Sister stations help with commuter train collision coverage

Locally, it was an ok news day.

It's the eve of the recall election for long-time Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic.

We also had an arrest over the weekend in the Laundromat murder. Ironically, the suspect may be attached to two other incidents in two other counties. This story is far from over. Not only do you have what we call the 'nuts and bolts' for this story alone --what is new and happening in this murder case today--but there are many sidebar stories like WHY did the judges ever let him out of jail with his long list of offenses and are there even more suspects with serious offenses roaming the streets?

And, of course, everyone...I mean EVERYONE is awaiting that call from the Cleveland Indians gathering the local media for a press conference regarding some kind of shakeup...


However, the BIG story of the day was miles away....states away......

Yet, we were still able to cover the BIG story with help from our NBC/MSNBC, Gannett, and CNN affiliates in the D.C. area.

WUSA9, our Gannett Sister-Station, had superb coverage of this catastrophic event from its inception. Producers/Writers/Reporters kept all of their affiliates in the loop with updated email regarding new information, upcoming news conference details, pictures and the latest video.

Steve, the CNN Producer servicing our region, kept us in the loop in a number of ways including continuous Twitter updates.

And, of course, NBC/MSNBC kept Producer Dan informed of the latest developments as well. Dan was able to use Reporter Steve Handelsman to update our customers during the 11pm news.

WKYC in turn, was able to get updated information out via Twitter, wkyc.com, and during our LIVE news programs because of the support we had from our affiliates in the region of the breaking news story.

This is how news coverage and getting information out to our customers is supposed to work...and I believe, we did a pretty good job Monday evening on a tragic story.

Now that's team work!

(photograph courtesy Channel 3 Videographer Shane Snider)

The house explosion in Eastlake late Wednesday evening was not a drill.

More often than not when you hear so many cities and units responding to a single event, it's a drill.

A perfect example of WHY drills are conducted among mutual aid cities on a regular basis --so they can quickly mobilize when the 'real thing' occurs.

And that's exactly what the Channel 3 Newsroom did Wednesday night --quickly mobilized inside the building as well as outside of the building.

The initial call came over as an explosion, but because crews had not arrived on scene yet, we did not know exactly WHAT had exploded.

Shortly after the initial call, the various Lake County Police Departments started getting inundated with calls from residents asking what happened....as did the Channel 3 News Desk. Viewers were asking if there was another earthquake in Lake County? Had there been an explosion? Was there a serious crash? Just WHAT happened???? So not only were the phones ringing off the hook for school closing iAlerts but now they were really non-stop asking about 'what was going on in Lake County!!'

It's a fragile tower of cards.

Being so late in the night, the plan for the 11pm show was pretty much in place...yet this is what we live for, covering breaking news when it happens. You have to throw your plan out the window and all parties focus on the breaking news at hand.

I immediately sent a camera crew in a truck toward the scene......

And then we huddled for a minute to ascertain the best plan of attack strategy. Producer Dan even confabbed with our News Director, Rita, to get her spin and get her in the loop...

We were down a reporter due to illness and down a camera crew.

But, just because we may be staff-light does not mean we can't win the big story!

Fortunately, we have employees who live out in the affected area. Shortly after the initial incident, one of my videographers, Shane Snider, called in asking what had happened and where.....it was very close to where he lived so he headed out with his camera phone to shoot whatever he could to send back to our webmaster.

He was instrumental in assisting our crews in the field, taking numerous scene pictures, gathering details until our reporter could get on site, assisting my truck operator, nabbing the 2 heroes who pulled the elderly couple out of the burning home, and even doing a phoner with Romona and the heroes during the 11pm news.

After the initial flurry, it all came together.

Marc in the web immediately posted the story WITH Shane's pictures.

Sigac folks and the room 1 operator were notified that there would be a live shot and possibly video fed back....

And all crews were given their orders.

The plan came together very well and worked! It all happened so fast, you really don't have time to think or over think too much.

But it does not end at 11:32pm.

Our News Director, knowing we were all busting a move, called our overnight reporter in early to pick up the story.....any overtime has to be approved by the boss anyway, so she led the charge!

I briefed the first overnight producer in on what had happened, what we had and were still efforting in the field, and WHO got what.

The key is communication to make anything a success.

Overall, I think we definitely won this story at 11pm....and when all was said and done, had a very successful day at work.

