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Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism University of Southern California
Producers

Half Down, So Much More Left To Accomplish

While I've probably gotten to this point on luck, some skill and a lot of determination, my talents as a producer will need to improve in the final five or six weeks of the semester.

Thanks in large part to the help of my team from Jill and Rachel to all my wonderful assignment desk editors, multimedia journalists, web teammates and reporters/anchors, we've been able to turn Team Tuesday into, as my friends would joke, an "actually watchable program."

All that being said, I still have some things I would love to accomplish this semester. First of all, I'm still trying my best to pitch better reporter packages for my star team. It takes a great deal of time to put these things together, but I've always appreciated how valuable an important story pitch can be as a reporters' best friend.

I think those packages need to be personal, maybe a little less from the budget. But if that is the case, I at least need to be more persistent to find things that people really care about. While some of our better packages this semester have come from the budget, we have made them perfect thanks to individual interviews and some touching elements. 

After listening to the ideas of my peers, especially after the running of our show each week, I've recognized that the larger stories that break down important topics into multiple elements that are widely appreciated. I can take that lesson by limiting the number of short copy stories we publish and instead focusing on important, somewhat lighter pieces. 

It can sure be hard to please everyone with your stories, but I should really take more time to talk with my staff and see whether they actually care about the stories we put in the rundown. Sure, certain international and national stories must be at least talked about to some degree, but I as a producer must find ways to make them really matter. 

That's where teamwork comes into play, starting with the help of my assignment desk editors and MJs. These hard workers are my eyes and ears out there and are smart enough to know, and more importantly bring up, when certain elements are interesting or just far too boring for our actual broadcast. If I want to make my stories more interesting, I might as well do my best to stay informed and then ask others how they would cover this stuff. 

One area I must improve is in collecting my thoughts about all our story elements. There are times, and this happens a great deal with Stacy, that I lose track of what actually takes place in my show. That is unacceptable and I need to make sure I have at least some idea (mostly by making notes in our column) to keep my mind fresh for our daily meeting. 

I do love the energy that exists on Team Tuesday but I just want to make sure that this level of intensity stays the same. I don't want people to become passive, or lose interest, so I plan on keeping things fresh (and fun) with my hardworking team. Put those items together and Team Tuesday will continue to pump out great coverage in the weeks to come.

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