I am going to do something a little unusual today -- focus nearly all of the column on one topic. Newsrooms around the country are experimenting with how assignment desks can connect directly with viewers and readers. In today's Al's Morning Meeting, you will hear
from the assignment manager of KPIX-TV in San Francisco. The station streams a video online of the assignment manager on duty explaining what the station is covering today and, in some cases, how it is planning to cover the day's news.
Click here to see his latest briefing. Check out a video from last week, when news was breaking and the desk was scrambling crews:
This notion of allowing the public to get a peek inside the morning meeting got a big start from The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash. I have reported about that experiment previously. The newspaper turns on a camera and live mics and allows the public to witness, live, the entire editorial meeting.
I also told you about KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, which produces "News Raw," a behind-the-scenes look at the morning editorial meeting.
And then there is WCPO-TV in Cincinnati. I like the way the station provides what it calls "Netcasts," which are net-based newscasts updated at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. I have seen some other versions of this idea. KPNX-TV in Phoenix produces a constantly updated "I-Cast."
In all of these cases, I do wish they would time-stamp the pieces so viewers could know how fresh they are.
Daily Briefing at KPIX-TV (CBS-5), San Francisco
Here is my e-mail interview with Brian Dinsmore, assignment manager at KPIX-TV, who usually is the one to appear on the daily online briefing:
AL TOMPKINS: Why is KPIX telling the world what you are working on? Don't you worry that your competition will just pick off your stories?
BRIAN DINSMORE: I was a bit leery of "tipping our hand" when I started doing this. But I think the benefit outweighs any tip-off. On most days, we and the competition are working on many of the same stories. Our news-gathering day is under way by the time I do the briefing, so if another station wants to chase a story based on the briefing, it's fine with us. We don't think they'll do as good a job, especially with a late start, and we like the idea of setting their news agenda!
If there is something really exclusive to us, like Hank Plante's one-on-one interview with Gavin Newsom Wednesday, I'm obviously not going to promote that in the briefing. But when the story comes through, we are trying to break the news on CBS5.com.
Basically, though, we want to offer our CBS5.com users a window into our newsroom, to give them a feel for how we work, what it looks like, perhaps why we chose to assign a particular story and some of the debate surrounding that decision. The briefing is not scripted. I talk about our rundown of stories in real time, as I am briefing my colleagues on the desk. I think the interest this window can generate in our newsroom and newscasts will far outweigh any danger posed by giving the competition a heads up.
Is there stuff you won't disclose in the briefing? What about those stories that you are just checking out but don't know if they are true yet?
If it's a hot story that we have the exclusive on, I'll leave it out of the briefing. I don't get into the fine details of every vo (voice over) and vosot (voice over sound on tape) we are chasing, unless I think there will be some interest in how we are trying to get it. For instance, if we are doing an aerial tour of the snowy mountains here in sunny California, I might mention it. I think that has some interest.
Since the briefing is in real-time, there will probably be stories that won't check out and might not make air. That's OK. It's all part of the process. It's a snapshot of our current plan, but plans change. As my news director puts it: "It's organic."
What has the public reaction been to this video?
From what I've heard, most people think it's pretty cool. I haven't been doing it long, but so far it's only positive. And it seems to be getting a bit of attention.
What manpower and equipment is involved in making this happen?
It's one of the great things about this. Our ops manager, Don Sharp, mounted a camera to the desk, and we wired it to our ENG control room. It's like a mini flash cam. I clip on a wireless mic, and we are ready to go. During breaking news, we can flip the camera on and do live streaming of the newsdesk at work. It will be unscripted and total reality TV! The setup is user-friendly.
What have you learned from doing this that you wish you had known before you started?
I like doing it more than I thought I would. I talk too fast. I need to stand up straight! People like finding out how we do things, and I think they like our window on the newsroom.
Netcasts at WCPO-TV, Cincinnati
Here is my e-mail interview with WCPO-TV News Director Bob Morford:
AL TOMPKINS: You update three times a day. How did you pick 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. as important times to update the content?
BOB MORFORD: To be honest, we should also be doing a 5 a.m., an 8 a.m. and a 7 p.m. We are working toward that. These overall times were picked because we feel the Netcast has to be new during the day at least every two hours to keep people coming back.
We picked the times we have because we have the production staff available to go through the control room. Our next job is to create easy ways to produce these segments without going through the control room, thus freeing ourselves from the production schedule.
What is the criteria for what makes good Netcast content?
The very latest information and video. We are putting laptops in the hands of every reporter so that they can send back copy and video (or a still picture) as they move around the city going from place to place.
How does this happen each day? What is the process? What equipment is involved? How much time does it take?
The Netcast anchor also writes and produces the segment. There's a newsroom camera with a remote control mounted in Master Control.
There's also a remote-control camera mounted, picturing the assignment desk. Either the assignments manager or the assistant news director will be tossed to from the Netcast anchor for a section on "what's coming up today on 9 News."
What competitive concerns do you have about telling the world what you are working on so early in the day?
I'm past that concern. It's real, but the world has moved on. Simply put, we are competing now on the medium of the future. If you want to be where you need to be five years from now, you have to start winning the news race on the Internet now, not five years from now.
How much traffic is this generating? What's next?
Not as much as we would like. We're hearing that most users spend only five to six minutes on any particular Web site. Watching the entire Netcast would take up three minutes of that time by itself. And it doesn't fit the "I've got an itchy trigger (clicker) finger" mentality of the user.
If someone wanted to argue with me that the Netcast isn't "Internet enough" (Is it just TV format on another medium?), I would listen. But, then the question does become "what's next or what's better?" That's something we're still working on.
Al's Morning Multimedia
Every morning I offer some multimedia examples to help you think through how you can incorporate multimedia into your journalism. Today I want to share a quick lighting lesson with you. Lighting is absolutely key to photography, and it is becoming even more important as people watch video on bigger, sharper screens.
So this is a lesson from Cyndy Green on how you can use your hand to figure out how shadows will fall on the subject you are capturing. Here is another easy-to-use Cyndy Green production, with tons of examples of how to use reflected light and shadows effectively.
Here is a great primer on the seven basic shots (wide, medium, close up, extreme close up, pan, tilt, zoom) that every person who is shooting video needs to know.
Some of the biggest mistakes I see in beginning photojournalism are too many medium shots, pans and zooms and not enough wide/medium/close-up/super-close-up sequences.
Cyndy is a former TV photojournalist who now teaches high school students in Stockton, Calif. Bless her.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
