Starting at the Morning Meeting
The morning meeting is one of the most important parts of a producer's day. This is the time when the producers, reporters, early morning MJs and faculty advisors shape the entire outline of the show. In the Media Center, the morning meeting now includes ARN and Neon Tommy in addition to ATVN. This is a welcome addition because we can collaborate on how to report a story. ARN can use sound from our cameras and when Neon Tommy books an interview we can ask to send a camera along for ATVN. Three outlets in the Media Center could potentially triple our productivity.
To improve the morning meetings we need to encourage the people who are involved to pitch stories. Team Tuesday doesn't have any 402 reporters who are required to pitch stories but we do have two great volunteer reporters, two anchors and a handful of graduate students who are always eager to package. Evan, Rachel and I can't supply a dozen package ideas every week so having our team step up in the morning meeting will be crucial. If the graduate students have requirements to fulfill we need to remind them to pitch a story that could work for class and our show. If our anchors or reporters see something they want to cover they should feel encouraged to speak up. I've been getting emails from reporters and anchors asking if they can cover certain stories they see from the night before. I love getting these emails because it shows that the team is thinking ahead and is committed to covering stories for the newscast.
Our morning editorial meeting can improve by flushing out the ideas we bring. If there is an event on the budget let's try to expand on the coverage and make it about the issue, not the event. We can localize national or international stories and really dig in to the local stories here in Los Angeles.
For people to want to work hard on stories for ATVN they have to enjoy ATVN. Evan and I try to make shifts on Tuesday fun for people, even though it is a lot of work. We encourage high fives and try and become friendly with the team. We hope that a fun atmosphere will encourage people to try their best to make the show great, and a great show starts with the morning editorial meeting.
