Case Study: From National Headlines to Local Wins: How Midwest Communications Supercharges Story Discovery
The Challenge: The Pressure is Real: Local Newsrooms, National Noise
In the fast-paced world of radio broadcasting, local newsrooms often grapple with the challenge of sifting through an overwhelming stream of national headlines to find stories that resonate with their local audiences. This task is particularly daunting for smaller teams operating under tight deadlines.
At Midwest Communications in Peoria, Illinois, Director of Talk Programming Caleb Kelch faced this exact predicament. His goal was clear: empower his newsroom to identify national or state-level stories that could be localized effectively, ensuring content remained relevant and engaging for their listeners.
The Solution: A Smarter Way to Scan the News
To address this challenge, Caleb turned to Futuri’s TopicPulse, an AI-driven content discovery tool designed to surface trending stories and emerging angles in real time. By utilizing features like the story angles and story insights, his team could quickly identify unique perspectives within national stories that held local significance.
“We highlighted story angles where there’s opportunity to find those unique ideas or localize a national story,” Caleb explained.
Prior to integrating TopicPulse, the newsroom’s engagement with national stories was minimal. However, with targeted training and the intuitive interface of TopicPulse, the team began to actively explore and adapt national narratives for their local audience.
The Results: Enhanced Engagement and Streamlined Workflow
The adoption of TopicPulse led to a significant uptick in newsroom activity:
- Increased Story Engagement: The team progressed to averaging 30–50 stories opened per week.
- Improved Content Relevance: By localizing national headlines, the station delivered more pertinent content, fostering stronger connections with their audience.
- Efficient Workflow: The tool streamlined the content selection process, allowing the team to focus more on storytelling and less on searching for suitable topics.
“TopicPulse has become a great check-in tool throughout the day,” Caleb noted. “It lets me see what we may have missed for the news of the day and offers potential topics or viewpoints that haven’t been covered yet.”
Industry Insight: Staffing Trends in Radio Newsrooms
Midwest Communications isn’t alone in facing pressure to do more with less.
The latest RTDNA/Newhouse School at Syracuse University Survey shows that the typical radio newsroom has just two full-time staff members, a number that’s remained flat year over year. At the same time, 41.4% of radio news directors and general managers report rising signs of burnout on their teams.
These findings highlight a growing challenge: lean teams are expected to produce more content, faster, while staying sharp and competitive in a 24/7 news cycle.
That’s exactly why platforms like TopicPulse matter. They help stretched newsrooms work smarter, not harder, by surfacing relevant story angles quickly, reducing manual research, and supporting team well-being through workflow efficiency.
Conclusion: Empowering Local Newsrooms with Content Intelligence
For Midwest Communications, TopicPulse has become more than just a content discovery platform; it’s an integral part of their newsroom strategy. By enabling the team to swiftly identify and localize national stories, TopicPulse has enhanced their content relevance, streamlined workflows, and strengthened audience engagement.
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