Lately I've been watching more local news on television than I used to in the past.  And the more I watch, the more I tend to be annoyed.  Frankly, local news is very inefficient with its time.  There are really three things that I can easily think of that could improve local news.  First, cut the stupid banter between the local anchors.  Look guys... you're not stand up comedians.  You read news off a teleprompter. And your jokes that aren't on the teleprompter suck.  Get good at reading the news, and let that be it.  It shouldn't be that hard.

First, exactly how times do we need to hear the weather coverage?  There is usually a short weather segment in the first 10 minutes, followed by a longer segment in the middle of the program, and then finally one at the tail end.  The first segment is an absolute waste.  It's usually billed as a way to get your weather first in case that's all you wanted to see.  But the problem is, the first forecast is so vague (in order to get you watch the rest of the show), that you might as well not have bothered.  Then, when you finally get to the primary weather segment, they repeat the same information in about three different ways during the segment.  You can probably cut the time spent on weather easily by a third.

Alright... now to the ironic suggestion.  How much time during a news program is spent interviewing the "man on the street" for their reaction to a story?  It's an absolute waste.  I know... a blogger is probably the internet equivalent to the "man on the street reaction"... except... well... hopefully I actually provide interesting reactions.  I know this, because people voluntarily come to my blog over and over again to read.  The man on the street interviews are usually all the same... some guy talking about how he doesn't like the fact that a murder happened next door (shocking I know), or how someone who just lost his job is now going to have a harder time buying things for his family.

The reason I bring up these three examples is that local news programs, just like many local newspapers, are suffering from declining viewership (or readership as the case may be).  So what is the easiest way to increase interest in a commodity that is flagging in popularity?  How about giving people more for their money!  Give people more news in their 30 minutes worth of time.  If time is money, then giving people more news in their 30 minutes would go far to bring people back to television news.

Imagine how many more stories you could fit into 30 minutes if you cut the weather in half or more, got rid of the stupid interviews with the "man on the street" and cut the useless chit chat between stories!