The ways in which people seek information has changed dramatically over the past decade. We make plans via text message, we store treasured photographs in digital boxes, telephone "land lines" are almost obsolete, and with Internet sites like Surfthechannel and quicksilverscreen, we don't even have to have a television to watch our favorite TV shows.
Keeping the revolution of the information highway in mind, Smiley Pete Publishing, in conjunction with video production studio Post Time Productions, has added a new dimension to its journalistic pursuits with Business Lexington TV, a monthly television program highlighting the local business community. Filmed in a virtual studio at Post Time and supplemented with "in-the-field" coverage, the 30-minute show broadcasts each month on KET and runs anywhere from six to eight times on the network throughout the course of the month. Additionally, Business Lexington TV episodes past and present are available for streaming anytime on YouTube and on the Smiley Pete Web site. Lexington now has an array of options for keeping up with local business news.
This "new media" approach to information sharing, be it journalistic, social, or otherwise, is catching on worldwide, as evidenced by the economic woes of print newspapers and the boom of social networking Web sites - and it's easy to see why. The advantages of using a variety of media for promotion of a product, a business, or, in this case, a news story, are manifold.
"We're able to do stories that don't show up on today's commercial television," said Business Lexington Editor-in-Chief Tom Martin. "Business news, economic news, locally, is just simply not getting any play on local television. And if it is, it's usually in a very brief, 30-second to one-minute piece; [our] segments are anywhere from three to five minutes, which in television time is pretty vast."
The leap to public television can be a leap of faith, to a certain extent - without the allowance of advertising, revenue to cover production expenses is left to private sponsorships. With the state of the economy, securing enough sponsorship to support thrusting the show further into the public realm - the next step - is a challenge. But Program Producer Doug High is confident about the potential of the show.
"Shows like Business Lexington are really going to be the new model for [television stations] in the next 10 to 20 years. They're seeing their national advertising start to dry up; the salad days are over," High said. "Coca-Cola has a lot more places to spread their money now than making a huge buy on the top three stations in Lexington."
In turn, media stations are forced to rely on local advertising more than ever, and the importance of quality local programming is accelerated. Business Lexington TV was born of that premise - providing new, interesting, and quality content - and of the premise of expanding the reach of their content to a more diverse, television- and Internet-based audience.
"We wanted to do interesting content that was really magazine-feature in nature," said High.
With features that have recently covered Lexington's two-way street debate, the Manchester Street Distillery District, Woodsongs Old Time Radio Show's 500th broadcast, and the cattle farm industry, Business Lexington TV offers an alternative to what High refers to as the "Police Scanner 101" approach of most local news coverage. The format of Business Lexington TV, which is typically broken into five segments, is accessible to the viewer, and also beneficial to the story subjects, who can use the individual segments for their own marketing or promotional purposes. One example of such utilization is with Universal Reins, a horse farm that teaches corporate leadership skills, featured in the August edition of Business Lexington TV. They embedded their TV segment into their newsletter for distribution to their own e-mail audience. As a compact, high-definition video segment that explains who Universal Reins is, it provides the business with a useful marketing resource. In turn, their use of said marketing brings new eyes to Business Lexington that weren't there before.
On a similar note, the strong Internet presence of a show about Lexington brings new eyes to the community as a whole. If you were to search for "Lexington" on YouTube, you would come across Business Lexington TV - likewise, if you were to search for bourbon, cattle farms, electric cars, or any of the other diverse subjects covered by the show since its recent inception. Martin refers to the use of the show as a marketing tool for Lexington as "another motivation for thisÖas strong as any."
While practically all of the elements of success are present, the biggest hurdle faced by Business Lexington TV right now is sponsorship. The Keeneland Association is currently the primary sponsor, and other local businesses, including Bowles Rice Law Firm, Leinenger Cabinet Makers, and Cornett IMS, have partnered up as well.
"I think there is a real lack of quality feature content in this town, and that's why I think Business Lexington could be just a monster in this community if we continue to find a way push it out into the world," said High. "We're already telling great storiesÖWe need the business community to support this program, to keep it going, and to help us get it out there even further."