RTNDA

I told myself I’d blog about this, I just wasn’t sure when. Between the jet lag and reporting on live TV literally hours after we landed, I would say it has taken me a few days to get caught up on sleep.

I got in to Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon, the RTNDA festivities started on Sunday. I had never been to Vegas before so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Of course I was there for business, the RTNDA@NAB conference. I learned a lot at all the different sessions. Some of my favorite sessions were about the current state of the industry and new media. I really liked Cashing In on Business and Financial Coverage and The (News) Doctor Is In: What’s Wrong with My Website? Of course I have to talk about Jen Reeve’s Twitter 101 because I loved hearing about how newsrooms plan on using twitter.

It was also a special RTNDA for my news director, Stacey Woelfel. He became the new Chairman of the organization. Congrats to him! Another highlight of the trip was someone who I got to meet, Merv Block. I read his book before I was even in J School so I was very excited about meeting him.

All in all it was a great experience and I would really like to go again if I get the chance. I think the conference did a good job of acknowledging the current economic situation, yet at the same time it wasn’t as negative as I may have expected.

Belated Post - On my way to RTNDA

After a whirlwind week, I’m finally on a plane to the RTNDA@NAB conference in Las Vegas. There was so much to do this week, but I can finally breathe as I sit on this plane with a cold drink on the tray table. (Incase your wondering I wrote this on the plane with the intention of posting it when I landed. I planned on posting it until I found out the internet was $15 per day at the MGM.)

Last night I anchored the 10. After the newscast I edited a franchise story for KOMU’s Your Health segment that aired on Sunday. Then I burned a bunch of DVDs, went home, packed – next thing I know I’m on my way to Vegas. I’ve been looking forward to this conference since I started going to our local RTNDA meetings three years ago. Now I’m the secretary for our chapter. I am just so excited to meet new people, so excited to learn new things, and yes I’d by lying if I said I wasn’t excited to go to Vegas.

Teaming Up for a Visit

Last week I shot a story for KOMU's Your Health franchise. I followed University of Missouri football players as they visited sick kids at Children's Hospital. The football players also handed out autographed pillowcases to the patients. I knew, I had to bring a still camera to get some good pictures of this story. I also created a web extra video to tell the story behind the pillowcases.

Link to the story: Teaming Up for a Visit

Everyone is talking changes

This week the Detroit Free Press made some major changes. The paper will only be delivered Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. This is a huge step for a major metropolitan newspaper. As a journalism major and an avid Freep reader I was really curious about these changes. For my capstone class I am taking part in a project called Media Giraffe. The goal is to interview people with an innovative media presence on the internet. I figured these bold moves by the Free Press definitely qualify as innovative. I contacted the Freep through twitter to setup an interview. They responded right away and I was able to interview Steve Dorsey. He's their Deputy Managing Editor for Presence and Innovation. The interview was extremely interesting, I think we talked for 30 minutes. It wasn't only an interview about the Free Press: it was an interview about the future of journalism and the state of the industry. I am currently writing my piece for the Media Giraffe site and I'll link to it when I'm done.

The newspaper industry isn't the only one experiencing changes, TV is changing too. The University of Missouri School of Journalism had a special guest. Russ Mitchell came in to talk about The Real World of TV News. He also showed a clip from his KOMU days - priceless. Russ took questions about everything from how he got into journalism to changes at the network level.

Both of these experinces brought me a lot of hope. Ask about the future of journalism and I bet 9 out of 10 times you'll get a negative response. I think we need to start seeing the positives in this industry. When this happens I think it will be easier to move forward even if that means a doing journalism differently.

A Soggy Week Reporting

The week started off nice but somehow spring turned into snow. I know, I know - it's Missouri and these things happen. Monday was gorgeous, although it was raining in the early morning. Luckily it cleared up as I drove to Jefferson City. My story was about the number of applications River City Habitat for Humanity receives. You would think in a down economy more people would apply, but interestingly enough the economy hurts applicants. Habitat for Humanity won't accept people with recent foreclosures, bankruptcies or judgements. In the current economy that means less people could potentially qualify. In the beginning I thought this story would just be about applications increasing but it turned out to be more.

I was caught in the middle of a downpour during my drive to the station Tuesday morning. I turned on the radio and heard there was even a possibility of a tornado. First thing I thought, severe weather story. (good thing I had my rainboots) After talking to our meterologist we determined most of the damage and wet weather would be Southwest of Boone County. I decided to take a visit to Morgan County. Shot some good weather video, then something else broke. While I was talking to the Sheriff he told me they arrested a fugitive earlier but hadn't sent the press release yet. Turns out a Florida man wanted for attempted murder was hiding out in Morgan County around Stover. With this new information I did a short weather VO and an onset about the fugitive.

Saturday was equally soggy with the possibility of snow. Two years ago Missouri saw a devestating freeze in early April. I was wondering if growers feared a possible repeat after a fairly warm March. Wineries saw widespread damage in the 2007 freeze but they weren't too concerned. But the cold sent nurseries scrambling, especially ones that had all their flowers outside. It's a good thing they moved the flowers inside because it started snowing later that night.

Building a website from the ground up

My goal: launch my website http://www.lizgelardi.com/ in less than two weeks. Maybe I can even have it up a week from today, but I don't want to make any promises. So far I have the site laid out. I've also converted my videos and uploaded them to vimeo. I was really surprised how easy vimeo is, and my video looks great. To get this site up and running I still need to write a bio, figure out how to put my resume up and add pictures of me. - Hopefully it won't take too long.

Right now, I am also trying to start up another HFR. I don't know what my web extras will be yet. As I get more information, I will probably have a better idea of content to put on the web. I'll also be pretty busy this week, I am reporting Monday-Thursday.

Web Story - Completed

Last time I blogged, I talked about my challenges creating a comprehensive web story for my 8 On Your Money story. I created a flash map and Jen Reeves helped me add it to the story page as a KOMU.com web extra. I also created a graph and slideshow that I added as additional KOMU.com extras.

The web version of this story allows the viewers to look through the information at their own pace. It was fun to see my co-workers feedback of the flash map. I showed it to a few people, and as they rolled over it I could see their reaction to the number of cars sold by county. I hope the map, graph and slideshow add to my video and text. I also wrote an expanded text story by using more context and quotes.

The links section of my web story has a lot of the numbers I used to research this story. I hope to add transparency to this story by adding links to information from the Department of Revenue and National Auto Dealers Association.

Economy Driving Change