assignment desk in tv news

With KCBS’s ‘The Desk,’ Assignment Editors Tell The Story

Less than 25 minutes after an SUV plowed into more than two dozen sheriff’s recruits on a jog through Whittier, a city in Los Angeles County, images of the horrific scene were beamed from the KCBS chopper to the station’s airwaves . Details of the unfortunate event were scant but trickling in, with viewers learning what happened about as quickly as the KCBS newsroom was.

“This is a very chaotic scene,” Liu informed viewers. “I have been listening to this on the radio and my colleagues Esteban and Annette on the assignment desk have been calling Los Angeles sheriffs to get more information as this is unfolding.”

He was able to report that the car that struck the recruits and its driver remained on the scene, so it was not a case of hit-and-run. Liu also said first responders were shutting down lanes of nearby highways to transport the injured to local hospitals.

For around 10 total minutes Liu shared the rest of the information he had about the incident with KCBS News morning anchors before they interviewed a retired member of the fire department, who provided insight into what the scene’s first responders appeared to be doing.

The segment was one example of a new KCBS broadcast initiative, The Desk . During morning and evening news shows on KCBS and its sister station KCAL, both of which are CBS-owned, assignment desk editors Liu and Mike Rogers discuss the stories members of the newsroom are working on — breaking news and, sometimes, enterprise stories as well. When producers choose not to interrupt the broadcast, one of the assignment editors may deliver breaking stories on the KCBS website streaming channel.

The Desk is the brainchild of Mike Dello Stritto, VP and news director at KCBS and KCAL. Like so many others in the industry, Dello Stritto has bounced around the country during his career, working in newsrooms in Florida, Tennessee, Nevada and elsewhere. After taking his current position in February 2022, Dello Stritto committed himself to finding a way to further leverage what he believes is the finest assignment desk in America.

Mike Dello Stritto

He says The Desk is the “next generation” of the breaking news desk, which he recalls became in vogue about a decade ago, likely after some news consultants told stations it would add immediacy to their broadcasts.

“Still, it was filtered; [the news] had to go through a middle manager, through a process,” Dello Stritto says about the old breaking news desk feature. “Did it make things faster? Probably a few things, but really some of it was just playing a little television smoke-and-mirrors.”

With The Desk , any middlemen have been cut out of news delivery. Anchors throw to Liu or Rogers at the assignment desk, which was built into the station’s new studio, launched Jan. 5, with a camera at the ready. (In the old digs, several cameras were placed around the assignment desk for varying shot selections.) Once on the air, the assignment editors simply discuss what they know about a new story, while reporters travel to a scene and prepare their packages.

“In other worlds, the assignment editor would be telling the reporter what they’ve learned,” Dello Stritto says. “In our world, we’re telling the viewer right away instead of telling the reporter.”

At the very least, The Desk is a low-tech means of producing new content with a virtual net-zero impact on workflow. Assignment editors were already doing this job; now they’re just doing it on camera. More crucially, in this period of consumer distrust in news organizations, Dello Stritto says The Desk is an opportunity to provide viewers with critical transparency. Authenticity shines through; Liu and Rogers don’t dress like anchors, nor were they trained in news delivery — which was precisely the point.

“I don’t want them to go through a process where we’re trying to take the real person out of them and make them ‘a broadcaster,’” Dello Stritto says, inflecting his voice at the end to sound more formal. And while KCBS has several other assignment editors on staff, Dello Stritto nominated Liu and Rogers for the on-air duty based in large part on their innate ability to verbally project well, which they otherwise display when dishing out assignments to reporters and producers.

Mike Rogers

“There’s nothing more exciting than being on an assignment desk in the most unique news market in the world,” Rogers says. “Finding and gathering information — especially breaking news — has been my passion for the nearly 10 years I’ve been in broadcast journalism. When I was presented with the opportunity to do my job in a new and unique way, while maximizing the viewer experience, I immediately agreed.”

Rogers sees The Desk as an opportunity for KCBS and KCAL to “bolster” the “trust and reliability” they’ve built with consumers for years. His assignment desk peer, Liu, says the segment is a “grand experiment” that’s “pulling back the curtain on how we gather the news and putting it on the air faster and with greater depth than we have before.”

“It’s equal parts exhilarating and terrifying because there’s no template as to how this should look or feel,” Liu says. “We have evolved it every day since we started, and it’s already become this dynamic, awesome thing.”

Dello Stritto has scoured the news industry for similar programming and says, so far, he hasn’t seen anything else quite like The Desk anywhere else. He conjures the phrase “imitation is the finest form of flattery,” but observes that other stations might not have the right personnel to develop their own version of The Desk : extremely well-trained, passionate assignment editors with natural on-air reporter chops.

Though The Desk is just a few months old, Dello Stritto says the audience is taking to it. They find it “refreshing” and are developing a connection to Liu and Rogers, he says.

“The attraction is that they are regular guys doing their job and then telling people what’s happening,” he says. “People are expressing that in different ways, but there are strong indications that viewers are latching on to not only the concept, but to these guys who are delivering it. My hunch is it’s because of that transparency and authenticity, that it doesn’t look and feel like a television news anchor who’s sitting there, yet they’re delivering in a compelling, clear way.”

Editor’s Note: This is the latest of TVNewsCheck ’s “Newsroom Innovators” profiles, a series showcasing people and news organizations evolving the shape and substance of video reporting. These profiles examine the inception of their innovations, the tools they employ and how they’re reconciling experimental approaches to news storytelling within daily workflows. You can find the others here .

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tvn-member-9324370 says:

January 24, 2023 at 5:18 pm

Great idea…but not new. We tried this exact idea with the “News Outside the Box” concept at KIRO in Seattle in 1992. And it really depends on the ability of the assignment desk personnel to tell a story…as indicated in the KCBS example. What’s old is new again…

Former Producer says:

January 25, 2023 at 9:33 am

I presume KCBS also saves money with this approach. It’s cheaper to use an in-house assignment editor than it does to send a reporter and photographer to the scene. And, as anyone who follows the TV news business knows, CBS is in the midst of cutting costs.

This is fundamentally no different than when major-market TV stations starting using one-man-band MMJs. Managers promoted the concept as a new chapter of visual storytelling and innovation and blah blah blah, but be real: it costs less to pay one person do the jobs of two people.

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What do Local TV Journalists Do? Behind the Scenes of a Newsroom

By Gretchen Andsager

In the world of digital PR , our work closely aligns with the journalism industry. Our job is to reach out to members of the media, often daily, to get news coverage for our campaigns and clients. Solid pitch and subject lines can make a world of difference when link building, but there’s also something else to factor in when trying to connect with a journalist: their daily schedule. 

What do journalists do daily? We all know what time the newscasts go on air, but do you know what happens before, during, and after it cuts to commercials? Sure, we’ve all seen movies and TV shows attempting to depict a day in the life of a journalist. I’m looking at you Firefly Lane , The Morning Show , and The Newsroom … and the list goes on and on. 

We all know that movies and shows rarely show what these jobs are actually like. But there’s good news: I spent seven years in the local broadcast news industry working everywhere from Indianapolis to Chicago as a TV news producer before making the leap into digital PR. I’m not the only one! Our entire digital PR team comes with previous journalism experience and it definitely benefits the work we do! 

Let my career path be your benefit: I’m going to pull back the curtain and give you a glimpse into what local journalists do and share some tips about how to contact a journalist… including the best times to pitch and connect with these hard media workers.

Who Makes Up a Local TV Newsroom?

Before getting into the nitty-gritty details, it’s essential to first understand what positions actually make up a local TV newsroom. News stations are filled with various positions, including many that have no relationship or connection to those who pick and choose what stories are covered. This is why it’s important to reach out to the right people when pitching . 

The head of a local television station is the general manager . This person runs the entire TV station, including the sales side, and while they have some involvement in the news and how it’s presented, their position is more high-level rather than taking part in the day-to-day story creation process. 

In the hierarchy of TV news, there are two major departments: the news department and the sales department (the general manager oversees both departments). While the departments do see some crossover in situations such as sponsored segments or events, the sales department is not usually involved with the news department.

To ensure ethical media coverage, sales departments normally have little-to-no contact with journalists. In most of my past stations, these employees worked on entirely separate floors. The news team barely met sales: every once in a while, we’d meet a sales employee on an elevator or in a break room and it was like meeting a stranger. Despite working in the same company, there was no working together .

The head of the news department is called the news director. This person is the boss of the entire newsroom. News directors each have different styles in how they run their newsrooms. I’ve worked with some who I talked with a grand total of about two times: when I was initially hired and the day I put in my notice to leave. On the opposite end, I’ve worked with news directors who would go through my newscast daily and ran nearly every editorial meeting the station held.

News directors are the person to reach out to if you’re looking for a job in the newsroom, but not necessarily the person to pitch for daily media coverage. Similar to the general manager, the news director position is generally more high level taking on responsibilities such as hiring and analyzing newscast rating performances over time, versus involvement in the daily grind. 

So, who within the news department is the best target for media outreach? While you mainly see anchors and reporters on the TV screen, there are also all sorts of people behind the scenes making sure everything goes smoothly including producers, video editors, engineers, and more. For digital PR purposes, it can be hard to connect with the right people when pitching your work and that could lead to no coverage– which no one wants! Below are the five primary positions worth pitching:

• Assignment Desk Editors
• Web Producers

Local TV News Shifts

First caveat: even though people may work in the same position at a TV station, it’s vital you know what schedule they work.

For example, say there are two people who are assignment desk editors. Although they each perform the same role, one may work overnights Monday through Friday, while the other works the evening shift Wednesday through Sunday.

Why does this matter? As we in the Digital PR world continue to focus on more targeted and thoughtful pitches, in place of mass blasting hundreds of journalists, this information can help you reach out to the journalist at the optimal time for them to read your email.

While you’re building media lists, try and determine which shift your contacts work and pitch accordingly. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself pitching the journalist when they’re logging off at the very end of their shift or even when they’re asleep! 

The daily schedule of journalists falls primarily into three shifts: morning, daytime, and nighttime.

The “morning” shift is more like the graveyard shift. It can range anywhere from 10 p.m. – 6 a.m. CST (for positions such as producers and assignment desk editors) to 2 a.m. – 10 a.m. CST (for positions such as anchors and reporters). However, these times are estimates and vary depending on the newscast (more for producers than any other position). When I worked overnights, there were some days I’d come in at 8 p.m. while producing the 4 a.m. newscast. But on days I put together the 9 a.m. show I wouldn’t come into the newsroom until 1 a.m. 

The daytime shift, also known as “dayside,” is more of the normal 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. shift. This is compared to the nighttime shift, also known as “nightside,” which is usually a schedule that runs 3 p.m. – 11 p.m. CST. All these schedules can vary, depending on the station’s location, the station itself, and staffing. 

