TV Station Competition: Friend or Foe?

I've read countless articles about TV network competition -- the inherent rivalry between ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox. And then there are the cable stations -- MSNBC, FOX News, CNN. Between ratings, viewership, and content, it's clear that people have a lot to say about how each station conducts its news programming. And if these networks are constantly vying for attention, there's no way the people who work at these stations could possibly get along, right?

Well, that's questionable.

That may be the case in large market likes NYC (market #1) or LA (market #2) , where a high concentration of viewers makes the competition more intense, but from what I've seen, this isn't necessarily the case in small markets.

For instance, I work for YNN (Your News Now), a 24-hours cable news network featuring local news from the Central New York/Southern Tier/Northern Country area. I work in the Elmira-Corning bureau (market #176), where we compete with WETM (the local NBC affiliate) and WENY (the local ABC affiliate).

In the five weeks I've been here, I've made friends with people from both WETM and WENY. Since we all cover the same stories, we inevitably run into each other, and over time, those run-ins turn into friendships. I exchange phone numbers with reporters from the other stations and hang out with them when I'm not working.

Needless to say, in a small market, in which the reporters are generally young, fresh, and still very much in the learning stages of the industry, the competition is not so much "competition," but more of a friend. We understand each other by understanding the nature of our jobs. For reporting newbies like us, sometimes it's more important that we report on the most newsworthy events rather than worry about our stations' ratings.

School Budgets: A Rising Trend

It's happening all over the country, all over the state, and definitely throughout Central New York. Schools are making enormous budget cuts, eliminating teachers, and extra-curricular activities because they simply don't have the money, nor do they know how much the state will be giving them.

This was the issue at hand at last night's school budget meeting in Hannibal, a small, rural town about 45 minutes outside Syracuse. Last night, the board unanimously passed the budget at $25,462,989 with a 2.99% tax levy. Because the town has yet to learn how much money it will be receiving from the state, these numbers are still up in the air, and the tax rate (which is comprised of a formula determined by the tax levy and number of assessed homes) is unknown as well.

Kat and I interviewed parents, students, the superintendent, and president of the board, who explained by proposing this budget, the district is asking for enough to get by but not so much that the state wouldn't pass it...he hopes.

But students and parents are hoping for more. So much has been cut from the district in the past few years (marching band, foreign languages, music and English teachers), they said they really can't afford to lose any more. These students are dependent upon their education and extra-curriculars in order to move forward with higher education.

Kat went live with the story at 11pm, and we left the school to return to the station by midnight. It was a late night, but another interesting school budget story that brought gloom to parents and high hopes for an improved economy in the near future.

Last night was an intense night for Hannibal, but it's not unlike anything we've seen in Syracuse City School District, Liverpool, and other districts in the area. A public hearing will take place May 11th, with a final vote on May 18th.

Fulton, NY: Losing Chocolate, Factories, and Jobs

In a journal entry dated 4-16-10:

I could tell immediately today was going to be an odd day at YNN. Everyone was pretty quiet at the morning news meeting, there weren't a whole lot of fresh ideas brought to the table, and Joleene didn't show her normal chipper attitude.

It had been announced yesterday that New York Chocolate & Confection in Fulton had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company had taken over the former Nestle plant in 2003, but because of embezzlement and financial issues, the work never really got underway.

Joleene and I researched the issue as much as possible and headed to Fulton in Oswego County to figure out how we could turn a package on it. We also got some insight from Andy, one of the Oswego County reporters who just so happened to be covering for someone in Syracuse that day. He knew a bit about the situation and was able to inform us of some of the details.

We interviewed a woman at the BOCES in Fulton to see if there had been an increase in people looking to train for future employment, but she didn't really speak to the Chocolate Factory issue, so our interview didn't amount to much. It was also an awkward interview since the PR and higher-ranked people at BOCES were in the room, observing our interview, making sure the woman didn't leak any information she shouldn't have.

