What else could/would you do?

[SamG]

Hypothetically... the boss comes to you and says your position is being eliminated. But they don't want to kick you out on the street and if you're willing to change jobs, you can stay. So what could/would you do (and what are you currently doing)?

News
Editor
Reporter
Producer
Photographer
Assignment Editor

Production
Master Control
Audio
Director
Graphics
Studio Camera
Editor (commercial/promo)

I'm an engineer, but would do: MCR, Audio, Studio Camera, News Editor, News photographer. I could (but wouldn't) go back to producer or AE.

[interloper]

Those that will have the best chance to survive in tight times are those that actually make the content. Not those who sit in the office but those who go out and really get the pictures and interviews.

That means photographer.

Anyone else is expendable. Anyone inside the building can be cut with ease because their job can either be automated or eliminated and combined with others...who are also much more at risk. Look around the newsroom. Who can really go out and cover the news? Sure, lots of empty talk from those sitting in cubicles. Who can really get the video and get it edited and on the air? Who can really go out and gather the information first hand AND meet deadline every time right now? Very few if any.

There are already too many layers between those that own the company and those that really make the product. Lots of times those inside the building have the mistaken belief they are important. That they "create". They don't. If they don't have the basic building blocks they have nothing. Be the one who makes those blocks and you will enjoy what many others in television news can only dream about.

Job security.

[SamG]

You think photographers have more job security than anyone? LOL Ever hear of "backpack journalists" or OMBs? You can also cut down the number of crews going out in the field.

You can't "automate" producing... someone has to stack the show and make sure it runs on time.
You can't "automate" anchors... someone has to present the news.
You can't "automate" engineers... someone has to hook things up and keep them running.
You can't "automate" reporters... someone has to gather the news.

Does that mean everybody in the above jobs are safe? No. "Make do with less". That includes photographers too.

Those that have the best chance to survive are those that can fill more than one roll. Photogs have a step up because they can shoot/edit/(presumably) run a live truck. But your station just decided they can get by with one less photog and that's YOU. What else can you do to convince the station to keep you around? Can you write? Can you stack a show? Can you run audio for a newscast? Can you direct a newscast? Can you dial in live shots? Record feeds?

[wx or not]

You can't "automate" anchors... someone has to present the news.
One word: ananova.

[DoneThatToo]

My answer would be I can do anything and then proceed to give it my best shot.

On the provided list things that I am pretty sure that I wouldn't be very good at are AE and reporter, producer would be a strong challenge. All the tech stuff I have done and could do again. But while I did one of the 'other jobs' if I wasn't happy I would darn sure be looking for somewhere, something else to do.

And don't forget.

All automation has to have somebody to set it up, program and maintain. I could be that guy!

[Brain Cramp]

I agree those who can do a multiple of things and ARE WILLING to do those things have the best chance of keeping their jobs. It's just that those jobs will be jam-packed with work. Examples:

Assignment editors will also produce.
Producers will produce more shows and edit.
No anchor will merely anchor. They will report as well and file packages (not just VOSOT's). Every day.
Photogs will work in MC during newscasts or run a studio camera or report.
Weather and Sports staff will also report news or become the newsroom's webmaster.

There will be no rest for the weary.

And no one will ever get time off again because there won't be anyone left to cover for you.

Happy New Year!

[News Is Broken]

Producers will produce more shows and edit.

Did you hear that thud? Veggie Girl just fainted.

[newz2me]

Hypothetically... the boss comes to you and says your position is being eliminated. But they don't want to kick you out on the street and if you're willing to change jobs, you can stay. So what could/would you do (and what are you currently doing)?

News
Editor
Reporter
Producer
Photographer
Assignment Editor

Production
Master Control
Audio
Director
Graphics
Studio Camera
Editor (commercial/promo)

I'm an engineer, but would do: MCR, Audio, Studio Camera, News Editor, News photographer. I could (but wouldn't) go back to producer or AE.
I could do all of the above. I may not enjoy it as much but I can do it. The real question is do they expect me to take a pay cut?
I'm a photog now but I've done MCO, ran audio, directed, studio camera, edited and shot both news and commercial and some reporting.

[interloper]

News
Editor
Reporter
Producer
Photographer
Assignment Editor

Production
Master Control
Audio
Director
Graphics
Studio Camera
Editor (commercial/promo)

I'm an engineer, but would do: MCR, Audio, Studio Camera, News Editor, News photographer. I could (but wouldn't) go back to producer or AE.

I don't see VJ or backpack journalist on your list of choices one could make to answer you original question on this thread.

Photogs have the best shot for the very simple reason they can go out and get the job done. Not sit in the newsroom and play "what if".