Depending on the TV station and broadcast market size (DMA), some stations are fully staffed 24/7, while others may have some hours where no one is on the clock. But with recent cost-cutting measures, and skeletal staffing situations in local news, many news stations now have limited staff (or are understaffed) during the overnight and weekend hours. 

The Unpredictable Schedule of TV Journalists

You may have heard the phrase that the news never sleeps. Never has it been more true than in a television newsroom. There is no mundane, typical day in a journalist’s life because you can never predict what the news of the day may bring. Some work days are chaotic from the moment you walk through the door, until the moment you leave. On other days, especially holidays such as President’s Day or Labor Day, it’s so quiet it’s hard to find newsworthy content to fill an entire newscast. 

Although work schedules can be unpredictable, most stations do have a daily meeting at the start of each shift. This editorial meeting is when staff, mainly reporters, pitch stories that they would like to try and cover for the day. If you are hoping to newsjack something in the news cycle, you should schedule your pitches before the daily pitch meeting. Once these meetings are complete and stories are assigned, people hit the ground running and many don’t focus on anything aside from that story. So, here’s who and what to keep in mind while pitching to TV journalists.

Assignment Desk Editor Job Description

Assignment desk editors can be your first hurdle to getting news coverage. Think of these workers as the organizers of TV news stations.

Assignment desk editors comb through daily press releases, answer station phone calls and emails, act as the central hub of communication among newsroom members and often decide what stories are worth pursuing for the day.

In addition, some assignment editors assist in coordinating interviews, directing reporters, and choosing live shot locations. When you send a pitch to a station’s generic email, it will most likely end up in the inbox of assignment editors (though it’s important to note that in smaller stations it may go to all news department staff). It’s up to these journalists to go through the press releases and see if there is anything worth covering. If there is, they’ll pass it along to reporters, producers, and anchors, but if they don’t think it’s worthy of coverage that might be the end of the press release’s journey. 

If your press release is forwarded to other newsroom staff, that doesn’t necessarily mean it makes it into the newscast and gets coverage. Instead, it has to be read once in the next inbox it most likely goes to: a TV producer.

What Does a TV Producer Do?

TV producers are like the man behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz. Producers do a lot of the behind-the-scenes work to make a newscast come together. They have the power to pick most of the stories that are run in the newscast (and in which order stories run), do the majority of the script writing, and then monitor the show’s time and cue talent.

While producers could be ideal for getting news coverage, they’re also balancing a lot of work every day. TV producers are inundated with emails, texts, and phone calls while trying to put together an hour’s worth of news coverage with limited to no help. Even in bigger markets, some producers don’t have any writers to assist with this process, so there’s little time to glance at emails or calls unless it’s from one of their reporters or photographers.  

As a former producer, I’ll admit, the days are often very long with very little downtime. While I would sometimes run pieces on air that I was emailed, I wouldn’t necessarily link back to them at the end of the day: I was simply too busy. Producers end their day after their newscast ends once they’ve sent a final show report. At that time in the day, the last thing I’d think about doing is posting a web article. By the time I came in the next day, I was already onto the next show. Stories covered 24 hours ago are often considered “old news” and no longer of interest to viewers.

Therefore, when pitching a story to a TV producer, keep in mind you may be more likely to get an unlinked mention on air than a link. Obviously, digital PR is all about the links, but good brand visibility is still a plus!

The Difference Between a TV Producer and a Web Producer

While TV producers put together the newscasts, TV web producers are the newsroom employees who keep the website up to date. Managing to attract the attention of a TV web producer is like uncovering a Golden Ticket in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory . These producers are ideal as contacts since posting an article with a link is part of their job. The web producers post stories throughout the day while updating the station’s social media, sending out push notifications, and helping to stream live press conferences and newscasts. 

Another caveat: Not every station has full-time web producers. In many small market TV stations, some producers or assignment desk editors may work dual roles. As many TV stations consolidate positions and do more with less, web producers are often lumped into other jobs. More often than not, reporters are the ones posting their own stories on the website daily, not web producers.

TV News Reporter Job Description

So, what do TV reporters do? In movies and TV shows, you’ve probably seen them running around town with a photographer trying to get interviews and doing live reports. Is that realistic? Kind of.

In larger DMA markets, many reporters have photographers to film interviews, shoot video, and lead their live shots. However, in many (if not most) markets, it is now common to have multimedia journalists (MMJs). The title is a fancy way of saying that the reporter is doing two, possibly three jobs at once.

These reporters write, shoot, edit, and post their stories essentially doing the roles of a reporter, a photographer, and a web producer. This is important to recognize and keep in mind for us in the digital PR world because MMJs work at a different pace than we do. They are constantly on the move, and barely have time for a bathroom break or snack, let alone to comb through email pitches. 

Even if TV news reporters have a photographer, they’re under constant pressure to meet daily deadlines. These reporters may have multiple stories assigned to them throughout the day. Generally, if they don’t have any audio or video, the piece doesn’t work as a story for television. They don’t often have the luxury to wait an hour or two for someone to respond about interview availability. When most TV journalists reach out about a story, they need answers immediately.

That’s why I’d recommend pitching reporters at the start or end of their shifts unless you’re trying to newsjack a piece. After daily stories are assigned, reporters and MMJs don’t have the time to check their emails unless a story has fallen through. They’re racing against the clock and your email could just end up lost in the shuffle.

TV News Anchors: Should You Pitch Them or Not?

When you think of TV news the first position you probably think of is an anchor. Anchors are the faces of the news stations, the “talking heads”  you see sitting behind a desk reading through the day’s headlines.

Anchors are the most well-known newsroom personalities, even more so than reporters. So, shouldn’t they be your key contact when emailing your pitches? In my opinion, not really. While each anchor has a different style and involvement in their newscasts, they are not as fundamentally involved in the content process as you may think. 

During my days in TV news, I had some anchors who would pass along story ideas my way, but it wasn’t a daily occurrence. Anchors act as one of the final checks of the newscast before going live. Think of them as the teacher checking your final paper after you’ve gone through drafts and drafts.

After scripts are written and read by the producer, executive producer (a managing producer), and maybe even a news director, then anchors step into the picture. Anchors often tweak scripts to match their speaking style or make minor edits rather than writing or pitching brand-new stories.

While it can’t hurt to pitch anchors, I definitely wouldn’t rely on them to get coverage.

Ready. Set. Pitch.

So, when is the best time to pitch a TV newsroom, and who should you target? Not to pull a fast one on you, but there’s no secret one-size-fits-all approach for this! Instead, my best recommendation is to pitch carefully and thoughtfully. Keep in mind each person’s role in a newsroom and pitch accordingly. TV journalists have a different day-to-day work schedule than those in other media roles.

Because of the nature of TV news, the daily schedule for journalists is intense. Each day journalists have just hours to meet their deadlines. With that being said, it’s vital to be responsive if a TV journalist is interested in covering something of yours. Do not take a long time to respond. We recommend having quotes and interview subjects ready to go because journalists may have to move on if they don’t get a response quickly. Often journalists may be reaching out to more than one expert just to see who is available, so you’re not only racing against the clock, but you may be racing against your competitors too. 

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What Does an Assignment Editor Do?

Learn About the Salary, Required Skills, & More

The Balance / Ellen Lindner

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• Assignment Editor Duties & Responsibilities

Assignment Editor Salary

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An assignment editor works at the assignment desk, which is the nerve center of any newsroom. This is where newsroom staff members monitor multiple sources for breaking news, including police and fire scanners. When possible news arises, the assignment editor works with reporters, photographers, producers, and other staff members to assign and develop story ideas.

Small companies sometimes have one assignment editor who is responsible for organizing the assignment desk to operate around the clock. In larger newsrooms, there may be a team of assignment editors that take turns staffing the desk.

Assignment Editor Duties & Responsibilities

The job generally requires the ability to perform the following duties:

• Monitor multiple sources for possible news stories
• Develop and propose a daily news coverage plan
• Lead newsroom staff meetings to review possible stories and assignments
• Help choose which journalists, photographers, and other staff members are assigned to cover stories
• Stay on top of all stories to ensure they're developing as planned and determine which ones are not coming together
• Be the main point of communication between reporters, production teams, and executive staff on developing stories

It's up to the assignment editor to assign people to investigate and report on news stories. The assignment editor's day is sometimes spent shifting people and equipment around so that as many stories get covered as possible, with an eye out on how to handle breaking news coverage at any moment.

When working in television, an assignment editor may also work with the tv producer to decide which crews will take live trucks or a helicopter to broadcast live during a newscast. Also, a TV news anchor who is reviewing scripts just before airtime will often turn to the assignment editor to confirm facts.

An assignment editor's salary can vary depending on location, experience, and employer. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics offers salary data for the broader editor category, but it doesn't offer separate data on the assignment editor subcategory:

• Median Annual Salary: $59,480 
• Top 10% Annual Salary: $114,460 
• Bottom 10% Annual Salary: $30,830  

Education, Training, & Certification

Most assignment editors have the same types of degrees as other editors and journalists in a newsroom.

• Education: Most employers prefer candidates that have at least a bachelor’s degree in communications, journalism, or English. 
• Experience: This is often key to getting this type of job, because experience is key to building a list of contacts and learning how to operate smoothly. Employers usually prefer candidates with a background in the type of media in which they specialize, whether it's television, digital, or print news.
• Training: Most training happens on the job. Aspiring assignment editors may want to find an internship position at a newsroom assignment desk.

Assignment Editor Skills & Competencies

To be successful in this role, you’ll generally need the following skills and qualities: 

• Editorial judgment: Assignment editors need to be able to quickly decide whether a story is newsworthy. And although they aren't usually writing the stories themselves, they need to know all of the components of a good news story to guide reporters on coverage.
• Interpersonal skills: Successful assignment editors form relationships with many contacts that can help bring a story together. For example, someone in this role at a local TV news station may have all the county sheriffs' home telephone numbers on speed-dial and be on a first-name basis with the current and previous mayors.
• Organizational skills: An assignment editor must be able to organize the logistics and track the details of several stories at a time and keep everything on schedule.
• Communication skills: An assignment editor must skillfully communicate with all of the staff involved in making news stories come together, including reporters, photographers, production teams, and executive staff.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that employment in this field will grow 6 percent through 2026, which is slightly slower than the overall employment growth of 7 percent for all occupations in the country. The BLS it doesn't offer separate data on the assignment editor subcategory.

Most of this job is done in an office working under several tight deadlines at once. Those who thrive on pressure and get an adrenaline rush when something unexpected happens may be best suited for this occupation.

An assignment editor usually arrives in the newsroom earlier than the other managers to get a handle on what's happening that day to brief the newsroom. Most assignment editors work full time, and many work long hours, which include evenings and weekends.

