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The People Who Should Be Treated Like Kings In A Newsroom, But Often Aren’t

Recently a management team called to talk about how frustrated they were searching for some key positions in their newsroom. They were fresh out of ideas to look and wanted to brainstorm ideas. You might be surprised what positions we discussed: Satellite truck operators, directors and editors. A week or so later, another news manager lamented about the difficulty in finding a great assignment editor. These are the unsung heroes of newsrooms.

The goal of this article is to remind us all, that when you have great, hardworking and passionate people, in these newsroom roles, spoil them any way you can and often.

I know a satellite truck operator who is routinely allowed to sleep in his truck because his news manager will not put him up in a hotel on long distance assignments. He is the hardest worker I know. And if he leaves the station, that place will be a mess. He is also the most knowledgeable person they have about newsroom equipment and what needs to happen to keep it in tip top shape for doing the news every day. Is this really the person you want to dismiss?

When that management team called to lament about their struggle finding a director, I could immediately relate. A talented director is very hard to come by and very valuable. The intensity of the job, while on-air is not something just anyone can handle. Then those managers told me the pay range. I seriously do not know how the director would afford to eat and pay rent. This is not the place to skimp on salaries.

Then there is the dilemma over finding a good editor. With desktop editing becoming so commonplace, fewer people want to do this job. (Is there longevity?) But there is an art to good editing. All you have to do is watch a newscast full of generic video to understand that. If you want to raise ratings, one of the easiest ways, is matching video to the copy your anchors read. It sounds beyond simplistic. But so few do it regularly now, it actually is powerful. Once again I was asked if I knew any good editors. Then, I was told the salary range. No wonder so many editors are college kids.

My point in all of this? These newsroom workhorses really make or break the quality of a station’s product. But business offices, number crunchers and frankly many newsroom managers do not get it. That is until they end up with a bad seed in one of these positions. If you have a great sat truck operator, director or editor, show them respect, often. Treat them right because they are truly rare and precious assets.

Creating Community: Successfully Build Your Social Media Following

Over the last couple of years I have monitored a lot of stations, hash tag groups and individual journalists who have thousands of followers and big Klout in social media. There is a common thread. These stations, groups and individuals do not use social media for overt promotion. Yep. No bragging. No showing off. No pics of their Emmys on their Instagram accounts. Instead these successful social media entities do something else. They ask for other people’s opinions or they ask for clarification on things they have seen or heard. In short, they create a sense of community.

Many journalists are being pressured to come up with innovative ways to engage the audience through social media. If you want to move into management you better have a proven track record, at least through your own social media accounts. When you ask what the stations want, they have the same answer: tonnage. As intimidating as that may seem, there is a simple way to create that volume. Build a sense of community. That means letting the people who “follow” you know that what they have to say is important and engaging. That means you, the hot shot TV star, are not the most important thing. (I say this partly joking, many journalists especially if you are on-air are pressured by your bosses to show off how cool you are. That’s frustrating, confusing and intimidating in its own right.)

So how do you build a sense of community? You have to find subjects that people want to exchange information about. You will have to be brave enough to experiment a bit and when you strike a cord, look for similar subjects. This will take time and effort, but it can be very exhilarating also. When you see two of your followers engaging with each other, keep engaging with them as well. It does not matter who thought of the idea being discussed first. Just run with it and encourage even more input. Make your followers feel more like contributors. Your numbers will explode. Best of all, I guarantee you will find spending time on social media a very rewarding part of your career instead of another chore you need to mark off your to do list each day.

The One Criticism You Never Want To Be Told

It’s a fact of life, in news, that your work will be criticized a lot. It can be hard to take, but you must if you want to succeed in the business. However, there is one criticism you never want to be told: That you blame others for your mistakes. If you do, you will quickly be labeled a complainer, trouble maker and bad at your job. You cannot afford to have this label.

So what do you do to get around? For starters check out our recent “Take Ownership” article. Next, do not complain, about how the newsroom runs, to other staff members. I recognize this is a tough one, because news people are infamous for their after hours gripe sessions. It is VERY hard not to engage in the complaining and you may even feel alienated at first. But believe me, it is worth it to not get involved. Remember a key staffer will be at the gripe sessions: the newsroom snitch. Any complaints you make will be reported, and if you directly complain about how others are doing their jobs, and that it’s keeping you from doing yours, I guarantee that it doesn’t matter whether you have a valid point. You will be labeled a complainer who passes the buck. Also, there are many times your coworker is not your friend, says a few more generic complaints to get you rolling, then uses your words against you later in front of management. End result: You look like a complainer.

