First Item on the Agenda

Ideas are what drive the newscast and it is the responsibility of everyone on the ATVN team to come into the morning meeting with a vision for the newscast. The producers lead the discussion and usually have a general idea of what is going to be covered that day. However, I have tried to include all of the members of the ATVN team in making decisions on what pieces of news will ultimately make the newscast.

The producers are only a team of four people and cannot possibly be up-to-date on all of the latest stories and news across the city, nation, and rest of the world. There are usually around a dozen other people across the various platforms, including Annenberg Radio News and Neon Tommy, that take part in the meeting as well. These multimedia journalists, assignment desk editors, and reporters read all different types of news and have many different interests. The diverse group of people in the morning meeting can contribute ideas about which the producers never would have thought.

An example of this happened at last week’s morning meeting. I was somewhat bored of all of the crime, dull, and simply sad stories that were in the rundown so I urged people that were present in the meeting, but that had been quiet, to contribute and share stories that they think would impress and stimulate the audience. Someone who had not spoken a word in the meeting up to that point contributed an idea about Sex Week at Harvard. That idea transformed into a package and an in-studio guest. It is this type of story that had everyone in the morning meeting talking and that ultimately, would have viewers hooked and engaged.

In the next few weeks, I will continue to be a leader in the morning meetings and solicit everyone's ideas.