management – Page 9 – Survive Your Job In Television News

New Boss: Sucking up without being obvious.

Many TV stations, like many football programs are constantly changing the “coach.” If the ratings don’t go up quickly the news director is gone. That means a new chance to be fired, since the new boss will want to make an impact right away. First impressions truly can make or break your future at that station. So let’s talk star power.

All managers have one thing in common. They want staffers that do not whine. They want people that can change and adapt quickly. To prove you can do this, research the new ND and see what type of news philosophy was implemented at their last station. Did the place do a lot of consumer news? Did the station cover a lot of breaking news? What was the turnover like? Calling and asking for an long time reporter or photojournalist to dig a bit will be helpful. You want to ask what the ND liked to see from the staff. What kind of story ideas got the ND excited. Try and find out if your new ND is a big football fan or has kids or a dog. Now you have a leg up.

Listen to the ND during the first few story meetings. See if the ND is getting excited over the type of stories you heard he/she will like. The ND will give you clues about where the place is going next pretty quickly with offhanded comments. Most people don’t listen. They should and you will. Next, adapt story ideas or input about newscasts to the trends you notice from the ND. After a few weeks try and catch the ND for a minute and request a critique. Don’t say “hey did you watch my show/package. etc. that day.” Just say: “I am checking in to see if you have any critique for me on what you’ve seen so far. I am looking forward to taking my work to the next level with you.” The ND will probably say he/she needs a few weeks. That’s fine. You just want the early impression to be that you are hardworking and eager to adapt to this person’s style.

Now let’s talk personal connection. Remember you have intel on the ND’s personal interests. Use it to make a human connection. Let’s say the ND is a big football fan. When you see ND in the hall or at the end of a meeting ask what person thinks of some headline, “How about that new recruit? What about that last play in the last game?” You get the idea. Don’t linger. Listen to the response and walk away. You don’t want to force it.

You also need to make deadline and not complain about anything for the first several months; even if you are getting screwed on vacation time. Stay out of the office and let other people seem difficult. The ND is overwhelmed the first few months and doesn’t need to deal with any “little” issues. Fair or not, your vacation time qualifies as little.

If you are in a meeting with the ND do not be the first person to run out of the room at the end. Organize your papers, take one more sip of coffee, do what you need to linger a minute in case the ND starts small talking. This is a subtle way to start building a connection without seeming obvious.

Remember ND’s are looking for employees who are loyal and willing to work hard. So when you are asked to cover an extra shift or work late, do it without complaining. You will get a chance to occasionally say no after the ND has been there awhile. This is a way ND’s test to see if you are a diva or a battle tested, nose to the ground journalist. We watched it time and again. Staffers turned down shifts or complained about working late and the ND made a quick judgment call that the person was lazy and didn’t appreciate the job. It was usually downhill from there.

The key in all of this is being subtle. This is like dating. Give the ND a taste of who you are, express some interest, but do not overdo it. The people constantly in the office putting out will end up being the ones the ND takes advantage of and overworks long term. The hard workers that stay out trouble survive and end up with some time to breathe. You will keep the ND interested in seeing more. That’s what you want.

Throw me a life line, I’m being hung out to dry, AGAIN!

If you’re an anchor, it’s one of your nightmares: A producer in over his/her head and constantly providing no instructions during a crisis in a live show. But simply yelling at the producer and then complaining to management doesn’t fix the problem.

First you have to understand the stakes. Producers are hard to come by. The burnout rate is tremendous. Producers also tend to be able to move up in markets quickly with very little experience. Like it or not, anchors are becoming on the job trainers for producers in many stations. Problem is many anchors don’t know enough about the fine points of producing to be a true help.

We want to bridge the gap a little bit so anchors can shine brightly on air, and turn into valuable assets, even without a lot of support. As an anchor, it is crucial that you are considered easy to work with and supportive. Your producer is a key player, so you need to build a relationship even if the person is not that great at their job.

Here are the main things most green producers really need help with, but may struggle to admit to an anchor:

Knowing how to write the way an anchor speaks.
Timing the show.
Handling breakers.
Making split second decisions in the booth.

Now let’s help you help the producer. When you get a new producer you need to have at least a little patience and give that person a couple of weeks of producing shows. See what the producer does really well. Then compliment the producer on those things. This is crucial because many producers fear anchors are out to get them. You need to begin the relationship showing you will be supportive and fair.

After that conversation you can start to rewrite copy here and there. When you rewrite, let the producer know why you did. But do it after the newscast. The producer is too slammed to pay attention before the show airs and they definitely don’t have time during breaks in the newscast. Do not rewrite everything then hand all the rewrites to the producer to figure out why. One anchor I know would switch the copy into lower case and let the producer know. She then explained she did that so the producer could see some of the phrases she would naturally use in conversation. This is an easy, and non-combative, way to teach a producer your conversational style. If there are a lot of grammatical errors, just let the producer know you are doing some rewrites because the producer seems behind and you want to help. Again, a rewrite in lower case signals what you changed to the producer so he/she can look back later and catch the grammatical errors. If those grammatical errors keep happening, give the producer scripts with the grammatical errors you fixed after a newscast. Tell the producer you know he/she writes a lot, and you just wanted to show common mistakes you are finding so he/she can keep them in mind for the next show. Speaking of help, if you see a script that you know the green producer will mangle or perhaps get the station sued if they write it, either write it yourself and have an EP look it over for legal reasons. You can also ask the EP to just write it and offer to do something the EP usually does.

