OSOYOOS, BC – Likening Canadians’ appetite for local news to their preference locally sourced goods and services, the CRTC’s Stephen Simpson said that the key to success in media is the ability to make and keep a deep and personal connection with audiences.
Speaking Thursday to the British Columbia Association of Broadcasters, the regional commissioner for British Columbia and the Yukon admitted, however, that establishing and maintaining this audience connection is every broadcaster’s single-biggest challenge.
“Successful broadcasters take advantage of this trend by emphasizing and honouring their community roots, he said. “I think this is another facet of connecting with audiences – people tend to trust the broadcasters who live in the same community as they do. And this trust between audiences and broadcasters sometimes helps beat the odds when failure seems imminent.”
Calling a strong news department a “must have” rather than “nice to have”, Simpson added that while delivery methods change, the need to connect remains constant.
“This is why local news and information is crucial to local broadcasting”, he continued. “Canadians love their local news. This message was one of the top takeaways from our Let’s Talk TV consultations. Canadians told us they particularly value local news for its capacity to connect them with their communities. Local news helps people make sense of what’s going on around the corner and around the world. In this era of so-called fake news, the buck stops at local broadcasters.”
Simpson cited the growing popularity of podcasts as one example of a creative, technologically savvy way to build and strengthen those broadcaster and local audience connections. Acknowledging that a focus on homegrown could ramp up competition for local advertising between radio and TV stations, he opined that today’s “app-driven world” offers various and numerous opportunities to monetize good content.
“I think you should all work together to ensure that great local content continues to attract its rightful place of the advertising pie”, he said. “In fact, you should all be working together to grow your share.”
– Lesley Hunter