People who are interested in becoming assignment editors may also consider other careers with these median salaries: 

• Writers and authors: $61,820
• Reporters, correspondents, and broadcast news analysts: $40,910
• Desktop publishers: $42,350

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , 2017

How to Get the Job

Build a Contact List

Making a list of contacts is the best place to start for a budding assignment editor. That involves making personal connections with people so that you can turn to them when you need information.

Join a Professional Association

The American Media Institute offers  a list of professional associations you can join. Which one you choose may depend on your specialty or medium (websites or television, for instance). This will help you build your contact list and stay up to date on the latest tools and techniques in the industry.

Search job sites that specialize in media careers, such as MediaBistro and iHire Broadcasting .

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1 The Newsroom

Introduction.

Welcome to the television newsroom. Around 3:30 p.m. crews are returning from the field, producers are getting their afternoon shows straightened up, reporters are writing scripts, and editors are hunting down video and getting it cut.

It’s hard to find a place with more buzz and energy, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s go back to the morning and a take a look at the jobs in a typical newsroom. In a smaller market, one person might perform several of these jobs, while bigger-market stations may divide one job among several people.

The newscast director runs the booth. He or she calls the shots when the newscast airs and is the one making commands like, “Ready camera one—take!” Hours before, and during, the newscast the director works with the producer to make the producer’s plan a technical reality. The director may also supervise, train and schedule the rest of the crew.

Technical Director

This person sits in front of the video switcher and punches the buttons to bring up the cameras, video, graphics, and other sources. With advancing switcher technology, some stations have the director do both jobs. This can be done by pre-programming the show ahead of time.

Audio Board Operator

This person turns on the microphone when an anchor talks (and hopefully off when the anchor is done), lets the video and live sources be heard, and brings in the music. This position is getting to be more rare as companies automate newscast switching.

This is the audio board at KGET in Bakersfield during the newscast. No one is near is because it is linked to the switcher’s commands. The single slider is up for a video source. When the technical director switches back to the studio camera, the video slider will automatically come down and the sliders for the studio microphones will come up.

Teleprompter

When the anchor looks right into the lens and speaks, they’re probably reading the script reflected over top of the lens. The prompter operator scrolls the words like movie credits (but much faster) keeping the lines in the right place to be read by the anchor. When you see an anchor suddenly stumble over their words and look down at their scripts a lot, something has gone wrong with the teleprompter.

Studio Camera

Because the shots are consistent day after day, studio cameras are getting roboticized; this means one person can control several cameras remotely and automation may eliminate the controller position entirely.

Floor Director

This person is out in the studio with the anchors. He or she listens to the director’s cues on their headsets and conveys the information to the anchors, often non-verbally. For instance, if the newscast is showing video and the next thing on the rundown is the anchor talking into Camera two, the floor director will make a ready sign above Camera two. When the director calls “take” for Camera two, the floor director points to the lens purposefully, which lets the anchor know when and where to talk.

All of the above jobs fall under news production. They put the newscast on the air live from the studio. The following jobs originate from the newsroom, but may go far beyond it.

Assignment Desk

This is a place and a position. The desk can have 2-10 police and fire scanners on it, depending on your market’s coverage area, chattering all day long. This is also where incoming newsroom calls are answered. And if there’s a programming problem after business hours, they’ll answer questions about why some viewer’s favorite show isn’t on tonight. The two-way radio base station, paging, contact lists, maps and other information are also kept here.

“The desk” also refers to the person/people staffing it. If there are several, one is usually called the “Assignment Manager” and oversees the others. The desk listens to the police and fire scanners, answers phones, sets up interviews, reads press releases and monitors social media. Should they hear something interesting on a scanner, they would call the dispatch center to confirm and/or get more details. They would then tell a producer about it, and if the producer wanted the story checked out for the show, they would send a photographer or reporter/photographer team to drive to the scene. If all crews are already working on other stories, desk and producer would decide which crew to pull from a story. The original story might get kicked down to a smaller version, held for another shift or day, or maybe it gets dropped altogether; it depends on the story and progress already made on it.

The assignment desk is not a glory position. They end up listening to whining from both viewers and crews, but it is the hub of activity in the newsroom — almost everything done in a day of news-gathering channels through it. Former KUTV assignment manager and KCAL assistant operations manager, Mark Biljanic, said the job requires “the willingness to learn what news is, and be able to multitask. Really have a brain…keeping track of reporters and photographers in the field, and move chess pieces around efficiently and know who to call when.”

An assignment editor going live near the desk at KCAL in Los Angeles. He read some quick VOs on spot news events. Being on TV is the exception for assignment desk duties.

Photographers

These are the people with the cameras on their shoulders driving out to shoot the stories. Even though they shoot video on video cameras, they are called “photographers,” often shortened to “photog.” Possibly due to the weight of the early equipment, photography staffs run 90 percent male. Now that cameras, batteries and tripods are smaller, people not built like offensive linemen can handle the gear. Women are highly sought after for this position.

Photographers are typically paid less than reporters but can close the gap some if they have a take-home news vehicle and can work overtime.

On a typical day, a photographer arrives to work, and if not allowed a take-home vehicle, will load up his or her gear in a station vehicle as he or she checks batteries, memory cards and vehicle fuel to make sure they are ready for the day. The assignment desk will then give them a list of assignments to shoot on their own or pair them with a reporter for the day. They may be asked to edit their own, or someone else’s video, in a station edit bay or a laptop computer in the field. Photographers may also run live equipment including backpacks, microwave trucks, and if trained, the station’s satellite truck.

NASA trained its astronauts how to run their own cameras, and scuba divers do the same; everything in between, from stunt planes to underground mining, a photographer has shot. Photographers go everywhere. This can be exciting and/or dreadful, depending on where you go.

These are the people in the field. Working with photographers, they set up interviews, conduct them, log them (choose the best parts to use as “soundbites”), write a script, record their voice and often introduce the edited story live in the studio or the field.

Reporters must maintain a professional appearance since they represent the station on television and to those they seek to interview. They may be assigned stories but are expected to come up with their own ideas too.

Multi-Media Journalist (MMJs)

This term replaced “One-Man Band,” which is a reporter who runs their own camera for their story. “MMJ” sounds more modern, but if they shoot just for TV, it’s not actually “multi.” Small starter markets use MMJs almost exclusively, but you can find MMJs in some large markets, too. Doing the job of a reporter and photographer at the same time gives you more freedom, but can also be hard work.

These staffers are assigned to a specific show and decide what stories, and how much of them, they will use to fill the show. They write the anchors’ copy and time the entire show, live from in the control booth. They will work an eight-hour shift that ends with their show. There is a forthcoming chapter exclusively about producing.

Associate Producers

APs assist producers in writing the show. They may be assigned anchor packages, voice-overs, teases or anything else the producer asks. Most are trained to become producers themselves.

Executive Producers

Usually former producers themselves, they oversee producers. They coordinate between shows (if there’s a major story, they might see that all shows don’t use the exact same material), edit and approve scripts and may help with scheduling.

Assistant News Director

This position is between EP and news director, and so are its responsibilities. An assistant news director might work on the editorial, logistics and scheduling in a newsroom.

News Director

This is the boss of the newsroom, typically answering to the station’s general manager. He or she oversees everything described in the preceding jobs. In addition, hiring, firing, audience research, news philosophy and direction, and discipline falls on the news director.

As mentioned earlier, this list expands or contracts, depending on market size. In very small markets, it is not uncommon for a weekend anchor to act as desk and producer, shoot some video in the field and use a foot controller to run their own teleprompter. By “not uncommon” we mean “don’t complain if you’re asked to do everything.”

The Planning Meeting

At the start of each shift, usually once in the morning and again in the early afternoon, all hands gather for the planning meeting. Reporters present their story ideas, the desk presents what is in the daybook, and producers choose what they want in their shows. Their choices are governed by management and the day’s logistics.

Story ideas come from:

Press releases.

Public Relations firms and amateurs pitch stories via email, U.S. mail, telephone and in person. Some of these stories are worthwhile and others are business-promoting fluff.

Social Media

See above, and add trending topics and observations from your local viewers and population.

Other Professional Media

Television newsrooms subscribe to all the local newspapers and newspaper newsrooms have TVs in them.

Besides Associated Press, newsrooms get constantly updated feeds from their affiliates, e.g., NBC and CNN.

Viewer tips

These can come in via telephone, email or social media. Some will make you shake your head. Others will have you turning it. Do not ignore all the eyes and ears out there that think to notify you when they see something going on.

Enterprising

Staff should be thinking of questions and possible story ideas everywhere they go. Everybody has a story. A simple tip for this came from a National Press Photographers Association speaker who advised photographers to drive back to the station using a different route than the one they took to the story; this exposes you to more of your community.

Police and Fire Scanners

The time you stop listening is the time some major news breaks in your area and you’ll miss it. Stories I’ve picked up off a scanner besides fires and shootings include:

• A four year-old boy who caught a fish bigger than he was in a city park
• Wild dogs that were killing cattle over the course of weeks
• Valets at a restaurant who were doing burnouts in customers’ cars in the parking garage next door; the tire smoke was so bad someone thought there was a fire.

From a compiled list from the above sources, or just ideas thrown out there, producers and managers choose the story and its treatment.

Television is a different medium than print, web and radio. The story selection criteria is different, too.

First, we consider newsworthiness. The PBS Newshour Student Training Manual ( https://d12grbbaljejv6.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Worksheet-1.1.pdf ) lists five criteria:

1. Timeliness

Things that have just happened are “fresh” and new. Besides new information, the timeliness of a story can be affected on an hourly level: If a story happens around the time of a newscast, it lends itself to live reporting, especially for breaking news. In Utah, Governor Herbert has started important announcements at 5:02 p.m., lending itself to a news open, anchor toss to a reporter live, and the reporter can quickly introduce the governor who is just arriving at the podium.

2. Proximity

Local news affects people in the area. The farther away the story, the more extraordinary it needs to be. In your area, a minor traffic crash that snarls traffic may affect hundreds of your viewers, but U.S. media also covered a traffic jam in China in 2015. Why? Because it was 50-lanes wide with hours of waiting. Another in 2010 had some Chinese drivers waiting in for five days; that was extraordinary enough for most producers.

3. Conflict and Controversy

“When violence strikes or when people argue about actions, events, ideas or policies, we care. Conflict and controversy attract our attention by highlighting problems or differences within the community.” This can be a pair of Trump vs. anti-Trump rallies, or simply one of your locals taking on city hall or even a neighbor. Make sure you have both sides of the issue covered.

4. Human Interest

Everyone has a story, and some are amazing. People overcome great obstacles, handle crises or can just be amusing. PBS says we like these stories because we can identify with them. They are seldom lead stories, however.

