How would you change your newspaper's TV insert if you had the clout?

[Tim from Springfield IL]

That is, if your local newspaper still has one (albeit barely in some cases as opposed to before the Internet and online listings).

Two words: SUBCHANNEL LISTINGS! Especially in markets with MeTV, Antenna, This, and Bounce affiliates as well as the PBS subchannels (World, Create, MHz in some areas).

Thoughts on how you improve your local paper's TV listings if you had the clout--or even the power to create your own print guide?

 

[HoustonListener]

How about -- not charge an additional fee to have the TV listings insert put in the Sunday paper?

 

[azumanga]

How about -- not charge an additional fee to have the TV listings insert put in the Sunday paper?

My paper, the Tampa Bay Times, still doesn't...

 

[EricStein]

The newspaper TV listings are long obsolete. People go to station websites (or use the electronic guide on their cable/satellite box) to find shows.

If I were a station affiliated with a subchannel network, I would make sure that there is a dedicated page on the station's website about it. In some cases, stations don't bother to even promote their subchannels (e.g.: KTVK-Phoenix and ThisTV. They're not on cable, so the only way viewers know about it is if they get over-the-air TV. There's no mention of ThisTV on the station's site. Create some demand so that the cable company would WANT to carry the subchannel).

 

[gregg75]

Yes I would like to see sub channels on there. They have a lot of nobody watches channels.
At least take a few of them off and add the decent subs.

 

[AKA]

As has been mentioned above, television listings are no longer necessary, thanks to on-screen guides and the Internet. Local papers across the country have been scaling their weekly inserts down for the past twenty years, starting with when many went grid-only in the early nineties. Frankly, I'm surprised to find out that newspapers still have TV listings at all.

 

[kenglish]

I'd do a whole page of local (OTA) channels, with all their sub-channels, plus anything that has a separate audio channel, too.
Put a couple of sponsors like antenna installers on their, and show people what they can get for FREE.
Oh, and make a note on which channels are NOT available on satellite.

I think once a month might get the point across.

 

[cd637299]

As has been mentioned above, television listings are no longer necessary, thanks to on-screen guides and the Internet. Local papers across the country have been scaling their weekly inserts down for the past twenty years, starting with when many went grid-only in the early nineties. Frankly, I'm surprised to find out that newspapers still have TV listings at all.

Frankly I am surprised that newspapers still exist!

cd

 

[Tom Wells]

Eliminate all info referenced to cable TV.
Let cable TV do its own directory.
Let satellite do its own directory.

THe newspaper insert woudl be more useful if it only addressed OTA signals.

 

[AKA]

As has been mentioned above, television listings are no longer necessary, thanks to on-screen guides and the Internet. Local papers across the country have been scaling their weekly inserts down for the past twenty years, starting with when many went grid-only in the early nineties. Frankly, I'm surprised to find out that newspapers still have TV listings at all.

Frankly I am surprised that newspapers still exist!

cd

Right? I am, too. I haven't subscribed to one in over seven years. I don't know if anyone I know still gets a paper. Newspapers are about as unnecessary as a phone book (which I unfortunately seem to get seven or eight left on my doorstep every year).

 

[benwolf]

I have been using tvguide.com for years...free and easy and complete with all channels (just put in your zip code and provider) and episode details! It's perfect on the IPad.
Local newspapers are a true anachronism...I switched from my local paper to the New York Times years ago.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Eliminate all info referenced to cable TV.
Let cable TV do its own directory.
Let satellite do its own directory.

THe newspaper insert woudl be more useful if it only addressed OTA signals.

I agree, Tom! In fact, I would also suggest another twist to this idea--get rid of TV Guide magazine as it is now and turn it into a Sunday newspaper insert a la Parade magazine. The new TVG can provide all the cable channels--then the local newspaper can add whatever locals/subs/out-of-market channels they choose to see fit.

 

[Tom Wells]

..... to the New York Times years ago.

Any newspaper too afraid to carry a comics section is not worthy of being called a newspaper.

When I used to get actual phone calls soliciting the NYT, I advised them them to try calling back
someday if/when they have the guts to carry comics.

Then when they called back, I would pretend that they HAD gotten over their weak constitution and decided to run comics.
A minute or two later we would establish that there were no comics, and I would then ask why in the world they were calling me
back.

So apparently their database for cold calling is pretty stupid, or has no data field for "don't call back".

