We are very sorry to hear that you could not successfully negotiate a new retransmission fee with Antietam Broadband. As a local satire source, we fully understand the importance of having local news easily available to residents in the Hagerstown and Washington County area. Local news is extremely important to keep residents informed of local issues, especially local issues which should impact local elections.
In case you hadn't noticed, Antietam Cable has rebranded themselves as Antietam Broadband. Why do you think that is? Perhaps it's because they want to be recognized as an Internet provider, because they see that's where a significant piece of their income will be in the future.
If you have been unable to determine from the comments on social media, most area residents no longer feel your station is relevant to their lives. They have no idea when our "local" news is going to be available, and half the news stories on your website and social media have no indication where the article is from. The harsh reality is, most people in the Hagerstown area don't care whatsoever what is going on in Fairfax, VA or Montgomery County, MD.
Yes, we have been poking fun at you during this, and our readers have been enjoying it. And rightfully so - when you harass the mayor of Hagerstown and try to get him to comment on a private dispute between two businesses, this doesn't make him look like the bad guy for not commenting, this makes WDVM look foolish. This "PR campaign disguised as news reports" is not fooling any local residents.
And why would local Hagerstown residents care about WDVM? After all, the station shifted focus away from their primary audience in 2017 with the change of the station callsign from WHAG to WDVM, and began expanding news coverage outside the Hagerstown and Washington County area. This is a path which WDVM started down in 2017. WDVM will continue to stumble until it finds a better direction.
You have already lost your battle with Antietam Broadband. Embrace that. Use this as an opportunity to further expand, and better focus on the future, instead of living in the past.
Here are a few suggestions on how to improve your station's future...
1) Abandon your fight with Antietam Broadband. Seriously, you're making yourselves look bad, and turning more of the local community against you, instead of getting them to support you.
2) Break your station's online presence into target markets. For example, WDVM-Hagerstown, or WDVM-Frederick. Show relevant news for those target markets on the appropriate sites and social media pages.
3) Start restoring the trust of your local market by delivering them local news they can trust. With more and more people dropping cable completely and switching to just online streaming and articles, you have an opportunity to truly flourish in the Hagerstown area without being carried on Antietam Broadband. Right now your site is the ONLY local news site in Hagerstown which is not behind a paywall. Embrace that!
4) Embrace online technology. Why not setup a live stream of your station instead of relying on retransmission fees? Show value to your advertisers that you're embracing new technologies and keeping your content free, while other local news sites actually discourage people from visiting with their paywalls.
5) Realize that people want to be entertained, not informed. This is a lesson I learned a long time ago. Before The Hagerstown Report, I had a serious news organization for local residents. It never took off - because people weren't simply interested in being informed. But The Hagerstown Report's satire - that's entertaining, and as such the site has experienced massive growth without spending any money on marketing at all. Just imagine if we already had a marketing budget like WDVM, what we would be able to accomplish. Keep this lesson in mind, and try to adjust your programming accordingly.
We want to see your station succeed. We want to see your station grow. We want to see your station prosper.
Please, right the ship, and set a new course, before it's too late.
If you'd like to discuss more, I'd be happy to do so. Send me a message on Facebook, and let's setup a time to chat.
Ken, Editor of the Hagerstown Report
This article is NOT satire. This is actually some serious stuff.