5. Relevance

“People are attracted to information that helps them make good decisions,” PBS says. Information about hobbies, consumer prices or a proposed law can and will affect your viewer’s lives. Viewers will be drawn to these stories and you have an obligation to provide them (maybe not the hobbies part). KTVX in Salt Lake City had a series of posters on the walls of its newsrooms to help producers target their product. The posters showed the results of audience research they had done where viewers tell what’s important to them.

When I was doing live feature reporting on Saturday mornings, I stayed away from wacky setups; instead, I tried to show viewers a good option for where to spend their day off. Eventually, that show became the highest-rated morning show of the week.

Bonus: Prominence (This is not one of the PBS criteria)

The more famous a person is, the more likely things they do will be of interest to your viewers. If someone throws an egg at a neighbor’s house, has his car stolen or gets arrested for a DUI, is that news? It is if that person is Justin Bieber, your city’s mayor or a local news anchor, respectively.

I grumble about the interest our society has on celebrities, but cannot deny it. When a woman and her date were killed in car wreck half a world away, my wife was glued to her TV for days because the woman was Princess Diana. Following the same formula as the other criteria, the more famous/local the person is, the more newsworthy the things they do will be.

Other factors come into play every day.

What are the other stories of the day? While other media may be able to expand or contract as needed, television news programs are precisely timed and must fit into a finite slot (as a rule, though major breaking news can expand as needed). Bigger stories may push out human-interest stories for the day. The good news is human interest stories are often evergreen (non time-specific) enough to be run later, when things calm down.

News Philosophy

This can be dictated by a news director and heavily influenced by your programming. When KTXL-TV in Sacramento picked up the Fox affiliation, its politically-heavy, buttoned-down newscast gradually adapted to the style of Fox programming, even calling the approach “Foxified.” One of KTXL’s competitors — KRBK at the time — had an “If it bleeds, it leads” philosophy for a time. Another, KXTV, tried family-friendly for a while, not showing any body bags or disturbing footage.

What is your lead-in? Who is watching that night that you can draw in with teases? Your sales department knows. When I finished an in-depth piece about animals at the local shelter, my station’s promotions director suggested we run the piece on a Wednesday night, since that’s the night we had the highest percentage of pet ownership.

Indeed, we ran teases during breaks in programming, introducing viewers to Tank the dog and asking them to watch the news to see if Tank gets adopted. Viewers called in throughout the evening offering to take Tank. Pit Bull Tank was already in a good home before the story ran.

It is important to consider your medium when choosing stories, or at least their treatment. Television is the medium of motion and sound. Used properly, it is powerful. Budget stories, stories of future events or other stories where there’s no obvious thing to point the camera at, present a challenge. Some stations may shy away from these stories, but they can be done; it just takes more effort and some ingenuity.

It has been said, “there are no boring stories, only boring reporters.” While many reporters might argue that saying, a visual story will often take precedence over a non-visual one.

Writing for Electronic Media Copyright © by Brian Champagne is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Survive Your Job In Television News

An Honest Guide To Journalism Jobs

Tag: assignment desk

“yes, that’s your assignment. now do it and like it “ assignment editors: behind the gruffness..

Take a moment and think about the most colorful characters in the newsroom.  For me there are two groups, photographers and assignment editors.  We’ve decoded some photographer behaviors in “You exist to hold my tripod.”  Bottom line, photojournalists are incredible information gatherers and because they see the facts in a visual way, they make TV news what it is today.

The hardest job inside newsrooms, that all of us love to take for granted is assignment editor.  The people who do it are the “whipping posts” for managing editors, assistant news directors, producers and reporters.  Photographers usually get their assignments this way and love to grumble as well.  Yet, as I look back on my career, I see that the strength of an assignment desk makes or breaks a newsroom.  It truly is the tie that binds.

So why are assignment editors so, well, intimidating (or even irritating)?  Being everyone’s whipping post is one start.  They also tend to really have a grasp on the market and the stations strengths and weaknesses.  Heck, when you think about it, that’s their primary job.  Yet assignment editors are often not really given a voice in crucial decisions.  They actually understand drive times to various places.  They understand that the PIO in city A really hates the station UNLESS you call and say XYZ.  And they also understand that live truck 13 really does suck!  In many cases they try and warn us know it all producer and manager types.  They try and give reporters gentle nudges on how to handle a particularly ornery mayor.  Do we listen?  If the answer is no, then we have a very irritable assignment editor on our hands.  Chances are you are going to be yelled at, have papers thrown around the newsroom and hear curse words in interesting sequences you never would have thought possible!  Think about it.  If you were told to make the ship run smoothly, then saw the iceberg, warned and begged everyone to listen, then watched the boat slam into the iceberg, you would be a tad pissy as well.

A few secrets about assignment editors for you:  If you stink at or just don’t get how to source build yet, befriend a veteran assignment editor.  They source build as well as most investigative reporters.  And they don’t get to leave the station.  Heck, most barely get potty breaks.  Also, be clear reporters, assignment editors are not your personal secretaries.  You need to make the calls to get the information.  If you are behind or overwhelmed talk with an EP first about whether an associate producer can help you out.  And, yes, I am serious.  The assignment editor has you, all the other reporters on your shift, the planning producers, the reporters on the next shift and usually at least one manager asking them to make phone calls.  That’s in addition to calling their contacts and listening to scanners and reading 5 million news releases to make sure the station isn’t missing something important.  And, if the station misses a big story, it is usually the assignment editor that gets reamed for it.

Producers, your assignment editor can help protect your show from technical disasters as well or better than the production team.  He/she knows intimate details about the live trucks, signal strengths, how to get around a lazy person in master control, when to humor an ENG engineer and lots of other very useful stuff.  Beyond that, they know which crews are great at cranking out work and which ones need a constant swift kick.  If you have a story that must make slot, period, make sure the assignment editor is well aware ASAP.  If you see the assignment editor is in the weeds, answer the newsroom phone.  Help out.  There is nothing more excruciating than trying to take down information while hearing phones ringing all around you.  Think about the times when every reporter feels the need to call in for script approval all at once.  All of them need it “RIGHT NOW!” to make slot and you can only read/listen to so much at a time and actually comprehend what’s going on.  That’s what it’s like being an assignment editor for at least half of every workday.  Cut ‘em some slack!

Managers, when an assignment editor walks into your office and shuts the door to discuss a potential issue, stop what you are doing and listen.  Most of the time, this person is saving you from potential disaster.  If they do, throw them a bone once in a while.  Have a favorite meal dropped off for lunch.  Buy them a latte.  Write a thank you note for all he/she does and throw it into his/her mailbox.  Everyone should remember to say thank you once in a while.  The strength of the assignment desk plays a huge role in whether your station is #1, #3 or worse.  It can set the tone for morale in the whole newsroom because the desk has direct contact with all the key players every day.

So, when you get an assignment that just plain sucks, don’t kill the messenger.  The assignment editor is following orders.  When you are told do it and like it, remember that’s the mantra these guys/gals live under every day.  They often take more crap than the rest of us, and then turn it into gold.

Reporting Alliance : Your Key to the desk.

Reporters often feel left on their own.  There is some truth to that feeling since you are out and about, and your bosses are not there to really watch you work.  Assumptions are made about what you do and don’t do by managers and producers.  Often you are not given the benefit of the doubt.

That’s why it is crucial to form good relationships with a group “on the inside.” In your case that group should be assignment desk editors.  The assignment desk is the 411 of newsrooms.  Editors on the desk can be intense and bark orders.  But remember, they are under the kind of pressure you face the last two hours of your shift, all day long.  There is little to no down time.  I had friends on the assignment desk constantly get bladder infections because they could not break away from the desk long enough to  go to the bathroom regularly.  I am telling you this, because having the knowledge of what the assignment desk goes through helps you know how to build a smart alliance.

Reporters (like producers in our Producing Alliance article) will get priority day-to-day based on how they treat the assignment editor.  Sure, if you are on a breaker, you will get more attention and help. But when it’s just day-to-day, run of the mill news you can bet the reporters that are respectful to the assignment desk get more support.

So what can you do to build a smart alliance with assignment editors?  First, don’t call the desk for simple phone numbers.  With technology today, there are plenty of ways to get numbers without calling the desk.  Remember, the assignment desk is looking for fresh news all day long in addition to planning segments and stories for managers, making beat calls and answering the phone all day long.  As someone who sat next to the assignment desk for more than a decade I can attest, just answering the phone can be a full time job.  It doesn’t let up until about 9 at night.  Respect the fact the assignment editor is busy and is not your personal receptionist.  I never got over how many crews in the field really thought assignment editors just existed to be glorified receptionists for the newsroom.  Not the case.

When you do have the luck to be done with your package early in your shift, occasionally sit on the assignment desk and help out for a little while.  This is a huge sign of respect.  Sit up there, and answer the phone.  It can also be a great place to drum up story ideas and source build a bit.  The assignment editor knows who talks on what shift and who is good to call on the down low when you need to fact check.  This is smart to do, especially when you first move to an area.  Sitting on the desk to help out a little here and there will help you build sources quickly.  (See How to generate story ideas when you are swamped for more help on that)  Assignment editors also help do futures planning, so sitting up there gives you a chance to express interest in an upcoming story or special that the assignment editor is researching.  They will often let managers know, if you expressed interest, to try and help you get the assignment.

Check in regularly with the desk.  A lot of crews resent this and consider it a sinister plot to spy on you and track how hard you work.  You don’t have to give a full report if you happen to be done with your package early and are working sources for future stories.  Just call with a location and how long you think you will be there.  Assignment editors love when crews do this.  It takes 10 seconds and speaks volumes for your respect for the role of the assignment desk.  No the assignment editors are not plotting what to send you on next to work you into the ground.  They are constantly being hounded by management and producers over where crews are and how viable the stories assigned to them really are.  Just calling and saying:  “Hey we are in such and such city and will be here approximately 1 hour” helps the assignment editor show management that he/she is in touch with the crews.  It also makes you look very responsible and a team player.  Yes, you might occasionally get sent to something else because of this.  I did notice that most of the time the assignment editors fought for the crews that called in.  They could tell management this reporter has an hour left on their package so let’s pull someone else.  Knowledge is power and the assignment desk goes out of its way to protect content.  That is a key element of the position.

Finally, if you are done with your story and are sent to breaking news, don’t gripe to the desk if you and the assignment editor know the story is probably bullshit. The assignment editor more than likely has management breathing down his/her neck and often will report if you are being difficult.  If you say okay and suck it up and go, the assignment editor appreciates one less fight in the day and will likely try to prevent sending you on the next wild goose chase.  The point, in case you missed it:  If you gripe, you will get the crap job more. The assignment desk controls a lot of your destiny including which photographer is assigned to you most days.  If you want less hassle, give the assignment desk less hassle.  You both will appreciate each other more.

Producing Alliances: Assign and direct.

