Entertainment Weekly magazine just named J.K. Rowling its "entertainer of the year." While it is pretty cool that they picked a writer, there's an underlying message that relates to the way you put your newscast together.
Short attention spans are a myth.
This summer the final Harry Potter novel ran about 800 pages. I finished the thing in two days. Couldn't put it down. And I know I was not alone. Even young people, often accused of having no patience at all, were riveted.
So, in this era of fast bandwidths and webisodes, something that took many hours to read captured the attention of the world.
Which brings us to package lengths.
Over the years they've gotten shorter. When I was on the street, anything under 1:10 was jokingly called a "packlet." Now, those packlets are the norm in many newscasts, as consultants assume viewers sit there with remotes flipping from newscast to newscast if they get bored for thirty seconds. Hence the move toward "high story count." What you end up with are shallow stories that need to be fleshed out and a collection of voiceovers that just fill time and don't concern the viewer.
If you watch the network news you know that solid, longer stories are a priority. They don't worry about having a whole bunch of twenty second voiceovers to keep the show moving. Knock out three or four or five solid stories, and you've got a great newscast.
Good stories often take time to tell. If you've got one, go to your producer or ND and ask for extra time. If you're a producer, be flexible. Do you really need another voiceover on a car wreck or some meaningless crime that affects no one?
Most great stories need time to breathe. Harry Potter can't be wrong.
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