We Can’t Always Get What We Want
Certainly we can’t always get what we want – and that’s truer than not in the Monday news world. But our goal is to pull away with what we need: the best show possible (and I make sure I do everything in my power to make it happen).
Preparation is crucial. I need to know what is going on around me, across the country, and around the world BEFORE Monday. I’m a news junkie anyways, but make sure that I’m tuning in throughout the weekend, and night before. That’s when I start brainstorming. I write up all my story ideas and then go to sleep with three clean sheets of package ideas and dozens of ideas running through my head.
My alarm wakes me up buzzing “Lean on Me” at 5:30am and I’m up to work. I check over the latest on my top news sites and then go to the budget items for the day. At this point I’m cracking down to narrow my choices. I think, “What would I want to go watch?”. I need to be excited about my stories, brag about them. I pick my “top 3”, press print, and hop on my bike.
Once I get to the news room its nice to see the other producers. I have to say, I’m lucky to have such a solid team. We’re all early and ready with coffee on our desks. It’s nice to be able to discuss our stories and the budget before the rest of our crew gets there – Very efficient.
Around 8:00am people start trickling in, generally not as chipper and cheery but my philosophy is that as long as they show up, we can get them into “game-mode”. Energy is a key, and lots of it. The more pumped up the producers are, the more everyone feels like participating and, in the end, we all end up benefiting. It’s a win-win. The team is happy to be heard, and the producers get story ideas that we probably wouldn’t have had otherwise.
By 9:00am the whiteboard’s loaded with pitches. From here we talk to each other to narrow down the packages. Generally we have at least five story ideas that we would love to package, but can only take two or three. I like to give the reporters some choice in what they do but if they’re being stubborn or a downer about a specific story (that we producers really care about) I just have to push it. I turn into the cheerleader, printing out maps, wires and phone numbers to let them know that we are there to help if they run into any trouble. But, at the same time, if it’s a “top story” they should see that they generally have plenty of material to work from.
From here, the MJ’s get to dive in to what’s left, and I make a “call list” for the assignment desk to reach out to potential interviewees, experts, public officials, etc.
We may not always get *exactly* what we want. But, so far, when we put in the time, we usually find: WE GET WHAT WE NEED!!
