How to Time a Story as a TV News Reporter

Video Transcript

"BILL ALBIN: Hello, I'm Bill Albin. And on behalf of Expert Village, I'm going to teach you what you need to know to be a local news reporter. In this clip, we're going to talk about timing your story. It is very important to any reporter or writer or producer to make sure every story is exactly how long it's supposed to be. When the producer says, "Bill, I want you to make a one-minute story." If it's 1:02 or 90 seconds, that throws off the timing of the entire show. And at 6:30 when Charles Gibson starts talking on ABC News, he's not going to wait for me to finish up. So if I have to do a one-minute story, I have to do exactly a one-minute story. And you also have to take into account other things that will be in that story. You won't just hear me talking; you'll hear the anchor talking. The anchor will say, "Bill, what's going on with the story?" And I will say, "Well, this is what's going on with the story." And you have to incorporate that into the story as well. You can't just allot your time; you have to figure out how long that other person might be talking as well. In addition to that, you have your sound bites. Your little 10- to 15-second-clips of the mayor saying "It's great to live in Lansing." Or the dog barking, a natural sound, if you're going to a dog park and you got little dogs get into the background. You got a few seconds there. You have to allot that time because if you don't, the next story is going to come along and you're going to be over time or you're going to be under time and you're going to look foolish if the stories don't all meet the exact timing requirements and everybody gets done at the right time and you get to the end of the show when you're supposed to."