Line producers are often in a very uncomfortable spot in newsrooms.  You are in charge of a newscast, yet you are not a manager with any teeth.  Competition between producers generally is pretty intense so you cannot really confide in another producer at your station.  Your job is confusing for other people in the newsroom to really grasp.  You don’t want to spill your guts to your EP, so it can appear in your review a few months later.

So who do you align yourself with?  I always had the best luck with directors and assignment editors.

In the article “ Right Hand Meet Your Left ” I describe why having a good relationship with your director is important.  Now I want to talk more about the benefits of this smart alliance.

Directors tend to be extremely detail oriented.  That means they can pick up on things you might do that you aren’t even aware of.  When starting out as a producer, I had problems with my weekend newscasts timing out correctly.  During the morning and weekday noon shows, I had no timing problems.  I tried different techniques for several weeks with no luck.  I was ready to pull my hair out!  Then I decided to ask the director for advice. But, he was much more experienced and I was concerned he would think less of me.  When I finally asked if he noticed anything about my timing he said: “Yes. I’ve been waiting for you to ask. I didn’t want to seem pushy.”  Turns out, the final commercial break varied wildly from the rundown format.  I had never known to check the traffic log for my breaks.  That was never taught to me.  He showed me where to get the log and what to look for.  I never mistimed a show again.

Directors also tend to be dismissed by managers and other newsroom employees during a shift. Because of this, they hear everything and if you have developed a strong relationship based on trust, your director may give you a heads up when something big is about to happen that involves you.  Several times I found out management was considering moving me to another newscast, from my director.  I had several days to prepare before news management got around to telling me.  I never betrayed the director’s trust and was able to arm myself if I didn’t like the shift change to try and fight for “my show.”

In some shops directors are considered managers.  They are consulted before changes take place especially when it comes to formatting newscasts.  You want a heads up when possible and you want to be able to weigh in.  Several times directors came to me with proposed format or policy changes and asked my opinion before weighing in themselves.  We wanted to be on the same page to protect our shift.

The other smart alliance is with assignment editors.  (We will dedicate an entire article to assignment editors soon.  They are unsung heroes in many newsrooms.)  I went out of my way to develop a relationship with my assignment editors because often they are the next closest thing to producers in terms of constant grind.  Again, assignment editors are a type of manager, yet don’t really have teeth, just like producers.  And, just like producers, they sit down to work and don’t get downtime until they are in the car on the way home.  Assignment editors are also consulted on things that impact your shift, but involve the crews more.  They are a great resource for understanding what the crews in the field are going through during an actual shift.  Usually the crews are too swamped to fill you in themselves.  Crews know management will check in with the assignment desk and therefore usually tell the desk any elements first.  If you are not respectful to your assignment editor, you will not get as many updates about the crews and will not get to weigh in on how you want those updates. This can have a dramatic impact on your day-to-day job duties.  Also, if you are curt toward your assignment editor, you will end up having to constantly check the assignment file and scroll through hoping to figure out what the newest information is on local vo’s etc.  If you are respectful, you might get a top line or quick phone call so you know when to write local elements and when to wait for crucial information.

So how do you set up a solid relationship with the assignment desk?  If you have even a moment help make some calls when the desk is overwhelmed.   I used to ask my associate producer to check with the assignment editor to see if he/she needed a quick break once or twice a shift.  My AP could listen to the scanners and answer the phone and my assignment editor could at least walk the building or grab a snack and relax a little.  If breaking news hit, I had the AP get on the desk with the assignment editor and help make calls or, if the assignment editor preferred, be in charge of sending me top lines about the information like a crews’ ETA to the breaking news scene.

Bottom line, producers cannot do their job properly without information, and without a way to cleanly place that information on a television screen.  Treat the people who allow you to perform these key tasks with respect and you will get the help you need to put on the best newscast possible each day.

So Cliché! How to avoid overused phrases

We all have news wording that makes our skin crawl: “area residents,” “alleged” and “budget woes” to name a few.  Recently on Twitter a group of us started listing phrases that make us cringe.  Then one producer tweeted, “What do you use instead?”  Great question and we’re going to give you some answers.

First we need to discuss why these phrases come up so you can better understand how to avoid them.  In seminars you are taught that these phrases are formal language and not written for the ear.  That’s often true.  It can be hard to write on a computer screen and imagine the words actually coming out of someone’s mouth.  There’s more behind writers using these so called “crutch phrases” though.  Because they are used so often, they have become a sort of news slang.  They seem dependable when you write.  In fact it almost becomes expected that you will write this way.  Take music for example.  Thanks, in part, to tons of country and rock songs the term “ain’t” is now in the dictionary.  Think about it.  If you start singing songs in your head, it won’t take long to come across one with “ain’t” in the lyrics.  Many of the songs have amazing phrases, cadence and messages.  Yet the lyricist throws in “ain’t?”  It seems likes “ain’t” is expected in a song.  Now consider news copy.  The clichés we’re talking about are news writers versions of “ain’t.”  They are slang terms that some writers use as crutches because they hear them all the time.  Where?  In newsrooms, all day long.  Ask a reporter for a headline as he/she runs to a fire.  Chances are you will be told fire is at such and such address and “completely destroyed” the building.  We simply use these terms all the time.  But that does not mean they should end up in our news copy.

Writers (and by that we mean everyone who writes: anchors, producers, associate producers, reporters even assignment editors) also use these phrases because they are writing in a hurry.  When you are slamming information into the assignment file or into a script just to get the show done, you are going to use terms you are most familiar with.  That’s how the mind works.  You might call it: “News slang  under duress.”  Then a writer comes along for the next retread and ends up not comfortable with the story.  He/she clings to the news slang already in the script to avoid possibly changing the meaning of the copy.  Now you see how the cycle repeats over and over.

So how do you break the cycle of “news slang under duress?”  Discipline.  It begins with you printing out the news copy you write once every week and reading it over at home when you are more relaxed.  Have your highlighter ready and mark your “crutch phrases.”  Then work to eliminate them one at a time from all of your writing.  Write the “crutch phrase” on a notecard, then write three alternate types of wording.  Post the notecard somewhere on your desk at work.  That way, when you are slamming, you have quick options to avoid the clichés.

Many of the worst news clichés are easily avoided when deleting one word: “completely destroyed” becomes “destroyed.”  “Clouds of uncertainty” becomes uncertain.  “Brutal murder” is “murder.”  Most of this “news speak” is used while trying to provide an image.  “Clouds of uncertainty,” “brandishing a firearm,” “budget ax,” “hanging in the balance,” even “hit the nail on the head,” all put pictures in your mind.  These terms are not how you provide images in TV news.  You have video to provide the images.  Moving pictures are what separate us from newspapers and radio.  Remember when “writing for the ear” as consultants say, you are also writing to, or complimenting, the video.  (We  explain how to write to video more in depth in Can you picture it article.)  Your words do not need to put images in a person’s mind.  Again, this is not radio or the newspaper.  Your words need to get someone to look at the TV screen to see the images you are showing.  Your words also provide perspective.

Providing perspective means you need to understand what you are writing about.  I saw this repeatedly as a producer and an EP.  If the writer, be it a reporter, assignment editor, anchor, producer or associate producer did not understand the content, the copy became cliché.  When we are uncomfortable, we cling to crutches.  If you are unclear in understanding the story, you must ask for information before writing it.

Now let’s address the comment from the producer on Twitter asking what alternates to use for the crutch phrases.  Since writing for television news is always under duress, we at survivetvnewsjobs.com has posted  alternatives in an extensive list. ( Cliché list )  Here’s to making sure all of our copy isn’t “so cliché!”

Camryn Burchett making move from assignment desk to reporter with 12News Daybreak team

Camryn Burchett is moving from behind the assignments desk out into the field next week when she starts her new job as a reporter for the Daybreak team on 12news.

Burchett has been working on the assignment desk since first coming to 12News in October 2022.

Her first day on-air with the Daybreak team will be on Monday morning, May 13, 2024.

“Camryn is an energetic champion for the people of Southeast Texas," said news director Ginny Sweeney. "We are thrilled to have her on the streets protecting our families and telling the stories that matter.”

Burchett recently worked alongside 12News anchor Jordan WIlliams to help report on the trial of Clayton Foreman who was found guilty in the 1995 murder of former Beaumont teacher Mary Catherine Edwards.

She also helped produce the "Sounds of the Season" Christmas specials that first aired in 2022 and featured Southeast Texas high school bands and choirs singing and playing Christmas carols. 

Burchett  is a Nederland High School grad, who was born in Beaumont.

Before joining the 12News team, she worked as a camera operator for Dave Campbell's Texas Football and worked as a para-professional at schools in Cypress and Houston before coming back to Southeast Texas.

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How to Pitch Local TV from a TV Reporter

I’m going to break down the who, what, when, where, why, and how to pitch local TV in this episode.

If you haven’t jumped in my bootcamp yet, you can see how this played out for a solopreneur I worked with in my Media Mentoring Program . 

We worked on her very first pitch together which turned into a live 5-minute TV segment.

To see that pitch, just visit TheExactPitch.com.

Who do I pitch at a TV station for press coverage?

Every newsroom is different.

Don’t pitch: 

• Production assistants 
• Assistant news directors, news directors, and directors  
• Assignment editors at the desk
• Anchors (in smaller markets)
• Photographers 
• Website writers and website producers
• Executive producers 
• Planning editors 
• Managing editors 

What do I include in my pitch for press coverage?

You don’t need a press release.

Instead, just keep it short and sweet.

Write conversationally.

Write in the present tense because, in TV news, we write in the present tense.

When do I pitch at a TV station for press coverage?

This depends on the story and if there is a lead time.

Don’t pitch during breaking news.

There are not a lot of resources on weekends.

When something is breaking or trending locally or nationally.

Not during news time.

Ideally, before the 9 a.m. meeting for dayside coverage and the 2:30 p.m. meeting for nightside coverage.

Where do I find the contact information to pitch a TV station for press coverage?

Email is #1, but you can follow up with a phone call AFTER the newscast.

Start with the station’s website.

Look on Twitter, then other social media.

Call the assignment desk and push for something in addition to the general email address to not get lost in the mix.

Why should I pitch a local TV station for press coverage?

Always start local because it’s where you are most newsworthy.

National TV will want to know you did local first.

It can be a feeder to other things.

TV is where most credibility lies.

How do I pitch a TV station for press coverage?

My bootcamp Pitch Publicity Profit walks you through one of my Media Mentoring clients pitching local TV, getting a yes, appearing live, and turning the appearance into paid brand deals all within the course of a week.

To get the word-for-word details, you need to jump into my bootcamp.

It’s just 3 hours and only costs $37 at PitchPublicityProfit.com.

Generally, this is how you write the pitch… in this order:

1. Start off with something personal so the reporter knows she isn’t copied on 500 other emails at the same time.

2. Go right into why she should care about the story you’re pitching. This should include something currently trending, new statistics, or recent data… it has to be NEWS, not a promotion. Also, remember it has to have a local tie-in because we’re talking about LOCAL news.

