I got an email from a person that spent years in the business and they brought up an interesting point.

The person said, “At least Tegna tried...it was costly...but now we know what not to do.”

And that person makes a great point.

Talk to kids under the age of 25 and you will find most of them not only don’t watch TV news, most don’t watch broadcast TV at all.

They might watch a show that was on broadcast TV, but more than likely they watched it on a streaming service, such as Netflix, HULU or one of the others.

Apple is the richest company in the world, so we can be assured that for the most part, they know what they are doing.

Apple is putting billions of dollars into its new streaming service. This is where Apple sees the future.

Tegna tried to do a newscast that brought younger eyes to TV news. By most accounts, it was a failure.

But at least they tried.

The problem was that Tegna was basically getting rid of Journalism and hiring people young and cheap to do what they thought was the future of news.

Like we have said, CBS’s 60 Minutes still attracts an audience by doing quality Journalism. 60 Minutes doesn’t use music, spinning graphics, and crazy camera moves. They just tell a damn good story that is interesting to watch.

Tegna wanted the Holy Grail, they wanted to do a different kind of news, and they wanted it done by cheap hires with little or no experience.

A couple of mistakes Tegna made. First, they should have tried this in just a few markets. That way if it failed, it just failed in a market or two and was not a big hit to the bottom line. Rolling out the “Tegnafied” news across the board was not the way to go when trying something new.

Also, if you going to do TV news, the key component is still Journalism.

Having comedians pitch to mass shooting stories while wearing a T-Shirt that says it’s on like Donkey Kong is not going to get the kids to watch. In fact, it’s not going to get anyone to watch.

Having your anchors lay on the floor while talking about news, isn’t going to work either.

TV news does have to change or it will die, But, the key is still Journalism, done by Journalists. And no matter how many stations try, you can’t do good TV news on the cheap.

Let the kids start in smaller markets, earn their stripes and move their way up. There is a reason that markets like DC and Cleveland used to never hire kids fresh out of school. Experience is still a thing, no matter what stations try and do.

Tip the hat to Tegna, they tried.

They have also shown other stations what not to do.