Posts Tagged ‘newsrooms’
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013
As a reporter, pitching an “issue” story often felt like gridlock to me. The personalities at the table often appreciated my ideas but ultimately assigned me to one of those reports we expect from TV news. However my last story before leaving my reporting job allowed me to stray outside the box one last time.
I had read a story in a major out-of-state newspaper about a growing trend of thieves stealing valuable hair extensions from stores. What surprised me most, other than the story itself, was that the paper interviewed a local man as an expert on the topic.
I was confident when I inserted this issue among my colleagues at the editorial meeting table. The idea contained a power ingredient: the bizarre. Consider the bizarre like catnip for some TV newsrooms. The station assigned me the story.
And the story kept getting stronger. Great hair flowed from the local expert I read about and then interviewed myself. A store with shelves filled with hair extensions allowed us inside. A couple of women in the newsroom, to my shock, even acknowledged to me with pride they wear hair extensions.
Then came news that bordered on the ludicrous. As if someone wanted to ensure I didn’t stray too far from the formula, breaking news shortly before I delivered the story brought us fresh surveillance video of thieves at a California store stealing more valuable hair. The story threatened to move past a report on a quirky trend into something more mainstream.
At the moment, I’m having difficulty remembering my very first story in TV news. But I can’t forget my last, which struck the perfect tone for what TV news often wants to see and hear.
Tags: breaking news, catnip, hair extensions, interview, media, Media Relations, newsroom, newsrooms, PR, reporter, tv news, tv newsroom, tv newsrooms, video
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Monday, January 14th, 2013
In the movie “Wanderlust,” a TV reporter is covering a groundbreaking. Alan Alda’s character, speaking through a bullhorn, asks her to stay to report the real story of a land dispute. She declines, citing time constraints.
Jennifer Aniston’s character asks the reporter, “You want a news story?” and then takes off her top. The reporter returns to cover the story. Other men and women also start taking off their shirts. Aniston’s character and her friends later watch the news, smiling in pride at the coverage they generated.
Would going topless really grab an otherwise uninterested media? Absolutely. TV newsrooms like few things better than to blur out something. I even recall an example of a newsroom obscuring out something that, in my opinion, did not need blurring, making the content more interesting and mysterious.
But going topless brings risks and questions:
- How would taking off shirts affect your brand? Would going topless to obtain news coverage be worth breaking with a brand which otherwise promotes people wearing clothing?
- Would your spokespeople be able to speak smoothly to the media and keep on key messages without wearing a top?
- Would your representatives speak passionately or allow the adrenaline rush to drastically change their tones?
- How would a business ensure the stunt did not backfire? It’s one thing for glamous Hollywood actors to pretend to protest in the nude. Would you be ready to see real life co-workers take on this task?
- Would the company itelf take its own photos to post on social media?
- How about citizen journalists covering the event who decide to post video without blurring it?
- And how would a business handle employee communications, ensuring everyone understands the strategy and can come forward with concerns?
The movies can inspire us and reflect reality more than we wish to acknowledge. But before trying topless, consider how the concept fits into the overall communications plan. Most likely, the end will bring more than simply rolling credits.
Tags: alan alda, citizen journalists, communications plan, employee communication, employee communications, Hollywood, hollywood actors, jennifer aniston, journalist, journalists, media, Media Relations, news story, newsroom, newsrooms, PR, reporter, Social Media, tv news, tv newsroom, tv newsrooms, tv reporter, video
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Sunday, July 29th, 2012
I read the following Tweet posted by an NBC News political editor:
“Romney talks with NBC’s Brian Williams in exclusive interview”
The included link took me to the image you see. An NBC News reporter re-Tweeted it. Some journalists might complain politicians don’t take reporters’ questions frequently enough, but I wonder what would make a one-on-one interview with Romney or President Obama an exclusive in the true spirit of the word? I Tweeted to both people at NBC, asking what makes the Romney interview an exclusive. Neither person has responded. I asked for some other opinions.
“I don’t think a general run of the mill interview with any such public figure can be ‘exclusive,’” said a Michigan videographer with years of TV news experience. “The content however could be. Say NBC is getting Mitt to open up about his tax returns for the past 10 years and he is only talking to NBC about that. Then the content would be exclusive. A generic sit down interview is not exclusive especially when he is offering them up to everyone.”
A North Carolina videographer told me this about the Romney interview: “Unless he told the interviewer something about his taxes that he hasn’t told anyone else – then no.”
I haven’t heard new information about Romney and his tax returns. The NBC Tweet I saw about the exclusive interview focused on Romney’s comments on gun control. Since then, I read how some of Romney’s statements about the Olympics stirred up controversy.
