Securing coverage in Market Seven

Last night, a colleague and I picked the minds of the men and women who are essentially the gatekeepers to Boston’s bustling television newsrooms: The assignment editors. The event included five panelists representing WBZ-TV, BZ Radio, WCVB and Fox. The event was designed to give PR professionals a peep into what it takes to secure coverage in a fast-moving television market, the seventh largest in the country.

According to them it is, in short, all about pitching something visual. Televisions stations will cover anything if there’s video and, more importantly, if they can shoot compelling video. “Show me that I can show it,” said Scott Tetreault, assignment manager for WFXT.

Joe Roche, news assignment manager for WCVB followed up that statement by saying if a pitch doesn’t immediately create an image in his head, then it will be tossed aside, failing to differentiate itself from the “4,000 emails that flood my inbox everyday.” The other panelists quickly nodded in agreement.

And of course, no media-related discussion would be complete without the talk of Twitter. The latest social media trend is becoming more and more of a vital pipeline to information by news outlets. Lauren Bettencourt, news assignment editor at WBZ-TV says they are becoming reliant on finding out about local events, the latest crime activity through the Boston Police Department, and even to facilitate possible interviews for various stories.

“Most recently we conducted searches via Twitter to find a local connection to the plane crash in Buffalo. We thought if people were posting their sentiments on the tragedy, we could figure out a way to speak further with them,” she said.

They also said that the economy has become such a ubiquitous story, that more good news is being accepted in newscasts to offset the normal cycle of somber stories. BZ Radio has gone so far to ensure a positive, feel-good story be included every few hours.

That in itself was news to me.

--Nick Fasulo is an account coordinator at Solomon McCown. He can be reached by email at nfasulo@solomonmccown.com