Blamers do not get as much leeway. They do not get a benefit of the doubt. If you are known for passing the buck, management will build a file on you quickly and work to get you fired or banished to the one shift no one wants, so that you hopefully just go away.

The final thing you can do to avoid this horrible label is this: When you have a complaint in your mind, think of proactive solutions you can help implement. That way if you get cornered at the station party or management backs you into a corner with an intense line of questioning, you can try and deviate the attention away from you and toward a solution that builds team. If my EP just disappeared when I had to make key decisions, and I got called on the carpet, instead of saying “Joe EP is never around to ask.” I would say, “I think I need to go over potential pitfalls in my rundown a little earlier when Joe EP is less busy.” This raises the issue that Joe EP is not around, without me calling the person out as slacking off. If management asks “Where is Joe EP?” say “Not sure, at that time of day. I just try to execute what I am asked as best I can.” Let the managers duke it out. Meantime you look like a solution finder instead of the dreaded blamer.

If you sense you are already labeled the complainer, stop your gripes immediately and have a clear the air session with your immediate supervisor. Look that person in the eye and say, “I am here to help this newsroom by doing my best each day. I want you to know I am glad I am here and will do all I can to help.” Then do what you are asked and keep your mouth shut. You can turn this reputation around as long as you do not let it linger long. It is worth the extra effort, remember being labeled a “complainer” can be a career killer in this ever competitive business.

How To Time A Newscast

If you want to win, you have to time newscasts properly. This is a key concept for everyone in the newsroom to understand. Meters make or break you. If the newscast is not timed correctly, you will blow the meters. So let’s look at some common timing mistakes producers make and how to limit them.

Timing Tricks

Time each block

Hide pad throughout

Cheat the cheaters

Know anchors read speed

The biggest timing mistake producers make, is not trying to make time each block. When quizzed about timing, a lot of producers say things like: “Well my block always runs two minutes long.” or “I wait until the last block to worry about it.” These are BIG MISTAKES. Each block is designed to hit a meter. If you blow one block, you will blow at least one meter mark. That’s like standing outside the station with your cashed paycheck and throwing some of the money into the wind. It’s just plain foolish. There are stations that take timing so seriously they give you only 15 seconds leeway. You go more than 15 over at the end of a block, you can be suspended or fired. It’s a lot of pressure, but some of the stations who do this are the most profitable around. They set exacting standards and they reap big rewards.

So how do you time each block? You must have pad throughout the newscast. If your mangers or anchors are hands on with rewrites, you need to hide some of that pad. I used to have a lot of trouble with managers and/or anchors adding time to my rundown by putting “their touch” on scripts. To prove the point, I would hide time in commercial breaks, my start time etc. so the timing issues would look even worse. Then I would explain, there was nothing to give up and tell them to rewrite again. Meanwhile, I ended up with the content and wiggle room I needed to make time each block

Which leads to the next key trick: Cheat the cheaters. There is always a time hog reporter and sorry meteorologists, but often weather people go WAY OVER. Some of my meteorologists were told they had 1:30 hit times, when it was actually a 2:30 window (remember, hide time for the weather hit elsewhere). I would also tell the chronically longwinded reporter that he/she had 30 to 45 less seconds for their TRT than I was really giving them. That way if the reporter decided not to call in the correct TRT, I was not screwed. (Remember to also have a vo or two each block you can kill, just in case.)

The last timing killer is anchor read times. Computers never get it right. Frankly, your anchors can vary day-to-day, newscast to newscast. You have to get a feel for who is better at really pulling off that 10 second breaking news ad-lib or who can handle suddenly dropping the last line of a vo, in order to hit that precious meter point. Getting to know your anchors and their read times, involves more than their average read time. It really does entail, which one speeds up talking when they are excited. You should also figure out which one, tends to be tired at the end of the week and stumbles more. (See anchors voice) They can be inconsistent. You cannot. You have to make time.

I hope these tricks help. Do not be afraid to move things around in your rundown on the fly to make meter points as well. If you are running long and teased a story, you can always float it down to the next block, hit your meter point and kill something else. The key is monitoring your time each line of each story. If you see a timing problem developing nip it right away. Once it begins to snowball you may not be able to dig out.