Back in the dark ages when I was a young reporter in the TV business, there were only two newscasts a day at the station I was working at in Green Bay - a 6 p.m. and a 10 p.m.   We would all gather in the conference room to watch the 6 p.m. newscast together.  I remember the sinking feeling if my package played - and no one made a comment about it.  That meant it had not hit the mark.

But these peer viewing sessions were excellent learning experiences.  We would comment on each other’s stories and make suggestions.  When the senior reporters had something positive to say about your story - it made you feel great.  Unfortunately in these days of multiple evening newscasts, most reporters rarely get to sit down and even watch a newscast.  Forget a gathering of reporters to watch and discuss their work together.  It just doesn’t happen.

That’s what caused KRQE news director Iain Munro to start a mentoring program for his younger reporters in Albuquerque.  I can attest from first hand observation that it works great.   He assigns one or more of the senior reporters to take a younger reporter under their wing and work with them on writing, presentation and story telling.   In some cases, one reporter works with them on story telling, while another assists in their on air look and camera presence.

Iain says, “The mentor system is taking advantage of the expertise of our senior reporters and makes our younger reporters feel more engaged in our news process.  This helps our younger reporters by having a ‘go to’ person throughout the day to give them a concentrated expert to help them complete a story.”

I met with several of the younger reporters during a recent visit to the station and was frankly amazed at the improvement in story telling and their on air presence.   They were also very appreciative of the mentoring process.   Iain says, “Reporters constantly crave feedback, and now with people being asked do to more, sometimes the first thing to go is critiques.  This system gives our people constant updates on elements of their work from writing to voice and appearance.”

Another clever idea was to move the younger reporters from the fringes of the newsroom to desks in the middle of the action, near the producers and anchors.  This lets them observe and be plugged into the coverage and presentation discussions being held around them throughout the day.   Iain observes,  “This really helps our younger reporters develop more quickly, and become more productive news gatherers.”

So, I encourage you to revive the lost art of mentoring at your station.  The results will amaze you.  I also encourage you to institute the same kind of program for photographers.   Drop me an email and let me know how it’s working for you.

Jim

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 8:22 am and is filed under Willi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.