We actually deal with real people in the real world face to face. Something everyone else in the newsroom avoids. That's good for them because they can continue to maintain their uninformed views of what it takes to get the job done to the detriment of the entire process. Sadly for them...it is the very reason they have little or no job security in the future.

I don't know of any photogs today, unless they are VERY old and in very strong union markets who don't edit as well as shoot. Not to mention know how to do a myriad of other job skills vital to news coverage.

Producers? They write intros and stack shows. They do what they are told. Gone soon are the days of having a producer for every half hour news show. You just don't need them. Reporters, the ones who might be left, will write their own intros, thanks. The dirty little secret producers never want let out is that all they do IS stack a show. Over and over the same way every day. News, weather, sports. No imagination...unless it's what to decide to have for lunch while they sit at their desk until quitting time.

Reproters? I know several that can shoot and would make the transition as well. Sadly the majority of reporters can't shoot or edit in a timely manner to save their lives. They will be gone too.

Photogs are used to meeting real world news deadlines. That means shooting, editing, yes and even help write, a news story and get it all done in time to make air. Everyone else, like out of touch engineers stuck int he building are kidding themselves about their job security.

There's no need for studio camera folk. It's automated! VJ's? Backpack journalists? Photogs already do that job more than most newsrooms care to admit. I'm in a pretty major market and we often send a photog on their own to cover all kinds of news and get an interview or two. That's all you generally need for a day of story! No reporter with us. Though it's nice to have them around because the quality of the product is better...but it's not truly necessary if the decision comes down to survival of the news department as a whole.

Photogs already tell those in front of the camera what to say and what to do in their stand ups. It's a necessity in today's world because so many green, inexperienced kids are being hired in markets really too large for them. If we don't tell them what to do...they'll waste time and we miss deadline which is not an option.

But what is missed most by those in the building is they couldn't find their way around town if their life depended on it! They're lost! And then once you get there, they'd have no idea how to deal one on one with all the real world folks, under stress, we have to deal with at news situations! They would quickly become "offended" because someone yelled at them! Too used to the PC world which exists inside the building.

Nope, photogs are where it's at. Yes, there are a few who wouldn't be able to make the grade but in large, general terms it's the photogs who can do it all. Not producers. Not desk folk, Not other managers who have built walls around themselves cutting themselves off from dealing with real news in real news situations. It's much easier for them to sit in the AC and play make-believe about what can and can't be done in the field.

Being a photog is a skill that can not be done once in some small market years ago, and then picked up again several jobs later in some other town. Those skills, if not used every day to remain sharp, quickly fade. There's no time for those skills to be relearned. Especially by those who were once photogs long ago in the days of film or tape to tape editing. They are way to far behind the learning curve.

Ask yourself a simple question. If you were told this very day to go out and cover a story, shoot, do interviews, write and edit it...could you (including travel time to the location) do it and get it on the air in an hour or two? Any photog worth their salt can. I guarantee you not one person in the newsroom, producer, desk, MC engineer or editor could do it and meet deadline.

When this hypothetical choice you asked earlier really does happen...and it will...there won't be a grace period. It will be put up or shut up and don't let the door hit you on the way out!

I know I won't be one of those leaving if given this choice. Many others will.

[Clever Login Name]

THIS will be the thread where we settle the VJ debate once and for all, and to everyone's satisfaction.

[TVMattNYC]

Hypothetically... the boss comes to you and says your position is being eliminated. But they don't want to kick you out on the street and if you're willing to change jobs, you can stay. So what could/would you do (and what are you currently doing)?

I'd be willing to take a Vice President position.

[SamG]

blah blah blah photog blah blahDon't have much of an ego do we? Fine, so a photog goes out, meets the public and aims the pointy end of the camera at them (VERY simplifiying, I know).

So you bring the stuff back and know how to edit. OK. Now, can you write the script and fill the time allotted and not go over? Can you time a show so you hit a generic live from network and still get your satellite shot in before the window closes? Can you still hit the show outtime after the weather guy goes over and sports has two packages to run? Can you arrange five photogs to shoot with seven reporters and get everything done? Can you set up a triple box effect with the studio and two live shots? Can you hook up that "automation" so it talks with all the various pieces? Can you make sure all the commercials run following a network news interrupt?

You have *NO* idea what other people in the newsroom, MUCH LESS the station do. So how can you say you can do their jobs? I agree some are just "skating" by, but that doesn't mean they don't have talent. And I also disagree with you comment about former shooters picking back up. Sure they can. They may be a little slow at first, but today's equipment is MUCH easier to operate... not only an 'auto' white balance, but an 'auto' TRACKING WB (so you can go from sun to shade and the camera adjust automatically). Auto locators on microwave/satellite dishes so you don't even have to know where you're pointing. NLE where you can pick and choose the clips you want and don't have to shuttle through a 30 minute minute tape to find the 5 second shot you want.

