Thoughts on Nexstar's Digital Mandate
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Yesterday, FTVLive told you in an EXCLUSIVE story that Nexstar has sent down a mandate to their stations that by the end of August, all news departments must allocate 20% of their staff to “Digital First.”
Sources inside Nexstar says that CEO Perry Sook is pushing the news departments into “Digital First” and the company is using strict guidelines to do so.
While FTVLive applauded the move as a company looking to the future, not everyone believes in the company’s execution of “Digital First.”
This email comes from a Boston area News Manager:
I had a friend get offered a job right out of school at the Nexstar station in Syracuse as one of those digital reporters. The ketch, they were basically just going to give him an iPhone—that’s it.
Rather than separating traditional from digital, Nexstar should I hire highly skilled web people to better package the on-air content. You could still push stories and reports out digital-first but separating the two makes no sense.
My prediction; After a few months, uncle Perry will notice little change in online page views and revenue. They’ll all get in a room and bring everyone back together.
The time to work on digital is now. Every day, week, month that goes by local media lose more eyeballs to Facebook and Netflix. Simply put into more crap online isn’t going to do it. We are fighting for engagement . The only way to win is with quality content—not a 23 y/o with an iPhone.
Hopefully, they can also fix problems like this:
