Bloomberg is reporting on what could be a significant trend for local TV stations – they’re dropping syndicated programming and adding more local news. TV station owners, facing a record drop in advertising, are pushing their news crews to fill…
Month: April 2009
New skillset for online reporters
No doubt about it. You need to be able to work fast and juggle multiple deadlines if you’re going to succeed in online journalism. But you also have to be adept at marketing, which used to be a dirty word…
Killing local TV news
Is this a trend? A station in northeast Pennsylvania pulled the plug on its local newscasts this month and gave the entire news staff only a few hours notice that they were all being fired. WYOU-TV’s newscasts were produced by…
Planning for breaking news
It may sound counterintuitive, but you really do need a plan if you’re going to do the best possible job of covering breaking news. The more prepared you are, the less you have to worry about when the big story…
Why stand-ups matter
Stand-ups should never be an afterthought, says award-winning photojournalist Darren Durlach of WBFF-TV in Baltimore. He makes a point of talking with reporters on the way to the story to plan the day’s stand-up. Many photojournalists dislike shooting stand-ups, but…
Smart strategies for using VJs
TV newsrooms that are replacing reporter-photographer teams with solo video journalists might benefit from the experience of stations that have always had them. News8 Austin, the cable news channel in Texas, has used VJs ever since it launched 10 years…
Paying for news stories – is it ever ethical?
There’s no doubt about it; the journalism industry has to reinvent itself to remain viable in a world where the old model of advertising-supported content is unlikely to work. But where should news organizations draw the line? In Oklahoma, stations…
Video journalist responsibilities
Award-winning investigations
Three local TV stations have won prestigious Peabody Awards for the kind of in-depth reporting many stations no longer seem to value. In an era of budget cuts and layoffs, WWL in New Orleans, KMGH in Denver and KLAS in…
Visual storytelling secrets
Okay, there’s really only one secret. Award-winning photojournalist John Gross of KSTP-TV in Minneapolis says it’s pretty basic, and once you know it, you just have to make sure you get it every time. Gross believes the closing shot is…