Required Reading

Pretty interesting story on the state of local television in the NY Times today. Since newspapers hit really rough times over the last year or so, broadcasters have been able to say, at least we’re not in the newspaper biz. But reporter Brian Stelter says stations aren’t that much better off.

The news for stations has been grim lately: without election advertisements to defray the losses in automotive ads, a cross section of station owners reported 20 percent to 30 percent quarterly drops in revenue last week, suggesting that the local TV business is almost as weak as its print counterpart.

“Unfortunately, there was nowhere to hide during the current storm, as declines in both local and national advertising accelerated,” Timothy E. Stautberg, the chief financial officer for the E. W. Scripps Company, which owns newspapers in 14 markets and TV stations in 10 markets, told investors last week.

And if you haven’t seen it yet, my colleague Alex Weprin has a strong B&C cover story on how television is using Twitter to extend its reach. Amazingly, he did the whole cover story in only 140 characters!