Local News Lost in Digital Translation

When it comes to local news on the digital platform, legacy media are getting it wrong, wrong, wrong.

That’s the message of a new report, “Challenges in News Migration to Digital Media,” authored by Sam Milkman, president of Lafayette (PA)-based knowDigital, a brand research firm owned by Coleman Insights. Traditional media are failing on numerous fronts, Milkman said, ranging from the metrics they’re using to measure success to their inability to fully capitalize on key “images,” such as breaking news or weather, that distinguish their brand on its legacy platform. Most local news sites, he added, are serving merely as utility extensions of the brand rather than entertaining and engaging platforms in their own right.