Video sharing

It’s not a new concept. TV networks have done it for years in Washington, where it’s called “pooling.” But a report this morning on what two Philadelphia stations are doing made me sit up and take notice. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, NBC-owned WCAU and Fox-owned WTXF are sharing video this week in an experiment that has far-reaching implications.

The two stations involved are at the bottom of the ratings heap for local news in Philly. The story says they plan to cooperate on newsgathering in the field at news conferences or other events that both stations would cover anyway. They’ll also share helicopter video to avoid “safety issues” in the skies over breaking news scenes.

The last thing we want to do is reduce competition,” Fox29 general manager Mike Renda said in a phone interview, adding that sharing nonbreaking video would have a “viewer benefit” because it would allow each station to devote more resources to enterprise coverage.

Sounds good, right? But the skeptic in me wonders if this deal is really more about saving money than boosting enterprise. If they can get the same content using half as many people, why would they keep those people on staff?

Beyond that, I worry about the effect the arrangement will have on news content at both stations. In D.C., the networks often don’t send a reporter to an event that’s being covered by a “pool” camera. An in-house producer just watches the video as it’s fed in live. The problem? There’s no one on the scene to ask questions, follow-up on leads or do any real digging. If TV news wants to reaffirm the perception that it’s all about scratching the surface, expanded pool agreements may just do the trick.

The “beeb” converges

The old, staid BBC is no more.  “Auntie Beeb” got a new look this week and, more importantly, a new structure.  The visual rebranding features slick new graphics, including a swirling red globe that has some viewers complaining of nausea, according to the London Times.  The network also rebranded its all-news channel.  What was “News 24″ is now simply BBC News, part of an attempt to bring “coherence” to the huge operation.  Peter Horrocks, the head of the BBC’s multimedia news operation, described the changes as “an evolution, to enable audiences to recognise BBC News whenever and wherever they receive it.”

Behind the scenes, the changes are more profound, according to the Guardian newspaper:

The cosmetic improvements are part of a more fundamental change: radio, television and internet journalists will now sit alongside one another for the first time, working more closely across every platform.  The aim is to deliver a better service for less money, and reinvigorate the BBC’s sprawling news empire by giving it greater clarity of purpose.

No longer will the BBC send multiple journalists out to report the same story for different platforms.  In the new converged newsroom, one journalist will file for multiple platforms.  At the RTNDA convention last week, the BBC’s Maxine Mawhinney said the company’s College of Journalism, launched in 2005, is now training young journalists to do just that.  It’s hard to find much evidence of that on the BBC’s training and development site, however.  I see only one course–Web writing–that’s clearly not broadcast-focused.

The state of multimedia

For a long time convergence and multimedia were dirty words in many newsrooms - and that may still be the case for some.  But there is more evidence that journalists are simply embracing the idea that having more ways to distribute their stories can actually improve the quality of their work.

At the Broadcast Educators Association Convention in Las Vegas, a group of convergence researchers came together to talk about the state of multimedia.  Janet Kolodzy of Emerson College referenced a Pew Research Center report from March 2008 that indicated nearly half of all journalists now say working for the Web has made their journalism better.

But Kolodzy also warned broadcasters that “newspapers woke up in 2006, but TV is still somewhat somnolent. ”  Kolodzy went on to say that she’s seen much more evidence of “newspapers growing their own video sources vs. TV growing its own text and photos.”

The Pew research seems to support the argument that newspapers are putting more of an emphasis on the Web than their broadcast brethren.  Just 10% of those in local TV say the Web has the highest priority in their newsrooms, compared to 18% in local newspapers.

Ken Killibrew of the University of South Florida says that U.S. media are also falling behind European journalists when it comes to convergence.  He says many European publications are buying into the idea of the “news river.”

“We don’t live in a world where we put out newscasts and newspapers - we live in an ongoing stream of news,” says Killebrew.

How does that change things for journalists?  According to Killibrew it puts more of an emphasis on conversations with the audience and innovation in terms of news coverage.  He sees more use of Twitter and social networks among European journalists, as well as a belief in the “wisdom of crowds.”

He also says it can change the newsroom structures from teams to “cluster work,” in which a newsroom “works more holistically.”  For example, under this scenario, you might find a health reporter working with a business reporter and a sports editor to develop a story about the impact of a star player’s knee injury.

To learn more about what’s going on across the pond, check out the European Journalism Centre.

What’s legal online and off

With so many outlets for content these days, broadcast lawyers are busier than ever. Jerry Fritz, legal counsel for the Allbritton stations, says the vetting process for TV news is actually faster and better than it used to be because he can read scripts and watch video online before stories go on the air. But Fritz told a session at the RTNDA convention last week that some things are more complicated in a 24/7 news world.

