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Your Producing Voice: How you get into anchor’s heads.

I have a secret for producers. It’s something your anchors aren’t going to tell you. However, they may say it behind your back. Your voice in our IFB tells us everything we need to know about how good you are at what you do — or whether you have a long way to go.

A friend of mine reminded me of this the other day. In 2004, she produced the wall-to-wall coverage of Hurricane Charley that I anchored at WSPA-TV. As a new hurricane, Irene, was barreling toward the Carolina coast, she was reminiscing on my Facebook wall about the chaos going on behind-the-scenes at the station when Charley hit the Myrtle Beach area.

But her experience was far different from mine. All I remember from that day in 2004 was her soft, reassuring voice in my head calmly telling me which satellite shot to go to next. She’d line-up one. Sometimes it would work out and I could talk with the reporters out on the beach as the wind and rain beat them harder and harder. In those conditions, the satellite shot would go down a lot, though. It probably stressed her out to the max. But you couldn’t tell by her voice. With smooth, even tones, she’d let me know we’d lost that one and suggest where to go next. If she didn’t have a suggestion, I’d just ad-lib until we got back on-track.

Sometimes when she’d open her mic, I could hear someone near her in the booth screaming. It was clear that day who was really in control in the “control room,” the producer really knew what she was doing.

I’ve worked with some brilliant producers. The best are “power producers” in the newsroom who build innovative, incisive blocks of news that showcase their anchors’ full range of personality. Throughout the day, they prod their reporters. And they can be gruff when they’re not getting what they want.

But then, right before their show, they ascend the steps above the director to the producer’s perch in the control room and it’s like they take on the personality of a guardian angel: wise, patient, and soft-spoken. Like Bela Karolyi, the best use breaks in the action to coach their anchors into an Olympic performance.

“Nice ad-lib there on story X,” you might hear them say during a commercial break. “You had the whole control room laughing.”

Or it can be as simple as: “Great pacing on that A-block. We’re right on time.”

That doesn’t mean stroking your anchors’ egos. I don’t want you to tell me I’m doing a good job if the show’s a train wreck or my energy is off. You should still communicate with me though.

“Live shots down all over the place,” you might say. “Gotta love live TV! Just keep doing what you’re doing. We’ll get through it — and we needed material for the holiday party blooper tape anyway.”

It really is like that scene from Broadcast News when the producer, played by Holly Hunter, got the very inexperienced anchor, played by William Hurt, through a special report about Libya. Hopefully you won’t need to be the ventriloquist Hunter’s character nearly becomes in that scene. But this quote from the movie’s anchor is so true:

“You’re an amazing woman,” he tells his producer. “What a feeling having you inside my head!”

So the next time you feel like hitting that button in the booth and really letting your anchor have it in his IFB, remember that. You’re in his head. And what you say will dramatically impact his performance for the rest of that show — and maybe for the rest of the time you work together.

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Matthew Nordin is a morning anchor and investigative reporter at Raycom Media’s WMBF News, the NBC affiliate in Myrtle Beach, SC. He was an anchor/reporter at WSPA-TV in Greenville/Spartanburg, SC from 2001-2005. Soon, he’ll write about communicating with your anchor during live interviews. You can follow him on Twitter @MatthewNordin

Smart Alliances: Relationships that can make your career.

The old saying is especially true in newsrooms: Guilt by association. Your alliances are very important, not just for your current job, but for future networking opportunities as well. That’s why we are providing a series of articles on building smart alliances. We begin with an overall look at newsroom relationships, then will get more specific based on job description.

Before we begin, stop for a minute and think about your friend base. In many cases with TV news journalists, it’s all people you work with. Now think about how those friends in the business are perceived in the newsroom. We are not saying you cannot be friends with the high maintenance anchor/reporter or temperamental producer/director/assignment editor. But you do need to consider how much time you spend with your newsroom friends in front of other newsroom employees. One question managers ask over and over when considering moving a person up internally for promotions is: “Who are they friends with in the newsroom?” Managers have a better clue than you might realize who the partiers are, who the gossips are and who keeps a nose to the ground and focuses on getting the job done.

