ShopTalk How to Balance Your Newscasts By Doug Drew on Aug. 27, 2009 - 12:00 AM The key to a successful newscast is one that has an appropriate balance of news and information spread evenly throughout the program. Many newscasts are out of balance. For instance, a newscast where the top is full of crime and s ...
ShopTalk What Local News Can Learn From ’60 Minutes’ By Doug Drew on Aug. 20, 2009 - 12:00 AM The death of Don Hewitt this week has generated a lot of interest in the history of “60 Minutes.” The key to “60 Minutes'” success is in its stories. Viewers tune in because they know they are probably goin ...
ShopTalk Great Sound From Inside Meetings By Doug Drew on Aug. 13, 2009 - 12:00 AM All around the country, politicians have been holding town hall meetings on the issue of health reform. What they’ve been receiving have been hostile questions from angry participants. It’s made for some great sound. G ...
ShopTalk Why Clinton Bringing Prisoners Home Was a Good Local Lead By Doug Drew on Aug. 6, 2009 - 12:00 AM Early Wednesday morning, the door opened and former President Bill Clinton stepped off the plane with US journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. It was the lead story on all the network newscasts, and it should have led most local mo ...
ShopTalk Telling Viewers What They Already Know is Lazy Journalism By Doug Drew on Jul. 31, 2009 - 12:00 AM I was watching a local newscast this week, a morning news program that had featured a chef preparing gourmet picnic items. One of the items the chef was featuring was a fancy potato salad. After whipping up the delicious looking d ...