Victor Hernandez tells me he hasn't slept much the past few days as he and other CNN managers coordinate coverage of Gustav and the GOP convention. He's accustomed to that kind of schedule, from his tenure as Director of Coverage for CNN US. Hernandez was recently tapped to develop CNN's new
All Platform Journalism efforts (the deployment of backpack journalists), with the title APJ Project Manager. But as the storm approached, Victor shifted his attention to the breaking story. Victor's a Poynter alum who has served as visiting faculty and as a Poynter Ethics Fellow. I e-mailed questions to him, looking for insights into CNN's coverage.
Jill Geisler: You've been here before, covering Katrina. What, if anything, is different as CNN covers Gustav?
Victor Hernandez: We've been able to learn from lessons recent history has afforded. We've become much better at engaging other departments to more cohesively utilize and update resources to enhance coverage, support our field teams and enrich our news product. For example, after Katrina we greatly improved our workflows for involving non-traditional news systems such as properties, facilities, travel and technology groups into the planning discussions well before the storm, in addition to maintaining close contact throughout the extensive coverage.
And of course we've been able to add new technology to the field and across our newsrooms to allow for more pictures from more places with greater speed and quality than ever before. Another improvement from the 2005 hurricane season is the addition of incorporating emerging media, such as social networking tools, into the coverage mix for more personal stories and even greater informational opportunities.
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Jill Geisler
Victor Hernandez, CNN |
What's the CNN strategy for handling these two major stories -- a Gustav and the GOP convention -- at the same time? People? Priorities? Pressures? Hernandez: We have good people dedicated to specific network priorities and afford them the resources to pursue the great coverage opportunities. In the case of the convention coverage in St. Paul, the bulk of planning and now coverage execution this week has been led by our Special Events and Political units. We knew early in the Gustav planning that the CNN resources assigned to cover the GOP convention would and should be used only as a last resort and fortunately we've been able to plan and deploy for storm coverage through other network staffing and resources.
While it's certainly a massive effort by so many within our company covering two major stories simultaneously, the GOP convention planning has long been in the works -- thus probably not as overwhelming as it would be dealing with two dueling, unplanned news events.
Here's the leadership question: Big stories often bring out the best in newsrooms, but they also test the organization, systems and people. Please tell me about how you and other CNN execs communicate with your team at times like this about performance, standards and values. Hernandez: CNN Senior Leadership are extraordinarily supportive toward fostering open communications and soliciting ideas and feedback from employees before, during and looking back at major story coverage. The heroes are always the employees in the field who work tirelessly to tell the stories and provide the updates -- so often while under the duress of dangerous conditions and untold uncertainties. It's always a tremendous group effort by so many in front of, as well as behind, the cameras.
Keeping everyone safe, happy and ahead of deadline during rolling coverage can be one of the bigger challenges we face but finding the focus, minimizing the distractions, and striking the balance are important keys in helping to keep the trains on the tracks.
