In my opinion, Ten should probably put to good use their new affiliation and film the noodle updates for SCA instead of everything coming out of Tasmania
LOL no way 10’s going to do everything for their regional affiliate especially since their own operation is already bare bones as it is. The best we’re going to get is the 10 graphics and theme music.
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Disclaimer: I’m limiting assessment to presentation of regional noodle updates, without consideration of content
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They would have had to pay more for that.
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She also said: “the CRB check-in app”.
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Yeah, now that I think of it they don’t actually own SCA’s content
It’s a pity we have to listen to this person mangle places / peoples names from our area. Her lack of professionalism regarding RESEARCH is a disgrace and painful to have to listen to
Nobody worth any credibility would work on these but there are Journalists out there that would have done it and pronounced everything correctly (refer to previous posts). This is the result of no oversight.
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The airtime these updates afford a journalist at the beginning of their career would be worth putting in some effort. It’s similar to perfecting your craft working on local radio news. You are right, there is clearly no oversight. The model SCA is using is wrong. I’d hate to to be an SC10 sales rep trying to defend these insulting clips to advertisers.
There is an opportunity, even given the noodle restrictions, to enhance network programming with local windows. Placing these strategically during Studio 10 and The Project could actually make those shows more relevant.
If they had as live updates during Studio 10, they would have an offer that no other regionals could match. That is sellable.
The mindset for SC10 has always been bang ‘em out cheap. No one has stopped to think about how they can use this enforced content to upscale what they are given from the Network.
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In media perception is everything. If you have someone “murdering” your areas pronunciations day in day out then advertisers and viewers will switch off. It’s completely unprofessional.
There shouldn’t be any excuse to be presenting words incorrectly in this day of age especially with the ABC Pronunciation Guide online and even Google providing helpful advice. Even the good old telephone can help (hi…just wondering how your town name is pronounced).
Someone needs to drag these Presenters aside and give them guidance but I agree there’s probably nobody in their team who can or will mentor them but what SCA should realise is that having these updates on the air in their current form is potentially costing them money from advertisers.
Yes I know they’re mandated but SCA doesn’t care but having someone looking over them could enhance it 100% with hardly any extra resources. Maybe that’s why they’re hiding them in random spots?
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Then that raises the scenario-style question: if you landed in the job as News Director of SC10’s updates, what would you shape the service into?
Well for starters. Get one of the team to send emails to COS Desk at Ten Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne newsrooms daily so they know what stories you’re writing and can work out what vision could be sent down the line. Get News Transfers guys at SCA to record. Also make a list of Sports which need to be recorded so you can add Sports material into updates.
There are stringers out there willing to supply visual content for nothing and just want a credit in return. Also put updates on Facebook so vision can be sent through there. Talk to the Social Media people at the local SCA offices and see if material can be sent for updates (for example the SCA Wagga Wagga Digital Media person can shoot some storm vision which can be used for Hit/Triple M Website, Facebook and TV News Updates).
I understand there’s 2 people working on these updates for each market. A Presenter/Writer plus a FT Writer. Put your writer on camera (for areas that SCA doesn’t cover on radio) or use the resources SCA has already for stories of importance using Zoom or Skype or whatever resource is available. For the Central West you could say “Joining me for this breaking story from Orange is…”.
The mentality is “these are just news updates. Nobody cares or watches” but there’s potential there to make them more.
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If you wanted to keep your job, you’d do what the board says by spending nothing more than is required to achieve compliance. You have eight hours per day to compile and broadcast these updates for the various sub-markets.
The question to be asked is whether the existing resources have extra time for the initiatives some are suggesting. If you say that they do, then the board may be able to further streamline the division.
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Also, what are the benefits of perfecting these updates? Increased ratings? Will viewers flock to watch their 1.42pm local news updates and will advertisers fight to sponsor them? They’re not even on the schedule, they occupy a commercial slot of another more popular program.
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If they had proper pronunciations and were excellent quality you could attract local or national advertisers to sponsor them. Kinda like how Prime7 manages to do it.
I’d say Grant Wilson’s priorities lay with 7 Tasmania and not these 10 updates so these Presenters and Writers are really left to their own devices.
Very different to when Ali Drower was the News Director - at least she made sure the updates and the presenters (based in Canberra at the time) were managed well
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It’s not just SCA that is mispronouncing town names, Prime7 does the same, look at their local football scores on a Saturday night, there is a mispronounciation of “Colbinabbin”
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Woorinen also got buttered never would of happened on SC10
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It’s a matter of PR. When you have a TV station putting out local news that is out of date and mispronounced it makes that station look amateurish. It just annoys viewers and advertisers. As a programmer, you have the option to do the best you can with your resources and enhance the viewer experience. Or just do nothing.
The direct commercial damage these updates can do is have a switch-off factor, which would certainly impact any advertiser who ends up in the same ad-break.
If I were a local advertiser, I would REQUEST that my spots do not appear within an hour of these updates. Considering SCA has built a business on cheap ROS advertising, this should be a consideration.
When I first started in radio, the newsroom was run by one journalist who wrote and read 6x3 minute news bulletins per day, plus two recoded bulletins for the afternoon. A lot more can be done with just a bit more effort.