Now let’s talk timing. This is very hard for producers and in fairness an anchor should not have to worry about it. Unfortunately, many producers learn everything, including timing a newscast, by trial and error. Often the EP’s, who are in charge of monitoring the producers “issues” won’t be able to spot the producers specific timing problems. As the anchor who sees it every day, you can easily spot timing trouble trends. When you do notice your producer mistiming the same spots over and over, let the EP know. This will help them guide the producer and also makes you look like a real team player who is watching out for the good of the newscast.

Handling breakers and the resulting split second decisions is also a struggle for producers. The producer has several people asking (and also telling!) him/her what to do at once. For the anchor, it can be hard to get the producer on the phone because the assignment desk and EP call constantly. So, if you possibly can, use top of screen messages to ask the producer when to do the breaker and how you should do it. (i.e. how long should you talk, is there video or a live shot, or a pitch to a reporter?) Also you can usually print out top of screen conversations later if needed. This can help in several ways. It allows you to show the EP that you are not attacking the producer if that person is particularly thin skinned. It also helps you check with the EP to see if you are phrasing questions in ways that let the producer quickly assess and respond. Finally, if you are ever called on the carpet for performance when these crises arise, you have concrete evidence that shows you were trying to be proactive.

If the producer still doesn’t give you clear instructions, talk about it after the show. Spell out what you need so the producer knows next time. Going straight to the EP may not help. EP’s may not be able to explain what you need as clearly, because they usually are in the newsroom funneling everything instead of in the booth watching the producer. If the EP is in the booth and everything still ends up a mess, ask to talk with the EP and producer after the show and have them explain what was happening on their end. Often talking it out, allows the EP or producer to see where the disconnect happened without you having to spell it out.

Finally, make sure you are very involved in the newscast throughout your shift. That doesn’t mean sounding off on what you think about every single story the whole time. But you should check in with the EP and producer to see if they need any help. Ask to write some stories. Offer to research extra elements that can be added for flavor at the end of a story. Offer to call and check on a reporter or two and see how they are doing. Being an anchor is not just about sitting around tweeting and waiting to read what others write. Those things are important. Preparing to deliver the scripts with breathing exercises and some down time before the show is also important. But it’s not enough. You need to be involved with the newscast and its contents. Bottom line, the more familiar you are the better chance you have to cover up your producer’s inadequacies on while you are on the air. Taking this kind of ownership makes you a key ally for the EP and upper management. It does not mean you will be stuck with a weak producer, it means you will be known as a team player and a leader the newsroom does not want to lose. You also will deliver your copy in a more meaningful and authoritative way because you truly own the newscast. Your hand was in it all the way through. So shine bright!

“Thank you sir, may I have another”: How to handle newsroom hazing.

Newsrooms are notorious for hazing. It happens often in larger markets, but we’ve seen it in small markets too. You have to prove to coworkers that you deserve the job. You don’t truly have friends in the workplace. Everyone is out for themselves. Why? Because so many people are quitting the biz, less experienced people are being hired. Some veterans in the newsroom, find this tiring and insulting. I started in a large market right away and quickly wound up in another big city. The hazing was awful. I was asked if I slept with the news director to get my job. I had reporters and anchors purposely rewrite copy to insert factual and grammatical errors to try and get rid of me. One anchor even told me and several other producers it was his “God given right” to torture and make me cry. He had the cry test and graded you on how long it took before you broke down. People hide your gear, steal your rolodex, sit on the set during commercials and laugh at your news copy. Coworkers don’t want to carry dead weight. Many times fellow journalists will decide you are a moron unless you prove your worth, and quickly. So do it. Here’s how.

The number 1 rule: Don’t involve management. Management doesn’t care. Period. There are too many other things they have to take care of.

However, you should take the reigns and show the hazers you are not the patsy they think you are. That starts with exposing dirty tricks. The best place to start is befriending the IT person in the newsroom. You know, the person who knows all the ins and outs of the computer system you use each day. This person can save you. News programs like AP Newscenter, ENPS and iNews have ways to call up past scripts and show who wrote each and every version. This will give you a chance to document and show proof if an anchor or associate producer is rewriting copy and putting in fact errors which they blame on you. In some systems you even can lock a script so no one else can rewrite and put in fact errors or change the context of the story once your executive producer copy edits it. Ask for this ability and you may receive. Chances are your executive producer will play ball because you will then have documentation the EP can use to get some staffers to shape up.

