Wow, do I wish I was on this call. I have so many questions for Dave! Great questions by the people who did attend. And it's so nice of Dave to answer so openly.
Another question: I have noticed this a little bit on local newscasts, but it's the national news that is the worst. I usually watch ABC World News Tonight (can't they just say ABC News?). Every night it's the same thing, they begin with lead-ins to the major drawing stories - I understand that. They want to draw in the audience. But then, after the intro music, they repeat themselves. AND for each story, the anchor gives the headlines, very detailed headlines, and the reporter just repeats that information. Why the repetition? It drives me crazy. They could have time for two more stories if they didn't repeat everything so many times. Okay, I'll stop my rant now. Thanks Dave.
They call it World News Tonight to differentiate it from other ABC News programs, like Good Morning America. It’s standard in the business. CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, etc.
The top stories tease is meant to hook viewers into staying longer because they might see a story teased that they’re interested in.
But they definitely should not be repeating information when the anchor introduces the story. That’s just lazy producing.
When I first started as a reporter at KCCI, I would carefully write the anchor intro and the lead sentence to my story. Paul Rhodes, the news director and 6 pm anchor, would always steal my first line for his anchor intro and make me pick up the story with my SECOND sentence. With a twinkle in his eye, he accused me of saving my best sentence for my package while giving him something substandard to say in the intro.
Too many reporters write their package script and then have to think of something for the anchor to say. It usually makes the anchor intro weak. Paul was teaching me a valuable lesson. The story STARTS with the anchor intro which should flow into the reporter package, without repetition.
That should also be the standard for network newscasts, but apparently it’s not!
Good morning Dave! You mentioned the commercial bits done outside of the news including nonprofits, etc. and it reminded me of shows from the past. I'm talking about things like Mary Brubaker's shows, where local groups could come on and talk about their activities, rescues would bring animals up for adoption. I miss those. Do you know why they've gone away?
Andrea, local programming largely went away, other than news, because station owners could buy syndicated programming with higher production values and without paying local staff to fill that time slot. Examples are Kelly and Mark, Oprah, or a game show like Wheel or Jeopardy. It was a financial decision, but at a loss of providing local information to local viewers.
Wow, do I wish I was on this call. I have so many questions for Dave! Great questions by the people who did attend. And it's so nice of Dave to answer so openly.
Thanks, Andrea. Happy to answer questions anytime.
Another question: I have noticed this a little bit on local newscasts, but it's the national news that is the worst. I usually watch ABC World News Tonight (can't they just say ABC News?). Every night it's the same thing, they begin with lead-ins to the major drawing stories - I understand that. They want to draw in the audience. But then, after the intro music, they repeat themselves. AND for each story, the anchor gives the headlines, very detailed headlines, and the reporter just repeats that information. Why the repetition? It drives me crazy. They could have time for two more stories if they didn't repeat everything so many times. Okay, I'll stop my rant now. Thanks Dave.
Andrea, lots of good questions!
They call it World News Tonight to differentiate it from other ABC News programs, like Good Morning America. It’s standard in the business. CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, etc.
The top stories tease is meant to hook viewers into staying longer because they might see a story teased that they’re interested in.
But they definitely should not be repeating information when the anchor introduces the story. That’s just lazy producing.
When I first started as a reporter at KCCI, I would carefully write the anchor intro and the lead sentence to my story. Paul Rhodes, the news director and 6 pm anchor, would always steal my first line for his anchor intro and make me pick up the story with my SECOND sentence. With a twinkle in his eye, he accused me of saving my best sentence for my package while giving him something substandard to say in the intro.
Too many reporters write their package script and then have to think of something for the anchor to say. It usually makes the anchor intro weak. Paul was teaching me a valuable lesson. The story STARTS with the anchor intro which should flow into the reporter package, without repetition.
That should also be the standard for network newscasts, but apparently it’s not!
Good morning Dave! You mentioned the commercial bits done outside of the news including nonprofits, etc. and it reminded me of shows from the past. I'm talking about things like Mary Brubaker's shows, where local groups could come on and talk about their activities, rescues would bring animals up for adoption. I miss those. Do you know why they've gone away?
Andrea, local programming largely went away, other than news, because station owners could buy syndicated programming with higher production values and without paying local staff to fill that time slot. Examples are Kelly and Mark, Oprah, or a game show like Wheel or Jeopardy. It was a financial decision, but at a loss of providing local information to local viewers.