Writing for the News

My second day at 9News was mainly filled with the Assignment Desk. At least seven of my eight hours at the station had me answering phones, transferring calls, holding calls, making calls, paging people, researching facts, finding pictures, and double-checking facts in the heart of the newsroom. To call it an effort in multi-tasking would be an understatement, but it was nonetheless amazing.

I also spent about an hour with Adam reporting on differences between Perlmutter and O'Donnell (running for the open seat in HD7). Out that, we brainstormed some questions for a debate that's happening this Thursday in Aurora. That was exciting. Adam also assigned me to booking our "college tour..." which seems daunting, but unlike at LC, people are willing to call 9News back (damn).

My third day was great. I got there before 5AM, and immediately sat down with Jack Maher, a morning producer at 9. He had me research an agency that Gregg Moss was doing a spot at that morning for the "Where in the Town is Gregg Moss" segment of Fridays. He told me to get some facts and then watch Gregg's first hit at 5:40, then mold everything into a 200-300 word piece for the web. All was accomplished by 5:50 AM, and 50% of my story ended up on the website the other 50 from Jack).

He then had me take a reporter's story and weave it into a story from the web, which he then used 100% of for the web! He said that I was a good writer, so he handed me off to the noon producer, Jordan, to have me write for broadcast.

Jordan showed me the ropes of writing for a 9News broadcast, and assigned me to two stories: one about wildfires and one about online classes at Yale. I looked at wire stories and video. Using both resources, I had to turn two 2 minute packages into 25 seconds each for Friday's noon show.

I successfully wrote the segments, pulled video, and learned how to make that understandable for anchors and editors. Although the Yale segment (I think) was going to be pulled due to a time mishap (not my bad), it did air. The anchors used my scripts (minor changes to fit their style) and my video went seemlessly. It was my first experience with broadcast writing...and it was fun!

Yaaay team 9News!

Thanks Jack, Jordan, Kyle, and Sean for making this experience great (even with the early rise)!

~MJ

Where in the Town is Gregg Moss?

Trying to Win Colorado's Pine Beetle Battle