Why you have to be willing to blow up your rundown to succeed as a producer.
It’s no secret that producers are protective of their rundowns. They simply want them a certain way. Many get downright nasty about making a change. Here’s the deal though, if you are one of those...
View ArticleWhy You Should Always Have Extra Stories In Your Rundown
One of the most challenging parts of producing is making your meter points. Some stations even penalize if you go over or under time by as little as 15 to 20 seconds, per block. Even if your station is...
View ArticleWhat To Do When The ND Says Your Newscast Sucks
Producers have nightmares about three scenarios, mistiming their shows, not getting their shows done and being called into the ND’s office to be told line-by-line how much their shows flat out sucked....
View ArticleMaking Desk Calls: The Risk To Your Credibility
Recently there was a bunch of talk on Twitter about why anchors sometimes feel the need to make producing calls from the desk during a newscast. Producers talked about ways they try and prevent this...
View ArticleHow To Self Critique A Newscast
More and more news managers require newscast critiques for anyone going for editorial positions. This is great because it helps the managers “see how you think” on many levels. The trouble is many...
View ArticleWhen to add “breaking” information into a newscast.
Let’s face it, journalists are airing and/or publishing more mistakes than they used to. So it is a good time to reiterate some tried and true guidelines to determine when information is safe to tell...
View ArticleHow To Speed Up Your Writing Time
A common discussion I have with news managers and universities looking to place recent grads, is the huge workload journalists face today. It is becoming more of the norm for reporters to barely make...
View ArticleHow to brand throughout the newscast
It’s no secret that writing for TV news nowadays is as much about marketing as writing clearly and concisely. You are expected to sell the news philosophy for your station as much as time out your...
View ArticleHow to brand throughout the newscast
It’s no secret that writing for TV news nowadays is as much about marketing as writing clearly and concisely. You are expected to sell the news philosophy for your station as much as time out your...
View ArticleWant to hire and keep great producers? Start with this.
In the past few weeks, I have seen several posts on LinkedIn either asking where are producers, or appeals from stations and broadcasting groups that frankly as of even a year ago would never have to...
View ArticleWhat producers want. A solutions list
I expected to get TV news journalists talking with my article on where the producers are and how to keep them. But I must say, the response has been more than anticipated. Between LinkedIn, Twitter,...
View ArticleTime To Stand Up For EPs
I put this post up on LinkedIn and want to make sure it is here on the website as well. When I started this website 10 years ago the goal was to help with training. I still want to focus on that...
View ArticleHey Producers. It’s Time.
The TV news industry is in flux. Crisis point: finding and retaining producers. Consider this: Your job will remain if reporters are phased out in the digital age. There is always a need for content...
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