Last Updated: September 23, 1999
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TV books
Play on the Web awhile: Search for sites associated with television
listings, and you’re sure to find one like “TV Schedules of the World.”
It can link you to about four dozen TV program guides. There is Katso!
— most of the channels in Finland. In Finnish. And Si21 — listings for
various Slovenian stations. In Slovenian. And Kabel Koerier’s Telezap guide
to all Netherlands stations and some channels from neighboring countries.
In Dutch.
Much of the world’s TV programming is linked to a single site: a cool
sight.
But for an American newspaper editor, the charm and novelty fade as
you read the list of links available in the United States. Cable listings
by ZIP code, national networks by time zone, satellite channels, DirecTV,
Primestar and a lot more are all a click away — even listings from local
newspapers.
Imagine the possibilities for growth in new entertainment options —
Web casting events, for instance, such as the Victoria’s Secret fashion
show. Think of using either your desktop or your TV to search through both
televised and new types of programming, and pretty soon the traditional
program listings in your pages look archaic.
Listings are growing, and the industry’s readership is listing under
the weight. Not only is the volume of what’s on TV going up, the types
of program offerings (pay-per-view, premium channels, video-on-demand)
are multiplying. Newspapers face weightier and weightier choices that will
affect readership and costs.
“Newspapers are at the height of frustration right now,” says Barbara
Needleman, vice president of databases and advertising products for Tribune
Media Services, one of the prime suppliers of TV listings for newspapers.
“You can only print so much. It’s really a dilemma.”
The impact on newsprint costs and advertising revenues alone make it
a high-stakes issue.
More critically, TV books have long been associated with strong Sunday
newspaper readership, and listings are a staple for many daily readers,
too. Are new alternatives to the newspaper as the source of this information
draining off some of that cherished readership? How can newspaper listings
ever compete if they’re not complete?
Needleman has one emphatic piece of advice: “Integrate the media and
get your name on everything.”
Integrate. “People are going to get their information in a variety
of ways. They have to supplement what they get from newspapers.” Newspapers
must offer online and onscreen choices to supplement what they deliver
in their pages, or partner with those vendors that do provide the supplements.
TMS TV began offering online listings for newspapers’ Web sites more than
three years ago. About 80 newspapers subscribe.
Get your name on everything. Brand identity must be retained
even as newspapers offer listings in a variety of sources or forms.
Partner with other providers. Share costs with cable companies
to offer onscreen listings under joint sponsorship, or to offer both monthly
and weekly books, with the monthly book focusing on cable’s special offerings:
pay-per-view, premium channels, video-on-demand, high-speed data communications.
“I don’t think they’re really in competition,” Needleman says of the monthly
guides that some cable providers publish. She sees complementary relationships
as key for newspapers’ success.
Sell your TV book. Advertising departments have not made TV books
top priorities in the past, she said. “It’s much easier to sell ROP than
to sell something that has a 14-day advance deadline,” Needleman said.
But still you must ask: “How well do we sell the book?”
Content counts. Too many papers are sacrificing good content
critical commentary and descriptions — to give more space to listings.
“Tell me more about the show,” she says. The Chicago Tribune added two
pages of commentary back into its TV book recently, she said. Other newspapers
are beginning to realize that that’s their franchise, and that if they
give it up they’ve surrendered.
Will she hazard a prediction about how well newspapers will respond?
“I think the future is really very interesting,” she says.
Is there a future for listings in newspapers? “Absolutely,” she says.
Connor is executive editor of The Syracuse Newspapers.
John Lammers, metro editor for Syracuse Newspapers, contributed to
this article.