Eventually we left, but with no word back from the Fulton mayor, we didn't have enough for a whole story, and we went back to the station. (Though not before making three pitstops on a search for chocolate covered pretzels before finally settling for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!)

I spent the rest of the day writing a VOSOT for air about the National Grid President who spoke at the New York Energy Symposium.

It was disappointing that we weren't able to make the story happen, but it has been updated on the YNN web site since. Here's the link.

Half Day, Still Busy

Last Friday (March 12, 2010) was a half-day interning at News 10 Now. Since I was leaving early for Spring Break, I could only stay until about 1pm. I started the day by working on my Doc's Little Gem package from the previous Wednesday night.

Then I went out with Jim, one of the photogs to cover a Green Building Convention going on at the OnCenter. There were a ton of groups and organizations set up throughout the OnCenter promoting the construction eco-friendly buildings and homes through info pamphlets, discussions, and lectures.

After that, I finally finished my Doc's Little Gem package, and off to the Mayor's office I went! Joleene Des Rosiers was still working on the Route 81 story. The city and state were coming closer to making a decision about demolishing the partially collapsed building that caused part of the highway to close.

As part of the latest follow-up, Joleene would be chatting with Mayor Stephanie Miner and wanted some back-up. Between Joleene, the photog, and I, it definitely made the interview a little less intense, though Miner was firm when she stated the demolition would "not take five weeks" and that the city and state were finally making decisions.

For a half-day, it was still pretty eventful, and though Spring Break is sadly over now, I am definitely looking forward to getting back to the newsroom this week.

Constant Change of Events

Last night was another crazy Wednesday at News 10 Now. It's become a running joke that when I come in on Wednesday nights, everything goes haywire. Kat's stories always seem to fall apart or change or aren't what we expect them to be, and last night was no different.

Initially we were going to a meeting for people learning how to be politicians, but we found out the dates were wrong and the meeting was Thursday night.

So instead we headed over to the Syracuse University campus to do a story on forged tickets from Saturday night's big basketball game against Villanova.

We interviewed Syracuse Dept. of Public Safety chief Anthony Callisto, who told us there were about 200 forged tickets sold to the public, which prevented victims from getting into the game. These forged ticket buyers didn't know their tickets were fake since they were mostly purchased on Craigslist.org. Right now, the Syracuse Police are looking into the case. There are no suspects as of yet.

Unfortunately, Callisto no longer had the real or fake tickets in his possession. They were already in evidence, so we could get any shots of them. When we got back to the station, we started to do a VOSOT on the piece because there really wasn't enough material to package it. Until we got a phone call.

Another reporter, Joleene Des Rosiers had been following the partially collapsed building on North State Street in Syracuse that has forced part of Route 81 to close down. She had done a few VOSOTs yesterday, but nothing else. Syracuse city lawyers met with the state at City Hall downtown to discuss demolishing the building, but Joleene left before any of the lawyers left the building or were willing to talk on camera.

But at around 6pm, we got a call that Juanita Perez-Williams from the Syracuse Corporation Council would talk to us. We interviewed her and later interviewed Anthony Tartaro, the owner of the partially collapsed building.

As it turns out, the real reason the building has not yet been demolished is because Tartaro, the city, and the state are debating over who's going to pay for it. Neither the city, state, nor Tartaro can afford to knock down the building, a demolition project that would now cost more than $1 million. The portion of Route 81 near the building will continue to be closed off until the city and state decide the next step.

Kat and the photog, Ben, edited the package in the live truck, until Kat went live with the story at 10:15pm. I wrote my story in the truck also, but didn't' get to edit it. I'm hoping to have enough time to edit the package Friday.

For the latest, check out www.news10now.com.

Until Friday, happy newsing.

NY Driving Law Change

As part of my TV Producing and Reporting class, I put together a news package today. Technical difficulties prevented my package from airing, but here's the link to our class site with my package.

