The end of the Reporter Package

[CKMD]

I have started to notice it in not only big markets, but slowly creeping through the mid-markets and hitting the smaller markets (which is amazing, since, filling time gets harder and harder as the market gets smaller and smaller).

For the late news, an emphasis on live sot/vo-sot/vo's and no package from the reporter. You still get a 2 minute hole filled, I guess, but with what?

Is this the way things are trending?
Don't some stories deserve to be told fully with a package, ie, a beginning middle and end?
Is this being done to cram more stories into the late news or sheer laziness? Or, is there a time issue for nightside reporters, especially those that are live with one story at 6 and expected to have another story for 10 (or 11, but you do get the extra hour)?

[The Mockingbird]

It's because the widely-held belief that story count is the most important thing for a show, and reporters are increasingly having to turn stories for more than two shows, I'd wager.

[LunchPenalty]

Storytelling, unfortunately, is becoming a casualty of modern technology and a throwback to days gone by. In this era of "give me the bottom line", there isn't much room for extra words, pictures, or ideas.

As a society we've learned to look to the internet, cable news stations and other sources for the news on the quick. How many of you read every story in the newspaper, or are you like me and just scan the headlines? Look at the popularity of shows such as "Pardon the Interruption" which use tightly held rundowns. I've seen local tv newscasts mimic this format.

Too many sources plus lack of viewer invested time equals zero storytelling. There is a place for 2 minute packages and great storytelling, but local tv newscasts isn't it anymore.

[ June 14, 2006, 09:27 AM: Message edited by: LunchPenalty ]

[Pinkie]

Or in small markets where you've shot, edited and written half the show, a package is difficult to put together.

[2:30]

Somewhere a consultant said, "Hey, it sounds more late breaking if your reporter is out there live tracking his VO, and cross rolling to a SOT."

Good storytelling and package production, the consultant decided, were not as important as the "more promotable" live shot.

Wrong, of course...but some managers bought into it.

[newschick26]

The trend I've noticed over time is breaking apart the story in little chunks, especially if it is your lead. Give the anchor the peg--- with a VO, VOSOT, or graphic--- toss to the reporter--- they report on one element of the story (either VOSOT or PKG) --- the anchor has a sidebar tag following it.
In the shows I produce, I personally like to have a nice package for the lead, at least... and I do believe packages are better stories with a narrower focus, unless it's an investigative piece or something. At least in my shop, the package is not a dying breed-- but everything doesn't go into them anymore.

[Lazlo Toth]

The end of the Reporter Package

Over the years, I have seen many that did not end soon enough.

[upandown]

They're killing packages because fewer reporters know the basics of telling narrative stories.

That said, there will always be places for good reporters in the field. The question...will managers allow us to do the kind of work we do do best?

There is too much newsroom micromanagement of reporters, these days. They write the pieces in stone before we leave, and then throw stones when the story comes back different.

Managers...trust your reporters. Let us report.
And try not to call every ten minutes with more items from your wish lists.

[Pink]

Amen brother!!! graemlins/icon_kidra.gif

[omb]

Amen and Amen!!!!!

I don't know which is worse,

the fact they don't have the skill,
the fact they're not trying to gain the skill, or
the fact management is content to re-write their stories daily.

"Just write it choppy enough and throw nat sound in every three words and no one will notice"...is that the mantra now?

[Roy Hobbs]

Originally posted by upandown:
They're killing packages because fewer reporters know the basics of telling narrative stories.

That said, there will always be places for good reporters in the field. The question...will managers allow us to do the kind of work we do do best?

There is too much newsroom micromanagement of reporters, these days. They write the pieces in stone before we leave, and then throw stones when the story comes back different.

Managers...trust your reporters. Let us report.
And try not to call every ten minutes with more items from your wish lists.-------------
What he said.

What started as a wonderful experiment for me in story telling devolved at my shop into being a vo/sot hunter-gathering for kiddies with limited vision and sophisticated backstabbing.

The best (worst) was the day I was sent to the wrong story, at the wrong time, with the wrong organization, to speak to the wrong person (the guy in charge of setting up the luncheon dining arrangements).

I came back with a great package anyway by finding original sources and interesting angles in another part of town. They refused to use any of it.

[The Thrill]

Preach on, upanddown.

That said...sometimes the traditional pkg isn't the best way to tell a story, even if you have the time. Sometimes a live VO/SOT works best, sometimes a series of standups (you all-about-the-face-time folks'll love those), sometimes a (GASP!) chroma explainer...there's lotsa ways.

