Producer Opening

Heard about a producer opening in a top 20 SW market. Shoot me an email if you might be interested and I can pass along some details.

pitlist@gmail.com

Drag Racing Live Trucks

Two TV crews in El Paso doing a story on drag racing decided to race their live trucks.
Here's the video and story with thanks to the El Paso Times.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_8546849?source=most_viewed

Web Stuff

My employer has launched a new "On the Scene" blog. Thought I'd put in a shameless plug:
http://onthescene.blogs.foxnews.com/

Anybody doing anything interesting with the web at their station? If so, shoot me a note. I'd love to hear about it.
pitlist@gmail.com

New Term: News Nun

I just heard this from a producer friend of mine-- as in, instead of being married to God, you're married to your job. I'd be laughing hysterically if it didn't hit a little too close to home.

Three Words or Six?

One of the Poynter instructors had an interesting exercise. Basically, when you're writing a story, try to distill it down to three words. So for example, "Tornado hits Atlanta," or "Wildfires burn Texas." Some are easy, but most stories almost seem to defy boiling down to three words. The point of the exercise is to narrow your focus-- and then toss what doesn't fit under your three word description. For more on Poynter, go to www.poynter.org

Another six word exercise is something I heard on the radio and it's just for fun. This one is called the six word memoir. There's also a book out collecting a bunch of them, subtitled, "Not quite what I had planned." From the website (www.smithmag.net) :


Cursed with cancer, blessed with friends

I still make coffee for two

wedding cancelled: forks are too heavy

Day and night, like zebra stripes

Baby teeth, buck teeth, no teeth

Stop me if you've seen this one before

Some days it's tough to fill a newscast. That is especially true on weekends. This is no reason to essentially rerun your early newscast again at ten. Change up the stories, the format (pkg to vosot or vice-versa) and the bites you're using.

Do not rerun packages. A reporter can rework the pkg they turned at 6p into something new at ten. It's not that hard to write a second version once you've already written the first one.

The point is, if viewers see the exact same stuff within the first five minutes of your newscast, they can rightly assume there is nothing new and just go to bed.

Don't assume your viewer at 6p automatically won't watch at 10p. Give them a reason to watch by changing it up a bit. Resources are slim to be sure- no newsroom has enough reporters, editors, etc., but do what you can and don't be afraid to get creative.

Consider Your Lead-In

If there is a big national story, you may be tempted to lead with it. Be cautious if your newscast occurs right after your network's nightly half hour. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to lead with the exact same story your viewers just saw a half hour ago. The big exception to this is if it is an ongoing story and you have something to update or- if there is some local angle to the story.

Obviously, this also doesn't apply to huge national stories like 911, for example. But for your average killer tornado, etc., get creative and find a local lead. Otherwise your show will feel like a rehash.