NPR "team" Newscasts during ME

[DG]

Is anyone a fan of the new "tag-team" the NPR newscasters are doing during Morning Edition now?

I'm not.

The newscast will start as usual, then "here to tell us more on that is XXX", another regular newscaster who then joins in live to do some brief back and forth with the primary news anchor.

Then, at the :06 mark, when many stations take the cutaway, a third newscaster then comes on "with more news". Lately it's been Korva Coleman "with more news". I've no problem with Korva and think she's great, but what's the idea behind a complete changeup at :06?

Are listeners really that bored and of short attention span?

They've been at this for several weeks now and I don't think it's getting better. Instead of getting "more" from an NPR regular beat reporter, who is supposed to be the defacto pro in their given field, we get the "newscaster du jour" giving us the details.

Are the newscasters trying to be "Mini-Mes" of the 2 co-hosts with their banter now?

What gives?

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Ah, so that's where all the newscasting talent went. I never listen to Morning Edition, but I hear NPR through much of the afternoon and I'd noticed several new voices since the beginning of this month. In most cases, I'd rather hear the old standbys. Jack Spear and Korva Coleman are both good newscasters. Lacshmi Singh is all right as well, but there's been a few people rough around the edges.

 

[KMan]

The NPR Newscast team has been pretty weird the last few month's since Craig Windham official took Carl Kassell's spot.

Pre-Carl's retirement - newscasts would be:

Mornings:
Carl Kassel Mon-Wed, Paul Brown Thurs-Fri
Korva Coleman Sat-Sun
Bottom of the Hr: Jean Cochran Mon-Fri

Middays:
Korva Coleman Mon-Wed, Lakshmi Singh Thurs-Sun

Evenings:
Jack Spear Mon-Fri, Craig Windham Sat-Sun
Bottom of the Hr: Anne Taylor Mon-Thur, Craig Windham Fri

Overnights:
Shay Stevens Mon-Fri, Giles Snyder Sat-Sun

Fill-ins: Barbara Klein, Nora Raum, Carol Van Dam...


Well, they gave Windham the weekday morning slot Mon-Fri, and in the news release, moved Paul Brown to a support position as the primary back up for mornings. Also, Windham starts at 6AM instead of Kassell's 5AM, so Korva Coleman is covering the 5AM newscast Mon-Fri. With Korva in the mornings, Lakshmi Singh now has weekdays Mon-Fri. Giles Snyder moved to weekend mornings, and Carol Van Dam to weekend overnights. Weekend middays and evenings are "Vacant" ... lots of fill-ins - Nora Raum, Renita Jablonski, Pam Coulter, Karen Lyons, etc.

I just don't understand why they reshuffled the deck the way they did. Paul Brown and Korva Coleman are being totally underutilized ... barely on the air. They're two of NPR's best, with great voices and good delivery styles (for NPR).

Meanwhile, while Brown and Coleman sit on the sidelines, they're using a revolving door of freelancers to cover their weekend newscasts.

More puzzling is that Windham and Singh just aren't as good as Paul Brown and Korva Coleman (or perpetually buried Carol Van Dam, for that matter). Craig Windham is rock solid, never flubs a line, and has an okay voice, but is so over-the-top-NPR in his delivery, its almost too much... As for Lakshmi, well, after years of hearing her on Weekend Edition monotone "I'm Lakshmi Singh with the headlines" I can't really take her.

NPR has some great newscasters, but with the shuffling of the line up a few months ago, two of the best are barely on... I suspect the team approach to mornings is in response to some unhappiness by Paul Brown and Korva Coleman to being buried.

 

[aaronread]

A few weeks ago NPR changed the studios and operations for the TOH/BOH newscasts. Previously they were in a studio with a separate engineer, but on a different floor than the actual newsroom...which led to some problems with reporters barely making it into the studio in time. Now they're physically located immediately off the newsroom, but newscasters are running their own engineering; no separate tech. It's led to a lot of technical foul-ups and inconsistency as all the newscasters adjust to the new system.

They've gotten better pretty fast, although personally, after hearing all the reasons NPR has given...and to be fair, after an initial dopeslap they have been much more forthcoming with us affiliates...I don't think the reasons were good enough. It's a close call, true. And I don't know the budget numbers, which could have a major impact in the decision.