3. Stand out by sharing a compelling reason why you need to be included in the story and not someone else who does the same thing you do. This is where your being a resource is your big play.

4. Share what visuals you can provide. In TV, this is a must.

5. Finally, be ready and tell the reporter you’re ready and easily accessible.

I know that sounds like a lot and it may be impossible to keep it short, but each of those sections is just a sentence or two. 

That’s the who, what, when, where, why, and how of pitching your small business to get on local TV from a local TV reporter.

To see how it played out for a solopreneur, visit PitchPublicityProfit.com.

There is one thing I didn’t touch on here that I will do in my newsletter on Thursday… and that is follow up.

Most of what you get will be on the follow-up, so I’m going to tell you how to do it on Thursday!

I’m also naming the winner of the book giveaway from last week in my newsletter.

Sign up at MediaMavenNews.com .

In this episode, I am going to break down the who, what, when, where, why, and how to pitch local TV from me, a local TV reporter. 

If you haven’t jumped into my bootcamp yet, you can see how this played out for a solopreneur whom I worked with in my Media Mentoring Program . We worked on her very first pitch together, which turned into a live five-minute TV segment. This was all, like, within a week. So to see that pitch, you can just visit theexactpitch.com and you will see what she sent to a local TV station to get booked and appear within a week. 

I want to shout out Barbie0792 to she said my podcast is “a treasure trove of useful information” on Apple podcasts: 

I absolutely love this podcast. I’ve been listening to it for over a year now, and the insights she provides are invaluable. She shares advice that would cost the average person thousands of dollars in coaching and consulting fees. This show is a must for any working professional. 

Thank you so much, Barbie0792. You are amazing for leaving that review. If you want to leave me a review, please do so on Apple podcasts or in Spotify. I would appreciate it, and I will read it here on the show. 

All right, let’s get into the who, what, when, where, why, and how to pitch local TV from a former TV reporter.

First, who do you pitch at a TV station for press coverage?

Every newsroom is different. This is my experience in finding contact details working in newsrooms in New York City, Beaumont, Texas, Fort Myers, Florida, and Miami and Fort Lauderdale. 

This is who you do not pitch. 

You do not pitch production assistants. You do not pitch assistant news directors, news directors, or directors. And you do not pitch editors because they are not working on the content that goes into the news. 

This is the right person to pitch. 

You pitch assignment editors at the desk. An assignment editor is listening to the scanners and determining where a broadcast journalist goes on an hour-to-hour basis, depending on what they’re covering and what’s happening. These are the people accepting all of that incoming email into that generic newsroom address. 

You pitch producers because producers are determining what goes in the show and in what order. You pitch reporters because they have to come in with story ideas every day. You pitch anchors, especially in smaller markets. In bigger markets, the anchors act more like news managers. But in smaller markets, they’re pitching stories as well. You pitch photographers because many times photographers pitch stories and they also go out and shoot stories on their own. You want to pitch website writers and website producers because even if your story isn’t getting covered on TV, it could still get covered online. 

Executive producers like producers. They’re determining what goes in the newscast and in what order. I wouldn’t suggest pitching executive producers as a plan A, they’re more the plan B. And again, especially in smaller markets when people are doing more because of the resource issue, smaller markets have executive producers who are more likely to jump on story ideas and pitch their own story ideas. They’re in the planning meetings as well, planning editors and managing editors. These are also people who work hand in hand with assignment editors and reporters in the newsroom.

So that is who you are going to pitch on the media list you build. I will tell you how when we get to the how section.

What do I include in my pitch for press coverage? 

Well, the first thing you need to realize is that you don’t need a press release or a news release. Everybody thinks you do because that is what is taught in public relations schools. That is how things worked very well in the 90s, but not so much today. Instead, you’re just going to keep it short and sweet. 

You want to write conversationally because on TV that’s how we write. We also write in the present tense. So if you’re ever watching TV and you listen to how a reporter is telling their story or how an anchor is reading the news, it is in the present tense. That’s not how we talk in normal day-to-day life and it’s very conversational. We are told to write at an elementary school level to deliver the news that way. So that is how you should pitch your news story. 

When do I pitch a TV news station for press coverage? 

Well, this depends on the story and if there is a lead time. Number one, you don’t want to pitch during breaking news. Like this is a no-no, don’t pitch stories when there is. 

We had a few years ago a collapse of a high-rise building where people lived, almost 100 people died. When that is happening, you don’t want to pitch a news story that isn’t related to that breaking news.

And remember, there’s also not a lot of resources on the weekends and there’s also, depending on your market, there could also be not a lot of new stories on the weekends. I remember working holidays in smaller markets and there weren’t a lot of new stories on holidays. So you want to focus when there’s not a lot going on. You want to also make sure or keep in mind that the cruise on the weekends is smaller and the cruise on the holidays is smaller. 

You also want to pitch when something is breaking or trending locally or nationally. So I said don’t pitch during breaking news. But if your news is relative to what’s breaking or it’s relative to something that’s trending locally or nationally, then that’s when you want to pitch that story. Because you know, stories like that are already getting coverage.

So here’s a different angle to the thing getting coverage. You don’t want to pitch during news time. So if there is a 05:00 newscast and a 06:00 newscast pitching around five or 06:00, you’re going to get buried. People are paying attention to what’s happening in the news and they’re paying attention to what’s happening on the other stations in that market as well. So don’t pitch during newstime. 

Ideally, the best time is pitching before the 09:00, a.m. meeting for day side coverage and pitching right before the 02:30 P.m. Meeting for night side coverage works. So I think in just about every newsroom I worked in, there was a 09:00 or a 930 meeting and then a two to 03:00 meeting. In the last market I was in, it was 9:30, I think, and then 2:30. So at that 9-9:30 meeting, we’re talking about what’s going to be covered that day to air at five and six. In the 2:30 meeting, they’re talking about what’s going to be covered that evening in the ten or eleven newscasts. So if you can pitch before those meetings, your story idea may be discussed in those meetings. 

Where do I find the contact information to pitch a TV station for press coverage? 

This is a big question people get. You could use expensive software, but you don’t have to. I will say that the hardest kind of contact information to find is that of people working in a TV newsroom.

But there are best practices. Email is number one, obviously, and you can follow up with a phone call, but if you are going to call, do not call during a newscast. Call after the newscast. That’s when things are super slow. So if the news ends at 6:30, they usually have a quick five to ten-minute recap on how the newscast went. So give a call at 6:45 or 7:00. That’s when things are slow and people are more likely to take your call with patience. 

Again, if there’s no breaking news happening in your local market, I always suggest starting with the station’s website. Every website is going to be different. You will always get the generic email that goes to the assignment desk. You should definitely use that that is monitored. There are people and it is their job to literally sit in the newsroom all day and read those emails while they’re listening to scanners. So start with the station’s website. 

Sometimes you will get lucky and they will include all of the local reporters and all of the anchors on the website with their email addresses. If it’s not their email address, it’s their Twitter handle so you can find a way to contact them. 

What is most likely not going to be on the station’s website is the contact information for individual producers or individual people who work at the assignment desk. That is okay if you have a reporter’s information or you have the assignment desk’s information. 

But I also suggest looking on Twitter and then other social media. Use that Twitter search bar as a search engine because sometimes there will be producers and there will be people who work at the assignment desk and they will know I am a producer at WTVJ. And then when you go in there and you search WTVJ, it’s the best way to find people who work there. You can see their title on Twitter, on LinkedIn, or wherever. And that’s how you can also get contact information to reach out to them. 

You can also call the assignment desk and push for something in addition to the general email address to not get lost in the mix. So for example, the station I worked at, NBC in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, they have an entertainment show that aired when I was there it was between eleven and twelve. And that is something that the assignment desk, they may or may not forward it to the producer who works on that show. But sometimes it’s just easier to contact the producer who works on the entertainment side because it’s more of an entertainment story and it’s not necessarily a news story. So you could call the assignment desk and ask for the producer of the it was called Six in the Mix. Ask for the producer of the Six in the Mix show and then maybe they will give you that direct email address. 

Again, if you’re calling during the day when things are busy if you’re calling during a newscast, they’re less likely to help you than if you would call maybe around 10:00 a.m. or 01:00 p.m. or 07:00 p.m. So you just need to keep that stuff in mind when you’re dealing with local TV. 

Why should I pitch a local TV station for press coverage? 

Well, most PR pros will tell you always want to start local because that’s where you’re the most newsworthy, where you live locally. I’m not going to get coverage for something in Nashville, Tennessee because I have no context to Nashville, Tennessee. Like what is the relation there? There’s none. 

But if I publish a book then maybe I’ll get coverage here in the West Palm Beach market because I’m a local resident in this community. 

Plus, if you want to be on national TV, they always want to know what you did locally first. And they may say to themselves, well why would I cover this person nationally if they don’t even have coverage on local TV stations? Why are they worthy of national coverage? Yes, it can happen and it has happened before, but nine times out of ten they’re going to want to see some local coverage first. 

When I pitched Amy Porterfield to CNN, they asked me if she had local TV coverage because they don’t want to put her on national TV if she’s not prepared for national TV. She did not have local TV coverage, but she did have experience doing a boatload of live webinars so she’s comfortable in front of the camera. And when I let them know that, then they were more excited to move forward with having her on because they knew that she was prepared to be on live TV.

Local TV can also be a feeder to other things. So we have these things called the wires. There’s like a big database of a bunch of local TV stories. So if I do a story for the NBC in Miami Fort Lauderdale, it will go into this database with all of the other local NBC stories. And that goes to the national NBC database where if they’re looking for an extra 30 seconds to fill in their national newscast, or if the NBC in New York, the biggest market in the country, needs 1 minute of a light, fun story to share, they will look at what are all the other NBCS airing across the country. So this is how a local story can go national or a local story can air in other markets. A lot of people don’t think of this. 

I remember one time I interviewed Benjamin Crump, he was the lawyer for Trayvon Martin’s family after George Zimmerman killed him in Orlando. And we were covering a lot of Trayvon Martin stuff at the time because Trayvon Martin was from South Florida, he was from Miami. He was just killed in Orlando because that’s where his dad lived. He was visiting his dad at the time. 

So Benjamin Crump came to the station, and I remember he wasn’t very friendly with me if I’m being honest. And he kind of like turned his nose up at local news. And he told me, I usually just do national news. I don’t do local news. And I thought, okay, well, clearly you don’t know how this works because one, this NBC station is owned and operated by national NBC.

So what we do directly goes to national coverage. So what he didn’t realize was by doing an interview with local TV, first of all, you don’t turn your nose up at the Miami Fort Lauderdale market. It’s the 16th biggest market in the country. So that is why I was very frustrated with the way he was approaching that. And Trayvon Martin was from Miami, so you should be happy to do a story for the Miami market audience. Anywho point of this is he does an interview in the Miami market that can be aired at NBC stations across the country in addition to national NBC. 

