Last Friday, February 28th, was my final day as the news director for KSTP-TV, Hubbard Broadcasting’s flagship television station in Minneapolis-St. Paul. My departure was my choice. I’m retiring after spending the last 33 years leading over a dozen local television news operations, big and small. I arrived here in 2019, just before one of the most tumultuous news periods in recent history, both locally and nationally.

During my final meeting with the newsroom, I was asked this question: What message did I want to leave with my colleagues about how I see the future of the business? Admittedly, I took a few moments before answering because my mind was flooded with various thoughts and the responsibility of the moment to try to be positive and maybe even give those assembled the tiniest bit of inspiration.

Here’s what I said: “Never forget that what you do every day still matters.”

In the 1975 classic, “Monty Python and The Holy Grail,” a classic scene is where a man walks alongside a cart of corpses being pulled through the village with some difficulty. The man leading the cart beats a large triangle with a wooden spoon as he shouts, “Bring out your dead,” over and over. A local man approaches and tries to put what appears to be the body of an older man that he is carrying over his shoulder onto the cart. The old man wakes and protests, shouting, “I’m not dead yet.” The situation devolves into a back-and-forth as the still-not-dead old man keeps maintaining that he feels fine, and the body cart master continues to refuse to take him. Ultimately, when asked if there is anything he can do—the cart master suddenly whacks the old man on the head with a club, and his body is put on the cart to be hauled away, with thanks from the locals.

This hilarious scene reminds me of the moment television news seems to be in today, some 50 years after the movie’s release. The business is not dead yet, but you might be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Every day, there are reports of more people leaving the business. Every other day, there is another take on how to fix local TV news from some would-be sage who knows just how to rescue, reinvent, or even revolutionize the business.

Then there are the politicians of all stripes who have found blaming “the media” to be a solid distraction, especially when said media is not pandering to any particular point of view on the political spectrum.

And let’s be honest, aside from the critics, the revenues that may have poured into local stations in previous decades aren’t coming in at those levels any longer. As cliche as it sounds, the business has changed from the arrival of cable’s “hundreds of channels and nothing to watch” era to the latest revolution, when digital media’s siren song lures everyone to become “a content creator.” All this happens as ad budgets get even more fractionalized in the never ending quest to chase impressions–wherever they can be found. It is fair to think that local television is heading for the same proverbial “bump in the road” that pushed so many local newspapers into the ditch along the road toward survival.

You have to wonder if maybe we’re just waiting for that body cart from the movie to come around again next Thursday.

As someone who started working in television the same year “Monty Python and The Holy Grail” hit movie theatres and who has seen the changes that have led up to this moment, let me offer a few words of encouragement for those who work in television news: What you are working on every day still matters.

We know the studies showing that trust in local news far outpaces national news outlets. It is far easier to have some modicum of trust in the people who are seen in your community in person. The simple fact is that being on the ground and covering the stories, big and small, still matters. From what happens on your block to what they are arguing about down at city hall. All of it matters.

No small amount has been spent over the years trying to figure out why people watch what they do on television. News is no exception to that effort, especially since the 1970s when the idea that producing more local news could be a significant profit center for local television stations rather than just a minimal requirement the FCC imposed to keep station licenses. One constant in that research was that people matter, from the people on television who presented the news–to the ones who were in the stories offered each day.

The best account on the rise of local television news was Craig Allen’s aptly titled 2001 book, “News Is People.” Though out of print, it is still a great read if you can find a copy. It details how this rise of audience research and consultants tried to replicate the formulas of the early innovators and their success stories in local news, such as the late Al Primo’s creation of Eyewitness News at the ABC Owned stations, starting at New York’s WABC-TV in 1968.

In Primo’s original typewritten memo to the newsroom announcing his plans, he spelled out the key in the first line of the second paragraph: “The most important aspect of Eyewitness News is People.” In seven short pages, he laid out the blueprint for how Eyewitness News would be different. That plan would make WABC-TV a success story that has continued for the past 57 years.

Yes, the audience watching is smaller and older than ever. Clearly, there have never been more ways to get the news at one’s fingertips. Do local television newsrooms have to adapt to the changing marketplace? Of course, they do. Anyone who thinks otherwise is simply denying the inevitable. But failing to make those changes is what leads to extinction. Adapting and experimenting will lead to surviving and potentially even thriving, in the years to come.

Simply put, I am stepping away from newsroom leadership but still very bullish on the future of local television newsrooms and those who work in them. Because they definitely still matter. The goal will remain to make them matter even more going forward. I have some observations on how best to do this, and I will share those here in the days, weeks, and, hopefully, years to come.

I hope you will “stay tuned.”

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