Keeping an Eye on the Competition

Walk into almost any newsroom and you will see monitors on the wall that are tuned to the competition.

One time, I worked with an Assistant News Director that everyday at 5:00PM would run to the monitors and write down story for story what the competition was covering.

My thought always were, I don’t give a shit what they are covering, they should worry what we are covering.

But, this is a hard habit for many to break.

Watch NBC’s Today Show and you will see in the opening of the show, they punch up a shot of the control room.

Right under the Studio 1A monitor is a monitor with WABC and Good Morning America.

What makes it even worse is NBC labels the monitor “WABC” which is like a free commercial for them.

Stop worrying about the competition and trying to follow them….LEAD!

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