 

[easttxtv]

http://www.epageflip.net/title/5602

From a local paper where my mother's family is from... How sadly behind they are. And we're not talking about just no-subchannels behind, but a good 20 YEARS behind. Someone at the paper has no clue that there is:

* an LP station in Tyler carrying MyNetwork (the station's been there since the late 1990s)
* a local CW station
* a local CBS station since 2004
* no more English indie programming at KXTX/39 after about, what, 5 years (?)
* and oh yes, subchannels on 4 of the local stations!!

What I could do with their TV section, but oh well....

And Tim-Springfield, I kinda like the TV Guide thing, let the local paper add what they know, and TV Guide handles the rest. That would probably be too simple. 8)

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

http://www.epageflip.net/title/5602

From a local paper where my mother's family is from... How sadly behind they are. And we're not talking about just no-subchannels behind, but a good 20 YEARS behind. Someone at the paper has no clue that there is:

Wow--looks "OK" on the surface; UNTIL you see the fine print (i.e., cable channels, lack of stations added to the market since about 1995). And the cable lineups shown in the listings look like a small-town lineup out of 1997 or so (it appeared that at least one or two of the cable systems lacked channels above 36 except for 98 and 99).

 

[easttxtv]

It not only makes the newspaper look bad and not-updated, but it doesn't adequately inform the readers enough as to what's available to watch in the market. It might even help the ratings of those trying to compete against KLTV/7 (the perennial creatures-of-habit ratings-getter) get more viewers if the TV section was better. There are many in this newspaper's town and others in this particular TV market that aren't as tech-savvy as far as getting their grids from cable/sat functions or from the online sites, that still like to sit down with the paper to see what's on. Kinda hard to tell when you don't have the full, up-to-date picture.

 

[azumanga]

http://www.epageflip.net/title/5602

From a local paper where my mother's family is from... How sadly behind they are. And we're not talking about just no-subchannels behind, but a good 20 YEARS behind. Someone at the paper has no clue that there is:

* an LP station in Tyler carrying MyNetwork (the station's been there since the late 1990s)
* a local CW station
* a local CBS station since 2004
* no more English indie programming at KXTX/39 after about, what, 5 years (?)
* and oh yes, subchannels on 4 of the local stations!!

The station did have a listing for "KWTL", which was apparently a cable only WB 100+ / CW station, but no doubt it was supplanted by KCEB after they flipped to The WB in 2005, then to The CW the following year. The "KWTL" listings given was likely for the national "CW Plus" service. "KWTL" is also listed for cable 5, which is KCEB's cable slot today.

The magazine is also called "Select", which I think is a syndicated TV magazine -- that being said, I don't know about the quality of listings in other papers that carried "Select".

 

[easttxtv]

http://www.epageflip.net/title/5602

From a local paper where my mother's family is from... How sadly behind they are. And we're not talking about just no-subchannels behind, but a good 20 YEARS behind. Someone at the paper has no clue that there is:

* an LP station in Tyler carrying MyNetwork (the station's been there since the late 1990s)
* a local CW station
* a local CBS station since 2004
* no more English indie programming at KXTX/39 after about, what, 5 years (?)
* and oh yes, subchannels on 4 of the local stations!!

The station did have a listing for "KWTL", which was apparently a cable only WB 100+ / CW station, but no doubt it was supplanted by KCEB after they flipped to The WB in 2005, then to The CW the following year. The "KWTL" listings given was likely for the national "CW Plus" service. "KWTL" is also listed for cable 5, which is KCEB's cable slot today.

That's why I said "a local CW station", because the circustances causing a cable-only WB/CW have long since changed, even though the paper is still in the past when it comes to that. No one has tried to rearrange the listing to the local section or label it with the correct channel or call letters since.

 

[azumanga]

That's why I said "a local CW station", because the circustances causing a cable-only WB/CW have long since changed, even though the paper is still in the past when it comes to that. No one has tried to rearrange the listing to the local section or label it with the correct channel or call letters since.

I wonder what good would it do to contact the paper and tell them that the channel selection is woefully out of date?

 

[easttxtv]

That's why I said "a local CW station", because the circustances causing a cable-only WB/CW have long since changed, even though the paper is still in the past when it comes to that. No one has tried to rearrange the listing to the local section or label it with the correct channel or call letters since.

I wonder what good would it do to contact the paper and tell them that the channel selection is woefully out of date?

I've thought many times about doing just that, but I'm afraid I'd get some lame excuse about 'not enough room' or 'no one is assigned to just work on the TV section', or worse, 'we have our TV section done by a third party'. The "Daily Disappointment" (as my mother used to call it) has had a change of general manager or whatever the head-honcho title is within the past year or so; she asked readers then what they'd like to see in the paper. I should have sent along something to her attention then. I wonder if she'd even be receptive now.