Plan B (and C and D)
Our newscast is on the air at 6 p.m., and both the studio and the newsroom get hectic around 5:30. Things get even more hectic when I don’t have a plan B.
When I was a lead producer, my lead package wasn’t ready until 5:55. I am a relatively calm person, so I trusted everyone in the newsroom working on that package. However, I wasn’t so calm after all when the clock turned 5:57. I did not have an alternate welcome, and the anchors were not aware of the fact that the lead package was not in yet. Luckily, the package arrived on time, and it looked great; however, I realized that not having a plan B is not having a plan at all.
It is very challenging to work as a lead producer because I must look over everything in the rundown and expect what will happen throughout the day. As always, everything is determined during the night before the newscast or the morning meeting. If I do thorough research the night before and break down the elements well in the morning meeting, that becomes a plan B. If a reporter or an MJ can’t seem to find more information, I can reroute him or her to another angle to focus on. When I am assigning stories to MJs, I try to give them a plan B ahead to save time. “If you can’t find much information on this angle, try [insert plan B here] and let me know.” I can’t give them a plan B unless I am well prepared the night before and acknowledge that there are many elements to a single story.
Another important time to have a plan B is when your show is running light or heavy. When it’s light, our anchors need to banter, and I learned in class that saying, "Hey guys, banter!" is not helpful enough for our anchors. Because I should know a story well more than anyone else, I must tell the anchors specifically what to banter about. On the other hand, if the show is heavy, I can’t simply randomly float stories. I must talk to our MJs, sports anchor and my video teammate and ask them what stories are floatable.
Plan A doesn’t always go well, and one can’t simply give up because plan A does not work out. More than 40 people are working for this newscast and my not having a plan B might ruin the whole show. It’s always essential to prepare beforehand, even though I might have to go to Plan C or D.., hopefully not E!