Field flexibility, folks. That's how you git-r-done.

But now and then, more time for a pkg would be nice, especially if it's something visual.

[Sir Dropham Pants]

Agreed, Thrill.
Just as sometimes the best way to tell a story is through a package (see upandown's previous manifestos on beginning- middle-end etc).
The 'no pkg' edict is a bad idea because it heads off creativity. It would make more sense for a manager to say "It doesn't always have to be a pkg" or something like that. Saying "no pkgs" smacks of gimmicks and desperation. It's like saying "we're the no-tripod station." Sometimes you use a tripod, sometimes you don't. Sometimes the best way to tell the story is a pkg. Sometimes it's a vo-sot.

[Roy Hobbs]

Another sympton of the no package mentality can be found in the rosters of bios of stations.

I'm seeing some now whose bio sections have 1-3 reporters listed while having 6-12 anchors.

[omb]

How about this....no edicts,period?

[The Fedora]

Originally posted by omb:
How about this....no edicts,period?Ahh... that would be great. But what then would the "cornfield crew" do?

[TV Dad]

I believe it's a money issue. Stations have added newscasts and decreased staff due to loss of revenue. More time to fill + less staff = no packages or nat. snd. pieces from photogs. This doesn't mean packages have disappeared completely. They've just moved to the Travel Channel, CNN, Discovery, Animal Planet, etc.

[s'news]

One of the stations here, KHOU, makes it its business to run a lengthy package -- 2:30 or so -- each night at 10. It's some of the best TV in the market.

[Roy Hobbs]

I got your reporter package right here, Pal!

[upandown]

A good reporter is like a good investment banker. The banker can make money, and a reporter can make a story, because they know their respective landscapes. The bankers uses stocks in one kind of market, bonds in another. The reporter plugs in styles and sources.

Yes, there are many ways to stuff the proverbial sausage.

In my seminars, I show one so-called 'package' of a lottery winner at a press conference.
She was fall-down drunk and very funny.
Why use narration, at all? We cut her bites and comments back-to-back, using a white flash in between to avoid jump cuts. Where did we find the white to flash? The side of our white mobile truck.

As I say in a certain book, you are only truly free when an assignment goes bad, and they cut you loose to find 'something else'. Given the choice of looking like a hero, or being a problem, which would you choose?

The problem...that many newsrooms, today, will not grant a reporter that freedom or trust.
Managers are so intent about following the dictates of research that they are killing our spontaneity. Many of my friends watch the news AS COMEDY.

We need:

Reporters who are adaptive more than creative.
So-called 'creativity' often makes us look bad.

Producers who exercise flexiblity.

Desk people who have curiosity, who can look past the face-value of a story...NOT just traffic cops who react to the latest crisis.

And, honestly, we need our companies to provide the manpower and resources to work more thoughtfully. We need that, most of all.

You wanted a rant.

[ June 15, 2006, 11:53 AM: Message edited by: upandown ]

[omb]

Rev. Upanddown

Preach on,preach on,preach on.

[s'news]

Amen! (But I'm seated with the choir.)

[Pinkie]

Originally posted by upandown:
We need:

Reporters who are adaptive more than creative.
So-called 'creativity' often makes us look bad.

Producers who exercise flexiblity.

Desk people who have curiosity, who can look past the face-value of a story...NOT just traffic cops who react to the latest crisis.

And, honestly, we need our companies to provide the manpower and resources to work more thoughtfully. We need that, most of all.

You wanted a rant.Well said. Very well said.

[Ryder13]

I wonder about this 'death'? I used to work for a station where the format for the 5,6, and 10 REQUIRED the newscast start with a package. (Didn't matter if there was a more compelling story that didn't lend itself to that type of presentation.) And if it was a accompanied by the reporter doing a live shot, preferably a 'content-driven' one, so much the better.
The station I work for now regularly has 2-3 packages in the 10. Could it possibly be dependant on the consultant?

Just my .02

[ June 16, 2006, 11:19 AM: Message edited by: Ryder13 ]

[CKMD]

You said "used to". That's the point, really.
Why are there edicts about such things? What kind of stupid manager would REQUIRE a PKG to start a newscast?
It's lazy, that's what it is. It makes no sense to impose edicts like that. What if the story the reporter went out on sucks balls? We should still put 1:20 of ball sucking on the air (during sweeps, if it were ball sucking, I'd say yes, but I digress)?

upanddown - thank you for the great posts!