RTDNA Takeaways

These are reminders, thoughts, takeaways, interesting observations and things I want to remember from the national RTDNA Canada conference.

Tell Stories…

Great stories are built around moments, take the audience somewhere and decode jargon or spin. Those three areas are what have helped to make CBC journalist Susan Ormiston such an impactful international correspondent. She shared her secrets on storytelling with the crowd at the RTDNA Canada national convention.

Stories evolve around moments. Ormiston explains, “Creating environments for moments to happen or simply focusing on a moment” is what she attempts in her storytelling. There is a warning, “moments cannot be manufactured, but they can be managed.” For instance, building trust with an interview subject helps create an environment where vulnerable moments are more likely to take place.  “Trust,” she says, “It’s a relationship. Never persuade yourself that someone won’t want to talk about something.”

REMINDER: Don’t Be A TV Anchor…

The TV news anchor is dying.

The head of CTV Wendy Freeman fired the first shot across the bow, “in 5 to 10 years will there even be TV anchors?” Corus/Global VP Troy Reeb added, “The asking price for a good anchor has been in decline and will continue to be, the asking price for a good reporter is expected to climb.” He also noted brands aren’t being built on the shoulders of anchors, but around the credibility of reporting. And then Ali Velshi hit it home, “I don’t think the highly paid TV anchor is a sustainable creature.”

Buzzwords – words and concepts that dominated discussions.

“Multi-platform” – I blogged about that here.

“Mobile” – 94% of millennials have smart phones, mobile first thinking, reporters using phones for everything…

“Monetization” – how do we make money with… native content, snapchat, etc…

“Change” – the industry is changing, technology is changing, audience expectations are changing and if you/we aren’t changing fast enough we will lose.

Apps and Devices Speakers Love…

Twitter – it’s changed the game for distributing and curating content and for live moment-by-moment coverage where microphones aren’t allowed like courtrooms.

iMovie – great for radio reporters also tasked with filming and editing video pieces on the run.

Voddio  – Voddio, is a professional-grade video and audio editor App for mobile journalists and story tellers, that supports rich editing of two tracks of video and up to four tracks of audio.

Amazon Echo – Ali Velshi loves Echo. Watch the video. It is rather awesome.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkOCeAtKHIc

Favorite Quotes of the Conference

“$150 million dollars is what’s going to go to the bureaucratic morass that is the CBC.” – Troy Reeb, Corus/Global

“I bemoan the day when we decide we don’t need context anymore.”  – Susan Ormiston, CBC

“It’s Facebook and the 7 Dwarves.” – on Social Media platforms

“We need to start thinking about big stupid ideas. We’re not an industry that typically thinks up stupid ideas. We need more stupid ideas. Stupid ideas are stupid until they are breakthroughs.” – Ali Velshi, Multi-platform Content Creator

“I’ve never given up the thought of returning home to Canada , but it won’t because of a man named Donald Trump. He can’t bully me.” – Ashleigh Banfield, CNN. She dedicated her entire keynote address to the “human wrecking ball” Trump and trying to explain how he’s in the position he’s in.