| Break the mold: These newsrooms take
risks and are rewarded. "It takes courage to lead with a 6 or
8 minute story," says Stuart Zanger, former news director at
WCPO. "It takes courage to lead with a story on school buses
when …everybody else is seeing stories about murders and deaths
and fires and cars careening down the embankment." Creativity
also begets creativity. "Every day, what we can do is approach
things in a non-conventional way," says Hearst-Argyle's Altman.
"I think we need to challenge ourselves and each other to take
that story that needs to be in the newscast, that maybe even needs
to be the lead story, and figure out how to tell it in a way that
will just draw people in."
Develop expertise: Reporters have beats or are
encouraged to develop areas of interest and to track stories over
time. These reporters advise others to do the same, even if the
station they work for does not encourage specialty reporting. "Try
and find something that you do better than anyone else and that
will distinguish you," says reporter Celeste Ford of WABC.
"And you'll end up maintaining your passion and also getting
ahead because you can deliver stories that no one else can."
Encourage enterprise: Reporters demonstrate "the
intellectual initiative of finding story ideas," says David
Ropeik, formerly a reporter at WCVB. Journalists at these stations
are curious and motivated to learn. "I like to read,"
says reporter Byron Harris of WFAA. "I read Science. I read
Business Week. I read everything." These reporters look beyond
the breaking news of the day for stories about issues and trends.
"What draws (viewers) in is 'what is happening today?'"
says KCTA reporter Ken Stone. "But the stories that stick with
them, I think, are 'what is.'"
Reward teamwork: Reporters, producers and executives
work together to make time and space for quality journalism. "We
cut deals," says WFAA's Harris. "I'll say, 'Well, I'll
do this for you today if you let me work two or three hours on Mexico,
or whatever.'" Producer Don Makson of WCVB admits that teamwork
requires give and take, "because there are days where, you
know, you need to fill a newscast…but it's wonderful when
a reporter can say, 'Look, give me some time to work on this, I'll
get that story done.'"
Support quality: The focus is not on why something
can't be done, but on how it can be done. "What I encourage
our people to do is to forget about the resources and just cover
the news as though we had them," says WCPO's Zanger. "Don't
let that be an excuse." In some cases, the station is locally
owned, and journalists have a sense that top executives are paying
attention to the newsroom's product. "I think it…helps
that the chairman of the board of the parent corporation and other
executives sit there and watch your news every night," says
Robert Riggs, a reporter at WFAA. "If it was schlock on the
air you would hear about it very quickly. And I think that has a
very good influence on the product."
Take time: There is a commitment to spending time
on stories-time to produce them and time to tell them on the air.
"Quality takes time," says Zanger. "It takes years
as well. It takes people who have been around for a while. But it
also takes some time to do." Finding the time often means working
around other assignments. WABC's Ford says she put her school bus
story together "in pieces over the course of a week or so."
Understand the community: News directors at these
stations tend to have a much longer tenure than the average 18 to
20 months. Reporters stay longer than usual, too. That enables them
to get to know their community and report on it with a depth of
understanding. "That doesn't have anything to do with age.
That just has to do with getting to know wherever you're working,
even if you're there for two or three years, really getting to know
the pulse of your town and then being able to cover it more effectively,"
says Altman of Hearst-Argyle. "I see it as an investment wherever
you're working, in really not being a news nomad and being part
of that community."
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