When I moved to Phoenix, I worked the nightshift. I often covered breaking news. Because the station had already assigned dayshift reporters to other stories, it called me in early or sent me out the door immediately to cover breaking news that reared its ugly head. I didn’t often cover light feature stories when working the nightsift.
When I moved to the dayshift, I spent more time in morning editorial meetings deciding with producers what stories to cover for the day. I more often covered feature stories. I often had more time to invest in these stories.
Knowing a reporter’s shift is important. A reporter pitched one of our story ideas, but her producers declined to cover it. A different reporter later told us she may have had more success pitching the same idea. Why? The first reporter who pitched the story apparently worked the nightsift. She covered “harder” stories. The second reporter who worked the dayshift told us she can “get away with more.”
We lost track of the reporters’ shifts. We believed both reporters worked the same shift, so we didn’t see the advantage of picking one reporter over the other for that reason alone. Reporters’ shifts change. To complicate matters, some reporters work both dayshifts and nightshifts depending on the day of the week. Sometimes reporters fill in for shifts they do not normally work. Keeping track of reporters’ shifts is not always easy but try when possible. Something so simple can sidetrack your story pitch.
When people pitched me stories, I sometimes needed to hear simply a few words to know I had a winner. So when I learned three sisters are all rabbis, I needed no further details. However, not everyone immediately sees the light. How often did I sit in editorial meetings, pitch ideas I considered small treasures and listened as producers and managers responded in silence, later assigning me to something less worthy? Several reporters passed on this story idea I like to call “Sister Act.” Several producers did not respond to my emails. Light feature stories struggle to find their place among controversy and breaking news. I get it. But persistence pays off. In this business, you must have a lot of chutzpah. A CBS5 executive producer believed in the story and sent a reporter to cover two of the sisters who live in the Phoenix area. The station will interview via Skype the third rabbi, who lives out of town. Here are some pictures I took of the interview. Click on them.
Watching NASA’s live coverage of Curiosity’s landing on Mars brought me back to my own mission regarding the Red Planet.