Check it out!

Reporting from a Different Angle

Still playing catch-up on blogging my journal entries about my News 10 Now internship. Here's the next one:

In a message dated 2-12-10:

Reporting from a Different Angle

Well this morning's news meeting made it pretty clear that today was a light news day. Story ideas revolved around going to a flower shop to see how it prepares for Valentine's Day and another piece on the Great Appliance Swap Out, which had been covered earlier in the week but didn't officially start until today.

Ultimately, I went out with Joleene to do a follow-up Swap Out package at Olum's Appliances to see if many shoppers were coming in to take advantage of the Swap Out rebates. I had never gone out with Joleene and was looking forward to it because she seemed funny and smart and acted like she knew what she was doing.

I worked on Wednesday's budget package I hadn't finished until we left the station. The people at Olum's were really friendly and amenable to interviews, and Joleene let me do a lot of work. I found a woman to interview and conducted the on-camera interview myself. Besides shooting, Joleene and I participated equally on the story, talking to people and shooting out own standups.

I wrote my story easily when we got back to the station, and Joleene and I discussed different angles of the story. We realized that the story here wasn't just how many people were coming in these next 10 days to save money on washers, refrigerators, and freezers through rebates. No, this was a story about the busy phone lines and incredibly slow web site that are making it difficult for people to apply for the rebates.

We reported on the story from a new, original angle. One that said while New Yorkers have waited months to purchase these appliances so they could save up to $105 with trade-ins and Swap out rebates, they are now learning that they must apply for the rebates online after they've purchased the item(s). With so many people logging on, often times they can't get through at all. Since New York state only gave $17 million for the first come first serve program, there's no telling who will save money and who won't.

I edited this piece and had Joleene add a few effects so it looked good. Then I had enough time to finish my budget piece.

At the end of the day, Joleene told me I was impressive and would be a great reporter someday, and that made all my hard work worth it.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Syracuse Superintendent Announces Budget

By next week, I will be completely caught up with all my journal entries. Until then, here's another entry about my internship with News 10 Now.

In an entry dated 2-10-10:

Syracuse Superintendent Announces Budget

I knew that based on last Wednesday's date mix-up, tonight I would be going with Kat to the hydrofracking meeting at Nottingham High School. But instead we were sent out on two stories: one was the Syracuse City Board of Ed meeting, and the other was the hydrofracking meeting.

But when we got to the Board of Education meeting and learned that it would be the meeting in which superintendent Dan Lowengard would propose his 2010-2011 budget, we stayed and had someone else cover the fracking meeting.

Lowengard proposed a budget that called for using half of the district's "rainy day fund" and cutting at least 150 teachers and aids. Even after all this, there would still be an $18 million gap in the budget, and Lowengard hoped to close that by cutting an addition 270 teachers and/or lobbying for more money in Albany and Washington.

There was some heat coming from other board members who thought that lobbying does not necessarily mean receiving more money. Anne Marie Voutsinas, the president of the Syracuse Teachers Association, was also really disappointed over talks about all the teacher job cuts.

Kat and I interviewed both Lowengard and Voutsinas before and after the meeting alongside reporters from Channels 3 and 9. The budget was pretty confusing to us, so we all worked together to understand what it said.

In the end, Kat and I figured it all out and took our time shooting standups until we got back to the studio. I stayed an hour later than normal Wednesday night to finish writing my story and have Kat copyedit it. I pulled a few bites, but other than that, I didn't complete the package.

I left it, hoping I would have time to finish it Friday. After all, I did have enought time before we left for the Board meeting to finish my "Beat 'Nova" T-shirt package from teh previous Friday!

*Sidenote: Kat and I wrote the same stories from two different angles. She focused on Lowengard's plans to lobby, and I focused on teacher cuts and how they would affect Syracuse education.

For a more simplified summary of the budget, click here.

Stay tuned for more News 10 Now internship updates.