Others in this thread have it right... the more jobs you know the better off you are. Is the boss going to keep a 'photog' or a photog who knows how to write? What if that photog can get (and keep) a live truck running?

You just continue doing your 'photog' duties (which I'm sure you do well) and bad mouth everyone else at the station. We'll see who's still around after the layoffs.:whistle:

[SamG]

I'd be willing to take a Vice President position.
What page was that in the gay Kama Sutra?:moon: :D

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[angz86]

I see backpack journalists/OMB's on my list, editor, web!!!....I could produce, but I don't like it.

[interloper]

Don't have much of an ego do we? Fine, so a photog goes out, meets the public and aims the pointy end of the camera at them (VERY simplifiying, I know).

So you bring the stuff back and know how to edit. OK. Now, can you write the script and fill the time allotted and not go over? Can you time a show so you hit a generic live from network and still get your satellite shot in before the window closes? Can you still hit the show outtime after the weather guy goes over and sports has two packages to run? Can you arrange five photogs to shoot with seven reporters and get everything done? Can you set up a triple box effect with the studio and two live shots? Can you hook up that "automation" so it talks with all the various pieces? Can you make sure all the commercials run following a network news interrupt?

You have *NO* idea what other people in the newsroom, MUCH LESS the station do. So how can you say you can do their jobs? I agree some are just "skating" by, but that doesn't mean they don't have talent. And I also disagree with you comment about former shooters picking back up. Sure they can. They may be a little slow at first, but today's equipment is MUCH easier to operate... not only an 'auto' white balance, but an 'auto' TRACKING WB (so you can go from sun to shade and the camera adjust automatically). Auto locators on microwave/satellite dishes so you don't even have to know where you're pointing. NLE where you can pick and choose the clips you want and don't have to shuttle through a 30 minute minute tape to find the 5 second shot you want.

Others in this thread have it right... the more jobs you know the better off you are. Is the boss going to keep a 'photog' or a photog who knows how to write? What if that photog can get (and keep) a live truck running?

You just continue doing your 'photog' duties (which I'm sure you do well) and bad mouth everyone else at the station. We'll see who's still around after the layoffs.:whistle:


I answered your simplified quetion from your very own list. Now you don't like my answer?!?!?

There won't be seven reporters to schedule with five photogs! There will be two or three, and they will also anchor. The "anchor only" people are going to be getting out of the building more, doing real news gathering again. Like they should have been long ago.

There will be ONE producer. Not five, six or more. OK, two if there is a late news show as well.

Weather? Sports? Don't make me laugh. Both are in for severe cuts because they are outdated segments unless there's a hurricane or tornado bearing down. Sports is covered much better elsewhere too. Local sports is over rated and what video that might need shot, is available from so many other sources than in the past. Not to mention it's usually FREE from schools and teams dying for the attention.

I DO know how to do those other newsroom jobs and it's sure not rocket science to listen to a scanner, stack a show, read press releases off the FAX machine or "supervise" all the others in a newsroom full of people that never leave to create real product. In fact, all of them can be compared to loading dock workers. Expendable during lean times since the "trucks" are easily filled by those who make the product. None of those "inside" people create product. Not a one. They have to wait for the product to be gathered and brought to them. Then they plug predetermined holes just like they always do. Delivering the product to the consumer has never been easier. And it's getting easier by the day. Local news shows are cookie cutters. Same blocks of news. Same segments. Same teases written by cliche driven people who have been doing it the same way forever. The creativity takes place outside the building. Not inside.

Confident? You bet! I've seen all those ex-photogs fail too often not being able to live up to their years old claim of knowing how to shoot and edit. Skills that are quickly lost...then their own inability to regroup and compete, especially if they have to NLE!

Write a script? Been there. Done that. Still do it every day helping green reporters keep their own jobs
I agree...more skills from a single individual are what counts! That's why photogs "win"! They already have the multiple skills in hand to do the job today! Shoot, edit, run a live truck, do interviews, feed stories FTP, upload video to whatever server or source you want from anywhere you want, even know how to write scripts that are at the very least, as good as what's being produced today by 90 percent of those claiming to be reporters. Not make empty claims and then fail when it comes time to "walk the talk" as all those others who haven't left a newsroom in years, if ever during their work day!

I don't have to be in the studio or booth to keep my job. Plenty of soon to be unemployed folks there already who won't be around much longer. I know what is important in the television news formula and that is the product. News never happens in the newsroom. Too many inside forget that.

