| Online talent service opens to
non-represented talent 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.
"The idea was when a TV station posted a job, there would be a large group of
people who could be eligible to apply for it," says co-founder Michael Bille.
Only the people who have contract availability are posted on the site, so news directors
don't waste time researching a person who isn't available for another two years.
About 350 TV stations now post their on-air job opportunities on the Collective
Talent system.
For a subscription fee, agents --- and now individual job seekers, too, --- can get an
e-mail notification of the job posting. News directors can view the digital video and
resume of potential hires, and the talent gets an alert when their video is viewed. (No
more calling and asking if they've seen your tape yet!)
| "The real core of Collective Talent is the
benefit to the News Director. If you are looking for a weekend female anchor, all the
people responding to your job posting are pre-qualified." |
|
Michael Bille
Michaels Media |
Bille explains that the agents know if they have a client who would like
to work in a particular market.
"The agents have a good idea what the pay ranges are in the area. And, because it is
their business, the agents also have a good understanding of what a station's style is and
the kind of applicant they are looking for," he says.
Allowing non-represented anchors and reporters to subscribe to a basic service,
opens up an even larger pool of job applicants for news managers to choose from.
News executives searching for tomorrow's top talent to hire today, will be able to view
non-represented talent who are looking to move, but who they might not hear about
otherwise.
Bille says sitting at your desk and clicking through videos takes a matter of minutes,
instead of the hours that can be consumed by popping in tape after tape.
For the job applicant, it streamlines the job search process.
Instead of making many trips to the post office and mailing dozens of tapes, it is all
done online.
The introductory offer for anchors and reporters is $90 for six months or $25 per
month.
"The non-represented talent will get a lot of the things the agents get. When a job
is posted, they get an e-mail alert. There are a lot of other features inside the system
that the agents have that the talent won't have, but they'll get the nuts and bolts,"
Bille says.
As an added bonus, each new person is featured on the front page of the system for a
short while when they first sign up.
The system is designed so the talent should be able to upload their digital video and
resume themselves, however, Bille says they will help those who encounter technical
difficulties.
For more information, visit:Collective
Talent
. |
Subscribers
Only
In Our Story Archives
Do you yield
your air to rioting prisoners --- or risk the lives of hostages?
Rioting inmates held five guards hostage, and threatened their lives unless the stations
allowed the inmates to air their grievances on live television.
"We had to decide: do you risk the precedent that is going to be set by yielding to
extortion? Do you risk the lives of the hostages being held by the inmates?"
said Mike Kettenring, President and General Manager of WSMV-TV, Nashville.
Prison Riot:
When Television Is Part Of The Story
It was a dangerous, constantly changing event.
Rioting inmates are, of course, far from stable. But, more importantly, there were many
questions about the competence of the state officials. They appeared to have had little
understanding of television --- an element that is often crucial if there is to be a
settlement.
Police Want
To Ban Live Coverage At Scene
California police and their political allies pressed to have law enforcement decide when
television could report live in a hostage crisis or in a tense situation where a suspect
is barricaded inside a building. In the 1996 legislative session, the idea was shelved. It
could always return.
Did Police Lie ---
Or Misspeak in Miami Beach?
Police asked for an embargo on live coverage and said there was no reason to think that
serial killer Andrew Cunanan was in a surrounded houseboat. There was a body. It was
Cunanan. |
|