But speaking abstractly, one far-reaching but subtle thing that has always made NPR stand out as a broadcaster is its relentless commitment to top-notch production values. That commitment has slowly but steadily eroded over the last ten years. Yes, NPR has been fortunate that their own slippage has been minimal compared to the near-collapse of production values across much of the commercial broadcast world. But comparing yourself to the competition doesn't work when your competition stinks, ya know? (shrug)


Also, his name escapes me, but the main guy who heads the newscast department (senior producer, I guess) is also someone who comes from a commercial news background...so the increase in "host/reporter interview" style is unsurprising. My jury's still out on that. I don't terribly care for it, but I don't hate it either. And I admit that could just be that I'm just used to the old way, and I'll eventually come around. After all, I didn't like Morning Edition without Bob Edwards at first, either...but I came around to Steve and Renee.

 

[jlb3751]

Aaron, I have noticed more on air issues during the newscast. On NPR you actually notice because you don't expect it to happen. I hope they get it worked out so that they don't devalue their product.

 

[MattParker]

A few weeks ago NPR changed the studios and operations for the TOH/BOH newscasts. Previously they were in a studio with a separate engineer, but on a different floor than the actual newsroom...which led to some problems with reporters barely making it into the studio in time. Now they're physically located immediately off the newsroom, but newscasters are running their own engineering; no separate tech. It's led to a lot of technical foul-ups and inconsistency as all the newscasters adjust to the new system.

They've gotten better pretty fast, although personally, after hearing all the reasons NPR has given...and to be fair, after an initial dopeslap they have been much more forthcoming with us affiliates...I don't think the reasons were good enough. It's a close call, true. And I don't know the budget numbers, which could have a major impact in the decision.

But speaking abstractly, one far-reaching but subtle thing that has always made NPR stand out as a broadcaster is its relentless commitment to top-notch production values. That commitment has slowly but steadily eroded over the last ten years. Yes, NPR has been fortunate that their own slippage has been minimal compared to the near-collapse of production values across much of the commercial broadcast world. But comparing yourself to the competition doesn't work when your competition stinks, ya know? (shrug)


Also, his name escapes me, but the main guy who heads the newscast department (senior producer, I guess) is also someone who comes from a commercial news background...so the increase in "host/reporter interview" style is unsurprising. My jury's still out on that. I don't terribly care for it, but I don't hate it either. And I admit that could just be that I'm just used to the old way, and I'll eventually come around. After all, I didn't like Morning Edition without Bob Edwards at first, either...but I came around to Steve and Renee.

From the outside, Aaron, I've been noticing some of the same kinds of things.

- More interviews; less reporting. Including interviewing reporters rather than having them put together pieces.
- More chasing headlines; less background and analysis Chasing headlines includes more instances of the short-version of a story in the newscast and the long version (same story, same reporter, additional padding) in the program. It also includes throwing out stories from the East Coast feed to put some late story in the West Coast feed (even though this story is being covered in the newscast); this seems like throwing away money.
- More high tech gymnastics. One newsreader in DC and one in California. What's the point of a second NPR hub anyway? In case the East Coast gets blown up? How often does that happen? Even if it did, NPR has three member stations in LA alone that can provide production facilities and satellite links. And why all the in-discriminant use of satellite links and outside studios for interviews? Skype to somebody's office or home sounds almost as good and is a lot cheaper. More pledge dollars down the toilet.
- Why at Cokie, Nina and a few others being paid without having to do stories or even come to the office? Cokie just rehashes what she said the day before on TV from home with her dogs yapping in the background.
- More stories on types of music not likely to interest or appeal to the NPR audience (but maybe the Gen-Y types at NPR like it).
- More sending program hosts out to bigfoot (probably with a team of producers, writers and technicians). Renee blows into Afghanistan and she's supposed to know more than real reporters who are based there? This is stunting, not journalism - and an additional waste of money.

I'd guess NPR thinks they are competing with commercial television and they are competing by imitating (always a bad idea).

I still like and admire NPR but not as much as before; I don't like how the trend is going. I saw this happen with my local all-news station and the end is not pretty.