Using a one-man-band system costs your station money.
There, I've said it. I can hear the beancounters now, frantically scrambling on the floor to gather up the beans they just spilled. "He can't say that! He's not an accountant! One person doing the job of two saves money!"
That logic would seem to make sense. And we've all heard the raging arguments on both sides, with one holding out for quality while the other calls the holdouts a bunch of dinosaurs. Everyone knows the business is changing, but is it really?
Okay, so here's the argument against one-man-bands that is going to prove the one thing that might get beancounters to sit up straight and take notice.
Your bottom line would be a lot better if you continued using photographers.
Fact: the best reporters are taking jobs with stations that use photogs.
In the past year I've had a few clients who had more than one job offer at the same time. In the cases in which one job was a one-man-band gig and the other was a traditional reporting job working with photogs, the clients took the job with the photogs. In most cases, the job paid a little less. (Did you hear me, counters of beans? People took the job that actually paid less for the privilege of working with photographers.) Without fail, I've heard from these people who tell me how their work has skyrocketed to the next level because they're working with professional shooters.
So what happened to those job openings at the one-man-band stations? They had to hire their second choice. Or third. Or fourth.
Now let's look at this from a bottom line angle. Station A uses one-man-bands. Station B does not. Both have a reporter opening. Both have the same candidate as their number one choice. The reporter takes the job with the photogs, even for less money. Take this scenario out a few years into the future, and Station B has a world class reporting staff while Station A continually has to settle for second best.
Which translates into better ratings for Station B.
Which means more profits for Station B.
So, that 100k or so Station A saved by cutting the photogs loose is blown away by the advertising revenue Station B picked up.
Fact: Young people are obsessed with technology.
High-def makes regular television look like it was shot through a screen door. When we got our first high-def TV, we were so fascinated by the picture quality we'd watch a high-def channel even if we weren't that interested in the program.
Young viewers (you know, those eyeballs that ad agencies really value) won't stand for second best when it comes to video quality. They want Blu-Ray, high def, and 3-D; so if you're thinking they're going to settle for lousy video, you'll turn blue like those creatures in Avatar waiting for that to happen.
Young news viewers want a product that looks good. When your product is shot by professional photogs, it will look better than that shot by one-man-bands.
More young viewers equals higher ratings. Which equals more ad revenue.
Again, Station B wins by a mile.
Fact: People tend to stay longer at stations in which they are happy.
Every client I have who is a one-man-band says the number one priority is to move to a station with photogs.
The hiring process costs money and a ton of time. Running ads, paying for airline tickets, hotels, moving expenses, etc. can add up.
You don't have those expenses if your staff isn't constantly running through a revolving door.
These days, one of the ways to keep reporters happy is to maintain a high quality photog staff.
The station that doesn't have high turnover saves money.
My father used to say, "You have to spend money to make money." That premise was true when he ran his delicatessen and it's true for the television industry now.
Hire the best people, give the viewers a great looking product, and you'll usually win the ratings war.
And make the most money.
10 comments:
Can someone copy and paste this and send it to my cheap ND? And to about 300 other newsrooms?
Knock yourself out.
But note that many times the "cheap ND" is working under the directive of corporate or the GM.
Yes it may seem that way currently but most colleges and universities are changing their curriculum to properly teach reporters how to be a good Videojournalist. Specifically Lyndon State College in Lyndonville, VT. Lyndon is the ONLY college/university that puts on a live 30 minute newscast 5 days a week to 14 local towns. Lyndon encourages students to work with photogs and to learn how to handle a camera. Editiorial students are required to take Electronic Field Production and soon will be required to take Electronic Journalism in order to keep up with the changing industry. As much of a money saver having videojournalists is I believe that the poor quality pieces you are speaking about is due to lack the of knowledge of using cameras and knowing the proper rules of thirds and that with how the industry has changed the graduating classes from 2009 and years to come will put out much higher quality pieces as videojournalist. Which makes the money saving worth the while.
Also TV News has ALWAYS been a revolving door and has nothing to due with reporters being videojournalist. People within the industry always want to have the next and better job within a higher market number. That is the reason for the revolving door, not reporters wanting a photog.
Much of what you say is true, but when I was in a good situation I wasn't so desperate to leave.
While people have always wanted to move, the reasons have changed. And while a bigger market was once the only goal, now the goal includes a quality place to work.