Rewriting scares me. For the morning news, they’ll change “third degree sexual assault” to “rape” to save time. But one’s a misdemeanor and one’s a felony. I’m reluctant to let Web people rewrite sensitive stories I’ve already vetted.

One of the most common questions today is about using material from the Web, broadcast attorneys say. “A Facebook screen grab is okay,” said CBS attorney Andy Siegel. “YouTube video? I’ll take 10 to 20 seconds.” But CNN counsel David Viglante warned that videos set to music are problematic. CNN wanted to air videos produced by soldiers in Iraq but decided not to because many of them included popular songs and there’s no “fair use” exception for music.

If you do use something you found on the Web, Siegal said, remember that the original poster still owns the content. “Fair use is a defense, it’s not permission. And when you take something without permission, don’t put a ‘courtesy of’ tag on it,” he warned. “It’s a lie!”

The attorneys told a few hair-raising stories about questions they’ve been asked by TV journalists. For a story on airport perimeter security, one local reporter wanted to do a stand-up near an airport holding a fake automatic weapon. The lawyer’s response: “How much do you value your life?”

And then there’s the legal danger that might be lurking in your email in-box. Imagine you get an email alleging someone is involved in child pornography and it includes a link. If you click on the link, you’ve possessed child porn yourself. And if you forward the email to anyone–even your news director–you’ve distributed it. “There is no wiggle room in the law,” Vigilante said. “If you get an email about child pornography, don’t open it. Call your lawyer.”

Passing the job interview test

Be on time. That’s the first rule to keep in mind if you’re lucky enough to get a job interview at a TV station. Rule number two: Allow plenty of time for your station visit, news directors say, because you’ll still have a lot to prove.

Be prepared to take a current events quiz and a writing test. You’d better know who represents the area and the state in Congress. One news director asks, “Who is John Roberts?” [Hint: He's not talking about the CNN anchor.] Post’s writing test asks “not only for broadcast but AP style because you’re going to be writing for the Web.” And bring some story ideas if you interview at Neal Bennett’s station, WVIR-TV in Charlottesville, Va.

I have reporter interviewees show up before our morning meeting and I’m going to call on you and you’d better have a good story idea. And it can’t be localizing a national story.

“I like them to spend time in the newsroom to see how they get along with others,” said Mark Kraham, news director at WHAG-TV in Hagerstown, Md., during a panel discussion at the RTNDA convention in Las Vegas last week.

“You won’t just meet with the news director,” said Jerry Post, news director at KXLY-TV in Spokane, Wash. “After you leave, I’ll ask everybody what they think.” He tells applicants to make sure they learn about the market and the station ahead of time so they can ask informed questions.

Chris Carl, news director at WDEL in Wilmington, Del., urges applicants to be honest with themselves about the demands of a job in news. “Are you willing to work nights and weekends, to stay at the station for days if there’s a big storm?”

Be prepared for obvious, big picture questions like: Where do you want to be in five years? What are your goals? What kind of stories do you like to tell? “Don’t say you like people stories,” Post said. “All of your stories will have people in them.”

And if you do get a job offer, be prepared to sign a contract for two years, iron clad. What’s negotiable in a first contract? Nothing, said Post.

You’re going to give it to your parents’ lawyer and they’ll say, ‘They own you.’ But we’re taking a risk on you. We’re going to make an investment in you and give you training.

My two cents: Make sure the station really will help you get better. Talk to “alumni” about their experience. Find out what kind of gear the station has and how much you’ll do live. If you’re going to sign away two years of your life for a shockingly low salary, make sure you’ll get everything they’re not paying you for.

Producing for the small screen

If you need a reason to think about producing content for mobile devices, consider this:  The cell phone industry estimates 30 million people in the U.S. will be video subscribers in 2009.  That’s 30 million people available to watch your stories on the go.

So, what do you need to do differently to capture this new audience?  It depends on who you ask.  At the Broadcast Educators Association Convention in Las Vegas, Sean Thomas, Senior Producer for Disney’s Hollywood Studios told the audience, “Don’t change a thing!”

“Stick with what’s appealing, what works on television will work on the Web or on a cell phone,” says Thomas.

But Thomas also cautioned against producing long-form content.  “By the third minute, you’ve lost your audience,” Thomas went on to say.  Instead, he suggests you produce shorter stories and then create a link to additional content for people who want to go deeper.

On the other hand, Bonnie Buckner, president of MicroFocus Media, suggests that “small screen production requires you to expand beyond the limitations of the technology.”

Approaching small screen production requires more than simply scaling down a visual display, whether Web Page or movie.  Because the size and amount of available visual information is reduced, and the often distracting and attention-demanding settings in which small screen productions are viewed, there are more challenges to our ability to perceive and comprehend information on a small screen.

