Updated: In August of last year, Allbritton launched TBD.com, an aggressive new site in Washington D.C. that operated with a separate team from its TV operations. Led by former WashingtonPost.com exec Jim Brady, the goal was to create a online news source that didn’t “replicate the experience of turning on your television.” Then a few months later, Brady abruptly quit, later admitting that he was tired of fighting with the TV side of the house.
Today, the Washington Post reports that WJLA-TV station manager Bill Lord will assume the oversight of TBD.com, and a new boss will be hired to run the site. Also, WJLA-TV will get its old website back (WJLA.com was redirecting to TBD.com) and Allbritton’s cable channel TBD TV will revert to its original brand of Newschannel 8.
“RIP, the old TBD,” Brady tweeted in response. “At good companies, the people who resist necessary change are pushed aside. At bad companies, they are put in charge.”
The TBD story represents one of the greatest tensions in local TV today. Television remains a big, competitive business, and the web and social media are proven distribution vehicles for video, not to mention powerful promotional tools. Meanwhile, the web is different from TV, and the primary way people consume the news online is by reading text, not watching repurposed video clips from the previous newscast. If online coverage is an afterthought, the site will not compete in a new era of news.
When the new site launched last summer, visitors to WJLA.com were redirected to TBD.com. Even TBD admitted it was a “jolt” — gone were the ABC and WJLA brands from the masthead, and nearly all of the TV franchises had disappeared. Video was hard to find. At the same time, Allbritton launched ABC7DC.com, a low-tech promotional home for the TV station online, but without a video presence. Now with a full-fledged WJLA.com returning, TBD.com will likely lose the promotion benefit of being plugged on air.
There’s also the clash in audiences. Brady’s goal was to take on WashingtonPost.com, growing a new, younger audience that may not watch WJLA-TV — or local TV news at all. But for the hundreds of thousands of WJLA viewers, TBD.com was not a place to find extended TV coverage or interact with the familiar people and franchises they watch on TV.
And don’t forget about the sales side: franchise sponsorships spanning TV and the web are proven revenue drivers. Completely divorcing a site from TV franchises limits that potential, although a patient, independent approach can open up new online revenue opportunities unencumbered from TV — a critical growth area for TV stations striving to compete for a growing pool of money.
Striking these balances on a single site has been a struggle for digital managers in TV stations across the country. And in D.C., it appears that struggle has shifted back to TV.
Your thoughts? How do TV stations strike this balance?