The newsrooms I worked in rarely referred to their stories as “exclusives.” I think the stations would have used the term more often, but getting a truly exclusive story on an important issue isn’t easy for most journalists. And when the newsroom asked the graphics department for that slick exclusive banner to splash across the TV screen, I used to joke that we were reminding viewers that 99 percent of the time, we offered stories they could also find somewhere else.
“I think it’s a term that only means something to people in the business,” said a former TV news supervisor in Chicago. “Normal folks watching at home have no idea what it means or why it’s important. It means someone’s bragging they got something no one else got.”
Did NBC get something significant that no else got? The answer often isn’t easy to immediately figure out.
“I’m always very wary of using it because it’s hard to be sure that someone else wasn’t able to get the same interview after you,” a California TV reporter told me. “In general I find it’s an overused phrase used for shameless self promotion. I don’t generally use it unless specifically instructed to.”
The media’s job is to slice through the spin, not offer a different form of it. Save the exclusive label for an actual big scoop, an interview your competitors actually want but can’t get. You don’t outdo the competition by simply saying you did.
Tags: brian williams, Chicago, interview, interviewer, journalist, journalists, media, Media Relations, nbc, nbc news, news, news reporter, newsroom, newsrooms, North Carolina, olympics, politicians, PR, reporters, tv news, tv reporter, Tweet, video, videographer
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Wednesday, July 25th, 2012
This is our client Steve. In the picture, 12 News in Phoenix is interviewing him. In prior interviews, Steve wore a suit jacket. He took it off during this TV appearance.
Wearing the right look challenges some people. I once wore boots, jeans and a nice long-sleeved shirt while covering a story on a military base. But a reporter sitting across from me on a bus transporting us wore a full suit. I assumed he was pretending to be the national correspondent he was not. He looked out of place.
12 News interviewed Steve about a serious subject, but wearing a suit jacket outside during a Phoenix summer doesn’t make much sense. If fact, if he had worn the jacket, viewers may have concentrated more on what he was wearing than what he was saying.
When the media interviews you, dressing for success means dressing properly for the occasion. You might give several interviews in one day and present a slightly different look each time. You also might tailor your look depending on the TV market. People in New York often see style differently than those on the West Coast.
If you think I’m over analyzing this topic, then you might not fully understand TV news and the people watching it. I sat in newsrooms for years while people commented on clothing or hair without hearing a word the person on TV said. Dress the part so people aren’t distracted from your discussion.
Tags: interview, media, media interview, media interviews, Media Relations, national correspondent, news, newsroom, newsrooms, Phoenix, PR, reporter, tv appearance, tv market, tv news
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Monday, July 23rd, 2012
This is our client Steve.
He is standing in the newsroom while the anchor on a different floor conducts a live interview with him.
Many of my own live shots were in our newsroom. Co-workers sitting at their desks surround you while you’re on live TV. Some of them are watching you on monitors. (Co-workers particularly listened to me while I delivered a live shot on national TV from our newsroom.) But sometimes people surrounding you are not listening. But they are loud. Reporters and photographers are discussing the upcoming fantasy football draft and an assignment editor is shouting to a producer what he heard on a scanner. Newsroom live shots are so common, people often forget you are live. As an intern at the CBS station in Chicago, I watched a cleaning woman walk between the camera and the TV anchor who was live from the newsroom.
You should appear natural on live TV, but newsroom live shots are anything but natural. You typically can’t see the person interviewing you. And if you can see the interviewer and yourself on TV, that can be distracting. I’ve seen many newsroom guests spend too much of their interview looking off camera at themselves on a nearby TV. You wear an earpiece to hear the interviewer. The earpiece often doesn’t fit perfectly. Sitting next to someone during an interview or a discussion is obviously more comfortable.
Remember the 1999 Kevin Costner film “For The Love Of The Game”? He played a baseball pitcher who threw best when he tuned out the crowd. I tuned out the crowd, but I went live almost every day. Tuning out the crowd is not as easy when you deliver a newsroom live shot only once in a while.
Practice. Stand in a noisy place at work or at home, where the distractions are everywhere, and pretend to be doing a live shot. Turn on a nearby speakerphone and request someone in another room ask you questions. This is similar to why teams practice with fake crowd noise on loud speakers before playing on the road before rowdy fans.
Newsrooms can be rowdy, too.
