By Sue Masaracchia-Roberts
Susan Anderson, award-winning former CBS general assignment reporter and current adjunct Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism professor, moderated a trio of local Chicago beat reporters in June at the final Publicity Club of Chicago luncheon of the club year. Following are highlights of the discussion:
Susan Anderson, founder and president, S.E.A. Communications
susan@ownthestory.com
Among the first wave of women in television journalism, Anderson has had more than 20 years of experience as an on-air journalist. Starting at WBBM-TV/CBS in 1972, she founded Factfinder, the first local television consumer investigative unit in the county, and headed it for nearly a decade. Becoming a news anchor in 1980, Anderson created and reported for the daily segment “All About Health” until 1997, when she created SEACOM. During her career, she has won seven Emmys, as well as awards for best consumer reporter, investigative reporting, outstanding woman in communications, and broadcast journalism awards from AP, UPI and Scripps-Howard. Anderson noted that “Citizen-journalists are now more prevalent,” providing clips like the Clinton-Obama footage.
The days of three people crews, expense accounts, and having one day off a year as a “research day are long gone,” said Anderson. “Today, everyone must work across platforms.”
The panelists at this program bore this out.
Ed Curran, CBS-TV (WBBM-TV/Channel 2) meteorologist and “gadget guy”
ejcurran@cbs.com
As the CBS morning news meteorologist, Curran can be seen on Channel 2-TV between 5 and 7 a.m. and on the 11 a.m. newscast. He also serves as the technology reporter, unveiling the hottest consumer electronics trends and gadgets on the market. A Chicago native, he began his broadcast career on the radio, working at WGCI-FM, WIND-FM, WLS-AM and with his own show on WGN Radio for eight years. He became a technology correspondent for CNN, and worked at WGN-TV/Channel 9, then WMAQ-TV/Channel 5.
People can contact him regarding new products, such as the switch to digital television. However, when discussing new products and gadgets, Curran does not use PR pitches, but likes to work directly with the company. If e-mailing him, his preferred method of contact, he requests that PR people *briefly* spell out their ideas, preferably in bulleted form. Then, if they choose, a link and/or an attachment can be included.
“I prefer the lead up front,” he said. “Lead with the bullets and get my attention.”
He especially likes to discuss trends — like in global positioning (GPS) units — and stories that are visual. He will use B-roll if no other option for visual footage exists, but will source it if he does use it. He does not use video news releases.
Regarding the station’s ongoing evolution, “We lost 19 people in March and are moving to a new building,” he said. “As are many, we are doing more with fewer people and are replacing rooms full of people with machines.”
Procedurally, before anything airs or goes online, lawyers review everything he produces. As with most media, Curran’s information is expanding to the Web with extra material, beyond the facts covered on the air. “This provides a value-add, a reason for people to go to the Web,” he explained. “And it’s always nice to have an exclusive.”
Steve Dolinsky, WLS-TV (ABC/Channel 7) food reporter
Steve.b.dolinsky@cbs.com
Having reported on the food industry since 1995, Dolinsky has won 12 James Beard Awards for his radio and television work. He has also written about restaurants, chefs, and the Chicago food scene for years in the Chicago Reader, Citysearch.com, Chef and Chicago Social Magazine. He began Culinary Communications, a food industry-focused media training company working with food and beverage professionals, training them how to handle media exposure. Best known for his Hungry Hound radio and television segments on WBEZ-FM (National Public Radio’s Chicago outlet), WCKG-Radio (105.9 FM) and WLS-TV, he is seen frequently reporting on segments around town and, most recently, at the Taste of Chicago reporting on food fare. He has been at ABC7 for five years, having taken over when James Ward retired.
With two young children, Dolinsky loves to cook and, in reality, only dines out about twice a week with them. For his stories, he is most interested in behind the scenes recipes, trends, techniques and the use of unique ingredients. Although he is one of the few reporters who likes to get some of his information by phone, he still prefers receiving e-mails.
However, for e-mail, one of his pet peeves is receiving a note as part of a mass release.
“Craft your release to meet my needs,” he said, adding, that he looks for trends. “For example, if I hear about three places that use peanut butter in different ways, like in risotto, I can compare ingredients. If I get a lead about different peanut butter use — like in stew, in ice cream or grinding their own — from two people, it’s a coincidence, but if I hear about it three times, it’s a trend.”
“It is tough to do roundup stories when you have only two minutes on tape and the stories are one to two hours away. Story sources must be close by — within an hour of downtown Chicago,” he explained, “since we don’t always have a crew to film. It’s tough to get a crew, especially since [my food stories] are not the priority.”
