If you’ve ever been curious as to how a news department picks the stories that are featured in a newscast, this blog is for you.

Every morning, there’s a meeting in the newsroom to discuss the newsworthy events and ideas of the day. Those in attendance are the news director, the assignment desk editors, reporters, anchors, digital correspondents, producers, web editors and promotions staff. They go around the room and discuss what’s buzzing around the “water cooler” — whether it’s yesterday’s news that’s still on people’s minds, the latest rumors or new stories they’ve heard. Then they’ll go over all the story ideas that have been sent to the assignment desk through press releases, emails or phone calls. On this particular Wednesday, about 30 story ideas were pitched – topics ranged from gas prices to science fairs…educational budget cuts to the Olympics. The next task was to figure out the top ideas that could be covered with the reporters and photographers scheduled for the day. Reporters were assigned multiple projects, in case some fell through and had to be shelved for the next day. So the communication is constant throughout the day between news staff members. The last task was to decide which stories will air in which newscasts – the 5pm, 6pm, 7pm or 11pm show.

It’s truly a group collaboration that decides which stories will be covered for our newscasts. The challenges they face are not having enough reporters/photographers to report on all the news that’s happening. There’s always crime and court cases to cover – but the news staff really makes an effort to balance those stories with new and interesting information that viewers can use.

Do you want to know more behind-the-scenes stuff on 10News? Let us know what you’re interested in – contact Sofia at sofia_salgado@10news.com.

 Submitted by Sofia Salgado, Public Relations & Marketing Specialist

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