Tags: anchor, assignment editor, CBS, cbs station, Chicago, Communications, interview, interviewer, kevin costner, kevin costner film, live interview, live tv, media, Media Relations, national tv, news, newsroom, newsrooms, photographer, photographers, PR, producer, reporter, reporters, tv anchor
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Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
I’m a journalist who once loved the nightlife. I began my Phoenix career as a night shift and weekend reporter. My nightshift stories typically took the theme of breaking news. The weekends often were efforts to find any news that seemed credible to cover.
When I moved to a day shift, I transitioned to stories that allowed me a little more time to explore the details of an issue. And the morning show, which I occasionally contributed to, often focused their coverage on different types of headlines.
When preparing pitches to reporters, consider their shifts. Their shift, even the particular day he or she is working, can impact the positive or negative position taken on a pitch.
True, even if you pitch to the wrong shift on the wrong day, your idea might be reborn or redirected to a more appropriate time slot. But I know from personal experience that story ideas seem to hold their most value the first time you pitch them. After that, some newsrooms view the ideas as retreads that aren’t as interesting as the latest thoughts at the table. The idea fails to gain further traction. You might as well make your first move the best move possible.
Tags: breaking news, journalist, media, Media Relations, morning show, newsroom, newsrooms, Phoenix, PR, reporter, reporters, story idea, story ideas
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Friday, June 8th, 2012
Most journalists hope to deliver powerful stories such as showing the strength of the human spirit. Some of the stories I covered that continue to stand out for me are men and women, young and old, battling back from a significant health problem with the help of a rehabilitation facility. You could define those reports as stories of struggle. I saw them as an alliance between a healthcare professional and often a young person determined to regain something lost or conquer something never before achieved.
The people who oversaw our editorial meetings never made my reports on these subjects the lead story. But I believed few stories in that day’s newscast matched the passion and emotion surrounding the people I profiled.
It is easy for rehabilitation centers to argue some of these stories should stay private. But I often interviewed patients who supported the opportunity to tell their story to as many viewers as possible while hopefully inspiring them. Rehab facilities should open their doors when appropriate and ensure the media and other outlets on the internet realize the centers and their patients can deliver important and often timely healthcare related stories. I remember Joyce, who due to government cuts, was not covered for important types of therapy.
When pitching these types of stories to the media:
- Establish a relationship with a journalist who has a built-in interest for healthcare stories. Some reporters thrive on breaking news and aren’t interested in stories that immediately place them several commercials into a newscast. Find a journalist who views this as more than just another assignment and will ensure the station doesn’t simply slap the story together like any other.
- Identify a patient. It’s easy to offer the media only an expert or healthcare professional. But the real story is the patient. More people might sign that consent form than you realize.
- Plan ahead. It takes time ensuring the patient and the healthcare professional can meet with the media at a time that won’t make others at the facility uncomfortable.
- Offer the reporter an opportunity to watch the patient take part in physical therapy. Such visuals add so much to any story. Watching someone take that next step is an emotional moment.
- Look for timely news opportunities. Some stories are so compelling, they don’t need to tie into anything in particular happening in our society. But newsrooms often want the story to connect to some important issue currently on people’s minds. Few issues in today’s environment are debated more than healthcare. Find a timely topic and offer a patient whose personal story will show the world these complex debates are about much more than crunching numbers.
Tags: health, healthcare, healthcare professional, interview, journalist, journalists, media, Media Relations, news, newscast, newsroom, newsrooms, Nurse, patient, PR, Rehab, rehabilitation, rehabilitation centers, rehabilitation facility, reporter, reporters
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Tuesday, June 5th, 2012
Restaurants often target morning news shows for free publicity. Cooking segments seem to be an effective tool for morning shows and newsrooms seeking free food. But smaller restaurants with fewer contacts might find stepping into a TV studio more difficult.
However, restaurants thinking strategically can supply the media and internet with other types of news stories. The growing number of business associations offering group health insurance led me to air a story about a small restaurant. The owner and a single-mom waitress explained they could now afford to offer health insurance and retain top employees. The public relations strategy: Tie in the restaurant to the timely and topical debate on healthcare.
In a different case, my stories on a mom and pop restaurant reflected how the economy impacted the smallest of businesses. One story focused on the restaurant possibly closing. An updated story later showed how the restaurant successfully re-invented itself.
Restaurants should position themselves to the media as more than places to eat. Restaurants should consider themselves a mirror of the every day issues people face. This approach will allow media to focus on restaurants for more than simply morning chitchat with TV anchors.
Tags: media, Media Relations, morning news, news stories, newsroom, newsrooms, PR, Public Relations, public relations strategy, Restaurants, tv anchor, tv anchors, tv studio
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