Good News for News?
In MediaLand, there's no shortage of dismal news about sagging circulation or sagging ratings or rising apathy or rising tabloid news, but … wait, could there be a good news story this week?
In a world where ratings success isn't about gaining viewers as much as how slowly you lose the viewers you already have, this week's Media Life magazine reports that the venerated ABC nightly newsmagazine "Nightline" has seen its audience increase over the past year. According to the magazine:
"Nightline" was the only Big Three show at 11:35 p.m. to show improvement over last year. The news program had its best May sweep in total viewers since 2004, averaging 3.63 million, up 14 percent over last year.When Ted Koppel and his hair left "Nightline" back in 2005, much was made about the fate of the newscast. How could a program focused on, you know, news and stuff, survive in the 21st century with Jon Stewart and David Letterman and Jay Leno and … isn't "Sex and the City" on somewhere? But the program, reinvigorated by a new format and new correspondents, has found and grown an audience in late night.Its timeslot competitors, "Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS and "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on NBC, both declined, though they still had better totals than "Nightline" at 4.09 million and 5.55 million, respectively.
Under Koppel, "Nightline" predominantly would devote its entire 30 minutes to in-depth pieces about the news. In its reincarnation, the program is chopped up into three different news segments – well, alright, two news segments and one lighter piece. The show has recently looked into education, Afghanistan and dealing with post-traumatic stress syndrome. Is it lighter news than before? Is it less news than before? Yes. But it's still news.
Sure, it would be easy to knee-jerk this shift and lament the death of long-form journalism, but it's worth noting that a news program has found a way to improve its standing in the world. (It looked like "Nightline" may have jumped the shark when it gave only 6 minutes to Bill Clinton and an entire show to Angelina Jolie back in January of 2006, but it hasn't yet turned into the infotainment product that it might have.)
If these numbers continue to rise – or even stay where they are – it could signal that a new conception of news is evolving under our very noses. On late-night television, no less. Viewers, already familiar with the headlines of the day, seem to be looking for a little more. Not a lot more, mind you. But there may be a lesson in there for the rest of the news industry.