And many times that happens, especially with a story that big. So to say, oh, I don’t want to do local TV here. It’s just a small market. Well, first of all, it’s how you get started. And two, it’s how you can get bigger and go anywhere. It’s a feeder to other things. 

Finally, TV is where most credibility lies because there is a certain amount of time you have on TV. It’s not endless like online coverage, because there is no limit to how much stuff you can put online. But with TV, there is. 

And the credibility of being on TV is so much more than say, being on a podcast or being online, because anybody can start a website, anybody can start a podcast, but not anybody can start a TV station like that’s where the credibility lies.

Tip: For more air time, focus on pitching a morning show… especially if your story has a local community focus.

How do you pitch a TV station for press coverage? 

This is the big one. My bootcamp Pitch Publicity Profit walks you through one of my Media Mentoring Program clients, pitching local TV, getting a yes, appearing live, and turning the appearance into paid brand deals, all within the course of a week. 

So to get the word-for-word details on this, you need to jump into my Boot Camp. It’s just 3 hours, and it only costs $37. Like it’s a no-brainer. You can access that at pitchpublicityprofit.com . I will link to that in the show notes. 

But generally speaking, I will share how you write a pitch and in what order.

But if you want to see a real-life example of how this happened for a solopreneur who has never earned coverage before, then I highly suggest you visit pitchpublicityprofit.com . 

Generally, we’re going to go through five steps, and it’s going to be in this order. 

Number one, a great way is to start off with something personal so the reporter knows that she isn’t copied on 500 other emails of the exact same thing at the exact same time. It is shocking how much this happens. And now, being on the other side of things, it’s frustrating to me because I know that if you hire a PR agency to do this for you, you’re paying thousands of dollars a month, and you’ve committed to at least a six-month PR retainer. And these people you’ve hired are blasting this pitch to hundreds of people at the same time, and that’s just not effective, and journalists hate that. So you want to start with something personal so the reporter knows that he or she is the only one being sent. 

Number two, you want to go right into why that reporter should care about the story you’re pitching. This should include something that’s currently trending, new statistics, recent data. It has to be news and not a promotion. And remember, it also has to have a local tie-in, because we’re talking about local news. I gave the example of me publishing my book that’s going to come out soon called Become a Media Maven. If I pitch that to broadcast media outlets in Nashville, they’re going to be like, Why do I care? You’re not from here. This has nothing to do with Nashville. If I pitch it in the West Palm Beach market, I am a local author who lives here and who networks with people in the community. It adds the local element.

A big mistake people make at this step is they say, 

I’m Christina, I used to be a reporter and anchor. Now I’m in PR, and I would love to tell your audience about how they can earn exposure without spending money on ads.

That’s promotional. That doesn’t go into anything that’s trending. I’m not sharing statistics. Recent data like, why should the audience care? Why should the reporter care? Keep that in mind. 

Sharing bullet points makes media pitches to a TV journalist easier to read too.

Number three, you want to stand out by sharing a compelling reason why you need to be included in the story and not somebody else who does the same thing you do. This is your unique selling point to the local press. This is where being a resource is your big play. This is how you get included in the story that you are pitching. Why do they need to talk to you? 

If you are a real estate agent or you are in the real estate industry, you have new statistics about the housing market or first-time home buyers or the new interest rate, then you need to share why you are the person to talk about that in that local market because everybody knows a real estate agent. Why are you somebody to talk about? Maybe you have niched yourself in first-time home buyers. Maybe you just worked with a first-time home buyer and they’re willing to help you out and go on camera as well to help their story. Having that “real person: gives you a better chance of landing the press appearance. So you have to think about a reason why you should be the one to talk to instead of somebody else who does the same thing you do. 

Number four , you want to share visuals that you can provide in TV. This is a must. Bonus points for putting VIDEO in the subject line of your email pitch.

I can’t tell you how many times we were pitched a story from a business that had a break-in. They had a break-in happen and they wanted to find the guys who did it. If they did not have any surveillance video or they did not have something visual to share in relation to the burglary, we didn’t cover the story because we didn’t have anything to show. Surveillance video is like if you had it, you were automatically covered. You were automatically included in the newscast because that’s video people want to see. 

There were also many times when people would pitch a story and they would say, 

This issue is happening in our neighborhood, in our community… or This happened to my child at school. And everybody should know. 

But they didn’t want to go on camera and talk about it. They wanted to remain anonymous. And a lot of times these were great stories. But if you don’t want to go on camera and talk about it, how can we do the story? We can’t. It’s not like we can print quotes and say, this is from an anonymous source. You can’t do that. You have to be willing to go on camera and to show something. 

And number five, you need to be ready and tell the reporter you’re ready and be easily accessible. 

Let me share another story time I was pitched a story. I forget what the story was, but we had our morning meeting and I pitched it because I was emailed it and they said, yeah, go do it. So I emailed the person back and I’m like, yes, we’re ready to do your story. Oh, well, we’re not ready yet. We need two weeks to get ready. I need to make sure that this person’s okay with it. And they totally acted before they were ready. And I was like, no, I need to do the story today. It was already approved, and I need to put something on the air tonight at five or six. And they were like, well, let me get back to you. I had to do another story for that day. And then when they were ready a week or two later, I was on to something else. I was covering something else. They missed their opportunity. 

So when you pitch, you need to be ready like you are working to help them do their job. And if they have a story that needs to be covered that day, then you need to help them cover the story that day. That is just how this works.

And this is where a smaller business has the advantage over a bigger business. Because I have clients in my agency that take forever to get things back to me and my team. And because of that, they miss so many opportunities and it takes them a long time because they’re busy doing other things. They have other priorities. They have a lot of people in charge that need to approve things. And it takes a long time. When you work for yourself or you have a very small team, you can just say, yes, let’s do it, and you get it done. 

And again, this is why I preach don’t be afraid of being too small or being too new in business. If you have a good story and they want to talk to you, if you’re a good resource and a journalist wants to talk to you and you just make yourself available, you’re going to get the coverage over the big guys nine times out of ten. 

Now, I know that sounds like a lot, and it may be impossible to keep the pitch short with those five points, but each of the sections that I talked about, it’s just a sentence or two. 

So we’re going to start off with something personal. You’re going to go right to why they should care about the story you’re pitching. And remember to tie in something local. It’s local news. You’re going to stand out by sharing why you are the person to talk to about it. Share what visuals you can provide and let them know that you’re ready to go right now. Here’s my phone number. Call me anytime, text me. I’m good to go. 

So that’s the who, what, when, where, why, and how of pitching your small business to get on local TV from somebody who was a local TV reporter for over a decade. 

Again, I want you to see how this played out for a real solopreneur, word for word. See her example. Go to pitchpublicityprofit.com . It’s just $37. 

And there is one thing that I did not touch on here that I will do in my newsletter on Thursday and that is the follow-up. Most of what you get will be on the follow-up. So I’m going to tell you how to follow up tactfully how many times you should follow up, and what should be in the follow-up. All of the follow-up things on Thursday in my newsletter. So if you are not already subscribed to that, just go to mediamavennews.com . It’s a media relations gold mine.

And I am also naming the winner of the book giveaway from my newsletter last week. I told you last week how to enter the giveaway to get Alex Hormozi’s book and I will tell you who won as well as all of the follow-up information you need.

And then I’ll probably go ahead and put everything in text here for you on how to write the pitch and turn this into a little guide for you. So make sure you’re subscribed to mediamavennews.com . 

And again, you can get all the links for the newsletter and my boot camp in the show notes for this episode. The show notes are just at becomeamediamaven.com I made it super easy. That goes straight to the podcast and eventually, my book will be there because my book is also called Become a Media Maven. 

So thank you so much for listening. That is how you can pitch a local TV porter thank you so much for listening. That is how you can pitch local TV for coverage from a local TV reporter.

If you have any questions, make sure to hit me up on social media. I am at @ChristinaAllDay and reply to one of my emails from my newsletter that I send out every Thursday morning with a request on what you want me to cover on this podcast. If you have a question that most likely means other people like you have the same question and if you tell me what that is, I will dedicate an episode to that question you have. 

Thank you so much. I will see you again here next week and I will see you in the inbox in just a couple of days.

Any ideas for future episodes? How about getting in local newspapers, another aspect of pitching news outlets, having a media kit, writing the perfect pitch to online media, or how to find human interest stories with a local angle?

Let me know!

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Michigan woman found living inside rooftop store sign with desk and coffee maker

The woman told police she had been living inside the grocery store sign for roughly a year, and had been able to get electricity

Contractors curious about an extension cord on the roof of a Michigan grocery store made a startling discovery: a 34-year-old woman was living inside the business sign, with enough space for a computer, printer and coffee maker, police said.

“She was homeless,” said Brennon Warren, an officer with the Midland police department. “It’s a story that makes you scratch your head, just somebody living up in a sign.”

The woman, whose name was not released, told police she had a job elsewhere but had been living inside the Family Fare sign for roughly a year, Warren said. She was found on 23 April.

Midland, best known as the global home of Dow Inc, is 130 miles (209km) north of Detroit.

The Family Fare store is in a retail strip with a triangle-shaped sign at the top of the building. The sign structure, probably 5ft (1.5 meters) wide and 8ft (2.4 meters) high, has a door and is accessible from the roof, Warren said.

“There was some flooring that was laid down. A mini desk,” he said. “Her clothing. A Keurig coffee maker. A printer and a computer – things you’d have in your home.”

The woman was able to get electricity through a power cord plugged into an outlet on the roof, Warren said.

There was no sign of a ladder. Warren said it’s possible the woman made her way to the roof by climbing up elsewhere behind the store or other retail businesses.

“I honestly don’t know how she was getting up there. She didn’t indicate, either,” he said.

A spokesperson for SpartanNash, the parent company of Family Fare, said store employees responded “with the utmost compassion and professionalism”.

“Ensuring there is ample safe, affordable housing continues to be a widespread issue nationwide that our community needs to partner in solving,” Adrienne Chance said, declining further comment.

Warren said the woman was cooperative and quickly agreed to leave. No charges were pursued.

“We provided her with some information about services in the area,” the officer said. “She apologized and continued on her way. Where she went from there, I don’t know.”

The director of a local non-profit that provides food and shelter assistance said Midland – which has a population of 42,000 – needs more housing for low-income residents.

“From someone who works with the homeless, part of me acknowledges she was really resourceful,” said Saralyn Temple of Midland’s Open Door. “Obviously, we don’t want people resorting to illegal activity to find housing. There are much better options.”

