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For the executive producer of a network nightly news programme, the workday often begins at midnight as mine did during seven years with ABC's evening newscast. The first order of business was a call to the assignment desk for a pre-bedtime rundown of latest developments.
The assignment desk operates 24 hours a day, staffed by editors who move crews, correspondents and equipment to the scene of events. Assignment-desk editors are logistics experts; they have to know plane schedules, satellite availability, and whom to get in touch with at local stations and overseas broadcasting systems. They are required to assess stories as they break on the wire services-sometimes even before they do—and to decide how much effort to make to cover those stories.
When the United States was going to appeal to arms against Iraq, the number of correspondents and crews was constantly evaluated. Based on reports from the field and also upon the skilled judgments of desk editors in New York City, the right number of personnel was kept on the alert. The rest were allowed to continue working throughout the world, in America and Iraq ready to move but not tied down by false alarms.
The studio staff of ABC's "World News Tonight" assembles at 9 a. m. to prepare for the 6:30 "air" p. m. deadline. Overnight dispatches r-ore outlying bureaus and press services are ready. There are phone conversations with the broadcast's staff producers in domestic bureaus and with the London bureau senior producer, who coordinates overseas coverage. A pattern emerges for the day's news, a pattern outlined in the executive producer's first lineup. The lineup tells the staff what stories are scheduled ; what the priorities are for processing film of editing tape ; what scripts need to be written; what commercials ate scheduled; how long stories should run and in what order. Without a lineup, there would be chaos.
Each story's relative value in dollars and cents must be continually assessed by the executive producer. Cutting back satellite booking to save money might mean that an explanation delivered by an anchor person will replace actual photos of an event. A decline in live coverage could send viewers away and drive ratings down, but there is not enough money to do everything. So decisions must be made and made rapidly because delay can mean a missed connection for shipping tape or access to a satellite blocked by a competitor.
The broadcasts themselves require pacing and style. The audience has to be allowed to breathe between periods of intense excitement. A vivid pictorial report followed by less exacting materials allows the viewer to reflect on information that has just flashed by. Frequent switches from one anchor to another or from one film or tape report to another create a sense of forward movement. Ideally, leading and lags to stories are worked out with field correspondents, enabling them to fit their reports into the programme's narrative flow so the audience's attention does not wander and more substance is absorbed.
Scripts are constantly rewritten to blend well with incoming pictures. Good copy is crisp, informative. Our rule: the fewer words the better. If a picture can do the work, let it.