Newscasts and the NPR clocks: MEGS trainer Tanya Ott gets the scoop

PRPD continues its series of blog posts about the new clocks for Morning Edition and All Things Considered.  In this edition, Tanya Ott talks offers the first of two posts about newscasts.  

by Tanya Ott

NPR’s new newsmagazine clocks will go into effect in just four weeks and programmers across the country are scrambling to wrap their heads around how to best serve listeners in the new world order.   You can bet your news departments – from News Director down to morning host – are equally, um, nervous.   

Where should we put our newscasts? Should they be traditional newscasts or super spots?   How often should we repeat stories? How will we fill the time (for newsrooms who’ve back away from spot news) or find the time (for newsrooms with a robust commitment to day-of reporting)? 

One guide is how NPR plans to approach its part of the equation.  I chatted with NPR’s Newscast Unit Executive Producer Robert Garcia  about how his team is handling the move to three newscasts an hour in Morning Edition and he offered these insights:

• The top of the hour newscast will be a traditional mix of readers, cut & copy, voicers and wraps; but the :19 and :42 newscasts will not be using traditional reporter “spots.”  Instead, NPR will be using newsmaker soundbites and excerpts from debriefs with staff reporters and, hopefully, member station reporters.   (Note: when station and freelance reporters file an NPR spot they’ll be asked to do a brief Q&A too.  I asked Robert if they’d be paid extra for that Q&A – which could, conceivably, result in multiple stories for NPR – and he said that wasn’t his department.   Disclaimer:  I haven’t followed up with NPR, but would still love to know the answer.  AIR?

• NPR expects to be able to fit four or five stories into each 90-second newscast, with two to three pieces of sound on average.

• NPR recognizes that listeners may well be hearing both newscasts since they’re roughly 20 minutes apart.  To cut down on repetition they’re going to vary the stories as much as possible.  But some days the “lead” story is THE “lead” story and will have to appear in several newscasts in a row.  In those instances, NPR will work to vary the writing and angle on each version, then follow it up with different “B” and “C” stories.

The most obvious place to insert your local newscasts is adjacent to the NPR newscasts (4:00, 20:30, and 43:30 in Morning Edition and the usual 4:00 and 34:00 in All Things Considered.)   What should you place in those spots?  We’ll tackle that in the next blog post. Stay tuned.  (How’s that for a forward promote?)  

TANYA OTT is the Vice President of Radio at Georgia Public Broadcasting and a trainer and consultant for the Morning Edition Grad School (MEGS).