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Warning System Calls People In Path of Hurricanes, Tornados
Television stations in Tornado Alley have found success with an automated weather alert system that notifies people by telephone or e-mail. WeatherCall is a pre-recorded weather warning for flash floods, severe thunderstorms, tornado and hurricane warnings. It's worked well for Randy Dixon, News Director of KATV-TV, Little Rock and Carlton Houston, News Director of KTUL-TV, Tulsa.

Use topical investigations to increase sampling
Veteran consultant Tom Dolan advises taking key stories that viewers already know something about and then developing more information, better angling and more enterprise on those stories.

Newscast expanded
at 10 p.m.
KOAT-TV, Albuquerque, expanded the 10 p.m. weekday newscasts to an hour, and quickly saw audience growth. The plan was explained by Mary Lynn Roper, President and General Manager.

Officers raiding meth labs: Many are ill from exposure
Former Utah narcotics officers, who put their lives on the line when they raided illegal meth labs a decade or two earlier, have died or are battling unusual illnesses.
The chemicals used to make the meth are deadly.
The story was investigated by the team at KSL-TV, Salt Lake City. Reporter Debbie Dujanovic found 58 police officers who had investigated meth labs in the previous two decades.
News Director Con Psarras explained how they put the project together, and told us, "We only found a few officers who didn't have a serious health problem. When compared to the average rates of illness and cancer among that age group, the statistics were indicative of a pretty big problem."
Of the 58 officers, 40 were sick or dead.

High on meth, speeding, killing --- and still driving
A log truck driver kept on rolling, in spite of overloading his truck and causing a fatal accident. The driver was off the road for only about one week after the accident. KING-TV's Chris Ingalls found there was no penalty, no suspension of his license, nothing ---he just went right back to driving. There should have been three strikes against him. He was speeding. His truck was overloaded. He tested positive for meth.

Changing the culture: A 24-Hour web channel
Web sales more than doubled in one year at WIBW-TV, Topeka. General Manager Jim Ogle shared with us the strategy that is working for his team.

Web Video Journalist Hired
A photographer has become talent and is producing stories for the Web site of WPRI-TV, Providence. He shoots, writes, and narrates the pieces. News Director Joe Abouzeid and his team explain how it works.

When Help Doesn't Arrive In Time  
Have a serious heart attack on the streets of Cleveland and the chances of being successfully recuscitate are slim.  WJW-TV's Tom Merriman broke this.   Meanwhile, they don't have enough ambulances in Cincinnati.  WCPO-TV's Hagit Limor reported that story.

Financial Fitness
Boot Camp   
A major project combining financial information and advice aired on WCNC-TV, Charlotte.   News Director Mary Alvarez and reporter Anna Crowley explained how it was executed.

Broken School Buses
Kept Rolling
Safety violations in the Indianapolis school bus fleet were so severe that the state police began an immediate investigation after they were contacted by WTHR-TV. News Director Carolyn Williams and investigative reporter Bob Segall explained how they executed their project.

Rare Interviews, SWAT Team Tapes Give Depth to School Shooting Anniversary Special
A deranged, armed drifter entered a Colorado high school. He took seven students hostage. A special on the hostage drama was produced by KMGH-TV, Denver.
It featured interviews with people who had never talked about it publicly.
"If we were going to do something, we wanted to do something significant and impactful, and that meant we needed to get a lot of players involved," said News Director Byron Grandy.

Columbine: Viewer Sensitivities Were Key
The live images were monitored carefully when two young men killed 12 other students, a teacher and themselves at Columbine.
Patti Dennis, KUSA-TV's News Director, told us, "We had pictures coming in from hospitals that I told them absolutely, positively, I did not want to see on our air. I forbid it!"

Pick debate winners instantaneously
If you can learn something about which candidate viewers feel did the best in a debate you will be offering information beyond a simple summarization of their carefully rehearsed statements.  Innovative projects were explained by Jim Boyer, News Director of KOMO-TV, Seattle and Natalea Brown, News Director of WJZ-TV, Baltimore.  Here are ideas that are alternatives to the usual mix of campaign officials, professors, and man-on-the-street interviews for debate reactions. 

Strengthen your politics online: Website gives stations depth
Your station's website can be an effective vehicle for providing extensive political information that can be accessed by viewers/users when they have an interest in the campaigns. The NextGenPolitics website was developed initially by Hertz Research.

