In journalism, bad news sells. “If it bleeds, it leads” is a famous industry slogan that explains why violent crime, war and terrorismAND natural disasters are ubiquitous on TV news.
Researchers rarely examine the incontrovertible fact that journalists and their employers benefit from disturbing events. But even when it seems distasteful, it is vital to grasp the connection between negative news and profit. How media historianI believe I’m studying this subject can shed light strength This shape contemporary journalism.
The assassination of John F. Kennedy 60 years ago is a case study. After a gunman killed the president, television news provided uninterrupted wall-to-wall coverage at significant cost to the stations. This gave television news a fame as a public service entity that lasted for many years.
This fame – which could appear surprising now but was widely accepted at the time – overshadowed the incontrovertible fact that television news would soon turn into hugely profitable. These profits are due partly to the incontrovertible fact that terrible news attracts a big audience – and still does today.
The assassination of JFK prompted Americans to turn into concerned with television news
Shortly after Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963, television stations demonstrated their sensitivity to the tragedy by canceling commercials and devoting all their airtime to this story for several days. CBS president Frank Stanton later called it “the longest continuous story in television history.” At one point, 93% of all American televisions were tuned to broadcast.
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Estimates vary, but the networks have decided to stop promoting it could have cost them as much as $19 million – or $191 million in 2023.
For many years, networks have presented their coverage of the killings as the epitome of public service. Network executives and journalists have repeatedly argued that television news is uniquely shielded from the economic pressures present in other broadcast sectors.
Television news in the early Sixties was “the loss leader that allowed NBC, CBS and ABC to justify the enormous profits their entertainment divisions were making” – ABC News Ted Koppel remembers in The Washington Post in 2010. He added: “It never occurred to network executives that news programming could be profitable.”
The public service narrative that took root in November 1963 ignored the incontrovertible fact that the vast audiences turning to television news for information and convenience would soon turn into highly profitable.
How TV news became a money-making machine
Just two months before Kennedy’s assassination, in September 1963, television stations expanded their evening newscasts to half-hour. Previously, they lasted quarter-hour and offered little greater than headlines. Extended news they sold out all promoting opportunities immediately when television news attracted the predictable, mass audiences that sponsors desired.
Coverage of the Kennedy assassination, combined with expanded news coverage, greatly increased the business value of television news. In the Sixties, broadcast journalism began to turn into the most profitable genre of programming on American television.
In the 1965-1966 television season, NBC’s “The Huntley-Brinkley Report.” generated $27 million in promoting annually, making it the network’s highest-grossing show – outgrossing even “Bonanza,” its hottest variety show. “CBS Evening” was grossed $25.5 million in promoting, making it the second highest-grossing program on American television.
Around this time, networks told regulators they’d committed thousands and thousands of dollars to public service through journalism. For example, in the 1965 testimony before the Federal Communications Commission, executives at ABC, CBS and NBC declared that their news divisions had loftier motives than simply being profitable.
But they made money, quite a lot of it. In 1969 it was “Huntley-Brinkley”. it earned $34 million in endorsements with a production budget of $7.2 million, making the show, in line with Fortune magazine, “NBC’s largest income – larger than ‘Laugh-In’ or ‘The Dean Martin Show.’ Ten years earlier, Huntley-Brinkley had earned just $8 million in endorsements and sponsorships.
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However, the networks didn’t boast about their profits. Instead they they continuously promoted their efforts covering the Vietnam War, civil unrest and public interest killings of the Sixties. They also claimed that the news cost them thousands and thousands to provide, and it did hid promoting revenues collected as part of data programs contained in other budgets of their corporations. This gave them a bonus by way of regulatory privileges equivalent to station license renewals.
The birth of contemporary TV news
Ultimately, the chaotic, cacophonous and confusing decade of the Sixties ushered in the hyper-commercial media world we live in today. The pursuit of sensational investigative reports equivalent to Watergate and the Iran-Contra arms-to-hostage scandal generate higher rankings AND higher promoting revenuesand switch TV journalists into national stars.
The original values that guided network journalism from its beginnings have given method to more profitable formats. “60 Minutes” – a CBS News production – ultimately became the network’s most precious programming property in the history of American televisionand by the Eighties almost every local news station had them launched its own “I-Team” investigative group.
Ultimately, the professionalism that drew viewers to television news after the Kennedy assassination in 1963 was replaced by ratings-boosting strategies sold by television news consultants. Audience analytics, minute-by-minute engagement metrics, and Q-scores that calibrate the “like” anchor could help standardize formats and unify the way news is collected in pursuit of profit maximization.
But over the many years, one constant has remained the same: bad news sells. This is a truism of the media industry, whether we would like to review it or not, and the news programs broadcast today, 60 years after the events of November 1963, are proof of this.