Robotic cameras, breaking news and up to five million households watching.
Doane students had a glimpse of a live news broadcast Wednesday, during a tour at the ABC 7 News and Channel 8 broadcast studio.
“I have never been in a large news room before,” senior Amy Applegarth said. “I was very impressed with them and their organization.”
During the tour, students explored the newsroom, sat behind the news desk and stood in front of cameras, before watching the news cast go live.
“It was exhilarating and exciting to watch the news cast and still know that I have this passion,” Applegarth said.
Because of the size of the group, the students were split into two groups. Some sat in the control room and watched the floor director, director and producer work live on production. Others watched in the studio itself, as the robotic cameras turned and swiveled on their own to follow the anchorwoman and weatherman.
ABC 7 News made the transfer over to high definition and reaches out to five million households, whereas Channel 8, which is all Cable and Comcast television sets, only reaches out to about 1.2 million households.
Despite the struggles many news organizations are going through, due to economic hardship and loss of advertising revenue, the studio is finding success. ABC 7 New and Channel 8 use their resources and staff as wisely and conservatively as they can, to produce the best results for their money. For example, anchors will do a story twice, with two different sign-offs to allow the station to place it on both channels. The studio also has a small staff, consisting of people who specialize in several areas.
Even the loss of income to the internet, which many news organizations fear, did not worry the staff.
“It gives us a way to get the news out faster before the news cast, director of community relations Abby Fenton said. “It also leaves us with the opportunity to add on to a story.”
Fenton also said that unlike other news rooms, they had not cut back on staff. They even hired a team to manage the website recently.
Students left the tour, feeling encouraged.
“I thought that ABC did an extremely good job at showing us the promising side of journalism,” sophomore Nicole Williams said, “despite all the negative tones we have seen more frequently on the trip.”
