New Look, Same Crap

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As FTVLive FIRST told you, Gray’s WOIO in Cleveland tried to go back to the future, by bringing back their old graphic color scheme.

We tuned into watch a bit of the newscast and while the graphics changed the product still has a long way to go.

The station has decided to go with off the shoulder cameras during parts of the newscast and they have obviously hired an epileptic to do the job. I know the idea is camera movement, but this was so shaky, it was almost unwatchable.

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They spent way too long on a Pinterest board with ideas for Easter decorations and the Reporter also realized during the segment that the need to rename the station’s Pinterest site to match the new name, graphics and logo.

The new/old graphics looked crisp and clean, but it’s the same old boring product that is trying to be geared to women in their 30’s to 40’s with a couple of kids. According to women in that age bracket that we talked to, they missed the mark.

All these changes come after the station hired a company to to do research that was mainly conducted online and only used a sample size of around 400 people.

Producing good compelling TV news is not that hard, yet these stations and groups keep wanting to reinvent the wheel.

As yourself this, why is 60 Minutes which uses almost no graphics, no supers and no flashy camera moves, ranked near the top in ratings?

Because, they do solid Journalism.

Try it sometime and forget the shaky video and the Pinterest segments and see what happens? Why TV stations keep trying to do the internet on TV, is beyond me.

It’s not rocket science, it’s TV news and you should try doing just that.