Secrets of the TV stations of the year

Secrets of the TV stations of the year

A fascinating piece by Scott Jensen in the latest NPPA News Photographer magazine traces the path each of the 2011 stations of the year followed to get where they are today. What struck me was what Seattle’s KING-TV, KCCI in Des Moines, and WAVY in Portsmouth, Va., have in common. They share a similar newsroom [...]

Advice for assignment managers

Advice for assignment managers

by Joe Enea All stations have about the same equipment and physical resources. What makes one station different from the rest? The people working there. Chemistry among the team is important in this business. Dealing with people under pressure with major time constraints is sometimes difficult. It’s amazing how different people can become once the [...]

Building a coaching culture

Building a coaching culture

Television news has always been a team sport. Almost nothing gets on the air that hasn’t been touched by several sets of hands. Reporters, photographers, video editors, producers and managers all influence the content. But in many TV newsrooms, there’s rarely much discussion about how to improve the content. As my former CBS colleague Wally [...]

Journalism values on display

Journalism values on display

Awkward. Inspiring. Hilarious. That’s how it looked from my seat at last night’s RTDNF dinner honoring some of the biggest names in broadcast news. Awkward? That would be ABC News president David Westin speed-reading his way through remarks accepting the First Amendment leadership award just a week after announcing plans for drastic staff cuts. When [...]

How open is your newsroom?

How open is your newsroom?

Phone calls, email, social media: Journalists today are more accessible than ever. Soliciting comments, video and photos on the Web opens up the newsroom for input from the community; so does crowdsourcing on Twitter or Facebook. But how much interaction with readers, viewers and listeners takes place face to face? California Watch, an investigative start-up [...]

Show meetings make a difference

Show meetings make a difference

By Michael Castengera, University of Georgia Increase efficiency. Improve morale. Reduce turnover. Raise the ratings. How, you ask? One word – communication. Yes, I know that sounds like a trite answer, but a professor at the University of Miami has done a survey that ‘proves’ just that. Terry Adams at the University’s School of Communication [...]

RTNDA seeks to become more relevant

RTNDA seeks to become more relevant

What’s in a name? A lot, says RTNDA chairman Stacey Woelfel, which is why the organization will soon become RTDNA. “It’s not a typo,” Woelfel says. “It’s a big change for the association.” The Radio-Television News Directors Association, founded in 1946, is becoming the Radio Television Digital News Association. For years now, the organization has [...]

TV health reform coverage, in depth

TV health reform coverage, in depth

The ongoing debate over health care reform is a tough story for local television news to cover well. Angry protesters and emotional testimony at town hall meetings make for good video but add little to public understanding of the issues. Recognizing that, stations across the country are reforming their coverage of health reform. WFOR-TV in [...]

How newsrooms deal with trauma

How newsrooms deal with trauma

Some news stories have lasting psychological effects on journalists. Just ask anyone who covered the 9/11 attacks or the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. But traumatic effects like stress disorders aren’t confined to major national disasters, as the staff of WGAL-TV learned in October 2006 when a gunman killed five little girls and injured five at [...]

How to avoid being sued

How to avoid being sued

“When the media goes to trial, you’re more likely to lose than to win.” That caution from attorney John Ronayne III should get everyone’s attention in newsrooms around the country. Ronayne warned that landing in court can be hideously expensive. “The average cost just to get a libel case ready to try was $100,000 ten years ago. That can put a huge dent in any newsroom’s budget.”

New approach to sharing feedback

New approach to sharing feedback

Ask a roomful of journalists if they get enough feedback on their work and you’ll rarely see any hands go up. Managers typically say they want to offer more but there’s never enough time. And in a short-staffed, overworked newsroom, pulling people together for a group critique session is almost impossible. So WGAL-TV news director [...]

Five steps to improve a TV newsroom's online output

Five steps to improve a TV newsroom’s online output

Despite the importance of the Web to all news organizations, many of them still treat their online teams like poor relations: Stick them in a corner and feed them scraps. But senior web producer Rich Murphy at WTTG-TV in Washington has worked hard to change the way his newsroom deals with the Web. Step one: [...]

How to be a positive TV news producer

How to be a positive TV news producer

By Holly Edgell, Executive Producer, KOMU-TV and Assistant Professor, The Missouri School of Journalism While producers don’t have the official title of manager, they must develop leadership strategies to manage resources and empower their peers to do their best work. I have found that the best way to develop a great working environment — and [...]