"Beautiful Beaufort-by-the-Sea celebrated turning 300 years old. I should think that with THAT you had a new story. Were you guys in Beaufort this weekend? I know it was raining, but we had the Embers, Shrimp boats arrived at 6 pm. If you were there I missed it and I appreciate it if you were. If you were not there and you wonder why we are skeptical of the "local" news..this is why. We are fortuate to be alive while Beaufort was turning 300... I love Beaufort and wish that there were media truck lined up along Front Street to record this once in a lifetime event. Perhaps we should have scheduled a hurricane? Then it would have been newsworthy?"
Commenter, I wish you would have identified yourself, because I would love to have contacted you personally. But thanks again for commenting -- and for bringing up a good topic: just how do news organizations choose the stories they cover?
It's a question that is growing increasingly complicated in these economic times. To directly answer the commenter's concerns, I do not think anyone from WNCT was in Beaufort the Saturday in question. But, I know for a fact our station covered several of the 300th anniversary events. In particular, I remember watching a very well put together piece one of our photographers did the weekend "pyrates" invaded Beaufort and reenacted an assault on the town.
Beaufort is in the heart of my coverage area -- I am WNCT's coastal bureau reporter and primarily cover Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Jones, Onslow, Pamlico and Pender counties. I am committed to out-reporting, out-hustling and downright outperforming every reporter who covers the same area (though none in the market covers quite as wide a swath of ENC as I do). Just by looking at the list of my turf, it's easy to see that it's downright impossible for me to cover everything that happens in my own area. Being just one reporter, I have to choose to cover the one, two or three stories each day that will have the greatest impact or significance for the greatest number of viewers.
Imagine, then, coordinating the coverage of the largest designated market area in North Carolina -- nearly three dozen counties, all of which are filled with folks who want every event in their community covered. It's impossible! But the staff at WNCT strives to cover as much of it as possible and we have multiple editorial meetings each day to set our strategy for providing the best coverage we can.
Covering the news of the day can sometimes provide a challenge even when a station has a full staff. But thanks to our jolly old friend "the economy," WNCT doesn't have a full complement of reporters, producers or photographers anymore. The same goes for countless news organizations across the globe. And like every other business, we're making do the best we can, because we want to provide the best news product to viewers and web users as we can.
As I mentioned earlier, though, that involves choosing the stories that impact the greatest amount of people. Our commenter made mention of a hurricane. Obviously, an imposing storm would call for a considerable amount of WNCT's resources if it poses a risk to people's lives or property. Oftentimes, stories about crime, the economy, education, health or scams also draw a good bit of our attention because they impact or draw the most interest from nearly all our viewers. But because we don't want our newscasts full of doom and gloom, we do our best to showcase the good things happening in communities all over the east (with our Community Builders segment, for example) because we know that matters greatly to our viewers, as well.
Unfortunately, though, we just can't be everywhere all the time. I don't work on the weekends, for example (I may be a news junkie, but I do need some time off!), so someone from Greenville has to cover our ENTIRE viewing area on the weekends. Sometimes they can get down here to the coast. Sometimes they can't.
Because I live and work along the coast, I want the best coverage possible for this area. I try to provide it when I'm working. When I'm not, I pitch the stories to our news staff as hard as I can, but recognize that other events or stories elsewhere will take priority over something happening here if it's of greater significance -- just as if a story here along the coast would take greater priority than something happening in Greenville when it's of greater significance or impacts more people.
That's not to say Beaufort's 300th anniversary isn't significant. It is -- and as our commenter said, we're all lucky to have witnessed this once-in-a-lifetime event. But instead of growing skeptical, please grow more understanding of our position. In fact, please grow more vocal in telling us the significance and impact of the events you want covered -- and then give us a few days' notice so we can try to organize our coverage to include it. Because we truly care about the communities we serve and we want to cover what's important to you.
And, from where I'm sitting, that's the story behind story selection.
5 comments:
Well said, sir, well said. I've said it before, but you have a knack for writing in a conversational, yet sophisticated manner. And I know that sometimes you actually do work on the weekends, so you should quit being so modest.
I agree with all that 100 percent.
I think some folks think the media is omniscience. I get calls from people who say, "The cops were at my neighbors house two days ago with dogs and guns. Why hasn't that been in the newspaper yet?"
Well...I have to politely ask, "Did you call the newspaper when the event was happening?"
The answer always comes back, "No."
If we don't know about it, we can't report on it.
Now, you give good advice. If someone has something coming up that they think should be in the news then they need to tell the media early and often.
But be forwarned, sometimes we (meaning I) just plain drop the ball. Especially if the event to be covered is before 10 a.m.
Good post, I wish all our readers would take a peek at your blog so they could read this pot too.
Couldn't have said it better myself. It is tough covering our DMA with the resources we now have. And I think it's important to add that, when the economy returns to "normal", that doesn't necessarily mean our resources will. We may never have the same number of people we once did. The media industry is growing and evolving. In fact, every industry is learning to do more with less. As I told another producer here, it's like telling someone who lives on $1,000 a month that they're going to have to get by on $500. They would say "it's impossible." But once they make it work, they can never go back to that $1,000-a-month mentality.
PJ...Though you didn't owe this hillbilly a response, you nailed it, sir.
You and your cohorts do a great job providing us with timely, accurate information concerning where we work and play.
A tip of the cap and a raise of the glass to you my friend.
-WP
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