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When reality hits. Questioning why you want to be on TV

Honing Skills, Reporting, Survival Kit No Responses »
May 082013

The smallest market that Nielsen ranks is Glendive, Montana, #210. It is among the more beautiful places you’ll probably never see. The Yellowstone River flows through the middle of town, according to the chamber of commerce, and you can see a triceratops skull found in 1991 and attend Buzzard Day, no date given.

Glendive is one of those places people would rather visit than live in, though. That’s probably why it only has 4,000 TV-viewing homes. I’m sure there have been some wonderful journalists who’ve gotten their start there. But being that Buzzard Day is listed among the top attractions, I’m thinking it was a lonely start.

So what do you do? You’ve gone to college for four years and made your parents proud. Someone has actually hired you based on a reel you’ll replay in ten years and cringe. And now it’s time to move to someplace like Glendive and become a full-fledged, paid journalist.

Most of us have been there. But the shock was much worse for the young woman who wrote to me recently, whom we featured in last week’s article. She actually had a job in one of the nation’s top markets doing “fun stories and the traffic.” Yes, she’s beautiful. But that didn’t keep her from getting laid-off. She’s managed to find a job way down the ladder. Not in Glendive. But way down the ladder.

“I am not only burnt out but discouraged,” she said during one of our e-mail exchanges, which she is allowing SurviveTVNewsJobs.com to quote.

See, she not only worked in that big market but it was also her hometown. The natural support network of friends and family isn’t there anymore.

On top of that, she’s come to the realization that she’s not a journalist. Among other reasons, she just doesn’t have the fire in the belly that’s required to persevere through all the indignities heaped upon you in that first TV news job.

“Yes I should be thick skinned and not let this run me down, but in reality I think my mental health is more important than keeping up a fake smile to get through this,” she said.

Early on in our e-mail conversation, she told me that hosting is actually what she’s meant to do, not reporting TV news or anchoring. I was actually relieved. Would you want a doctor or an attorney whom you could tell really wasn’t into their profession? It’s a recipe for malpractice. However, this young woman was being honest that she didn’t feel the calling to be a journalist. She isn’t going to pollute TV newsroom after TV newsroom with mediocre work just to have her face on television, all the while secretly yearning to host a talk show.

You may fill in the blank with the name of the colleague in your newsroom who meets that description here: ___________________. Extra points if you think TV news was originally just going to be a part of his or her five-year plan.

So I told her to go for it. God bless her for admitting she’s not journalist material. Plus, with media companies clamoring to create their own syndicated shows outside the Hollywood system and adding local talk shows adjacent to their morning or afternoon newscasts, there is a growing need for hosts with the skills to pull them off. This has the potential to be the best time for on-camera talent to work in local television since the days when stations produced their own children’s programming and hired a host to introduce movies.

In this young woman’s case, though, she’s under contract. I know how much she wants to leave and get on the host track immediately. But I urged her to either stick it out in her current reporting job or try to come to some mutual agreement with station management. Broadcast news is a small world. Word gets around. You don’t want to be known as the person who skips out on contract commitments.

However, fate ended-up coming to her rescue. Another company is about to buy her station. The ownership change, she says, is offering her an “escape.” She turned-in her resignation letter last week and hopes to return home soon.

Best of luck to her, wherever she’s reading this now.

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Matthew Nordin is an investigative reporter at WXIX-TV in Cincinnati. Join him on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @FOX19Matthew

When to wipe between stories.

Honing Skills, Producing, Survival Kit No Responses »
May 062013

With the constant push for more and more content, I am seeing producers use wipes between stories to keep up the pace.  This can be a highly effective technique to showcase stories.  It also can be very uncomfortable to watch if misused.

So when should you wipe between stories?  There are three common rules:

  1. If stories have the same type of subject with a common link (i.e. – three crime stories that happened overnight, three parades on a holiday etc.)
  2. To showcase different elements of the same story (i.e. – “Here is what the fire looked like when it first started.”, then a wipe to more fire crews arriving on scene, wipe to helicopter dumping water, then a sot from a worried neighbor.)
  3. To showcase a section of news (like national headlines, local headlines, craziest vids of the day etc.)

