Add This to Your New-Media Lexicon

Those folks who watch your news are viewers. 

Those who check out the station Websites are users. 

We got that. 

Now, when we’re talking about both communities, we’re talking about "viewsers." 

I just heard this from Jim Toellner at WGRZ Buffalo. Mind you, Toellner’s not taking credit for coining the term, but says it gets heavy use (viewse?) at the station. I Googled "viewsers" and 1,920 links came up, which tells me the term is still new, though one link from our blogorific buds over at Lost Remote states that they made it up seven years ago, when emails were still bundled into burlap sacks, slung across horses’ backs, and slowly made their way to the receiver. 

Viewsers. Somewhere, Rich Hall, father of the modern Sniglet, is smiling.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.