The key to newsroom friends is, you can end up in direct competition for shifts. People with different job descriptions can still impact how you are perceived in handling your own job. In upcoming articles we will discuss how to align with people in the newsroom with different job descriptions to help you make the most of your job. Now we are going to look at the kind of reputation you ideally want as a “friend” in the newsroom.

Ideally you want to either be or align yourself with one of three types of friends at work: The Diffuser, The Cheerleader and The Funny Guy/Gal. These people tend to draw positive attention to themselves and get plenty of results. So let’s delve into each a little more.

The Diffuser is a type of peacemaker who has a solid backbone. This is the person people look to weigh in when there’s a heated debate over content coverage. This is also the person who tends to be friendly with all the different personality types in the newsroom. If this isn’t you, this is the type of person you want to align yourself with. Chances are the managers are eyeing this person for future promotions.

The Cheerleader puts a positive spin on crappy situations. This person is not necessarily an ass kisser though. You will hear cheerleaders complain about a decision or issue, then put a positive spin like: “I really hate being put on overnights, it really hurts my family life, but at least I have a job.” This person is usually very good at handling office politics and because he/she is considered a positive person, managers may consult with him/her on and off before making certain decisions impacting a specific shift or group.

The Funny Guy/Gal is really good at lightening the mood. Even if he/she can be sarcastic, management usually considers the person harmless. Like a class clown, one of these is expected in a newsroom and most of the time, everyone appreciates the chance to laugh.

Now a closer look at the type of reputation you want to have. You want to be seen as someone who shoots straight, doesn’t stir the pot and is fair. This not only helps get management’s attention, it also helps you weigh through the inevitable personal battles waging in newsrooms over shifts, who is backstabbing who, and whether people are more loyal to the bosses than coworkers. Keep these characteristics in mind when choosing your smart alliances at work.

You Tweet: What your Twitter account says about you.

No doubt about it, Twitter is a fascinating place to track news people. Stations are pushing journalists to tweet. It’s super easy and quickly reaps rewards that stroke your ego. You cannot help but tweet nowadays and promote your work and yourself.

We have spent the last several months tracking more than 1,200 journalists and how they tweet. Here are some trends we’ve noticed that really play a part in whether a journalist comes across as credible.

You Tweet Observations

Descriptions Are Crucial
Personal Isn’t Personal
Watch Your Words
Variety Is Essential

The first thing we noticed was how different the profile descriptions are. Some simply say: “Joe Schmo is a TV news reporter.” Some only have a name. Some say things like: “I’m a TV reporter who loves beer” or “I am really exciting especially when I am out on the town.” Because so many of the descriptions were either really dull or a little too flashy, we want to delve into the importance of the profile description. You need to place elements that make you seem like an interesting person to connect with, without being too flashy or unprofessional. In general, bosses don’t want to read about your love of any kind of alcohol and anything that makes it seem like you party hard when you are not at work. If you read that and are saying: “Hey this is my personal account, back off!” read on please.

Always remember, your personal account isn’t truly personal. It is too easy to type in your name and get access to both accounts, especially on Twitter. Also, once you take a job on-air in TV news, that is who you are when you present yourself in public, period. You represent your station at all times no matter how much you would like to separate yourself into a public person and a private person. TV news employers can and will use your personal behavior (or misbehavior) in evaluating you because it reflects on them due to the high profile nature of the job and you being part of their public face. It is simply a fact of life in TV news.

Besides, you want to use an account that is not directly tied to your station to help showcase your personality and all of its sellable points to potential bosses as well as your throng of adoring fans. Even if you have a professional account (i.e. station required) and a personal account, people are going to monitor the personal one as much or even more. You tagged it as “personal” and that makes it more compelling to many viewers immediately. It’s a chance to see the true colors of their favorite TV personality. And we have seen plenty of colorful comments that make it obvious many think that industry professionals, like future bosses are not reading their tweets. Not the case and potentially a major career mistake.