When you veer from these rules, you can put anchors in some interesting situations.  For example, it does not work if you have a taped interview on a serious political issue, then wipe to vo of a charity event.  A wipe needs the stories to be related somehow.  Morning show or weekend producers, with one anchor, often use wipes to get around a pre-recorded interview.  That is, they wipe out of the interview to avoid making it obvious that the interview is pre-recorded.  But that is not the best technique.  So what do you do?  Well, you can have the editor end the taped subject on an image that does not show the anchor.  That way you can show the anchor back on the set to do a transition line without sweating it.  Or, you can wipe to a story that is related.  For example, in the case of the pre-recorded political interview, wipe to a quick followup about a political story.  Then show the charity event, with the first line on camera.

Bottom line: Wipes are effective when the stories have a common link of some sort. They do not help you pick up the pace if the stories have nothing to do with each other. In that case you confuse and slow the viewer’s reaction down.

 

"Welcome to the Big Leagues kid." A reporter's perspective.

Honing Skills, Reporting, Survival Kit Comments Off
Apr 172013

 

You’d think that standing on 5th Avenue, just yards from the Empire State Building, with police, tourists and business people swarming everywhere, would drive home the reality that I was finally reporting on the nation’s biggest stage.

But none of that had really sunk in until I started my 10th or 11th straight live shot of the afternoon and a big New York City garbage truck pulled up about three feet from my left hand.  As I began recounting the story of a deranged man killing a former coworker outside the city’s most recognizable landmark for an NBC client in Australia, a guy jumped off the back of the truck, walked nonchalantly between me and the camera, grabbed a sidewalk trash can, walked back to the truck, slammed the can loudly on the deck, and crossed back in front of me to put the can back on the sidewalk.

As I tried to maintain a straight face, all I could think was, “welcome to the Big Leagues, kid.”

A year ago, I never imagined I would be reporting for NBC’s affiliate service alongside consummate professionals like Jay Gray, Michelle Franzen, and Brian Mooar.  In fact, there was a good chance my journalism career was over.

In December 2011, I left my job as Senior News Reporter and fill-in sports anchor/reporter at the NBC affiliate in Birmingham, Alabama.

I had been there 11 years.  I was getting married and moving to New York to be with my wife, Sunday, with no job and no real prospects.

For most of my tenure at WVTM, it was an NBC O&O.  So from time-to-time, I was fortunate to do some work for Newschannel: a hurricane here, or a tornado there.  I worked with some phenomenal producers and editors over the years and kept in touch with a lot of them.

I guess I impressed enough people because last May I got the call:  go to 30 Rock and package the Facebook IPO for NBC affiliates around the country.

As I pecked away at my script in the newsroom on the 7th floor, I’d occasionally peer to my left… in the same row of desks: Robert Bazell, Anne Thompson, Michelle Franzen, Ron Allen… and Chris Pollone.

Unreal.

I went to voice my first script and the booth was occupied.  When the door opened, out walked WNBC anchor legend Chuck Scarborough.  He gave me a hearty, “Hey there!”

The booth smelled of integrity and excellence.

Sitting on my couch that night reflecting on my day, it hit me that there are two things that separate the major markets from the “lower rungs”: eyeballs and toys.

At the end of the day, the work I do for NBC is the same work I did at WBNG in Binghamton, at WCCM in Lawrence, Mass., at WJTV in Jackson, and WVTM in Birmingham.  Yes, the stakes in New York or at the network level are higher, and the margin for error is tighter, but the work is no more important than what journalists do in every market around the world.

There are a lot more viewers at this level, and we might have producers, runners, shooters, and bookers by the dozens, and the best lights, cameras and microphones on the market, but those toys mean nothing without strong, compelling storytelling.

So what’s different here?

Oversight.

When I left WVTM, I had earned enough trust that generally no one reviewed my scripts before they aired.

Now, I work very closely with my on-site producer, the managing producer in Charlotte, and sometimes the top levels of NBC Newschannel management to make sure my scripts are accurate, concise and compelling.

The script development process is also a lot more collaborative.

On some stories, I actually conduct interviews and do original reporting.

On others, my producer will email me a list of shots and logged sound bites, and I write the story without interacting with any of the newsmakers at all.

In the hours following the Newtown school shooting, I started doing live reports for our U.S. NBC affiliates, MSNBC, CNBC, and our clients in Asia, Australia, Canada, and England.

I did nearly 80 live shots from 2PM to 2AM, and every bit of information I shared with the world was being fed to me through my IFB from Charlotte and emailed to my iPad because our field producer had not yet arrived on scene.