Certainly, TV journalists are used to competing with distractions - but now we must also think about producing stories that work both on the wide screen and the small screen.  Do you have to re-think the way you create graphics if you know someone will be viewing the story on an iPod?  Does this increase the pressure to produce visually strong stories?  The answer is probably yes, but the end result may be more effective television that can break through the clutter we often find on the air.

So, who is doing it right right now?  Garry Hare of Peer English Networks says check out the Discovery Channel and its podcasts. 

Va. Tech one year later

The Roanoke Times marked the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings with an extensive multimedia tribute, including “the sights and sounds of the events of April 16, 2008, as captured over a 24-hour period.” The “day in the life” concept is well executed, visually compelling, and deep. It includes video, time-lapse photography, blogs, maps, and reflections from survivors. There’s also a guest book where visitors to the site can add their memories and comments to those that streamed in immediately following the shootings [it now runs over 4,000 pages]. And there’s a link to the archived coverage of the events one year ago and what’s happened since. Take a look at how that coverage is organized into featured sections on wounded victims, deceased victims, investigations, the campus community, reactions and accounts of the shooting. It’s the kind of package any news organization can and should put together online for stories you can anticipate and plan for, like an anniversary.

More than one hat

Want to be a TV news producer or reporter? Be prepared to wear multiple hats. Mary Ellen Hardies, who produces the 6 p.m. newscast at WCMH-TV in Columbus, Ohio, does a lot more than assemble a rundown and write lead-ins. She screens video on her desk top, makes all her own graphics, and now she’s Twittering five times a day about what stories the station is working on.

I don’t even know who they are but there are hundreds of people following my every move. It’s driving our traffic up. We have a lot of young viewers contacting our Web site because they saw something on Twitter.

She’s not the only one whose job has changed. During a panel discussion at the RTNDA convention in Las Vegas this week, Hardies said the station’s reporters are doing more, too. “All our reporters have Blackberries,” she said. “I’m in touch with them every hour, hour and a half, to get them to update what they’ve been doing.”

The reporters send in bullet points that the web producer turns into sentences, Hardies said. Those updates also go to everyone in the newsroom via a listserv, which has dramatically increased communication between producers and reporters in the field.

I know exactly what they have. I write lead ins based on what I know they are going to say. There is more being expected but as you are writing you are the most knowledgeable person on all of these stories. Our communication has improved because we are requiring more.

Dow Smith of Syracuse University questioned what’s being sacrificed in newsrooms where producers wear so many hats. If they’re spending so much time on technical issues, how much attention can they pay to editorial supervision and content?

To tell better stories it takes a lot of interaction with reporters…Producers have to get up from their computer and talk to the reporters one on one. 90 percent of communication is nonverbal. That helps the process of telling better stories. The future of local TV news is going to have to be better storytelling, otherwise, with the Internet, who needs it?

But Victoria Lim, a multiplatform journalist who recently left WFLA-TV in Tampa, said having to do more actually made her a better storyteller. “There’s more than one story to tell,” Lim said. “I’m taking advantage of the strengths of each medium” writing for TV, online and print. Hardies said technology also has changed the content of TV stories. While they haven’t gotten any longer, Hardies said, reporters are using their 1:10 differently.

The reporter isn’t telling the whole story. The producer creates a 45 second anchor tell with graphics that gives the meat of the story. The reporter is going to explain the impact, the emotion.

With everything that’s on her plate, does she ever have time to think…or even breathe? Absolutely, she said. As a self-described “control freak,” Hardies loves having more responsibility. “I still have ten minutes here and there to take a breath, step back and look at the big picture,” she said. “I don’t feel harried every day.”

Ask more questions

Sam Donaldson, who has spent most of his long career at ABC News covering politics, said he’s “apprehensive” about some of the campaign coverage on radio and television this year, suggesting that journalists haven’t been tough enough in questioning the candidates.

“It’s not our job to tear them down or fall in love with them,” he said. “It’s not our job to promote them. It’s our job to bring people facts about them and to question them.

“Don’t be rude–you know it’s my maxim,” Donaldson said, drawing laughter from the audience, who remember him shouting sometimes impertinent questions at U.S. presidents.

But ask the questions. Your job is not to win a popularity contest. Don’t go along to get along. Don’t give anyone a pass. Keep on them. On election day, go vote, but say to yourself I held their feet to the fire.

Donaldson said that journalists collectively should hang their heads for not pressing hard enough for answers before the invasion of Iraq. When it comes to covering candidates, he added, “Don’t be afraid to ask every question that you think is appropriate to find out what they believe in and what they have in store for us if they’re elected.”

