Newsroom hierarchy and etiquette

Hierarchy

Diagram showing the power structure of the newsroom

Within the standard model of a newsroom, the Editor is responsible for the decisions made by the entire team both legally and ethically. They have to communicate with the publisher (in the case of WINOL, our lecturers) and explain why decisions were made as well as with the entire team, particularly the executive group (or Editors), to ensure that standards are being met, feedback is being used and staff are being effectively deployed.

The Editors are the heads of their respective fields. They answer to the Editor but, depending on the type of Editor in their newsroom, should make a lot of the decisions on what is best for their area themselves. They are in charge of the what content goes onto the site and in what order as well as ensuring that deadlines are met, work is to a good standard and articles are put up onto the site promptly.

Reporters should be close to obsessed with their field and pitch their articles in a competitive manner to their Editor. They should always have at least one good story to pitch in meetings and should always aim for it to be a good, long package at the top of the bulletin rather than an OOV or just a text story and should try to film enough for this even if the Editor only wants a shorter piece as longer packages can be spiked ready to use if others fall through.

Etiquette

• Everyone should respect the news hierarchy and not undermine Editors authority (i.e. if a journalist disagrees with an editor, they should talk to them separately rather than in front of the entire group)
• Teams should work together and with other teams to ensure the best standards are met and that stories are used effectively (i.e. if a news story could also be good for a feature, journalists from both teams should work together to ensure the material is gathered for both pieces)
• All members of the newsroom should try to communicate effectively with one another
• Feedback and criticism should be professional and constructive and not taken personally
• Journalists must try not to let personal disagreements affect their professional work

News editor and presenter rota

Wk	Editor	Presenter	Shadowing Presenter & script writer	Sport Presenter	Guest Editor
1	Spence	Harry	-	-	-
2	Christina	Liam	-	-	-
3	Zeena	Ellen	-	-	Joe Curtis
4	Harry	Ben	-	-	Graham Bell
5	Liam	Nadine	Lucy	-	Chris Coneybeer
6	Spence	Harry	Laura	Lucy	Will Boden
7	Harvey	Christina	Zeena	Laura	Claudia Murg
8	Kate	Spence	Tate	Zeena	Paul Wood
9	Nadine	Sam	Drew	Tate	Unconfirmed
10	Ellen	Harry	-	Drew	Unconfirmed

 

Reporter check list

·         Picture quality

o   Exposure

o   White balance

o   Focus

·         Sound quality

o   No echo

o   No unwanted background noise

o   Clear crisp audio; not tinny or crackly

·         Shots

o   Plenty of cut-aways

o   No zooms or pans

o   Pull focus (if appropriate)

·         Presenting

o   Take care with tone

o   Slow and steady voice overs and PTCs

·         Interviews

o   Sequence for each interviewee

o   Facts in your voice, opinion in theirs

o   Short and simple quotes

o   Depth of shot for background

o   Appropriate headroom

·         Editing

o   Don’t begin with a PTC

o   Aim to start with best pics and relevant nat. sot.

o   Ensure presenter link to package does not repeat anything from the start of the VT

o   Make sure interviews start talking before their image comes on screen

·         Text stories

o   Should go up quickly; add detail later once you have done your interviews

o   Good quality still picture

o   A version of your VT after the bulletin

o   Good quotes

o   Subject and verb agreement on plurality

Week 1 WINOL feedback

For a first week back, WINOL actually ran pretty smoothly. The production team managed to maintain a calm and professional appearance despite being launched into some stressful situations and managed to hit the 3 o’clock live recording deadline which was superb.

I think the order of stories was slightly unusual. I think we really need to work out exactly who our target audience is to ensure the news order is optimised for them to ensure we grew our viewing figures. Part of what will really help with this is ensuring that the news conference operates as a pitching process where reporters give the news editor their top line, angle, access, etc. This will help the news editor work out which stories are more news worthy and therefore the best order in which to place them in the bulletin.

I definitely liked how well the spike was used this week and how decisive the editor was with cutting stories that were not finished in time or not up to standard. Please make sure you stick to the deadlines given to you if you want to be in the bulletin. Even if you can’t make the bulletin, your package will still need to be finished to accompany your text story on the site. Speaking of text stories, these need to be put up on the site quickly, both by the writers and the subeditors. You can edit the story to add in more detail as you do your interviews, but before then you need to have a skeleton story, probably ending with more to follow, to keep the site looking fresh. The subeditors have been doing a pretty good job so far but must keep up with demand. For a first week though, you’ve done well. You must, however, ensure you fill in the SEO section carefully and tick the ‘NEWS’ category to put it up on the site and it’s probably not worth posting it immediately to twitter when you upload it as it cuts off most of the text. Instead you should let Georgia, our social media editor, know that a story has been uploaded or updated to she can tweet about it.

As Georgia was away this week, the social media use was not fantastic, though the second years that took over briefly deserve a massive round of applause as they did a good job at short notice. It is very important to tweet things directly to people with an interest in the story and for you follow, on your professional account, people and groups who are relevant to your patch.

In terms of packages, there were a few things I’d like you all to work on for next week:

·         Aim to begin with nat. sot. (natural sound on tape) and try to avoid opening with a PTC (piece to camera)

·         Similarly, try not to say things like “I went to find out” unless it’s a more features-y topic as you are not the news, what you’re reporting on is

·         Ensure you film a lot of cut-aways

·         Plan your shots out (even if it’s just in your head) before you leave to film

·         Take care when you set up – make sure you have good quality sound and that your shot is:

o   white balanced

o   well lit

o   not over exposed

o   following the rule of thirds

o   level (check the bubble in the tripod)

·         Avoid writing about the uni as it can be construed as promotional towards them, which is not ideal as we try to be an independent news company

·         Keep your voice over or PTC at a good pace (around 3 to 4 words per second) – often you are talking faster than you perceive yourself to be, so slow down

·         Don’t be afraid to ask your interviewee to ‘dumb down’ or explain more detailed or confusing things; if you don’t understand, neither will our audience

·         Be prepared to film things several times; don’t settle for an okay shot when you have time to try a few more times and get it right

·         Make sure your scripting and package has been checked over for legal errors because I don’t think I could cope with being sued before my career has taken off…

I realise this seems like one hell of a long list, but it’s shorter than when we were in your position, so be proud of the fact you’re better than we were when we started.

Presenter Rota:

As such a large number of you were interested in presenting the bulletin, I have had to prioritise those of us who will, sadly, finish working on WINOL this semester but to give you second years a chance to present and to learn the ropes by getting you to shadow our presenters and (long suffering) scriptwriter as well as present either the sports bulletin or Sportsweek (depending on which Tom would rather you do.)

Week	Presenter	Shadow Presenter & Script Writer (Harry)	Sports bulletin presenter
2	Liam
3	Ellen	Drew
4	Ben	Lucy	Drew
5	Nadine	Laura	Lucy
6	Harry	Zeena	Laura
7	Christina	Tate	Zeena
8	Spence		Tate
9	Sam
10	Harry

If you are shadowing a presenter or presenting Sportsweek/the Sports bulletin, you should still try to find a story for the news bulletin however, you may have to let someone else do the package for it whilst you take charge of the OOV belt or something similar as a way of allowing you more time to get to know the processes of presenting and script writing for the bulletin.

Topics for discussion in Editors meeting:

·         Split bulletin

·         Radio

·         Outsourcing features

·         Deadlines & text stories

·         Social Media

·         European election show

·         “WinchStock”

·         Any issues raised that need addressing