Journalists reacted to the bombings at the Boston Marathon and the aftermath the way they always do: they ran toward danger. In a crisis, whether it's terrorism or a manhunt in Boston or a fertilizer plant explosion in Texas, the news media are first responders. …
You're working on an exclusive story for tonight and the Web and social media team wants a piece of it, hours before air. Should you share? If you thought that question had been laid to rest years ago, think again. In some newsrooms, the answer …
by Steve Safran I want to tell you a little bit about working in local news. It's messy and complicated. It's filled with drudgery. It's overnights for years without recognition. It's reporters who start in small markets with pay so low they take a second job, usually …
Local television news can be so easy to mock. Happy-talk anchors, meaningless live shots and enough on-screen grammar goofs to send an English teacher into orbit. The good news is that it's not all terrible. But a lot of it is and, sadly, there's not …
What exactly is the value of a journalism degree? Are J-schools really preparing students for the media jobs of the future? The questions aren't new, but they've come up again in connection with the selection of a new dean for Columbia's prestigious graduate school of …
Consumer reporter Jackie Callaway of WFTS in Tampa calls her beat a beast. She's expected to produce two or three quick turns a week and a "deeper dive" every other week, while working long-term on investigative stories. But after heading the station's "Taking Action" franchise …
If you just look at the bottom line, local TV stations appear to be thriving. Revenue was up substantially last year, thanks largely to a flood of political advertising. But viewership was down in every key time slot in every sweeps period in 2012, according …
by Geoff Roth, executive producer, KRIV, Houston Last year our news director challenged everyone to come up with new ideas for our newscasts. One suggestion I made was to recruit bloggers from the Houston community to do pieces on restaurants, lifestyle, and the arts. His response" …
Are some of the people you interview sounding a little rehearsed these days? More and more officials, professionals and business executives are being coached on how to deal with the media. And while that can be a good thing, it isn't always. Many doctors and lawyers …
Of course you have video on your website. Doesn't everyone? But what is it, exactly? Putting TV clips on the Web is a no-brainer, says NBC News chief digital officer Vivian Schiller, but it's not a game changer. What is? No one really knows yet, but …
All of us have "bad voice" days when we don't sound as good as we'd like. I'm having one of those days today, in fact, thanks to a rotten cold. But most days, my voice performs pretty well. The same can't be said for a …
The iPhone has become an essential part of many if not most journalists' tool kits, in part because so many free or low-cost apps make it easier to report with an iPhone than other smart phones. We've written about some of these apps before, but not lately, and …
