Oh the frenzy one missed email causes
Posted by Misty Montano on Saturday, June 20, 2009
Under: Assignment News Desk
I've mentioned this before and will mention it again: we received HUNDREDS of emails DAILY from PR professionals, viewers, and Public Information Officers. To handle all of the emails we have one email address that goes to all of us on the news desk as well as all of the producers. The more eyes that can see what is sent to us, the better the chance something isn't overlooked.
This is exactly what happened today. A police department sent out additional information to a situation we'd covered today. The new information completely changed who we were covering the story. What was just going to be a mention in the newscasts, turned into a reporter package. The press release also stated the PIO would be available to do interviews at a specific time. However, this press release was only sent to my coworker on the desk, who was so overwhelmed by other desk duties, he didn't see the email until AFTER the interview availability time.
I really don't understand how things like this happen. We have made it very clear to every major PIO to always email the desk account to avoid problems such as this! All day the desk email address received the updates on this situation. How does one update only get sent to one individual email instead of the desk account? If anyone can explain, please do.
When it was realized what happened there was a frenzy of action and shouts as we tried to figure out how to still get the interview. What crew to send? How soon can we be there? What other elements do we still need to get to do a larger story now there are new developments? What changes needed to be made the to 5pm and 6pm newscasts?
My coworker called the police department since he was the one who received the press release. I called another organization looking for another interview to add to the story. My call went smoothly. My coworker on the other hand was on the phone for at least 10-minutes with the PIO explaining why we missed the email and asking for the PIO to stay afterhours to do an interview with our only available crew who was 30-minutes away from the police department. (Ugh. I admit I was glad I was not on that phone call.)
In the end the PIO agreed to stay for the interview. The PIO never could explain why the email only went to one person instead of the desk account. That's frustrating. If that email had been sent to the right email address, we wouldn't have missed the interview time, the PIO could've gone home on time, and in general we'd have avoided a headache.
ORIGINAL BLOG IN ITS PREVIOUS HOME W/COMMENTS
This is exactly what happened today. A police department sent out additional information to a situation we'd covered today. The new information completely changed who we were covering the story. What was just going to be a mention in the newscasts, turned into a reporter package. The press release also stated the PIO would be available to do interviews at a specific time. However, this press release was only sent to my coworker on the desk, who was so overwhelmed by other desk duties, he didn't see the email until AFTER the interview availability time.
I really don't understand how things like this happen. We have made it very clear to every major PIO to always email the desk account to avoid problems such as this! All day the desk email address received the updates on this situation. How does one update only get sent to one individual email instead of the desk account? If anyone can explain, please do.
When it was realized what happened there was a frenzy of action and shouts as we tried to figure out how to still get the interview. What crew to send? How soon can we be there? What other elements do we still need to get to do a larger story now there are new developments? What changes needed to be made the to 5pm and 6pm newscasts?
My coworker called the police department since he was the one who received the press release. I called another organization looking for another interview to add to the story. My call went smoothly. My coworker on the other hand was on the phone for at least 10-minutes with the PIO explaining why we missed the email and asking for the PIO to stay afterhours to do an interview with our only available crew who was 30-minutes away from the police department. (Ugh. I admit I was glad I was not on that phone call.)
In the end the PIO agreed to stay for the interview. The PIO never could explain why the email only went to one person instead of the desk account. That's frustrating. If that email had been sent to the right email address, we wouldn't have missed the interview time, the PIO could've gone home on time, and in general we'd have avoided a headache.
ORIGINAL BLOG IN ITS PREVIOUS HOME W/COMMENTS
In : Assignment News Desk
Tags: pio email
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I am a Journalist using Social Technologies and Interactive Media to connect with news consumers. I am taking on the new exciting and challenging role of Digital Content Manager at 9News in Denver, CO. Previously
I was an Assignment Editor at CBS4 News in Denver where I won an Emmy for my work and spent the first 10 years of my career. I truly grew up on the news desk.