I never actually attended a press conference or interviewed victims and townspeople until the day after the shooting.

Some days, I never leave my living room.

When Newschannel is short on correspondents and needs a package put together for the affiliate video-on-demand service, I get a list of elements from a producer, I write the package on my couch, and record voice track on my iPhone with a $50 Tascam microphone.

Working with Newschannel, there is a lot of travel and a lot of decisions made on a split-second notice.  The day the new Pope was to be announced, I flew to Boston, ate dinner, and flew back to New York just in case Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley was named the new Pope.

There are long hours and not a lot of sleep.

During the Jerry Sandusky trial, I started my days at 3:30 AM and did live shots and packages through 3PM.  My producer and I would grab an early dinner and then I’d sleep until about 8PM when I’d wake up to write and voice my morning package.

On that story, we had the benefit of a morning correspondent (me) and an evening correspondent (Brian Mooar).

On some stories, like the NCAA sanctions against Penn State, I was a one-man show.  We started at 3:30 AM and did live shots through 9PM.  One-day stories usually get this type of treatment.

At this point, I have no illusions that I have “made it”.

As a freelancer, the work comes and goes.  Sometimes I’m working several days a month, or even weeks at a time.  And then other times, I’ll go several weeks without an assignment.

I supplement my news income with various endeavors for PR firms in New York and Boston.  Ideally, I’d like to move to full-time or
“perma-lance” with Newschannel, or even do some work for WNBC between Newschannel gigs.

I can’t overstate the importance of networking.

It’s the top lesson I teach when mentoring young journalists or speaking in broadcast journalism classes.

Throughout my career, I’ve tried to be nice and work hard in every situation no matter how difficult the circumstances.

You’d be stunned at how much doing everything that’s asked of you quickly, correctly and with a smile will win you future assignments.

I’ve been blessed to have some great coworkers and friends who believe in me.

Newschannel’s main correspondent, Jay Gray, has been a great friend and advisor, as well as Chicago-based producer, JoEllen Ruvoli, and Charlotte desk supervisor, Bill Riss, but there’s no chance I’d spend one day at Newschannel without the backing and support from my friend Jodie Jennings.  She’s an absolute rock star producer and is “so” NBC, she’s part peacock.

When you’re trying to make “the leap” to a major market or network, it’s crucial to have great contacts like these who like you and believe in you.

Coming to New York, I had won AP, Emmy, and Murrow awards.  I covered Hurricane Katrina, major tornado outbreaks, federal, state and local scandals and corruption, and 3 BCS National Championships.  I had confidence in my experience and abilities.  I had performed every newsroom job over the span of 16 years.

When I first moved here, I met with a local News Director.  She was very nice, but exhibited that hackneyed cynicism that basically says, “New York is the only place that does news, and everyone else in the other 209 markets are just a bunch of circus clowns.”

I HATE that.

If anything, I firmly believe the smaller the market, the harder you work.  You have fewer resources, fewer toys, less money and just as important stories as the big markets.

This news director said she didn’t generally hire reporters from “that small a market” (Birmingham is market 42) and that her reporters exhibited a certain type of “sophistication”.  As she said that, I could see one of her “sophisticated” reporters on the monitor behind her doing a story on an armed robbery.

Yawn.  We’ve all done that 150 times.

I wished she had just come out and said she didn’t like my nose, or my (lack of) hair, or whatever, instead of belittling my experience, my former coworkers, and my home of 11 years.

Whatever.

I’m here to tell you, whether you’re in North Platte, Nebraska, or in the North Bronx, the process of doing good journalism is the same.

To get a shot in the “majors”, you have to be a great writer, digger, and a rock star on live shots.

Don’t believe the people who tell you how great you are, and don’t, for a second, believe the people who say you aren’t good enough.

If you have the experience, the drive, the talent, and have made some good friends and contacts over the years, it’s likely you, too, can make the “leap” to the big leagues.

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Chris Pollone lives in Manhattan.  He’s on Twitter: @ChrisPollone and Facebook: facebook.com/cpollone.  Questions?  Email him at CPollone@gmail.com.