You can also often find instant messages from all the computers every day. Yep, all those annoying, petty and smarmy comments binging and dinging around you can be a click or two away. Print them and hand them over to management. This can get tricky because management won’t like you digging through the system. But if it is in a forum where everyone could potentially have access they can yell at you and send a fiery memo saying don’t go there, but you won’t be fired. Once the nasty top lines are exposed many newsroom bullies shut up or at least save it for the parking lot after work. How’s that for investigative journalism? Even more fun: dump copies of the nasty top lines under the news director’s door anonymously so even he/she has to wonder who’s watching.

Also remember, many staffers who bully love to dish in the studio. They think it’s a secret hideout. Newsflash: Mics are everywhere. It’s easy to “accidentally” turn one on, hear and record the petty comments. The studio is the one place where there truly should never be any expectation of privacy. That’s not what the room is for. The picked on should wander through the studio to “plot out a section of the rundown” right when a gossip session is underway. Then, smile as if you are going to dish it all. Another move is to “accidentally” have the mics kept live during a commercial break when there’s an anchor who loves to trash everyone in those breaks. Normally, when the nasty hazers get caught once or twice, they’ll back off.

What if the hazer likes to get in your face and yell at you in the middle of the newsroom? This one is easy. Just ignore the person. Sit back in your chair, with your hands behind your head, gaze up at the lunatic putting on the show and wait until they either explode into pieces before your eyes or finally shut up. Then as the hazer stares at you indignantly, simply ask: “Are you done?” Then just go back to work like nothing happened. This will drive the bully nuts. If that hazer really pushes it, follow up with, “You can say what you want about me because bottom line, I’m not the one who just had an unholy hissy fit in the middle of the newsroom. You can’t expect your actions to prove you have anything worthy to say to anyone.” Then get back to your work.

Lastly, sometimes you just have to fight fire with fire and stand up to the hazer. I once told an anchor who said I was “too young to write for her” that it’s not my fault she couldn’t handle that someone so much younger was just as capable of working in the same city and on the same shift as her. She told me she’d have me fired. I told her I had proof that she was purposely rewriting copy with errors and printing them to try and prove me incompetent. I asked her if she would like to come with me to turn those documents into the news director so she could try and explain it, or would she prefer the news director to mull the evidence over before calling her in for a chat. She backed off. Hopefully, these tips and tricks will help you stand up to a hazer as well.

Newsflash! This opportunity is too good to pass up.

We told you how to interview the station. Now let’s lay out how to identify a truly cool shop. Here are some clear ways to discover if the place you’re considering is a place where you would want to work.

Sit in the newsroom and watch how the staff interacts with each other. Are people smiling? Do you see some good natured joking around? You should look for a management team that encourages staffers to work together instead of competing against each other. Another way to tell if everyone’s there to work together is to attend a debrief after a show. Do people take ownership of any mistakes and work through the issues together?

Most good shops give you a writing test or quiz you on ethical situations in a conversational way. Then the manager lays out situations for you to problem solve together.

The best shop we ever worked in had a system in place to train and help everyone get better. When we say “train”, we’re not talking about about giving newbies a chance to sit with a veteran reporter, photog, or producer for a day. Mentoring systems were in place for all skill levels. Veterans were sent to workshops to build skills for future jobs, like management. There also was a review system that was used more than 1 time a year to help you goal set, both short and long term, so the job was not monotonous. There also tends to be a certain progression. Staffers start on weekend or morning shifts but move up to other day parts. Find out if this is the case in the shop you’re checking out.

A huge sign that this is an awesome shop: the same management team has been in place for years and at least one of those managers worked up from a regular staff position. Again, this shows teamwork is fostered and that people can grow as much as they want without having to move to a new city every few years for another opportunity. Usually, in awesome newsrooms, you will meet a staffer that left the station and then came back. That person will talk about how he/she learned that there were more opportunities at the shop and then returned there.

During your interview managers will ask you what you think of the place. What would you like to do to be part of the staff? How can management help you get wins at your job each day? These are signs the managers get it and will do what they can to help you succeed and grow. Happy employees who grow in their jobs are a key part of a successful newsroom.

Awesome shops often set up lunches with staff members on the shift on which you would work. This shows that the station strongly believes in teamwork and is looking to see if your personality fits the group. Often staffers are then called in to give their opinion of you. You want this situation. It increases your chances of finding that great fit we all dream about.

Often, really good shops are known regionally and sometimes even nationally for being coveted places to work. Others in the business will know of these stations. If you get a call from one of these stations, jump on it even if the work hours are not ideal. Others will be eager to take your place and it could be worth making the sacrifice and working your way up.

Another interesting trend we found, one of the star anchors at the station will at least seem very down to earth and do some mentoring. That person really leads by example and sets the tone for the newsroom even when management does have to come down hard.

Lastly, most of these stations are long time, powerhouse number ones in the ratings. Notice we said most of the time. With the introduction of people meters this is changing a bit. So, if the station has a long standing good reputation, but numbers have fallen a bit in recent years, still give the place a chance to impress you in an interview. This could be a small hiccup and the place is still worth your time.