For thirty years in the TV news business, I sat through more meetings with management and consultants than I care to count, and the general tone of those meetings was usually this: the viewers don’t know crap, and without our help, they/she would wither into oblivion. Check out this research we were handed that told us who our typical viewer was, and who we wanted to attract.
OUR VIEWER IS:
25-34 Woman
High school educated
Has Kids
Service worker
Mid-downscale
Owns small house
Lives paycheck to paycheck
Shops at Wal-Mart
Needs our help
We came up with a name for this woman, “Lorraine.”
‘Lorraine’ Needs Our Help: How and Why Local TV News Tries to Scare Women