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Two missing skiers found dead after avalanche in Lone Peak Canyon

by Matthew Jacobson & Victoria Hill, KUTV

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (KUTV) — Two skiers have died following an avalanche near Little Cottonwood Canyon on Thursday morning.

Their names were not immediately released, but officials said they were men aged 23 and 32. They added that one was a local resident and the other was from out of state.

Rescue crews responded to Lone Peak Canyon after a report that three people had been involved in an avalanche at around 10:30 a.m.

A Life Flight helicopter was seen bringing an individual off the mountain approximately two hours after authorities reported the skiers were missing.

Officials said the man, who was taken to a hospital in fair condition, had been able to dig himself out.

Two other people were still outstanding, and Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said Thursday afternoon that rescue crews were having difficulty reaching the area where they were located due to safety concerns.

MORE: Skier reports being carried nearly 300 feet after triggering avalanche in Big Cottonwood

Officials said at 2 p.m. that they would be conducting mitigation to make it safe for search members to reach the men.

The skiers' deaths were confirmed just after 3:30 p.m., but officials said a recovery attempt would not be made until Friday and depended on weather conditions.

Crews were also assisting from Unified Police Department, the US Forest Service and Wasatch Backcountry Rescue.

Rivera stressed that people who want to continue skiing at this time of year should understand the impact of the change in temperature and unpredictable weather conditions.

Based on information from the Utah Avalanche Center, there have been no other avalanche-related deaths recorded this late in the season. They also reported that the last fatal avalanche was on April 17 at Brighton.

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A home stager is a professional who prepares a house for sale, aiming to attract more buyers and potentially secure a higher selling price. They achieve this through the following techniques:

• Rearranging furniture to optimize space and functionality.
• Decluttering to create a clean and spacious look.
• Making repairs to address visible issues.
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Their goal is to present the house in the best light. Home stagers in Elektrostal' help buyers envision themselves living there, increasing the chances of a successful sale.

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Art & Design

The original 'harry potter' book cover art is expected to break records at auction.

Chloe Veltman

Thomas Taylor's original cover illustration for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997) is expected to break auction records at Sotheby's on June 26. Sotheby's hide caption

Thomas Taylor's original cover illustration for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997) is expected to break auction records at Sotheby's on June 26.

The book cover art that introduced readers across the world to Harry Potter is expected to break auction records next month.

This past week, Sotheby's announced the auction scheduled for June 26 in New York of Thomas Taylor's original watercolor illustration for the first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Published by Bloomsbury in 1997, the title kicked off the famous seven-book series.

In a statement shared with NPR, the auction house said the artwork is expected to sell for $400,000 to $600,000 — a record estimate for any Harry Potter -related material ever offered at auction.

With over 500 million copies sold worldwide across 80 languages, the Harry Potter series has become a global phenomenon.

Taylor's illustration — which depicts the boy magician with his trademark round spectacles and lightning bolt-shaped forehead scar boarding the train to Hogwarts from King's Cross Station's platform 9 3/4 — was first offered at auction at Sotheby's in London in 2001, according to the statement. At that point, there were only four published Harry Potter books, yet Pottermania was already taking hold: the artwork sold for a then-record-breaking 85,750 pounds.

'Harry Potter' books will be adapted into a decade-long TV series

Sotheby's said it expects the return of the artifact to the auction block to do exponentially better this time around, as the appetite for Potter-related fare has only increased over the past couple of decades with the release of the blockbuster films and various spinoffs. In 2021, an unsigned first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone sold for $421,000 at Heritage Auctions in Dallas — the current record for a Harry Potter -related item.

Richard Austin, Sotheby's global head of books & manuscripts, said in a statement that Taylor's work "serves as the visual blueprint for the boy wizard who has since inspired millions worldwide."

A rookie assignment

This handout from Christie's shows the cover of J.K. Rowling's first novel Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone. Getty Images hide caption

This handout from Christie's shows the cover of J.K. Rowling's first novel Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone.

Illustrator Taylor was a 23-year-old recent art school graduate when he received the commission from Bloomsbury to create a cover illustration for a fantasy children's book by the then-unknown author J.K. Rowling.

It was the artist's first professional assignment. According to Taylor, he wasn't given much in the way of creative license.

"I was actually asked to paint this scene by the editor at Bloomsbury who said, 'could you please paint Hogwarts at King's Cross Station and Harry approaching the Hogwarts Express?' " said Taylor in a 2022 video interview for the J.K. Rowling online fan community, The Rowling Library . " I was very new and just starting out, so I didn't feel I could say 'No, I think it should be something different.' So I was just doing what I was told, really."

Michael Gambon, who played Dumbledore in 'Harry Potter,' dies at 82

He read Rowling's manuscript on the train after that meeting — one of the very first people to do so.

"It was a stack of paper. It was only printed on one side. Chapter 11 wasn't there, because the author was changing something, so it was missing Chapter 11. And it had a few notes and things in it as well. So it was a very, very early printout," Taylor told The Rowling Library .

After delivering his painting to the publisher, Taylor said for a few months he used the blank underside of each manuscript page for sketching. "And then I think I put the rest of it in the recycling bin," he said. "Of course now I really regret that."

Mixed feelings

Taylor has gone on to become an award-winning children's book author and illustrator. His titles include the series Eerie-on-Sea. Bloomsbury reissued Philosopher's Stone as part of its 25th anniversary commemorative reprint of the Harry Potter books in 2022.

But Taylor said he long had mixed feelings about this early, giant success.

"Normally when you start out as an illustrator, you kind of hope that your first work will be a bit forgotten and then you'll develop and get better and better," Taylor told The Rowling Library . "But of course, in this case, this first piece of work has sort of followed me my entire career. So I look at it and I think, 'Why did I paint that? Why didn't I paint something more exciting?' "

But he said he's finally made peace with it — in part because of how prized his Harry Potter book cover painting has become at auction.

"It is quite striking when I see an auction catalog, and then there's a first edition Charles Dickens, and then Beatrix Potter or something, and then there's my picture," he said. "It is fun to see it appear in places like that."

Indeed, Taylor's artwork will be go under the hammer in June as part of a sale that includes works by such literary greats as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edgar Allan Poe — and a handwritten manuscript by none other than J.K. Rowling.

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‘Saturday Night Live’ Wishes You a Happy Mother’s Day

The “S.N.L.” veteran Maya Rudolph hosted an episode that featured multiple sketches celebrating moms.

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By Dave Itzkoff

Sorry, dads: Because your holiday doesn’t come until June, when “Saturday Night Live” is in reruns, you don’t get anything special from “S.N.L.” But moms, since Mother’s Day arrives the morning after the second-to-last live episode of the season — when everyone at the show has an eye on the door and is saving those last few drops of topical content for the finale — you get a whole brunch-load of “S.N.L.” sketches dedicated to motherhood, beginning with a now-traditional segment in which the cast members trade jokes with their real-life mothers.

This week’s “S.N.L.” broadcast, which was hosted by Maya Rudolph and featured the musical guest Vampire Weekend, used the occasion of Mother’s Day to take a break from opening sketches that satirize current events, much to the disappointment of Kenan Thompson’s mother. “That’s too bad,” she said, standing on the stage of Studio 8H with her son. “I was excited to see who was going to play Stormy Daniels.”

Andrew Dismukes’s mom shared embarrassing photos of her son in the bathtub, the mothers of Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang told jokes intended for the Netflix roast of Tom Brady, and Sarah Sherman’s mom pitched her daughter an idea: “R.F.K. Jr. said they found a worm in his brain — you could be the worm,” she said. (Stash that away in your own brains for later.)

Rudolph, the “S.N.L.” alumna who returned to host for her third time, used her opening monologue to note the fact that she not only is a mother of four children — she is mother . That ubiquitous bit of internet slang was the framework for a surprisingly synchronized live musical number (à la Madonna’s “Vogue”) where Rudolph navigated some quick costume changes, referenced her roles in movies like “Bridesmaids” and her past “S.N.L.” impersonations of Vice President Kamala Harris and Oprah Winfrey, while also shouting out other beloved female “S.N.L.” characters like the Sweeney Sisters, Debbie Downer and Mary Katherine Gallagher.

If all of that wasn’t enough to make you O.D. on M-O-M, there was also a filmed segment featuring Rudolph as a beleaguered mother repeatedly rescuing her daughter from slumber parties, and Heidi Gardner offering Mother’s Day gift suggestions on Weekend Update as the character A Woman Who Says She’s Not Mad. Oh, mother.

Welcome rerun of the week

Yes, technically, “S.N.L.” did do a Beyoncé-goes-on-“Hot Ones” sketch the last time that Rudolph hosted, in 2021. But with that online celebrity talk show back in the zeitgeist with some help from another “S.N.L.” alum, Conan O’Brien, it’s as good a time as any for Mikey Day to dust off the bald cap and play the “Hot Ones” host Sean Evans and for Rudolph to once again assume the role of Queen Bey.

This time, Day’s questions were nominally about Beyoncé’s hit country album “Cowboy Carter,” while Rudolph downed spicy chicken wings and tried to soothe herself by ingesting cocoa butter.

Weekend Update jokes of the week

Over at the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che riffed on Stormy Daniels’s testimony in the New York hush-money trial of former President Donald Trump.

Jost began:

This week in court, Stormy Daniels gave a detailed description of sex with Donald Trump, which was so disgusting, even the sky turned green. [His screen showed a picture of aurora borealis. It then showed a courtroom illustration of Daniels on the witness stand.] Stormy Daniels, seen here as drawn by the creator of “Cathy,” was accused by Trump’s lawyers of lying about their affair for profit. Which would make her the only person to do business with Trump and make money. It’s also been implied that Stormy Daniels got into bed with Trump and let him do whatever he wanted just to advance her career. You know, like every Republican. [His screen showed pictures of Lindsey Graham, Tim Scott, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.]

Che continued:

Stormy Daniels testified that during their encounter, Donald Trump did not wear a condom. He tried to put one on but he was blocked by his tie. Stormy Daniels testified at Donald Trump’s hush money trial and was asked to list some of the movies she’s worked on. After she finished, the judge banged the gavel and opened oral arguments … were the names of the movies.

Weekend Update desk character of the week

Hey, remember that pitch that Sarah Sherman’s mother gave her daughter in this weekend’s opening sketch? Well, hopefully mom got a writing credit or a nice little royalty, because they used it in the episode.

Sherman returned to the Weekend Update desk dressed in layers of wrinkly pink skin while sipping from a sizable cup as a character identified as “R.F.K. Jr.’s Brain Worm.” “Look at this guy,” Sherman said, pointing to a photograph of a shirtless Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “What worm wouldn’t love this? He looks like a pack of chicken thighs that someone left out in the sun.”

She went on to say that Kennedy’s body was “a worm’s paradise, OK? Not a single drop of vaccine in sight.”

Dave Itzkoff is a former Times culture reporter. More about Dave Itzkoff

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