They might have saved themselves if they had focused on doing the real job of news gathering but that just makes my future all the more secure because I didn't make the same big mistake they did! I make the product that runs the business engine and they don't. When push comes to shove, those that make it, "make it". The rest? Well, maybe they can go back to some small market and retrain themselves for the future. If there are any jobs left in the smaller markets that is.

[adam & doctor drew]

wow I don't have a dog in this fight but interloper's the leader in the clubhouse for arrogant a-hole of the week.

what an ego.
why do you continue to work in a business where you think everyone and everything sucks? (except you of course)

your claim that everyone but photogs is replaceable would be funny if it weren't so stupid.
if photogs are so irreplaceable, why are more and more stations going VJ?

and if you think weather's going away, then we must be living on different planets.
weather's about the ONLY thing bosses seem to care about these days.

[interloper]

if you think weather's going away, then we must be living on different planets.
weather's about the ONLY thing bosses seem to care about these days.


Weather? Yep, when it's important, REALLY important, it's photogs out getting the news. Not some weather geak stuck in the studio ripping and reading from the weather service or National Hurricane Center. Sure, point to your Doppler super dooper radar and tell us what the colors mean! That takes no talent. Weather is wrong fifty percent of the time anyway and if tragedy does hit, that weather geek isn't the one out shooting storm damage or getting video of a tornado on the ground!

VJ? Don't like it but if that's what it takes to survive, "can do". It is tv after all and tv means video. That's why VJ has failed so often before. It's a waste of time training reporters and others who could never shoot or edit before. They are too far behind on the learning curve.

Bad video, poorly shot, drives viewers away unless your dream is a you-tube career with no paycheck!

[SamG]

Weather? Yep, when it's important, REALLY important, it's photogs out getting the news. Not some weather geak stuck in the studio ripping and reading from the weather service or National Hurricane Center. Sure, point to your Doppler super dooper radar and tell us what the colors mean! That takes no talent. Weather is wrong fifty percent of the time anyway and if tragedy does hit, that weather geek isn't the one out shooting storm damage or getting video of a tornado on the ground!I can't believe I'm getting back into this, but... do photogs let the viewers know what the weather is going to be later in the day or tomorrow? I guess you can do that while you're out "meeting the people". Do photogs tell people there's a tornado heading toward their home, possibly saving lives?:frustrated:

I guess while you're out meeting people you can also convince them to buy ad time... no sales people. You can also shoot a commercial while you've stopped by the store and edit that while you're editing your news piece... hey, no production people needed. All we need are photogs!

[interloper]

All we need are photogs!

Now you're catching on! ;)

[Clever Login Name]

All of you are expendable. And so is your industry. Get out now.

[DoneThatToo]

I can't believe I'm getting back into this, but... do photogs let the viewers know what the weather is going to be later in the day or tomorrow? I guess you can do that while you're out "meeting the people". Do photogs tell people there's a tornado heading toward their home, possibly saving lives?:frustrated:

I guess while you're out meeting people you can also convince them to buy ad time... no sales people. You can also shoot a commercial while you've stopped by the store and edit that while you're editing your news piece... hey, no production people needed. All we need are photogs!


Hey, just let him go and set up the live truck while the quickly developing thunderstorm rolls in on top of him. It will all be over in, wait for it . . .




....



....



A FLASH!

[gdiamante]

Producers? They write intros and stack shows. They do what they are told. Gone soon are the days of having a producer for every half hour news show. You just don't need them. Reporters, the ones who might be left, will write their own intros, thanks. The dirty little secret producers never want let out is that all they do IS stack a show. Over and over the same way every day. News, weather, sports. No imagination...unless it's what to decide to have for lunch while they sit at their desk until quitting time.

**grin** I invite you to do it, any time. Really. How would you like to tackle a four hour morning show?

There's only one job I've had where there was no time for lunch...and that was when I was producing. But I don't want to make this a "my job is more important" debate. I think photographers ARE very important and I know they work very hard.

In answer to the question...I'd take on any of the listed news jobs EXCEPT photographer merely because I am not good at it. I haven't handled a camera in 24 years, but I know my limits. But I have done and can do all the rest of the news jobs.

[ewink]

You just continue doing your 'photog' duties (which I'm sure you do well) and bad mouth everyone else at the station. We'll see who's still around after the layoffs.:whistle:
Most likely the photogs, since they can handle all aspects of the actual content of the show...

[Produce man]

All of you are expendable. And so is your industry. Get out now.I second that. Fewer people to compete with!:whistle:

[s'news]

Whatever it is, it'll suck.