Coming out of the black hole, how to make the most out of late news live shots

Honing Skills, Reporting, Survival Kit No Responses »
Apr 162013

I’ve been traveling and one market I was in, is really putting heavy emphasis on its late  newscasts.  Competition is tight, a new broadcasting powerhouse just bought a station and it’s ready to make a big play.  Veteran journalists know what this means.  More live, more often, even if it’s in the pitch dark.  So I sat and watched the new competition come in and make it’s presence known.  The takeaway, live shots in black holes.  Live for the sake of being live.  Showcasing that the reporters are everywhere with a simple word, in an upper corner of the TV screen, repeated over and over: LIVE.

As a former nightside EP, I get it.  I remember the countless strategy sessions about the importance of live crew placement.  The incredible marketing involved with people driving by your station’s microwave or satellite truck for hours on end.  Then there’s the promise that you will deliver breaking news.  That means night crews are working out of live trucks no matter what.  You must be ready to jump!

But here’s the thing, shooting a lovely reporter whose face glows in the dark like a street lamp against a pitch black background is not acceptable.  So let’s break down why these live shots happen and alternatives to the glowing head in the black hole.

So, why do those “work you to the bone” nightside managers require you to go live, even when the story is “over” and there’s nothing to see in your background?  For two reasons:  Breaking news and marketing.   Here’s what I mean by that:  If you have two crews, and four counties in your DMA you need to spread everyone out.  If everyone heads back to the station with look lives, you could end up screwed.  That’s when the huge breaker will happen on the outer fringes of your DMA.  You must cover the bases. So if the crew is out in a live truck anyway, you might as well get that live super up.  That’s the thinking.

As for marketing, if your crew is parked in a busy section of town or better yet in a part of the DMA you know brings in a lot of viewers, or is full of opportunities to grow viewers, you want the exposure.  That huge mast or beautifully painted satellite truck is a mobile billboard.  That advertising is priceless.  Billy drives by the truck and calls Bob to say, “Hey channel 8 is here.” Bob calls Sam and so it goes.  The nightside managers task is always to grow audience.  You can bet this is on that managers mind every night.  We ask ourselves “Where can I send the truck that will get the most eyeballs and then new viewers?”  It’s the simple truth.

So now that you know why the nightside crews get “stuck” live all the time in the dark, let’s talk execution strategies.  The crews need to avoid black hole live shots, and the managers need to help.  Yes, that’s right:  The mangers need to help you avoid black holes.

First let’s talk about what nightside crews can do.  I used to get into it with photojournalists all the time for refusing to set up a frigging light on the background behind the reporter.  I get that it’s a little extra work.  I get that it’s just an empty building. Personally, I hate that kind of live shot background image also.  But, if you are in the part of the DMA I’ve been told to increase viewer numbers in and it’s ratings and I have a HUGE lead in, I may feel I have to showcase that we have a crew there RIGHT NOW.  The station is deeming a particular community important.  We are there watching out for you.  And whether you the crew or I hate the dark shot, there are payoffs sometimes.  So get out the light kit and make the effort.

That said, if you don’t have spare gear, or if you have an imaginative look live option, call it in.  Nightside managers, remember you can still have your cake and eat it too. Let the crew feed in the great look live elements.  But keep them parked in the truck during news time.  You get the marketing exposure and the ability to jump on breaking news if needed.  Sometimes it is worth losing the live super to avoid the black hole.  When you really think about it, you could get to a breaker even faster if the crew does not have to break down a live shot.

But, news crews, if the nightside manager gives you this option, that doesn’t mean you “cheat” and head back to the station a little early.  When you get busted, you will ensure yourself a set lot in life:  Live shots in a black hole each shift for as long as you are nightside.  The strategic planning cannot be sacrificed just to make your life easier.

 

Team Coverage: Keys to solid execution

Honing Skills, Producing, Survival Kit No Responses »
Apr 082013

Apparently, a lot of producers think that they must showcase how they handle team coverage in order to impress.  I am seeing a lot of team coverage newscasts both from potential clients and when judging EMMY award entries.  So if you are going to show it off, make sure it is done well, and that you put your own stamp on the coverage in some way.

So let’s spell out expectations for team coverage.

How to execute team coverage

  • Grab them
  • Spell out each element clearly
  • Do not assume viewers know story
  • Button up, then push ahead

Team coverage demands special opens.  These do not have to be 30 second mini packages with a lot of incredible wipes and sots and nats. (Although those are a blast to watch) You do have to showcase to the viewer, right away, that this is a big story that warrants their full attention.  And you need to spell out why, right away, then expand on the impact.

