CHICAGO (July 16, 2010) – A rare PCC summer member breakfast meeting July 15 brought out a big crowd to hear from Emily Barr, president and general manager of WLS-TV, the ABC-owned station in Chicago.
Barr has held the position since April 1997. Under her leadership, ABC 7 has strengthened its dominance in the market. Currently, ABC 7’s entire news lineup is rated number one in Chicago.
Barr’s vision to create a street-level studio that would give viewers a window into the world of television was realized in April 2006, when the state-of-the-art State Street Studio debuted and became ABC 7’s new broadcast home.
Barr has positioned ABC 7 as the most technologically advanced television station in Chicago. Under her leadership, the station moved into the new era of high-definition television in January 2007, becoming the first and only Chicago station to offer viewers a complete schedule of local news and programming in stunning HD television.
Among other firsts Barr spearheaded were the station’s acquisition of the city’s only HD helicopter, video podcasting and the extensive distribution of news, weather, traffic and information via handheld and wireless devices. ABC 7 has also expanded local coverage with its use of additional digital channels, including a 24-hour digital news and weather channel.
The ‘every minute of the day’ news cycle
Acknowledging that this is a “tumultuous time” for Chicago media and media cross the country, Barr said that her station and others are trying to grapple with not just the 24/7 news cycle, but the “every minute of the day” cycle. This is largely spurred by a consumer that is “digesting news more than they did ever before.”
Consequently, ABC’s news coverage must emulate the speed at which consumers can access news, through broadcasting, websites, Tweets and other social media means. In fact, news items are delivered to resemble the “short, instant bursts of information that people want so they are in the ‘now’ on news stories.
“We release stories on whatever platform makes sense, and at any time. We want to get out in front of stories, but we also want our stories to be genuine and truthful,” maintained Barr.
On working with PR
In dealing with PR people, Barr proposed that “PR people need to be honest and candid when releasing news. We really like to know about thought leaders and experts. It also really helps if you know assignment editors and specialty reporters. Developing relationships with these people helps both of us.
“Think of it this way: We can figure out if there’s a fire or a murder because we scan their calls. But we need help covering the community and newsworthy events,” said Barr.
On social media
While Barr is not enamored with social media, she recognizes that whether she likes it or not, “it’s here to stay.” Her biggest gripe is that on social media sites such as Facebook, “people act like lemmings — forwarding material and passing it on whether or not they know if the story is true.
“We spend more time debunking stories than following leads we get from the Internet. That means we triple-check anything we get over the Net,” she said
Barr also warned that her news people are pretty savvy about search optimization, and don’t automatically click on a site just because it’s the first entry on the results page. They are generally skeptical of anything they pull up during a search.
Morning news viewership on the rise
Barr is very pleased with the newfound power of morning news. Today’s viewers have the morning news on for about 40 minutes instead of the 22 they watched years ago.
But she understands that many people have the news on as noise and often have to visit the station’s websites to confirm information they may have missed; especially weather, “which remains the number one reason viewers tune into a station.”
While many bloggers have built large national followings, Barr is unimpressed since she feels that 90 percent of the stuff bloggers write about is excerpted from mainstream media that already ran the story. ABC gets very few story ideas from bloggers.
When asked about the new fleeting expletives ruling in the courts, Barr is not concerned. “We need to cover news live, so we take some risks and precautions to eliminate profanity. But we can’t do anything when a young kid jumps in front of a camera and swears. But we’d rather regulate ourselves than have it done by the federal government.”
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By David Brimm. Brimm is president of BrimmComm, Inc., a full-service public relations and marketing communications firm.