Which leads to our next point, watch your words when you tweet and not because of the 150 character limit. Twitter is an excellent place to track people you are interested in hiring one day. It is a real life way to see how they interact with other people, and how much they respect (or take for granted) their role as a journalist. We have read about wild parties via tweets as well as drinking, sex jokes and crude remarks. We’ve also seen plenty of the f word in journalists tweets. In just a few short months we have groups of journalists we check on each day because they are fascinating reads in the tweet world. We have also seen a lot of journalists who are, simply put, loose cannons. Some of what they write is so over the top, there’s no way a manager that monitors Twitter would ever have interest in hiring them. Remember, when possible, we monitored personal accounts. We are guessing people act more in tune with their true character on those accounts.

So what’s a journalist to do if they want a personal account, but obviously need to avoid getting too edgy? Variety is essential. Give slice of life elements to your tweets along with work related stuff. We love seeing journalists talk about standing in the heat for stories, relieved to get the interview they’ve been chasing all day or tweeting about a fact that fascinated them that day. Tweeting about the stories you are working creates a personal connection that makes you wonder what the stories are these media folk churn out. It can also help you source build (See How to generate story ideas when you are swamped ). But remember, if the story you are working on is legally sensitive in any way, your tweets can be used against you if someone decides to sue you and/or your station.

Reading about the great meal you had or wishing a friend a happy birthday are warm and easy to relate to as well. Many people are tweeting about running or working out and encouraging each other. Some just have silly stories about their day. Remember this is a great networking opportunity. We are enjoying watching journalists really support each other and joke around while remaining professional. But never forget, once you become a TV news journalist your public and private identities become highly intertwined. So while you are making sure your tweets are engaging, quirky and relatable also make sure they are professional and present you in a positive light. The world is watching, not just your friends and family.

It’s GM’s agenda and you are stuck covering it “as news.”

We promise this situation will happen to you. It happened to us at several stations, in small to large markets. General Manager walks into an editorial meeting and says “So what are we doing to cover such and such, ( fill-in the blank, new road widening project, special session by legislature, tax incentive package for a new industry in town etc.) since our viewers the tax payers are getting screwed.” The news director gives a blank look followed by the lifted eyebrow smirk, then stares at you, “So how will you cover that story today?”

If this happens, say you are going to make some calls and get out of the room pronto. Better yet, grab your photog and get out of the building while you make those calls! Why? You do not want the GM to start going off on specific players and agendas for the story. You do not want specifics on how this story should be told, and exactly what the tease will say. That way, if it is the GM skimming headlines and misinterpreting reality, you won’t end up having to tell him/her. Without specifics chances are you can find some small nugget to package.

Next, call the newsroom mega brain. You know, the walking, talking, human factoid! This person can save you hours of stress and research. Do the necessary ego stroke and get the person to give you background information on this subject. You need time to work sources for a backup in case the story falls apart. The “human factoid” usually can at least provide the name and number for a player in town who will give you insight on whether the GM’s “news” really is “news.”

Do your thing, work it and try to find an interesting character or bit of video to showcase so you can get by. If there’s just nothing to the story give the basics, then try and include a little subtle perspective in your anchor intro or tag. Managers tend to play in that copy more anyway. This way, if the story is taken out of context and the GM gets a call, it will more likely become management’s problem instead of the reporter’s failing.

If you cannot find a nugget to package, and there’s simply nothing to the story, offer to write a vo or vo/sot and let your manager know early. That gives management time to derail the GM situation well before the newscast airs. It helps if you can offer an interesting alternative story the manager can have you churn out instead. Sometimes management will then take the GM “news” burden off of you and have an anchor front it somewhere cool on set. You are off the hook, and the GM still feels heard without the station blowing a weak story out of proportion.

If you are told to package a story and say certain things in a tease you don’t like, try and do a subtle rewrite. Also, know this happens to everyone from time to time. Chances are your credibility is not ruined. Those in the know in town realize you got stuck “being the good soldier.”