Local stations spend a great deal of their promotional effort to convince you that their anchors are super news people.  Friendly, trusted, attractive, and also great journalists.

In fact, most anchors are journalists-turned-actors who are highly paid for their poised images and their studio delivery.  More than a few are not so poised off-camera and few anchors go out on stories or make phone calls to gather news.  Those tasks are designated to much more junior people--many of whom, themselves, aspire to sit in the anchor chair someday.

Full time performers - part time reporters

 

Most anchors only treks away from the studio are for pet image projects, celebrity guest appearances at dinners or other special events where stations wish to extend their presence.  What few stories anchors do cover are specifically to demonstrate that they can do news and you'll see as much video of them in the stories as you will the interview subjects.   That's too bad because some are highly qualified journalists who paid their dues and reported earlier in their careers.  Others are not.   They landed studio jobs too early in their careers to have learned the lessons of news gathering and writing.

The more experienced anchors provide input at afternoon editorial meetings where the decisions are made as to what stories should be covered.  This depends completely on their capabilities and the News Director's view of them.  Anchors are "included" in decisions to feed their fragile egos at some stations but at others, they more experienced than the rest of the staff and so their input is badly needed.   Usually, only TV insiders know which are which.

Anchors might re-write some national wire copy for the evening broadcasts but otherwise, they are not pushed because they need to be fresh for their main job--to front for the news organization.    An hour before airtime, they put on their makeup and go over the copy others have written for them.

Morning and noon-show anchors, being more junior and aspiring for better newscasts, are assigned to contribute much more.  They make editorial decisions and write much of the copy for the early newscasts.  They hope for openings on the weekend shows and eventually a shot at evenings.  They send out tapes of their best newscasts to TV stations in other cities, hoping for a move up.

Polished, cordial, and believable

  For some anchors, this is not difficult because they are pretty much what you see--they are terrific, respectable, bright people who have reached the pinnacle of their careers and who stand out above all others.  Other anchors will just look the part--but they read the news better than they actually understand it.  (An inside television media site TVSpy.)  The best way to assess how bright your favorite anchor is, is to watch them on election night or during an unfolding story where they must adlib without benefit of pre-written scripts.

Anchors reflect a station's image

The anchors' roles are to assure the newscasts go well despite occasional technical nightmares, to deliver the copy with authority, and be welcomed like a friend in their viewers' living rooms.  Their last act is to leave viewers with the impression that no matter how many bad things were reported, all will be well with the world overnight so they can sleep well.  For this, they earn six figure salaries and pray their ratings will hold until they become icons in their community, like KMBC's Larry Moore in Kansas City  (Remind you of a certain local weather bunny, huh?)
 

Who are the other people who bring you the news?

Show Producers

 

  Producers write most of the newscast copy.  With their managing editors guidance, producers decide newscast content and they spend long days in the newsroom--not out in the community where the news is.  These people don't get out at all.  They are primarily copywriters and show strategists whose view of the world is from the newsroom.    The main reason why television news around country tends to look the same is because many of these people--often involuntarily--move from television market to market.   They all learned their news judgment from the same half-dozen national consultants.  Most seek jobs in larger markets because those pay better and carry more prestige.   Because of this group-think, "news"  is defined about same way in all but the very smallest markets or the very largest ones.

Assignment Editors

 Assignment editors spend the rest of their shifts making check calls, mostly to police dispatchers, and performing follow-up checks about continuing stories.  If the station is too small for a 'managing editor', the assignment editor will have a great deal of say about what stories will be pursued.  A good AE will develop several daily stories because of his/her common sense, thoroughness, and tenacity.  The best Assignment Editor works day shift, and the second-best works evenings.  And most stations will find any warm body with common sense to work the night shift, assuming the station is staffed overnight.  There'll be an on-call photographer to be awakened to cover overnight crimes or fires.

Field Reporters

Reporters go out each day spending most of that time--not digging--but actually producing the video they have been assigned to bring back by the in-house decision-makers.  Many reporters would love to do serious news if they were only given the gathering time, and the air time.   Reporters are mostly hired based on videotapes of some of their best stories from their previous job.  They are hired primarily for the polish of their on-camera presentations, and to a lessor degree, their writing ability, work ethic, and general common sense.  Few reporters today are hired with an academic background or  industry experience--other than broadcast journalism.  Most of them move from city to city every two or three years as they move up in their careers to larger markets and better pay.  So the experience they finally gain in learning a community is often lost because of this movement.

Seeing them in person, the differences are obvious between seasoned reporters who know their community and the parade of transitory light-weights from out of state.  Unfortunately,  most viewers only see their carefully-crafted, written stories.   Some of those cubs are so journalistically weak, the managing editor will give them interview questions to ask or later rewrite their copy.  Some storytell well and others struggle with each sentence at the computer.  Often, news photographers who tend to stay in the same city for years, will know more than these average reporters do. To keep some experience on the staff, stations will generally try to keep one or two seasoned reporters from being stolen away.  Those get the high visibility, important stories.  The  barbie-and-ken lookalikes, will be kept to fill the rest of the newscasts.  And the ones hired by mistake just disappear from the screen and the web site after a few months of weak reporting.

News photographers/photojournalists

When with a reporter and or field producer, the photographer records the interviews and catches the scenes.  When with a live truck, the photographer operates his camera wired to the live truck that feeds his visuals back to the station.

Once the story has been shot, the photographer heads to another assignment or heads back to the station to edit the video and interviews to go with anchor narration or reporter package.  Video stories narrated by anchors are called VO's (anchor voice over video).  Stories with reporter narration are called packages.   At some stations, a video editor takes the videotapes and edits the stories for broadcast.  Many photographers like to edit their own material because they take a more artistic approach to editing and they knew what they had in mind as they shot their video.  Most photographers take serious pride in their craft and many belong to the NPPA (National Press Photographer's Association.)    It would be good if photographers were paid what they are worth but they rarely are.  So sadly some cop attitudes after awhile, lose their creativity, and start acting like they're carrying union cards.  Those who have lost the fire aren't usually fired, though, because seasoned photogs are hard to find.

Top Management

Top local station managers, usually called General Managers, come most often from a Sales Manager position because advertising revenue is the heart of a television station.  GM's with a news background tend to back their news teams better with more staff and higher standards.   Those with sales background insist on only enough journalistic excellence to score high enough ratings to garner a high advertising rate card.   Promotion Directors are along the periphery of decision-making.  Their task is to sell the station's news image to the viewers by creating enticing promo ads to run throughout the day promoting today's big stories.  They also create 'image' commercials to highlight the station's anchors, helicopter, and weather coverage.  

Local versus absentee ownership.  It is this author's view that news is most often of the best quality when stations are locally owned or owned by networks which already have a deep news commitment.   More frequently, however, stations are now owned by out-of-state investors who have little commitment to the communities where the properties are located.  Many don't even care if they are in third place at news time so long as profits meet projections.

News excellence is professional pride and commitment and is not measured in profit.   It is a hard sell to get a GM to add news staff for the purpose of gaining journalistic excellence for it's own sake.  You should congratulate stations which practice it by watching them, especially if you're a household that participates in television ratings! 

Other faceless news staffers - and the nasty things they say about each other

There are many others who work to support news... lower level and lower paid people.  They include video editors, assistant producers, news and weather interns, studio camera operators, and others who operate the equipment to put titles on the screens, operate the video switcher during the news, and others.  Some of them have little say in what goes on the news, but lots to say in a local Kansas City television news blog called Gateway City Radio.  Many cities have hateful little blogs like this one.

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