Reporters specialized
Rueppel felt it was particularly important to develop people who were allowed to
become specialists in various areas.
"Let your specialists keep you apprised of developments in their area, so you don't
have to constantly invent new coverage every day," she urged.
If you had the same person covering the troop families or the same person covering the
hospitals, soon they started bringing stories to you.
"Everyone is doing too many newscasts and cut-ins constantly to be concerned about
starting fresh every day. There must be continuity," she said.
By having some of your people designated as responsible for certain areas, it meant
you would have developing stories, yet you could still have other people free to
respond to new ideas that surfaced.
Make use of specialties
"We have divided up our staff according to their specialties," said Mark Effron, Vice
President of News and Station Manager of WFSB-TV, Hartford.
They adopted On The Home Front as the banner for their coverage.
The consumer reporter was "Coping On The Home Front." She appeared throughout
the day with tips and phone numbers people could call.
The business reporter was "Business On The Home Front." He watched stocks and oil
prices, and other economic angles.
The investigative reporter interviewed military expert guests in front of a map. Other
beats included medical, security/terrorism, and guest interviews.
"The idea is not to do finished, polished, perfect pieces for an evening newscast, but to
do news all day, said Effron.
Effron fell back on his all news radio experience, and that's what they did on
television.
"My values are different now than preparing for a regular newscast. We want to get
the information on the air, and to be the dependable source for news all the time. We
are playing off our strong people, and the fact that people turn to WFSB in an
emergency. That's our reputation and our credo, and we will be there when people
need us," he stressed.
Aggressive coverage was a goal
"We have tried to be the most aggressive station in town. That was our goal when
planning our coverage," said Tom Luljak, News Director of WTMJ-TV,
Milwaukee.
They began working on it several months earlier.