Help People Survive
In Hard Times

A multi-faceted campaign to tackle hunger was a huge success for WFMJ-TV and the community of Youngstown.
The station launched an ongoing project to alert viewers to the growing number of hungry people, and to explain what each person could do to impact it --- whether it meant donating canned goods, donating money, or organizing their own food drive.

The campaign raised tens of thousands of dollars and resulted in tons of food being donated. It brought attention to the growing problem of hunger at home and the need for year-round donations and more volunteers. Plus, it had interesting and compelling content that was original. It empowered the staff and the audience by calling attention to a problem, and then identifying and promoting solutions.

News Director Mona Alexander explained the details of how they put it all together.

Economic Projects Offer Viewers
New Strategies, More Resources

With each piece of economic news more distressing than the last, the slow economy is likely to be an issue for some time. Here is how two stations have ramped up and branded their reporting on economic and pocketbook issues.

9 Investigates:
Charlotte's Economy Crunch
WSOC-TV, Charlotte

Significant staff resources have been invested in economic stories that have been showcased on air and online in Charlotte.
The goal is to develop reports on things that really impact people.

Practical, fresh ideas to help viewers get more mileage out of their paychecks were well received in Portland.

Here are the specifics of these projects.

Financial Fitness Boot Camp:
Coping with Economic Uncertainty
WCNC-TV, Charlotte

A major project combining financial information and advice aired on WCNC-TV, Charlotte. Individual questions were answered for free by experts.
"We felt this was a timely thing to do to help people learn and feel better about their financial situations," says Mary Alvarez, Executive News Director.

Researching what people are clicking on at wcnc.com showed that the second most popular area in the consumer section was information on how to raise a credit score.

Topics were wide-ranging. The issues were personalized with typical viewers sharing their individual financial situations.

Subscribers: For the full details as explained by Mary Alvarez and reporter Anna Crowley please continue in our archives. Thank you.

Following the Lost Jobs: Maytag Moves to Mexico
An in-depth look at where the jobs went when a major employer closed a plant was produced by WQAD-TV, Moline. "We decided to go to Mexico and follow those jobs to see what happens to them --- why the company moved there and how much money they are saving," explained News Director C.J. Beutien.

Kmart Crashes, Executives Fly High
As hundreds of Kmart stores closed and thousands of workers lost their jobs, an investigation by WXYZ-TV, Detroit, raised serious questions about how the company's managers were spending its money in 2002.  While clerks earning $10.35 an hour were being asked to make sacrifices to save the company, executives were flying in a fleet of private jets, driving luxury cars and living in palatial homes.
The station's General Manager, Grace Gilchrist, told us, "These compensation packages seemed to be so out of tune with the ethics the company was built on that it struck a chord with us. This behavior was also very puzzling to the shareholders and to the employees."

Exposing Outrageous Perks: Workers Take Cuts, Execs Fly High
Auto industry executives were flying high in company jets on personal business, while jobs were slashed and workers were being asked to take cuts in salary and benefits. It was examined in 2006 by WXYZ-TV, Investigative reporter Steve Wilson documented the use of corporate jets by executives --- and often their families ---for purely personal trips. Trip after trip after trip, the camera rolled as the executives climbed aboard to travel to their second homes or on vacations.

Delphi Bankruptcy: Echos of K-Mart, Enron and WorldCom
A big auto parts maker was in major financial trouble. There were two money shots in this investigation from WXYZ-TV, Detroit: the excessive use the corporate jet when the company was bankrupt and the CEO being driven around in a luxury foreign car.

New book
Reinventing Local Media:
Ideas For Thriving In A Postmodern World

Here are real solutions to the real problems facing contemporary media companies, many lie outside the comfort zone of media boardrooms. 
This 500-page book brings together the writings and analysis of Terry Heaton.  He is currently a Senior Vice President of Audience Research and Development. After 28 years in local television news, Heaton has been reporting on new media and the impact on television news for several years.

Book is a valuable tool for staff development

Don't Get Distracted:
Stay Focused on Your Core Product

An updated edition of a valuable newsroom resource has just been published.
Delivering viewer- centered information is the focus of The Producing Strategy, Version 2.0, by veteran consultant Larry Rickel and longtime successful anchor Ed Sardella.

Their premise: everyone in the newsroom is a producer. We must all be involved in strong storytelling and making the newscast a special experience for the viewer.

Don't abandon your power base while upgrading your new media, says Rickel.

As broadcasters move onto new platforms, it is more important than ever to stay focused on the role the TV newscast plays in your four-screen strategy.
Please continue here, Rickel and Sardella explain their theories, and the value of their book.