A newsroom full of omb's is a recepie for disaster, but there are some hybrids out there making the transition and making it work. They are photogs who shoot, gather, and sometimes write for the prettyboys back on the set. You can't blame the beancounters for not putting our mugs on TV, hell, our wives barely look at us across the dinner table. No use inflicting that kind of pain on the entire metro.
Not everyone can make the leap, but a few experiened, trained shooters can. And by doing a little of the heavy lifting during lean times, a photog can bump himself a step or two up the foodchain when the budget starts to fall.
Anonymous,
Kudos to Lyndonville. But they are certainly not the only college or university programming a live local newscast five days a week.
The Hidden Costs of the One-Man-Band Paradigm:
1) Wear and tear on vehicles:
With more feet on the street, vehicles are being driven all over the city increasing mileage and wear on the equipment.
2) Increased fuel consumption:
Again, with more vehicles traveling to stories, more gas is being consumed. Yes, a two person crew that is doing two stories would also travel to two locations; however, a good assignment desk would select crews that are working stories close to each other. It is not unusual to see two MMJ crews at the capitol doing different stories when one traditional crew already at the statehouse could cover both.
3) Additional dependency on assignment desk:
It is very difficult to research and make calls on a story while you are driving to a location. Ergo, MMJ’s are increasingly shifting that burden to the already busy assignment desk. While there was always some overlap, assignment editors are now doing their daily duties and the work that was previously shared with a reporter.
4) Lost / Misplaced Equipment:
Multiple people are now often sharing gear. Already stressed with new job duties, some things are coming-up missing. Even if a utopian newsroom existed where everyone had their own gear, doing multiple jobs is distracting and expensive gear has a higher likelihood of disappearing.
5) Physical injury due to new duties:
Photography is a physically demanding craft. Even with smaller cameras and lighter weight gear, MMJ’s are still getting hurt. When you trip, it doesn’t matter how light your camera is…you’re going to get hurt. Now with an emaciated photographer pool, these injured MMJ’s are significantly impacting the efficiency of the newsroom paradigm.
6) Second or third tier talent:
As was mentioned before, given a choice, the vast majority of reporters will choose a shop where they can concentrate on writing and reporting. There are very few people out there who can and want to do it all. There are exceptions, but you always hear about the same people over and over; there are so very few stars.
7) Reporter burnout:
All of this has led to an increase in reporter burnout. They are worn out. Over worked and many simply don’t care. The product suffers. The de-facto message management is sending by implementing a one-man-band newsroom is that quality doesn’t matter. Reporters are hearing that message loud and clear. This is problematic because most reporters (the good ones) are ‘Type A’ personalities who want to win. They want to tell great stories. They are now in a situation where doing everything often means not being able to give full attention to finding out those nuggets of information or taking time to massage a track to get it just right or having to use out of focus over exposed video that looks even worst on a 16X9 HD TV. This is killing these aggressive reporters that want to win and are now in a situation they know will not allow them to win.
8) Overtime:
I saved the best for last. This goes to the supposed efficiency of the MMJ model. On paper it looks good to the accountants. On paper they are getting an increase in product. In reality they are paying time-and-a-half for it. A day in the life of an MMJ is long. Very, very long! Work flow is linier. That means that an MMJ must do A then B then C then D then E. They do have the luxury of doing B while the photog is doing A. They cannot do C and D while the photog is doing E. They must do A-E in order by themselves and it means a very long day. Rather than concentrating on writing a morning VOSOT or working on a web script, the MMJ must now fuel the vehicle, unload the equipment and ingest the video into the system. Now they can write for the morning show. Now they can finish that web script. Now it is almost midnight. $$$ But it looks good on paper.
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Lyndon State certainly is not the only University out there... the University of Missouri's School of Journalism has been doing it for close to 60 years now by owning the NBC affiliate in Columbia. Students shoot, write, edit and produce 7 days a week and go up against 2 other stations in the market. They even utilize ENG and SNG technology to cover news across the region.
Best Discussion of MMJs I've heard so far
In an ideal world this is all true. However, there is one gigantic fallacy in your logic:
Which translates into better ratings for Station B.
Which means more profits for Station B.
(cue movie announcer voice) In a world where local TV news stations are competing for eyeballs with 500 satellite channels, news sites and blogs, I would venture a guess that few are caring about quality reporting. The ratings for most local TV newscasts live and die by their lead-ins, network and syndicated.
I wish quality TV reporting was rewarded with great ratings, but I don't think that is the case.
I think the Hidden Costs of the One-Man Band Paradigm comment is the best argument yet against OMB's.
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