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How to tighten your own writing.

When producers call and tell me how their work stands out, the number one statement I hear is“ my writing is tight.” Truth be told, when I review a newscast, that is rarely the case. Same is true of reporter scripts. I would get calls from the crews to copy edit and be told “You will love it, my writing is so clean and tight.” That is a tall order. Many were shocked to hear they fell short.

So how do you tighten your own writing? Copy edit yourself. Write your script or cold open or whatever it is, and then go back to it and try and shave time off. Often you will find entire sentences or sections that you can cut.

Another effective technique is to compartmentalize elements. When constructing a live pkg for example, assign facts for each element. Maybe the “what” and “when” are in the anchor intro, the “where” is explained in the live lead, the “who” is the start of your pkg which ends with the “how.” The live tag is the “what’s next.” This helps tighten things up. Often pkg’s repeat information from the anchor intro or live intro. Then the tag repeats information yet again. By compartmentalizing, you help story tell better (see Storytelling on a Dime) and you write more succinctly.

Print out multiple stories, take them home, then write them over again. Sometimes practice makes perfect. A little secret: Many of the best in the business take time out each day or at least each week for self evaluation (see Humble Pie). Your writing will improve. Your speed will improve as well.

Finally, make adverbs and adjectives really count. They must be crucial to the telling of the story, not just something you throw in for extra flare. If you do that, your writing will not only become more clear and concise, but you will also avoid exaggerating facts.

So there you have it, some ways to tighten up your own writing.

One of the youngest on staff: How to hang with the veterans and gain their respect.

When I started out in the biz, I was one of the youngest producers ever hired at the station where I worked. I was so young, my anchors were close to my parents age. So were many of the reporters and photojournalists, not to mention much of the production crew.

During the interviews leading up to this job a news director from another station told me, “You are impressive, but how will you manage anchors who make three times what you do, and are old enough to be your parents? How will you make them respect you?” Truth is, that question was much easier to answer in an interview, than to live out each day in a newsroom.

That is not to say that if you are young and driven you should not go for big opportunities. But you do need to have a small arsenal of techniques to handle the hazing headed your way. Keep the following in mind:

Respect is earned
Set expectations
Focus on team
Avoid running to the bosses

The first thing you need to understand as a newbie, is that you are not respected just because you were hired for a particular job. Respect is earned. News people are incredibly harsh critiquers. Our brains are wired to find weaknesses and anomalies. You will be picked apart, especially if you are young. Many stations are hiring people before they are ready for a particular job, because it can be hard to find someone at all. This is especially true of producers and writers. So you are going to have to come in, be professional and work your butt off. You have to earn respect by consistently doing good work, visibly pushing yourself to be better each day, and respecting those around you.

Which leads to my next point. Set expectations. Set them for yourself, and those around you. If you are a reporter, talk through your thoughts on how to handle a story with your photographer (if you are lucky enough to have one). Explain to your producer when you will call in and when you need script approval to ensure you can get your pkg in by deadline. Producers: You need to tell your anchors what you need them to do in terms of writing and/or copy editing the newscast. You need to sit down with the production crew when you get the job, and see what you need to provide when, and explain your goals for the newscast.

You also need to remember that you are part of a team and focus on that. This can be a really good thing for a newbie producer. You do not have to go it alone. You do not have to have all the answers. You just need to always clearly explain that you want to be part of the solution for any issue that comes up. For example, check in with your anchors regularly and ask if they are getting what they need. Listen to their feedback and take it to heart. That shows professionalism and maturity that will earn you respect quickly. If you are a reporter or photojournalist, ask your counterpart what they need from you to thrive at their jobs. Again, you will gain so much respect. The best part, you will have stronger allies when you do make mistakes, and, you will make them. You want a support system around you to help pick yourself up, dust off and heal the bruises. This is a hard biz, you need all the support you can get.

This also is a very small business. So, do not go running to the bosses and report issues unless it is dire. By dire, I mean you are about to put the station in serious jeopardy because of a fact error. If you tell “Mr. 20 years at the same station” to tag out with “13 News for You” instead of “News 13,” and he tells you to screw off, that doesn’t count. Write down what you told him and when. Then, it’s up to him to step in line. Often, newbie journalists panic when a veteran tells them no. The fear is they are questioning your authority and will get you in trouble. That is sometimes true. But, if you do what you are supposed to and deliver a message from management asking for that new out cue or for something to be included in a live shot or pkg script and the veteran blows you off, the veteran will eventually pay the price. Let that person hang him or herself, by him or herself. Write down when you told the person, then let that person sink or swim on their own. You cannot control that person if he/she is defiant. Focus on what you can control, and be ready if you are asked about the situation with clear documentation in hand. Then show what you did and ask what more can you do in the future to handle the situation better. That is not running to the boss, that is managing.

So hang in there newbie newsies. The hazing can be tough at times. But it does get easier. In fact, the person you thought was enemy number one, can and often does become your greatest advocate. You just have to earn your stripes.

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

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.

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:

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.)
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.)
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.