"We work closely with Tom to identify strong candidates who are excellent producers..."
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Marv Danielski,
MAGID Consultant (Former Vice President Marketing, Hearst-Argyle TV)
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"Making the right hires within your department can mean the difference between success and failure..."
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Dale Lockett,
Creative Services Director, KHOU-TV, Houston
"His extraordinary thoroughness helped me focus on what I really wanted in an
executive producer... he produced a person I would never have found on my own..."
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Scott Libin, News Director, WCCO-TV
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Differentiate your newscast with an Investigative strategy.Today's busy viewer/user is topically driven.
Win daily coverage on the air and online by digging into the top stories of the day. Learn how in Tom's article,
Use of Topical Investigations to Increase Sampling, published in The Rundown newsletter.
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February 02, 2012
A Foggy Accident We Can All Relate To
By Tom Dolan
Sometimes what separates the good newsrooms from the average ones is how a story strikes you and what you do about it. When the combined effects of fog and heavy smoke covered I 75 in Central Florida, it triggered several chain reaction accidents that killed at least 11 people. Most were incinerated as cars, trucks and buses piggy-backed and exploded. The State Police had originally closed the interstate after a Dept. of Forestry warning then reopened it.
Television News, as ABC News did in this dramatization, can play a significant role in raising questions how to handle highways when weather conditions change. What led the State Police to reopen I 75, who had oversight, who checked with the Weather Service, and who was monitoring conditions on the ground?
Even though this was a big story locally for Florida stations, every market's viewers and users can relate to driving in poor visibility. We can all relate to driving rainstorms, dense fog, and "white-outs" whatever climate you live in. If you layer in smoke from a roadside fire, you simply can't see. Use your storytelling and investigative resources to demonstrate what happened and hold the right people accountable.
January 16, 2012
Explaining Private Equity More Helpful than Dueling Sound Bites
By Tom Dolan
Candidate Mitt Romney's comment that he likes to fire in a discussion about performance issues during the New Hampshire Primary unleashed a feeding frenzy without context in coverage. While most network and cable network coverage allowed competing candidates to say they "like to hire" while Romney Likes to fire without challenge, CNN's Christine Romans took a different tact. She and CNNmoney.com did a really on point piece providing more value by trying to truth-squad what he really accomplished at his private equity firm, Bain Capital.
This CNNMoney story documents what Romney did at Bain and used a Wall St. Journal study of 77 Bain investments. Here's a sample clip:
"After examining 77 Bain investments made between 1984 and 1999, the paper found that 22% of the companies declared bankruptcy or closed within eight years of Bain's initial investment. And poor performance led Bain to forfeit its investment in another 8%. But there were notable successes, including pizza chain Dominos and office supplier Staples.
Typical private equity funds only receive a fraction of the winnings from their successful deals. The rest goes to investors."
Christine Romans cites that information and develops a television version also used on CNN.com.
November 06, 2011
Investigative Still the Best Differentiator
By Tom Dolan
Many columns have debated the investment in Investigative Reporting since the Recession but most research will show that Investigative remains the best way to differentiate newscasts. Michael Malone's piece in Broadcasting & Cable on current station based Investigative teams provides a good look at how some companies see it as a way out of the "sameness" game.
But that doesn't mean stations should take a franchise approach. Consulting firm Frank Magid's Laura Clark put it best in the clip: "What drives viewer decisions is the quality of the content, she said. The overarching answer is, viewers are asking [stations] to investigate everything.There has to be an investigate/uncover/dig tone to everything they do."
Michael Malone then cites the KMOV story: "In a world where there may only be room for a few TV news departments in a given market, a number of local TV chiefs say the time is right to define [themselves]& KMOV St. Louis, a distant No. 2 to KSDK for years, [added to their] I Team. The Belo station now has five full-timers in its crew, up from three a few years ago. When the world fell apart in 2008, we said, 'What are the ways we can differentiate ourselves in the market?' said Sean McLaughlin, KMOV news director. 'We feel strongly that investigative is the one thing that sets us apart and increases the bond between us and our viewers.'
Ratings suggest it is working; McLaughlin notes that KMOV won the 10 p.m. news race in September in both households and the 25-54 demographic for the first time in his four-year tenure at the station. 'I think we stayed top of mind through our investigative efforts,' McLaughlin said. 'If it's done right, it's absolutely a differentiator.'"
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More Articles
Why the Stage Collapse Was Not from a "Fluke Storm"
(August 28, 2011)
Breaking News & Accountability in the Jaycee Dugard Case
(July 16, 2011)
Seeing and Staying for the Whole Story
(June 05, 2011)
Super Bug's Magic Wall
(April 30, 2011)
News Sites Can Benefit from Entertainment Interactive
(February 27, 2011)
A Cop Talks -- This Is One Great Talking Head
(December 27, 2010)
CNN Uses a '360' Approach to Multiplatform Reporting
(October 07, 2010)
How to Use Web "Ratings" Every Day
(September 16, 2010)
Accountability a Key Driver and Important Baseline
(August 22, 2010)
Good Storytelling Needs Good Showcasing Online
(August 06, 2010)
More >>
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