Now, THIS is a vintage AE shift

This has been a W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L week!

Not too many cooks stirring the broth!

Afternoon editorial meetings have been short, sweet, to the point and VERY productive.

It's funny, we are asked to bring multiple enterprising stories to the table, and we always do! I think we all bring innovative, exciting, and informative stories from where we live. We may not always sell them properly or they may not appeal to folks living in 'other' burbs. At least for me, I know the ideas I bring are viable because when I log the competition each night, I finally see my ideas materialize on the other stations 3, 5 or even 12 days later! In my heart of hearts, I know we had the idea first!

However, usually 3 out of 5 days when we walk in, a wire copy story or newspaper article or press release has been taped to one on my reporter's computers directing them to their day ahead! Even before we meet?!?! Most of the time, we don't necessarily believe the story is pertinent or interesting to the customers watching, but "you can't fight city hall!"

Not this week. So far, we have been able to do every single story we have desired. The shows have looked phenomenal! We have excelled at 'breaking news' stories because that's what we do!

Thursday was a 'vintage' Assignment Editor dream day!

From the minute I walked in, I knew it was going to be a challenging, yet satisfying day!

Literally moments after I sat down, a fellow co-worker called me with breaking news. There was a fatal fire in their neck of the woods and they wanted to make sure we knew about. Fortunately, we had the luxury to spring into action immediately. No waiting for crews to come back. No plethora of live shots already planned. I had the crews, I had the insight, I had the drive to kick a little booty.

I sent my reporter, his camera crew and a live truck out with the details. I then informed the producers and web what we had and that we were on top of it! The crews in the field really busted a move. Dave, Craig, and Randy blanketed this story by covering the nuts and bolts of the main story but also immediately getting the 911 call, amateur video of the fire shortly after it began, and all the updated details that were available...

A job well done!

Concurrently to the breaking news, the first faux pas of the day. I answer the phone "Good afternoon, Channel 3 News!" And on the other end I hear, "Good afternoon, this is the Senate!" Not that I am awestruck but definitely not expecting to hear from 'The Senate!' Well, slight miscommunication problem, but in the end it all worked out. We were supposed to be conducting a talk back with our senior political reporter Tom Beres and Sherrod Brown. Information did not get disseminated to everyone or to the proper people. I had not been told anything. You make it happen, you make it work, you don't have time to point fingers or discuss where the breakdown occurred because the clock is ticking. You just get the job done!

There was 'breaking news story' after 'breaking news story.' I thrive on days like these. Sadly, we had a juvenile shot in Maple Hts. Oftentimes as an assignment editor, it is very difficult getting information, especially depending on what time of day, the situation, and the temperament or mood of the police dispatcher you are bothering! Today was a dream day. I not only received information from my pal at the Coroner's Office BUT I actually had the Police OIC call me back with every single detail before our deadline! A win-win situation.

Another breaking news story that seemed viable--bomb squad called to The Best Inn on Brookpark Road. And when my crew arrived, there was a scene and something unfolding. We eventually got the details on this as well.

But wait, there's more. Later in the day, there was another bomb threat call. A suspicious package of sort at the Amherst Turnpike Rest Stop. Sure enough, not a bogus call. Confirmed and chock full of details. I was able to send a crew out to this story as well.

The only other faux pas of the day actually turned out to be a HUGE WIN! We had details that a Marine was coming home from Afghanistan. A number of people spoke to the people involved yet not a lot of details were left. I did not have the Marine's name, where exactly he lived, where he was coming home to, when he would be arriving or any background information?! I was not about to let this put a damper on our coverage.

I left a message for the woman who apparently had the answers to all of my questions. She did not call back. I sent my camera crew out to search high and low, nose around and get to the bottom of this. Finally, the woman called back and gleaned a bit more information. I relayed this to my crew in the field. From not even having enough information to cover a story, we ascertained enough details for a tv story, a web story, and a future follow up story in 2 weeks!

And to top it off, I was Web Girl! How I had the time, the energy and the swiftness to accomplish all of this and more, I am still trying to figure out?! I cranked out so many web stories, national, local, entertainment and health while attaching video to current existing local packages.

It all came together. It truly WAS a dream day for an assignment editor. At the end of the day I was exhausted but proud--proud of how we all worked as a team and pulled it all together and the product we shared with our customers, our viewers!