Time is a precious resource in a newsroom, so who wouldn’t want to save some?
RTDNA is out this week with a guest column from Simon Perez, Associate Professor of Broadcast and Digital Journalism, Syracuse University who’s providing a list of ways that MMJs can save time and make deadline.
The headline tip: Once is always faster than twice 🙂
A video of a webinar held last week about how local news professionals can help people cope with “fake news” is now available for viewing.
The webinar with Esther Thorson of Michigan State University is available here. You can find all WBA webinars that have been archived here.
Eden Checkol has been named the new anchor of “WISN 12 News at 11:00 a.m.” Checkol replaces Melinda Davenport and will be heading the news desk alongside meteorologist Sally Severson.
In addition to her new role, Checkol will continue to serve as breaking news anchor, weekdays on “WISN 12 News This Morning.”
“Eden is one of those natural talents, who personifies all of those skillsets you look for at the anchor desk,” said Jan Wade, president and general manager of WISN 12. “She can connect with viewers, deliver the most important information on big stories and breaking news, and share the impact it has on people’s lives.”
Before joining WISN 12, Checkol worked in broadcast journalism at various television stations in the Midwest. She has served as a reporter at WISC-TV News 3 in Madison and KBJR-TV in Duluth, Minn.
Many newsrooms might be tempted to scrap online comments. They do damage to journalists and to a newsroom’s reputation.
But this article from RTDNA points out that there are still benefits to keeping online comments and and provides some ideas for making them less destructive and more productive.
The key advice is to put effort into comment moderation. Problems crop up when a comment section is left unattended.
There is no shortage of ideas for things newsrooms should be doing to innovate, but is there room in your newsroom’s schedule to innovate?
The Knight-Cronkite News Lab is suggesting that newsrooms wanting to innovate should start with a list of things they’re going to stop doing.
The article suggests giving newsroom employees a whiteboard to list barriers to productivity and also making a list of things to do differently.
Newsrooms have long been focused on pageviews when they’re measuring digital success, but that might finally be shifting to something more familiar to broadcasters: loyalty.
Poynter is writing this week about the reasons for this shift and how loyalty can be measured using something called the “audience explorer dashboard.”
There’s no single metric to measure audience loyalty, but a combination of metrics can do the trick.
A bill proposed by two members of Congress would remove fees to access online federal court records and make improvements to the PACER system.
Doug Collins (R-Ga.) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) are proposing the idea of eliminating the $0.10 per-page free and making the system more user-friendly.
The proposal is being applauded by open records advocates.
WISN-TV anchor and reporter Adrienne Pedersen will be the new host of the weekly program “UPFRONT.”
“UPFRONT with Adrienne Pedersen” will expand beyond political coverage and include comprehensive exploration and deeper discussions into Wisconsin’s most impactful news topics, a release stated.
“Adrienne will offer a fresh perspective on the types of stories that ‘UPFRONT’ has been delivering over the past decade,” said Jan Wade, president and general manager of WISN 12. “Between Adrienne’s exceptional storytelling skills and her impactful interviews, she will dig into issues that include not only politics and policy, but also community issues, personal profiles and more.”
Pedersen started at WISN 12 in August 2016 as the weekend evening anchor before moving to weekdays on “WISN 12 News This Morning.” She came to the station with years of experience working as a broadcast journalist at television stations across the country, including WFLA (Tampa) where she covered important national events such as the 2012 Republican National Convention and the Orlando Shooting Massacre in 2016.
“I am looking forward to using this platform as an opportunity to expand on important Wisconsin topics and go in depth on captivating stories,” Pedersen said. “This is a different way to provide people across Wisconsin with meaningful, thoughtful, and thorough reporting.”
Pedersen replaced Mike Gousha who is leaving “UPFRONT” to focus on his full-time duties at Marquette University Law School. “UPFRONT” airs Sundays from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on WISN 12. It will also remain on other Wisconsin network stations including WBAY, WKOW, WAOW, WQOW and WXOW.
Pedersen will continue co-anchoring “WISN 12 News This Morning” on weekday mornings and reporting during newscasts on WISN 12 News.
A combination of factors make newsrooms more likely to burnout employees, and some of those same factors make this burnout difficult to counteract.
RTDNA wrote this week about what newsrooms can do about burnout, since the answers aren’t always obvious.
The article also suggests that managers have a role to play:
“Research has shown that a sense of community in the workplace and the availability of mentors decreases burnout. Managers and employers have a significant role to play in creating healthier workplaces that are free of harassment, value each team member and help people grow, not burn out.”
A bill that would establish statewide rules for how police use body cameras and handle requests for access to videos has been approved for introduction by the Joint Legislative Council. A study committee drafted the bill during a series of meetings that started last summer.
The Council voted 20-0 on Wednesday morning to approve the bill for introduction. Chair of the Study Committee on the Use of Police Body Cameras, Sen. Patrick Testin, introduced the draft legislation to the Council and explained the work done by the committee to get it drafted.
The committee voted 9-1 last fall in support of the draft legislation. WISN-TV News Director Ben Hart and attorney James Friedman represented broadcasters and the media on the committee. Both voted in favor of the bill. The study committee included lawmakers who supported two different body camera bills during the last session. Neither were signed into law.
The bill, in part, maintains the Wisconsin’s current standard of public records being assumed accessible to the public, unless a records custodian rules against openness using the balancing test. The bill uses the balancing test to determine if video should be released, and asks records custodians to take into consideration the expectation privacy for anyone who appears in the video and the treatment of victims and minors. The bill also directs records custodians to use redaction where necessary to allow for a video to be released.
The bill also sets standards for record retention and mandates the adoption of policies for law enforcement departments that adopt the use of police body cameras.
The bill will now go through the legislative process, starting with referral to the legislature’s standing committees.
WBA Newsroom