GETTING UP TO SPEED--FAST
How
do most newsrooms break in new reporters? "Unfortunately, it can be
a lot like the Russians teaching kids to swim," says Brad Remington,
news director at KTVI-TV in St. Louis, MO. "You throw them in the
water." The result is that far too many of them--or much too long--wind
up depending on the desk to stay afloat, doing stories they're assigned
rather than generating their own.
It
doesn't have to be that way. Newsrooms that value enterprise are finding
ways to cultivate it from the start, by helping new hires learn their
way around the station and, more importantly, the community. At WZZM-TV
in Grand Rapids, MI, new reporters undergo a full week of orientation
that includes in-house training with all departments, not just the
newsroom. News director Cheryl Grant also assigns each new hire a
veteran journalist as a buddy to introduce them to contacts and give
them a tour of the town. "If you put some work in up front," she says,
"they are better reporters overall."
John
Clark, news director of WOWT-TV in Omaha, NE, finds that many young
reporters need that kind of help getting up to speed. "They can put
together a good package," he says, "but they don't know where to turn
to develop the story in the first place."
The
sheer size and diversity of many local television markets can make
the job of uncovering news stories more difficult. But there are techniques
all reporters can use to find "entry points" into their communities.
It starts with getting to know people outside of the office, says
Hearst-Argyle broadcast news executive Candy Altman. "We all need
to stop talking to ourselves," she says. How do you start?
*
Get maps of the entire coverage area and explore during downtime.
* Study the latest census figures to learn more about the community's
make-up.
* Discover places where young people, ethnic groups or other subsets
of the community gather, and use them as "listening posts" to find
story ideas.
* Go to public meetings to learn the issues and who's involved in
them.
Newsrooms
can help by making new hires aware of who the major players are in
town, some of whom may not have official jobs or titles but who are
well plugged in. They can arrange for new reporters to meet with a
local expert like a veteran cop or a social service worker. John Harris,
director of special projects at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, NC, says his station
brings back newsroom retirees to share local history with new staffers.
Barbara Hamm, assistant news director at WTKR-TV in Norfolk, VA, has
hired a bus to take new employees on a tour of city neighborhoods,
military bases, and other landmarks.
To
find good stories, new reporters need to learn how things work in
the community. They can start by collecting budgets, histories, organizational
charts, annual reports and newsletters from important local agencies,
businesses and other groups like civic leagues. How to find them?
A starting point could be a bookmark file or Web page of the most
useful local Internet sites, including all area newspapers, modeled
after the local news resources AssignmentEditor.com has assembled
online for several large cities. To show what that could look like,
NewsLab created a start page for KOMU-TV in Columbia, MO.
Young
journalists, in particular, may not only need help to find information
but also to manage it. They'd benefit from more than a quick introduction
to the station's computer system. They need to know how and where
to store names and numbers, as well as tips for future stories and
follow-up ideas. Supplying new hires with computer software or a PDA
device, such as a Palm Pilot, pre-loaded with basic contact information
could be well worth the initial investment.
News
managers committed to encouraging enterprise make enterprise a major
factor in hiring. Some ask applicants during the job interview to
suggest local story ideas, just to see what they've noticed about
the community. Jim Ogle, news director at WKYT-TV in Lexington, KY,
says he follows up by asking reporters' references how enterprising
they are.
Managers
also should make clear what they expect from all new hires. How many
story ideas must a reporter offer each week? What counts in performance
reviews? John Cardenas, news director at WBNS-TV in Columbus, OH,
spells that out early on. "One of the criteria we have in evaluations
is the new contacts you've developed." At WOWT in Omaha, assistant
news director Mike Plews counts "initiative and motivation" in evaluations,
which includes the number of story ideas pitched by each employee,
photographers as well as reporters.
"Expectations
are set up and explained to each reporter," says Tamara McGregor,
until recently the news director at KREM-TV in Spokane, WA. "It's
also important to reward people." She sometimes provided gift certificates
for dinners or wrote letters of praise to spouses, and she regularly
recognized good work in the morning meeting.
The
bottom line, says Mike Devlin, news director of KHOU-TV in Houston,
TX, is that reporters have to be able to work independently to dig
up stories that aren't on the daybook or the scanner. And they need
a newsroom that values their independence, rather than expecting them
to take orders like good soldiers. Too often, Devlin says, what happens
to good soldiers is "they get shot." That's why he believes that reporters
should view themselves as entrepreneurs: incisive self-starters who
deliver the goods.
To
achieve that goal, they have to know where to look-and the sooner,
the better. A newsroom that invests a little time early on to help
new hires learn their way around will reap rewards more quickly in
the form of better and more original stories.
"It
will take a reporter a year to really learn about the community,"
says KTVI's Remington. "I hire smart, aggressive, people. The rest
of it you can teach." That teaching should start the moment a new
reporter walks in the door.
By
Walter Dean at www.newslab.org
HOME
Headlines
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*Watch
video
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Ex-news
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Sentence
in crash that kills photog
Cameraman
tossed from tour
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Chopper
4 crashes during search
Once again a near death incident. Glad everyone's safe...but
here's another reason why I've given up helicopters for good.
Cameraman
Claims He Slept With Princess Diana
Now that's what I'm talkin' about. You go get 'em
cameraman!
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The least-watched week in history. Going downnnnn....
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Former
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ABC
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Shootout
video cameraman drops out of sight
Spitting
at TV cameraman earns suspension
Pittsburgh
TV Reporter Cited For Trespassing
TV photogs attacked outside court
Break-in
delays W. Va. newscast debut
Viacom lays off 11 at KOVR, KMAX
Colo.
station suspends local news
NFL
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Cameras
Captured a Disaster but Now Focus on Suffering
Cameraman Assaulted
