Media Link-ed: Can Local TV Bounce Back Without Reinventing Its Infrastructure? - Michael Kassan - MediaBizBlogger

Ed Martin's full live coverage from the Television Critics Association tour is available exclusively to corporate subscribers of the Jack Myers Media Business Report. For more information visit www.myersreport.com.

In a recent column, "The Big Bounceback? Local TV", the always interesting Business Week Media Centric columnist, Jon Fine, makes the case that the local TV ad market may come back in advance of the rest of the ad business. He concludes, "Make no mistake: TV station groups won't be rolling in the roses once a recovery finally arrives. The business will still face numerous challenges. The sector may not be the play so much as picking its survivors—the stations and companies that will best endure. I'm not sure anyone looking to invest in traditional media companies these days is wise, but if you're determined to make this bet, local TV may be where to place your chips."

Interesting, but the unvarnished truth is that the cost of doing local broadcast is almost five times the cost of national; agency planners (and some clients) are likely to avoid using local broadcast because it is too cumbersome. I asked Media Link industry category specialistKathy Crawford, a 40 year veteran of the local broadcast business and most recently President of Local Broadcast for MindShare (New York) for her thoughts. Here is what she told me:

"Reinvention is a word that we have all bantered about given the state of our economy and the current dynamic of doing more with less. It is certainly a word that has taken hold in discussions and forums throughout our industry and there have been 'committees' formed with the intention of doing just that – reinventing our business.

"But one must ask the question. What have we actually reinvented? We would bet that if you ask any sales operation, any buying operation in the agency or television (or radio for that matter) business what has been reinvented, they would look at you with a question mark clearly noted on their foreheads.

"Media plans are still being 'handed to the buying groups' in writing, no less; couldn't we write a script that would allow for the plan to be downloaded into DDS, MediaBank (or whatever your computer program is) and thus eliminate at least one job – or even better, and what has been suggested at the 4As Reinvention committee – electronically transferring the order directly into to the television (radio) station's traffic department (first stopping at sales management) as discussed with the salesperson? Can we imagine the amount of rekeying that would be eliminated here? And the amount of errors eliminated? We all have agreed that preemptions, in the case of local television, must stop but what have we done about it? The cost of discrepant invoices due to these preemptions is not only in staff but in the cost of invoices that aren't being paid because we can't adjudicate these preemptions.

"Or, is there an even better way to do this? We would bet there is but we can't sit around waiting for someone else to do it for us. We have to step up to the plate. The idea that 'we aren't in the software business' has got to be replaced with 'let's get the software guys over here' and start building it. We have industry agreement that something has to be done. Some of the groups have actually had meetings, gotten consensus and have laid a foundation for change. But, now it is up to the companies to institute the change and nothing much has taken place. More talk, no action.

"So, as we are wont to do, we continue to cut staff to satisfy the finance gurus but we don't do the real hard work. In the meantime, our staffs are stretched, and it is same old, same old. This is a challenge. And it is big change. But if we wait too long, we won't have to worry– the business model won't have to change because there won't be a business."

While I occasionally try to out-guess the market, I rarely second guess Kathy.

Michael E. Kassan is Chairman and CEO of Media Link, LLC, a leading Los Angeles and New York City-based advisory and business development firm that provides critical counsel and direction on issues of marketing, advertising, media, entertainment and digital technology. Michael can be reached at michael@medialinkllc.com

Read all Michael's MediaBizBlogger commentaries at Michael Kassan - MediaBizBlogger.