ShopTalk The Lead Story By Doug Drew on Feb. 11, 2010 - 12:00 AM The lead story to each newscast should be treated like a new baby. Just like expecting parents spend endless amounts of time readying for the arrival of their new one, producers should spend considerable time preparing for the arr ...
ShopTalk Magic Moment In First 20 Seconds By Doug Drew on Feb. 4, 2010 - 12:00 AM Viewers are not paying nearly the attention we think they are. They are usually doing something else while watching the news and that means we have to work extremely hard to capture their attention. And that magic moment has to ha ...
ShopTalk Out With The Old, In With the New By Doug Drew on Jan. 28, 2010 - 12:00 AM Morning viewers don’t want to go looking for international news on the networks and then come back to you for local news, weather and traffic. They want you to have ALL the news. National and International news is extremely ...
ShopTalk How The Economy is Affecting Local News By Doug Drew on Jan. 21, 2010 - 12:00 AM A recent exchange of emails the last few days with Scott Tallal at Insite Media Research, a leading television news research company, produced some interesting background into how the economy is affecting local news. In my column ...
ShopTalk Suggestions for 2010 By Doug Drew on Jan. 14, 2010 - 12:00 AM Last week I offered Shoptalk readers a Top Ten list of goals for 2010 for better writing, reporting and producing. In the article, I encouraged readers to offer other suggestions. Thanks to all who wrote in ideas, and today I incl ...
ShopTalk 2010 To-Do List By Doug Drew on Jan. 4, 2010 - 12:00 AM As we are about to begin a new year, today I provide a Top Ten list of things everyone in TV news should promise to do in 2010 every single day. 1. Look at your video before writing your story. 2. Write directly to your video. See ...
ShopTalk Cute and Clever Fonts Don’t Work By Doug Drew on Dec. 17, 2009 - 12:00 AM When submitting fonts and supers, remember that they are there for one single purpose: to help viewers understand the story. When deciding what to write, the best rule is to keep it very simple and to-the-point. The best supers ar ...
ShopTalk Newsmakers in Morning Newscasts By Doug Drew on Dec. 10, 2009 - 12:00 AM When booking guests for your morning newscast, the key is finding interesting people who have compelling stories to TELL or something incredibly fascinating to SHOW. Interviews with officials are likely to be boring, so you want t ...
ShopTalk Writing News for the Distracted Viewer By Doug Drew on Dec. 3, 2009 - 12:00 AM Research shows most viewers are doing other things when watching the news. Recent Nielsen studies show that about a third of all U.S. household Internet activity takes place while the user watches television. In many cases, the te ...
ShopTalk The Importance of ‘Talkers’ in Morning Newscasts By Doug Drew on Nov. 19, 2009 - 12:00 AM One of the reasons viewers tune into a morning newscast is to find out what people are going to be talking about that day. Viewers want to be prepared when they get to school, work, or wherever they are going. They don’t wan ...