Learn Successful Television Reporting
A top reporter explains how to produce memorable stories.   KGO-TV's Wayne Freedman has won 44 Emmys.
We feel that this book is a must buy for reporters or students who are serious about their careers.

Aim For The Heart
This is a guide for TV reporters, producers and photojournalists who want to learn how to tell clearer and stronger stories.
This is practical material, real world techniques.
Al Tompkins is currently at the Poynter Institute. He spent 25 years as a reporter, producer, photojournalist and news director.

Collective Talent, the online talent resource by Michaels Media, has opened its service to non-represented talent.

When the service was first unveiled, it was designed to be supported primarily by talent agents.
That approach made sense because the majority of talent in larger markets are represented by agents. The biggest agencies can represent several hundred people.

Copyright 2008, Standish Publishing Company.  This material is for your personal use as a subscriber, and may not be reproduced or transmitted to other parties of any kind.   

Hurricane!
The news executives and staffers who were there explained how they served their viewers, and survived.

When A Flooding Disaster
Strikes:  Who's in Charge?
In Sacramento,  KCRA-TV news documented serious weaknesses in the emergency response system. News Director Bill Bauman told us how they executed this major project.

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The Rundown has reported weekly on local television news, programming, and community service projects since 1981. This material now fills a massive hard copy archive of 7,000 pages --- easily the largest record of hometown television's activities.  Key articles are available in our online archives.

Covering The Murder
Of A President
Shocked reporters dealt with their own grief, mass confusion, and the silence of official sources to inform the nation that John F. Kennedy had been shot to death in Dallas.

Two reporters, four stories, one big award
The judges awarded a Peabody to the investigative unit of WFAA-TV, Dallas, for the overall quality of its work. The station won for four separate stories submitted by investigative reporters Brett Shipp and Byron Harris.
The Peabodys do not recognize categories, nor are there a set number of awards given each year. Although the entries were submitted separately, Executive News Director Michael Valentine said it was the caliber of the work by the unit as a whole that made it a winner.

Students drinking contaminated water
Youngsters are being exposed to lead every day in Los Angeles. The surprising source --- the drinking fountains at their schools -- - was revealed by KNBC-TV's Joel Grover.

 Schoolhouse Outrage:
Filthy Bathrooms
Schools in Southern California were checked to see how sanitary --- or unsanitary --- the bathrooms were.  KCBS-TV   investigators  spent three months and visited more than 50 buildings, some of them more than once.  Many bathrooms were locked or unavailable to students.   Many were missing essential supplies.

Roughed Up At Recess: Violence On The Playground
Teachers stood by doing nothing while bullies beat up other children on the school playgrounds.  News team members at WITI-TV, Milwaukee were surprised that it was so blatant and out of control. They followed up with a project that offered solutions for parents and educators.

Room 104:
The Overcrowding Crisis
By focusing on students and teachers, an initially boring subject was brought to life. Viewers could see how children are shortchanged when the instructor is simply lucky to keep control, never mind teaching and helping individuals having problems. This was a duPont winner for WABC-TV, New York.

Juvenile sexual offenders attending schools
Not only are juvenile sexual offenders attending schools, often the school officials don't know it.   The offender changes schools, but his record may not follow him. In St. Louis, KSDK-TV investigated.  

Public Safety Workers Face On The Job Hazards
Many people who keep the public safe have been injured or sickened because of workplace accidents or exposure to harmful substances.

Prisoners: Escaping and Not Pursued, Inmates Housed at Secret Locations
Two investigations showed how important it is keep track of how corrections officials are --- or are not --- doing their jobs.

Intelligence Report Breaks News Every Day
WLS-TV, Chicago showcases investigative stories on a daily basis. Many news executives have been working to get their investigative units on air more frequently.

Into Child Porn? No Problem, Have A Nice Day
Most men who are arrested in Wisconsin for Internet sex crimes do not go to prison. Three years of cases were analyzed by WITI-TV, Milwaukee.

Airport Restaurants:
What's on the Plate?
For your airport meal: Spoiled food and big rats. There was a lot to reveal when restaurants were visited by investigators from WAGA-TV, Atlanta.

It's Hard To File A Complaint Against Police In South Florida
Only 3 of 38 departments had complaint forms available when undercover checks were run by investigators at WFOR-TV, Miami.

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Hostage Crises:
Do You Let Gunmen Control Your Air?

When an upset, armed individual is threatening to kill someone, the police commanders supervising the emergency response and the news executives in charge of covering the confrontation have many sensitive decisions.  
Here's how broadcast executives have dealt with these dangerous emergencies.