Baltimore TVs Mobilize To Stalk Digital Lead
One of the most ambitious undertakings is that of Sinclair Broadcast Group's WBFF-TV. Viewers on the go who want to see the station’s daily newscasts live don’t even have to switch on their television sets.
More than 10,000 people have signed up for a companion service delivering weather, sports and news headlines via text alerts, each giving a short synopsis and directing viewers to the station’s Foxbaltimore.com site for more information. For example, during one week in early December, text subscribers received updates about the shooting on the campus of Virginia Tech, as well as news on the sentencing of a former Prince Georges County councilwoman.
The text service drives people to the site to get more content, whether it’s pictures, video or other details, said Scott Livingston, WBFF’s news director.
That’s not the only initiative launched by the station. Every half hour, WBFF producers or assignment editors update the station’s Facebook and Twitter pages with new content, including short videos uploaded by staff who are now equipped with Android phones.
“We have it down to six minutes to get something from the field and posted on the Web and/or put it out to Twitter,” Livingston said. “We’re a big believer that if we can get people engaged on a mobile phone, they’re more likely to watch us at 10 or 11 o’clock at night. We realized to be successful, we need to be engaged with our viewers and social media allows that engagement.”
WBFF is just one of several media outlets in Baltimore — the state’s cultural capital and part of a market including 2.9 million people — that’s embracing new strategies to draw bigger audiences and heftier advertising dollars.
Across town at WMAR-TV, development of the ABC2News.com mobile website and iPhone and Android apps have been outsourced to North Carolina-based News Over Wireless. That leaves the station free to focus on creating specialized content for its mobile users, said Dustin Wadsworth, the station’s director of new media.
It’s all of crucial importance in Baltimore, ranked by ratings agency Nielsen as the 27th largest television market in 2011, down one notch from the previous year.
Media consultants Borrell Associates estimate $153 million local online advertising dollars will be spent in the region by the end of 2011. By 2016, that number is expected to jump more than 80% to $277.6 million, according to Borrell’s projections.
The Sun’s site drew 30% of all Baltimore adults who logged into the Internet during a 30-day period, according to a November 2010 report from The Media Audit marketing research company. That makes The Sun by far the largest draw of any online print or broadcast news site in the region. Other major players include WBALTV.com, owned by Hearst Corp.’s NBC affiliate WBAL-TV, which drew a 25.9% visitor share according to The Media Audit. WJZ.com, a division of CBS Corp. and its umbrella site CBSBaltimore.com, held a 23.7% visitor share during the period, followed by the Scripps Television Station Group-owned WMAR-TV and its ABC2News.com, which held a 15.2% share. Rounding out the top five is WBFF’s FoxBaltimore.com, which attracted a 12.5% share, the report found.
They all cover the news and sports landscape in Charm City, which has evolved from blue-collar roots to become a finance center that’s home to management firms T. Rowe Price Group and Legg Mason. Education and healthcare, however, dominate the city’s employment base. With 22,700 workers, Johns Hopkins University is the area’s top employer, according to the Baltimore Development Corp. And at nearly 8,800 people, the University of Maryland Medical System is the city’s biggest healthcare-related firm.
The city has mostly been a one-newspaper town since the Baltimore News-American closed in the mid-1980s. A free daily funded solely by advertisements, The Baltimore Examiner, also ceased publication in 2009 after only three years.
Continuing its search for profits, The Baltimore Sun in October joined the growing number of newspapers that charge readers to access online content. Nonsubscribers can view 15 pages per month for free on Baltimoresun.com, including links from social media and other websites. People who buy subscriptions can view unlimited number of articles, blogs, photos and videos on the website. Existing print subscribers are charged $29.99 a year for unlimited website access, while other online subscribers pay $49.99 for six months. Access to the home page, section fronts and classifieds is unlimited.
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