MAYBE THEY NEED CONSULTANTS
Long almighty, TV news consultants are falling from grace
by Deborah Potter

Deadly iced tea! Filthy hotel sheets! Thieves at the car wash! It's no secret why local television stations from coast to coast have exposed these "hidden dangers" in their newscasts, especially during the all-important sweeps periods. All it takes is one success, one highly promoted story that spikes one station's ratings, and the idea will spread from market to market like a virus. The primary carriers of that virus, of course, are news consultants who get paid big bucks to help stations draw viewers, but whose assistance often consists of urging stations to copy what's worked somewhere else.

Consultants have been a fact of life in local television news for almost 30 years. From snappy slogans-"Live, Local and Late-Breaking"-to shorter stories and loads of live shots, what viewers see on the news is often driven by what they don't see: the influence of consultants. That influence is deeply resented by many television journalists, but most of their griping is done in private. They know full well that their bosses pay handsomely for consultants, and fear they could pay a price for sounding off. A few heavyweights like Boston anchor Natalie Jacobson of WCVB-TV have been publicly critical, but no one seemed to be listening. Until now.

Hearst-Argyle Television, which owns WCVB and 22 other stations doing local news, is phasing out contracts with several large consulting firms, including Frank N. Magid Associates, Audience Research and Development, and Broadcast Image Group. Fred Young, Hearst-Argyle's vice president for news, says the group's decision doesn't reflect dissatisfaction with the firms. Instead, he says, it's simple economics. "It became clear to us that we were spending a significant amount of money for what represented a handful of consultant visits annually, per station." Hearst-Argyle will still hire consultants to do audience research and talent coaching, but it's setting up a three-person team in-house to work directly with stations. Young says that won't save money, but he does expect to get better service.

Hearst is not alone in rethinking its relationship with consultants. Gannett has taken similar steps. And at A.H. Belo, senior vice president for news Marty Haag says that while there's been no dramatic change yet, the group is negotiating shorter contracts with some consulting firms. He, too, says it's about performance. "Station groups will be asking, 'What have you done for me lately?'" he says.

What the consultants say they've always done is provide an outside perspective on a station's personnel and product. And they're sounding more than a little miffed about the latest developments. Jim Willi of AR&D, for instance, told Electronic Media that getting rid of consultants is "kind of a dangerous idea," suggesting that stations will be sorry when they no longer have consultants to push them in new directions.

Given the directions stations have been pushed in already, that would seem to be a risk worth taking. If viewers never see another lead promoted as "The Big Story," they'll surely be better off. Besides, as Fred Young puts it, "It is not written anywhere that in order to succeed, [everything] must first be blessed by a news consulting firm."

But there is something stations may miss: the convenient scapegoat that consultants have provided. Story idea didn't work? Wasn't my idea! Anchor team flopped with viewers? Wasn't our call! The truth is, it's easy to blame consultants for everything that's wrong in local television news. But consultants can only suggest. The real decisions are made not in Marion, Iowa, or in Dallas, but in newsrooms and corporate offices.

And real change is unlikely until those decision-makers spend more time trying to understand and cover the communities they serve than they do imitating what someone else has done in some other city. It brings to mind the quote from Shakespeare that Edward R. Murrow used so memorably in his 1954 "See It Now" broadcast about Sen. Joseph McCarthy: "The fault, Dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves."

Oh, and one other thing. Don't worry about the consultants. They're already hard at work signing up new clients. In fact, for a brief time, Magid had a deal with none other than WTTW-TV in Chicago, to help it engage viewers with more "interesting, entertaining and relevant content." The deal fell through when Magid's other Chicago client, WMAQ-TV, objected. Why should anyone else care? WTTW is the city's public television station.

(This article was originally published in the American Journalism Review, May 2000)