“Get Me Out of This Meeting Fast”

Many multimedia journalists complain that they need to be on the street reporting and shooting.  Not sitting through long, boring editorial meetings.

So how can you speed those meetings up without sacrificing planning?  Suggest the meeting leader ask these four questions of everyone regarding their “meatiest” story.  If the leader of the meeting doesn’t take this approach, you should.  It’ll keep you on your game, getting the best ideas from the group to make your story better.  In fact, by going the extra steps, your story will be more promotable.

meetingqs

 

You’ll find the first question alone saves a lot of time.  When people have to headline their story, it forces them to focus on the most important element.  If you or they have trouble capturing the story in a headline, the story is likely to lack a focus or viewer benefit.

 

Using these questions as a guide can cut meeting time in half according to one news director. 

This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 9:51 am and is filed under Multimedia Journalism, Power Tools for TV Journalists. 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.

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