The Inbox....

Yesterday, FTVLive told you that the CBS O&O’s were looking to add a position to their newsrooms.

The company has created a new job, with the title of Executive Producer of Impacting Communities, or EPIC for short.

Some readers of FTVLive wanted to weigh in on the new job opening up at CBS:

Email:

Scott,

I find it interesting. CBS needs to hire someone special in each station to find inspirational stories of people making a difference in their communities. Isn't this the sort of thing Steve Hartman and his team does all the time?

I will be sarcastic here!

Why can't journalists who should be creative, innovative, relentless in finding news, find this kind of news as their supposed to be doing? Wellllllll........

Many of the junior journalists already working in local newsrooms can't find them because they have no contacts, and no connection to their communities and gosh, these stories are not listed anywhere to be found. So what are they to do? Besides, they are very busy cultivating those all important followers for Tik Tok showing how they read a teleprompter or dance. Many are so focused on their own image and celebrity they don't even bother to look beyond their own little mobile screens. Cant waste valuable screen time to do story research, and they will certainly not do it on their own time. Social media time can't be wasted!

I forgot about NO OT allowed. So where do you get local news? OH yeh... THE PRESS RELEASE. Junior Journalists and MMJ's use these all the time. Much easier to turn in a shift with no OT needed. "spray the location, get an official quote, do a zoom call interview, edit and you're done.

Who has time to meet people, cultivate contacts, or do the research needed to find people making a change in their communities. Newsroom producers, and reporters have no time for this sort of thing. Just hire someone to do it for them.

Now not all are this way....many are doing great work AND I would suspect that while many think this is a great idea, there are others who may be thinking "This is what I'm supposed to do as a journalist." Find events and the people making a difference in our communities.

Right?

Email:

So they add yet ANOTHER layer of management? For a position that should be something, the EXECUTIVE PRODUCER should be handling as default day-to-day reporting?

Text:

Typical CBS, they go on a hiring spree and then the second profits dip, many of these new hires will find themselves on the outside looking in. Mark my words.