The previous chapter showed how a series of demonstrably false myths and conventions about what audiences want from local TV news governs the medium and severely limits its quality. So that's what doesn't work. The obvious question is what does work? If so many of the conventions of the medium are wrong, what is right? We address these questions in this chapter.

Let's start with three assumptions:

1. Newsrooms want to produce the best-quality news with the resources at hand.

2. Newscasts have to be commercially successful.

3. Newsrooms have lots of choices about what to cover in reconciling assumption #1 (quality) with assumption #2 (profit).

Our five-year study of local TV news shows that newsrooms can do good journalism and still build profits. Stations don't have to choose ratings over reporting.

Using a broad measure of commercial success, we have identified a set of practices that are associated with bigger audiences, regardless of the topic of the story. Because these practices can be applied to any kind of story, we call them “The Magic Formula.” This Magic Formula of demonstrably successful journalistic practices consists of six steps. In brief, they are:

• Step 1. Cover Important News – and give it resources and emphasis

• Step 2. Invest in Enterprise – time and effort pay off

• Step 3. Make Sourcing Authoritative – use data and consult experts

• Step 4. Provide Perspective – get more sources and viewpoints into stories

• Step 5. Look for Local Relevance – viewers watch if they know how stories affect them

• Step 6. Make Important Stories Longer – but don't pad shallow ones