Dolinsky suggests PR people do their legwork before contacting him and warns them not to call asking if he got a release, as that is a major pet peeve.
Typically, he is in the studio on Wednesdays and Friday, while on Mondays and Wednesdays he is researching and shooting stories.
Providing general insight to PR people, Dolinsky said, “It is easy to go to Web sites in the various markets to determine the beats of reporters, assessing what they cover.” PR professionals “should *know* the story and the product they are pitching before they contact me. They should also know the difference between a trend and a limited product. If it is a hyper-seasonal story and you supply what I need, I will mention the company.” Otherwise, he rarely mentions product sources. Stories he does not use on the air, he may use on the Web.
“There is a shift in advertising dollars to the Web,” he explained. “I am creating content in a unique slot. People are interested in it and the shift in advertising money will follow that. I always watch what the competition does, and know there is a whole spectrum of food coverage. Even though it may look like I follow others when their stories appear before ours — like online, we shoot three weeks ahead of when our stories air.”
Three people manage the Web content for the station. Dolinsky explained that if something airs before it goes on the Web, it is not reviewed by legal, but anything that appears on air, it is carefully scrutinized first.
As for B-roll, “we shoot all our own stuff and would rather not use B-roll,” said Dolinsky. However, it has been used on rare occasions, like a shot of pigs in Spain they used in the credit. If B-roll is submitted, they prefer 16 x 9 format.
Answering the burning question of how he can eat so much and yet keep himself slim, he revealed that he uses a personal trainer and drinks only water, no soda or wine, in addition to carefully monitoring his portions.
Lisa Parker, NBC-TV (WMAQ-TV/Channel 5) consumer reporter
Lisa.parker@nbc.com
Reporting on a wide range of topics from real everyday consumer stories to national issues, Parker has worked for NBC5 since 1996 and was responsible for initiating their consumer investigative unit. Also an award-winning broadcast journalist, her awards include Midwest Emmys, Edward R. Murrow Regional RTNDA awards, a Gracie Allen Award, as well as several state and local broadcast awards.
Her stories include children’s product safety, potential defects in automobiles, toxins in mainstream consumer products and other sources of potential consumer danger that have been a catalyst for change. A Northwestern University Medill graduate, prior to joining NBC5, she worked at stations in Virginia, Wisconsin and Iowa.
Always on the lookout for patterns and trends, many of her topics come from viewer feedback through e-mail and the station’s hotline. However, “most pitches don’t meet my needs,” said Parker. “What will get my attention is a current consumer news peg or something that is funny. If there is a naked profit motive in the pitch, it will most likely be pretty transparent.”
She added that most local PR professionals know how to pitch a story, but out-of-town agencies aren’t doing their homework and their pitches are typically off target. You need to know that,” according to Parker. “You don’t want Product 5 to do a story about you.”
Parker also needs visuals that feature real people, especially if the consumers are local. There is a giant push to the Web. The station targets viewers by demographics, age group and news clicks.
“Our reports are ‘evergreen’ and our stuff stays,” she said. “People go to the Web and there it is. Rather than providing other resources on air, we relegate that to our Web site now. On the Web, we provide built-in clicks that will send visitors to sites like www.fda.gov, etc.”
In terms of B-roll, she added, “NBC has a policy against using them or VNRs unless they are our last resort. The reason for that is we don’t know if anything was staged for outside sources.”
There has also been a lot of downsizing at NBC, which is owned by General Electric. “There are challenges across the company, especially as we lose people and resources. Due to eyeballs leaving [television screens] and revenues increasing on the Web site, it’s a lot less expensive to put things on the Web than on the air.”
Different standards exist on the air, when it comes to editing and fact checking. A New York-based legal reviews all stories to ensure they do not contain anything that can be construed as slander, libel or defamation.
The intent of the station is to make the Web more interactive. To that end, they print unedited blogs containing opinions. “Younger people are getting most of their news from blogs,” Parker added. “Currently, there is no additional video content on the Web. We turn all the stories into print-friendly pieces. But that is about to change. Even though what is found there will be parallel, the content will be original.”
When it comes to citizen journalists, Parker acknowledged that there is the potential for “hidden agendas, so we need to treat them like any source and verify their reports.”
She added, “Even though it means little to our viewers, exclusives mean a lot to our management. I’d love to have an exclusive story! That means that no one else has done it. We need to get people to watch!”