• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, April 6, 2005

In the last few weeks, we've witnessed major upheavals in the network news category. Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw have announced their retirements, while Ted Koppel has announced that he will resign from Nightline (though not from network news altogether). All of these men are household names, but they are also remnants of a bygone era. An era defined by the traditional nuclear family, by traditional family values and by traditional family-centric lifestyles. Should they be replaced or should network news move on and evolve with the times?

The fact is that our relationship with network news has changed. Today's consumer requires the world be brought to them in bite-size snippets. We require that news be delivered to us on our terms, at our convenience, and on our schedules. We do not sit down and watch the evening news; we're too busy for that. We are increasingly cramming more and more into our daily lives, and when we do sit down to take in the day's events, we sit and watch what we want to watch because TiVo makes it possible.

The Internet has forever changed the way news is brought to the viewer. I would argue that network news could become extremely relevant again if they took some tips from their more progressive brethren - Cable and the Internet. Cable invented the 24-hour news network, where everything scrolls by and repeats every five minutes. Where the top stories are delivered in two to three minute modules and allow you to acquire the basics while multi-tasking.

The Internet brings you the headlines and incorporates hyperlinks into the content that allows you to research specific issues and elements more deeply, when you feel it is appropriate to do so. Today's audience is more sophisticated and capable of digesting more varied information faster and formulating their own opinions while still maintaining their cynicism.

Network news should not replace these journalistic icons with more of the same. They should develop their digital methods of news delivery and integrate the new journalistic icons-to-be into these formats. The evening news should develop a two-section format. Section one of the broadcast would be 10 minutes and highlight the top stories of the day, but rather than focus on each of them it should refer the viewer to the Internet for more information to be viewed at their discretion.

The second section of the broadcast should provide a news magazine format, a la "60 Minutes" or "Nightline". Take one topic and focus on that topic by featuring editorial debates, detailed scientific analysis, or some other unique perspective that cannot be done justice in other forms of media. TV is still the primary medium for displaying emotion, so take advantage of this fact and focus on the emotional aspects of the news.

Of course, all of this content should be re-purposed and available online, but now the show will take on a format that is more likely to be recorded by the user. The nightly news is not recorded, but the news magazines are. In sports journalism, no one TiVos Sportscenter, but the sports reporters get Tivoed regularly (at least in my house).

With the new format for television, leverage your new icons online. Make us familiar with these new evangelists for current events, but ensure they remain non-partisan. Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw were excellent because they trusted to not take sides. They were excellent because they brought emotion to the news. Their skills are still valuable today, but in a very different environment. The relationships they took 60 minutes to cultivate with the public are going to be more difficult for their replacements. Their successors will attempt to develop a relationship with a public that lives on the three-second attention span. Their audience is fickle, and much like a brand relationship, they will ask the networks to give them the information in a way they want to see it.

Bring these new journalistic icons online. Allow the user to frame the relationship in their own context. Let the viewer control the delivery of the information and potentially customize the content to their own liking. This is how the future viewers will digest their information. This is how Network News can become relevant once again.

Think about it... when was the last time you watched the news on TV for any length of time? I guarantee it was due to a significant cultural event. September 11, and the following weeks, I was glued to a TV at all hours of the night. At the start of the War in Iraq, I spent hours watching the coverage on TV. This past weekend, everywhere I went there was a TV station showing the life, times, and passing of the Pope. These types of events are significant and they are emotional, and they are when we turn to network news. For all other newsworthy events we turn to the Internet and digital media.

What do you think is the future of news media?