At Scripps, News Breaks On Facebook Live
By Michael Depp
TVNewsCheck, March 22, 2017 5:42 AM EDT
Want the latest breaking news from an E.W. Scripps station? If you’re looking on Twitter or even one of its stations’ home pages to find it, you may have to wait a few beats as those platforms catch up with Facebook Live.
Facebook’s live streaming platform has become Scripps’ principal means of breaking stories over the past six to nine months, a paradigm shift that has shaken up stations' news workflow.
While Scripps says younger journalists and smaller newsrooms have embraced the shift, others more bound to the old ways have pushed back. Facebook Live comes with caveats including a lack of full newsroom control and limited monetization opportunities.
The change has come organically with the stations taking the lead. "There has never been a corporate mandate of ‘this is the approach we’re taking,’ ” says Sean McLaughlin, the VP who oversee news at Scripps' 22 news-producing stations.
“My staff really embraces that this is the future of journalism,” says Leeza Starks, news director at KERO Bakersfield, Calif., noting that many entry-level journalists are inclined toward the platform.
“Even the milliennials choosing this profession don’t have television sets,” she says. “That’s very telling.”
Matt Brown, news director at WFTS Tampa Bay, Fla., says his newsroom saw the value of Facebook Live as early as last April, when its initial streams of content like police chases saw a reach of over one million.
Now for stories with live pictures, he says, Facebook Live has become the go-to platform with typically up to six live streams a day.
“It has become a kind of muscle memory for a lot of the assignment desk and the producing team, so much so that we have to also answer the question of how soon we can get this on the air,” he says.
Perhaps the biggest loser in that shift has been Twitter, which had entrenched itself as the front line for breaking news in the social media age and has been trying to make inroads in live streaming, too.
But McLaughlin says audiences didn't get that memo. “The audiences for Facebook is much larger and more representative of the local news demographic, broadly speaking, where Twitter is more niche,” he says. “If you have some sort of video-intensive breaking news situation, Facebook Live is simply a better platform than Twitter.”
According to the Scripps news execs, Facebook Live is starting to erode some of the newsrooms' rigid job distinctions.
Most of KCKZ’s on-air talent are multimedia journalists (MMJs) and are used to toggling between platforms while producing their work. But when it comes to live streaming, all newsroom hands are on deck, especially if the MMJs are all out covering stories and a new one breaks.
In that case, producers will start streaming themselves, even if it’s just from their iPhones.
“It has done wonders for improving what I think is already a great culture in our newsroom,” Starks says. “It breaks the mold.”
Having more hands available for streaming also means a higher volume of breaking news, she says, noting that the station now averages about five live streams a day.
Streaming has become much easier thanks to APIs that let the newsroom route anything to Facebook Live, and the ability to superimpose graphics and branding on the streams.