Donaldson spoke at a ceremony at RTNDA in Las Vegas where he received the Paul White Award, given to recognize an individual’s lifetime contribution to electronic journalism. Past recipients include Christiane Amanpour, Charles Gibson, Charles Osgood and Ted Koppel. When he saw the list of previous winners, Donaldson said his reaction was “shock…and awe.”

A personal note: I’ve known Sam for more than 25 years. When I covered the White House in the Reagan years, Sam was already a dean of the press corps. When he yelled questions at Ronald Reagan, he did it not to be rude but to try to get answers. Reagan held very few press conferences and after the attempt on his life he was always surrounded by security who kept everyone back, including journalists. Days would go by without our actually seeing him in person, and then we’d only catch a glimpse as he walked from the Oval Office to his helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House.

Sam had the loudest voice in the press corps (although Bill Plante of CBS could hold his own), so he’d shout questions in the hope of getting a reply. Sometimes, Reagan would answer. But the tactic became less and less effective after the White House decided to keep the helicopter’s engines running while waiting for the Commander in Chief. If you’ve seen shots of Reagan walking along cupping his ear and shaking his head, that’s Sam’s voice he’s pretending to be unable to hear. But what he’s ignoring are questions the American people wanted answered.

ABC effectively took Sam off the air in 1999, after more than 30 years covering Capitol Hill, the White House, appearing on This Week with David Brinkely and co-hosting PrimeTime Live. His reward was to get the opportunity to launch the first regularly scheduled news program on the Internet in 1999–back when ABC thought “appointment viewing’ was going to be a winner online, says ABC News Washington bureau chief Robin Sproull. “Sam has never met a platform he didn’t like,” Sproull said. “If there’s a platform to deliver news, Sam wants to be on it.”

Sam now hosts a daily half-hour show, Politics Live, on the ABC News Now digital channel, which few people can see or bother to watch. But he goes at it with the same gusto he always brought to covering politics and he remains a mentor to young ABC staff.

Get a job

You’ve heard it before. A news director will give you just 30 seconds to make an impression with your resume tape. Turns out that may be a generous estimate. “My rule is ten seconds or less,” news director Neal Bennett of WVIR-TV told an audience at the RTNDA convention in Las Vegas.

If you have a deer in the headlights look, you’re out. If your first package is a feature, it’s out. That means you have no idea what we do at my television station. We produce hard news.

“The one thing every news director is looking for in a tape is a reason to take it out,” said Mark Kraham, news director at WHAG-TV in Hagerstown, Md. , who got a dozen tapes just last week and doesn’t even have an opening. “Make sure it will play, that the audio and video are good quality.” And be sure you follow instructions. Kraham asks for a tape and resume. He once got a tape that was still wrapped in plastic and had nothing on it. Ooops.

Neal Bennett, news director at WVIR-TV in Charlottesville, Va., says he doesn’t care if your tape’s production values aren’t great, “I’m looking for good stories, the type we do on our local newscast, stories about government or crime, that we cover every day. Don’t include something you did when you had an internship in a top 10 market.” If you want to anchor, Bennett says, don’t apply right out of school. “I won’t even watch your tape. Our anchors need experience.”

“I’m looking for an applicant who doesn’t just know how to do radio,” said Chris Carl, news director at radio station WDEL in Wilmington, Del.

My radio reporters are using video cameras to capture audio, we post video packages and text stories on the Web. I’m looking for good writers because I think good writers can work anywhere.

What if you’re looking for a producing job? Bennett wants to see one full newscast you actually produced and include scripts. Jerry Post executive news director at KXLY-TV in Spokane, Wash., also asks for a one page critique: “Tell me why you led with a story, why you chose to tease what you did, what mistakes you made so I know you are self-aware. “

One other piece of advice: Tailor your tape to the job you’re applying for. Don’t put an anchor segment on a producing tape, said Denise Dowling of the University of Montana, because they’ll know you’re not serious about producing. But Post said there’s an exception to that rule. If you want a reporting job and you can also do weather, put that on your tape. “I’m always looking for a back-up weather person. If you do it well, you’r tape wil go to the top of the pile.”

Where to apply? Cast a wide net, said Post.

You may be living in a place you’ve never even heard of. but It’s just for two years, and you’re going to have a blast.  You gotta get good someplace and that place might be Fargo and that’s okay.

And don’t discount radio as a place to start, Carl said. There aren’t as many jobs available but he sees far fewer applicants than his TV counterparts. “There are things you will learn doing radio, especially if you find a forward looking station like mine that does video on the Web.”

But if you’ve got “ins” use them, Bennett said. If you know that someone else from your school has worked at a station, have your professor write a letter. “In this business, it’s who you know,” said Post. That’s just one more good reason to make sure you get an internship and get the most out of it.