| Topic Name: |
lazy anchors |
| Message Name: |
I have to disagree.... |
| Date Posted: |
05/12/2005 |
| In Reply To: |
anchors are the stars of the show ... it's all about leverage ... Just like a movie star ... Tom Cruise makes what? 40 million dollars a movie or more ... Does he work any harder than another actor in the same movie making 5 million ... Or a writer for the same movie making a couple hundred thousand ... No ... It's all about name recognition ... Marketing ... The business ... TV anchors are the same ... They are the superficial face of a tv news product and management is willing to pay for the anchors who have a high "Q" rating or strong focus group testing ... information that says we like station "x" because of anchor so and so ... as far as news managers and gm are concerned ... TV news is a business to make money ... and anchors are linked to the ratings numbers that bring in the money ... very few shops have built there news department around marketing that is focuses on the product of news content ... most go for the anchor connection ... why? ... Because again when you ask people why they watch the station they watch ... It's not because they say they like the high story count or the way they stacked the show ... It's ... I like that john smith anchor guy ... and that leverage is all that an anchor needs to keep his job (most of the time) and to take three hour lunches ... leverage ... It's that simple ... |
| Message: |
...with the 3-hour lunch/dinner break thing. As an anchor, I almost always take my lunch break at my desk. I want to be here, just in case there's breaking news.
As for the family thing -- if you have a family and want to spend time with them -- DON'T WORK THE EVENING SHIFT. I've turned it down several times because it would take away from my family time -- and I wouldn't feel completely committed and focused to the 10. Simple decision. Simple choice.
And yeah, my job depends on how well everyone else does their job. Crappy shows, crappy camera work, crappy lighting, crappy set. It it all looks bad, *I look bad. Ratings go down, *I'm out of a job!
Finally -- the only other people I think work harder than anyone in our newsroom and don't always get the perks or recognition -- our photo-journalists!
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