Suggestion - Deliver some local news stories in every quarter hour.

2. Make The Viewer Wait Some More. If you air stories 8 – 10 minutes after they were teased, you run the risk of being judged as a station that fails to keep its promises. In addition, since morning viewing habits are subject to prep time for other start up activities to begin the day, lengthy delays between teases and stories increase the likelihood that the stories won’t be seen at all.

It’s no surprise which one of these stations is rated third in the market.

Avg. Wait Time - #1 Station – 5:15, #2 Station – 5:33, #3 Station - 8:53

3. Air Fresh News Sparingly. In looking at content analysis studies we’ve conducted over
 the past 3 years, less than a third of all news stories aired were overnight, breaking, morning, or updated stories from the previous day.

               74.6% of all news stories and 68.6% of all local news stories were repeated.

4. Tell Incomplete Stories. On average more than a quarter of all morning news stories contain no time reference as to when they occurred or when the news department uncovered them. It prompts the viewer to wonder if you are really on top of things.

5. Use The Inverted Pyramid Format. If the volume of news stories and amount of time for news content is significantly greater at the top of the hour than at the half hour, then your station is short changing the audience as it grows from quarter hour to quarter hour.