Desperately Seeking the News
Numbers
By Henry Walker
Reading last month’s Nielsen ratings, released Monday, the newsroom executive at WSMV-Channel 4 couldn’t keep from giggling. “It looks to me,” he said gleefully, “that we’ve got as many viewers as the other two stations put together.”
He’s about right. The results of local audience surveys show that Channel 4 is once again the city’s leading television news station. At 5 and 6 p.m., Channel 4’s audience equals Channel 2 and Channel 5 combined. The bigger surprise, however, is Channel 4’s dominance at 10 p.m.
Three years ago, WTVF-Channel 5 won the 10 p.m. time period by 6 percentage points. Each point represents 1 percent of those households watching television at a particular time. A year later, Channel 4 pulled even and, in 1995, led Channel 5 by 4 points. The latest figures show Channel 4 is now ahead at 10 p.m. by a remarkable 8 points, almost as large as the station’s 10-point lead at 6 p.m.
“Anytime you hit a 30-percent market share, you claim dominance,” said the Channel 4 executive. “With all the television stations that are now available, dominance is a rare commodity.”
Channels 4 and 5 both gave away cash to attract viewers during the four-week rating period. WKRN-Channel 2 offered no prizes and finished a poor fourth, losing to Home Improvement on Channel 17. Channel 5’s Talk of the Town still dominates the competition at noon, and its Morning Report beats Channel 4 by 6 share points in the early morning.
What’s Channel 4’s secret? Nashville’s oldest television station “knows how to do the community stuff better than anyone,” said an ex-producer, now in public relations. “Channel 5 still hasn’t found a replacement for Brette Lea,” said a former WTVF reporter. Channel 2 “just won’t spend the money” on staff and equipment, said a WKRN insider.
Maybe it’s just better journalism—no celebrity gossip, shouting reporters, or “news” about angels, creationists or flying saucers. Maybe it’s just knowing what people want to watch—more viewers saw Third Rock from the Sun on Channel 4 than followed the results of the Oilers’ referendum on Channels 2 and 5 together.
Reciting those election-night numbers, the Channel 4 executive couldn’t help himself. He started giggling again.
More numbers
It is not likely that anyone at the Nashville Banner is laughing. Recently released figures indicate that the paper’s average paid circulation is now below 50,000—a loss of 3,000 in the last six months.
Ten years ago, the Banner had 69,000 subscribers. Today, a vastly improved paper, it has fewer readers per issue, based on circulation figures, than the Scene does.
Monday, Banner publisher Irby Simpkins appeared on Teddy Bart’s Roundtable to talk about journalism. When one caller, local conservative Avon Williams III, accused The Tennessean of liberal bias for downplaying anti-Clinton stories, Simpkins defended The Tennessean and explained that the Banner is really no different.
“People here aren’t interested in national politics,” Simpkins said. “They want to read local news.” The day before, the White House had apologized for improperly obtaining FBI files of prominent Republicans. The story made front-page news in New York, Washington, and even in USA Today, and was featured Monday evening on Nightline. The Tennessean buried the story on Page 11a. The Banner ran six inches on Page 10. As Simpkins said, both papers treated the story the same.
The Tennessean’s circulation has increased almost steadily since 1989, and the morning daily now rivals the Memphis Commercial Appeal as the state’s largest paper.
But the Banner won’t attract new readers by imitating The Tennessean. With its smaller but, on average, more talented staff, Simpkins’ paper already does a markedly better job covering metro and state governments than its competitor does. The Banner, however, will never be able to hire more columnists, print more magazine-type features on health and education, or explore the problems of gays and other minorities more often than the formula-driven, Gannett-funded Tennessean does. The Banner needs to be different. That means becoming a more serious newspaper. Maybe somebody could teach the publisher that, if there’s no marked difference between Nashville’s two papers, the afternoon daily will continue to shrink.
Odds and ends
Dolph “Bunny” Honicker, former Tennessean copy editor and news editor, called to correct errors in last week’s “Desperately Seeking the News” column, which described Honicker’s long-running battle with the paper’s management over coverage of the Tennessee Valley Authority.
As news editor, Honicker said he “packaged” (not “packed”) anti-nuclear stories together in the paper to highlight dangers of nuclear power. And last fall, when Honicker used Tennessean stationery to write a private letter to TVA, editor Frank Sutherland reportedly got “steamed” (not “mad”) about the incident, Honicker said.
Once a copy editor, always a copy editor.
♦ With all the tourists in town, it’s not surprising that Opryland Hotel was anxious to open its huge new Delta wing last week, or that there’ve been plenty of snafus—long lines, reservation mix-ups and service problems—not normally associated with Opryland or any other $200-a-night hotel. What’s surprising is that The Tennessean’s community-conscious editors printed a long, no-punches-pulled critique of the hotel’s problems, written by new features writer Mike Kilen.
Newspaper insiders say the staff collectively held its breath while managing editor Dave Green pondered whether to run the story. Laurels to Kilen, Green and features editor Joanne Mamenta-Bjordahl for making the right decision.
It’s not likely any story critical of Opryland would ever have appeared in the Banner, which rushed to the hotel’s defense in an editorial the next day saying, “It would be unfair to make too much of the lapses in service and miscommunications that may have marred the stays of individual guests.”
“That’s the kind of help we could have done without,” said an Opryland publicist.
To comment or complain about the media, leave a message for Henry at the Scene (244-7989, ext. 445), call him directly at 252-2363 or send an e-mail to hwalker@bccb.com.
To comment or complain about the media, leave a message for Henry at the Scene (244-7989, ext. 445), call him directly at 252-2363 or send an e-mail to hwalker@bccb.com.
