What has prevented local TV stations from gaining the online presence that many local newspapers now have?
DEBORAH POTTER: Most local stations don’t have the staff they need to produce quality news on their “main platform,” much less online. For too long, they saw the web as a promotional tool, not a way to extend their journalism. They’re changing their approach now—Fox is hiring multiple web producers for each of its owned stations—but it may be a little late. SCOTT LIBIN: Local newspapers have vastly larger news staffs and lower profit expectations. They also got seriously into online coverage sooner, in most cases. Stations have become and will continue to grow as a competitive source of online coverage when they re-engineer their newsrooms and redeploy their resources in order to reach the daytime online audience with material that is fresh, interesting and unavailable elsewhere. KAY MILLER: Resources dedicated to exclusively working on the web. Many smaller markets rely on overwhelmed producers to update the web. Instead, what good web production needs is a staff and budget allocated