So once you showcase why this is team coverage (a child is rescued from a kidnapper by a good samaritan, a police chase leads to a deadly crash and now officers must answer for it, or this storm could set off a bunch of tornadoess) you need to make sure each reporter involved has a clear angle.  Very often the anchor says something, the reporter repeats the information, then the second reporter repeats the angle again.  Viewers pick up on this and get frustrated. “You just said that!” “Do you know anything else?” “Move on!”  Those are all phrases you will hear in focus groups.  The viewer loves more more and more, as long as there really is more to say.  Producers, you are supposed to explain to each crew what elements they are responsible for, and what to leave out.  You are judged on that.

If this is a story you have covered for more than one day, or even from newscast to newscast make sure the viewer understands what happened.  Too often I see team coverage where the viewer never gets the basics.  You still have to provide an “overview” even if this is day 5 of coverage of the same story.  How you do that is one way a producer can show some creativity.  I have seen cool timelines with killer graphics, telestrating with video of a police chase and crash, mini anchor packages walking viewers through the up until now elements.  Just going from live shot to live shot on a four box is not enough to own team coverage.  That is easy to do.  If you want to showcase your management of the team coverage, making sure the viewer is crystal clear on the timeline is a great place to start.

Another key element to team coverage is a button up.  That entails a brief summary of the latest information you just presented and if at all possible a push ahead with a fresh angle on the station webpage and/or next newscast.  These may seem mundane, but they are no different than the conclusion to a presentation.  Viewers like conclusions.  They are used to seeing them.   Use them to make it clear, we gave you all the information you need right now.  We are not letting go.  We will keep pushing for more for you.  You want viewers to see you do this.  It is part of a journalists advocacy role.  Do not blow off the button up.

Those are the basics for executing team coverage.  But if you want to really stand apart, you need incredible images, crisp and powerful elements that put your anchor into the story as well, and excellent use of nats, images and sound to weave the viewer from element to element in a clear way.  That is truly owning team coverage.

 

Banner coverage: How to come up with all those chyrons.

Honing Skills, Survival Kit Comments Off
Feb 232013

Today, TV journalists are asked to be marketing specialists more than ever before. Producers often tweet about the production elements they design, the graphics packages they approve and the pre-produced opens and teases they come up with.  This is where producing gets really creative.  It truly is a place where you can make your mark.

It also is the place where weaknesses are painfully exposed.  Misspelled supers, OTS’s with weird slugs, and tickers full of factual errors KILL you. There are methods to keep from making these embarrassing mistakes.  Let’s start with supers where you must “name” each story.

The name game:

  • Think story slug
  • Use alliteration sparingly
  • Avoid cliches

When you have two line supers that need a slug on top and location on the bottom, keep it simple.  You need to clearly summarize the story in two words. Think story slug.

You must define what the story is.  This helps make sure you use alliteration sparingly  and hopefully avoid cliches.  If you get too cutesy you stand a high chance of trivializing the story.  So avoid being cute, unless it is a really fluffy story.

Now the art of naming an OTS.  Keep it simple.  Again, a story slug kind of name is good.  If you try to include too much detail, you can cause problems.  If this is for a copy story, remember the OTS name will sit up next to your anchor’s head the entire story.  You do not want it to refer to one specific line of copy in the story.  For example: an OTS that says arrest, when the arrest is not mentioned until the last line of the story.  That is very confusing for the viewer.

Finally, errors are the number 1 credibility killer for “banners” and tickers.  These must be proofread.  You must spell check in some way.  You must pay extremely careful attention to grammar.  You simply cannot consider this a nuisance job and slam it out.  The ticker often gets the viewers attention more than half the a-block you agonized over.  The simple reason: viewers get more than one chance to look at it, and therefore more than one chance to notice any errors.  There is no room for error.  Have someone look at it forward and backward, to check for spelling errors.  Once it’s written, read it out loud to yourself.  Have someone else proof read it, by reading it out loud also.  Your ear will often catch mistakes your eyes don’t.

A final thought:  When doing fancy, pre-produced, elements have someone look them over before they air.  I used to put together sophisticated cold opens and tease 1’s.  I made an editor (different than the one who cut them) watch them, then asked the entire production crew to review them as well.  This was done daily.  There can be no mistakes in banner coverage.  It’s simply too important.

 

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