anchors credited the paper as the source
of the stories and advised viewers to read the next day’s edition for fuller
accounts.
The fledging partners also worked together to produce a special report
on teen-age drunken driving, each referring readers or viewers to the other
medium.
With a change of management at the TV station, though, the relationship
soured. The new station boss bristled at the paper’s straightforward coverage
of his industry. When the paper wouldn’t back off, the station pulled the
plug on the cooperative effort.
“They didn’t understand our news mission (at the paper),” said Herald-Tribune
Publisher Diane McFarlin.
Parting ways with its TV associate, however, didn’t end the Herald-Tribune’s
interest in reaching a broader audience over the airwaves. A window of
opportunity opened when the local cable franchise’s new manager expressed
a desire for joint ventures. And with the encouragement and financial support
of The New York Times Co., the Herald-Tribune’s owner, the paper took a
leap into uncharted waters in September 1994: It decided to launch its
own 24-hour cable news channel. All local news. All the time.
It was an extraordinarily fast ramp-up of an exceptionally ambitious
undertaking.
McFarlin, then the paper’s executive editor, was also made director
of broadcasting. It gave her editorial and business-side responsibility
for the success — or failure — of SNN (Six News Now). The challenging blueprint
she drew up called for installing the TV operation right in her newsroom,
and combining the talents of her print news staff with those of the on-air
team she was assembling. In December 1994, she brought in Frank Verdel,
a respected TV news hand, to be general manager. By July 1995, SNN was
on the air to viewers in the heart of Sarasota County (it has subsequently
expanded to reach most of the rest of the county and a neighboring county.)
“The first year was tough,” she says, principally because of technical
difficulties associated with a start-up operation. For a print newsroom,
everything was new and foreign about the gizmos that make broadcasting
possible.
In fact, the technology proved more daunting than the major cultural
shift necessary to graft a cable TV news operation onto a paper-and-ink
newsroom. Rather than resisting new ways of presenting news, her staff
was “excited about the possibilities,” McFarlin says.
Maybe the analogy isn’t exactly right, but the Herald-Tribune news operation
ultimately formed up along the lines of Congress — only it runs much smoother
and doesn’t take in soft money. There are two houses — print and broadcast
— but they work together to achieve a common goal. Their efforts are coordinated
by editors on a multimedia desk, where assignments are assessed for synergistic
opportunities between the 160 print staffers and 30 broadcast people.
Nowadays, print reporters commonly write voice-over TV scripts of their
news stories to accompany on-air reports. Some print reporters do their
own stand-ups in front of the camera, and a few even have regular program
segments, such as art and architecture critic Joan Altabe. SNN reporters
have written for the paper. Herald-Tribune photographers and SNN videographers
often carry each other’s tools and share assignments.
Collaboration on special projects is routine, and so is cross-promotion.
The TV operation wasn’t a hedge for the future. It was never intended
to supplant the paper, but rather to support its news mission. “Immediacy
and convenience” is the value SNN adds, McFarlin believes. It reaches people
who might not otherwise pick up a paper, but survey numbers say it drives
readers to the Herald-Tribune as well.
The exercise of creating a cable news operation also eased the transition
to the Web, McFarlin says.
Her advice for newspapers that contemplate taking to the airwaves?
“Prepare your newsroom to do things differently, accept that there will
be a steep learning curve, and promote the benefits of change.”
Parsons is publisher of the Santa Barbara (Calif.) News-Press.
