Essential Editing
Until I actually began working as a producer, I never realized just how crucial good writing is. Essentially, the writing and copy editing of stories forms the back bone of our show. The way a story is written sets the tone for a piece and indicates how it should be edited.
As a producer, copy editing everyone's work is the key to maintaining a strong back bone. When going back and forth between web and broadcast style writing, it can be difficult to keep all of the rules straight so I try to brush up on my skills often and communicate with my team when I have questions.
While it is difficult to balance all tasks at once, I try to copy edit both web pieces and stories in the rundown whenever I have a little free time. It is important to do this because if there are spelling or sentence errors in a script, an anchor could get thrown off and stumble during a live show. And if there are errors on our website, this could affect our credibility with our readers.
All in all, taking (and finding) the time to copy edit is not always easy but it is one of the most important elements of content creation in a newsroom.