Before starting at Fish, I was a producer at Bay News Nine in Tampa where I put my broadcast journalism degree to good use. While I loved the creativity and thrill of the news cycle, I was tired of writing stories filled with negativity. Though many don’t believe it, the more negative news a station reports, the more viewers it receives aka higher ratings. I gave up writing about mass murders, deadly car crashes and politics to pursue a career in PR and as I quickly learned, my experience in the newsroom greatly aided me in my new career.
- Quick deadlines: When breaking news hits, the station’s biggest goal is to get the information up as quickly as possible. Reporters are dispatched to the location of the incident, live-shots are taken and graphics are made. Added bonus if you can get the content up before a competitor. This urgency has come in handy when dealing with crisis communications. When a franchise needs to release a statement to media, being able to weed through details and draft content quickly is super important.
- Multi-task: Though producers are generally assigned specific shows, in my case mornings, it wasn’t uncommon to be juggling content for multiple shows at once. A story that started in the 6a.m. show could easily become a 6p.m. feature with the introduction of new interviews or video. We would often prep stories for the evening producers, while also prepping content for the next day’s morning show. Understanding how to multi-task efficiently has been beneficial in PR, especially when executing campaigns for a variety of clients at once.
- Collaboration: Fish thrives on collaboration and the newsroom was no different. To put together a successful newscast, anchors, reporters, producers and assignment desk editors need to work together. Whether its brainstorming content ideas, helping reporters draft their scripts, guiding anchors during a live-shot or juggling schedules with editors, working together is the only way to pull off a killer show.
