Today’s Good News: Local Cable News Channels
The all-fluff-all-the-time nature of local TV news and the continued diminution of local newspapers and newsweeklies. It worries me a lot. I believe when people aren’t exposed to local news, it makes them more politically apathetic. They focus more on distant battles that can’t be won and lose the up-close-and-personal effect of local organizing and the sense of belonging to a community. With the destruction of the local media business model, who will keep local journalism alive? Hopefully, your local cable news channel. Here in New York, we have perhaps the Cadillac of local cable news channels, NY1. They have 5 reporters at City Hall (I don’t think the New York Times has any, from the dearth of local news there). Last night on NY1, I saw the “public advocate” for the city dissect the new poverty numbers and go into depth about what they mean and what the city is doing to fight poverty. I’ve enjoyed the station before, but now I’m starting to really get how important and potentially lifesaving this phenomenon could be.
Another thing they have done is offer debates of local candidates via video on demand. How cool is that? Instead of trying to keep track of when a debate is on, just order it up when you have time to watch it. Plus the station can do more debates because they don’t have to devote all the airtime to it.
Of course, they’re not perfect - they refused to allow Jonathan Tasini to debate Hillary Clinton in last year’s Senate primary.
NY1 does have some of the usual pointless stories of fires and abductions, but they truly have real local news as well.
It works as a business because:
- It doesn’t need to make a stand-alone profit for Time Warner Cable. It’s seen as value-added, something that keeps subscribers at TWC rather than buying satellite or a rival cable company.
- It’s lean and mean. The reporters, or “video journalists,” shoot, write and edit their own stories. They also make considerably less money than their broadcast or newspaper counterparts. However, they aren’t amateurs. It’s a well-produced and journalistically sound product.
- Technology allows a lot of content sharing and having one-person crews means they can get more stories.
Time Warner Cable and Cablevision both have these local channels in some markets. Comcast, as far as I know, does not, though little RCN has a competitor to NY1 called RNN.
It’s good stuff. Check out NY1 here.
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