CATEGORY DESCRIPTION - STATION OF THE YEAR
The award for TV Station of the Year recognizes a local broadcast
station's staff consistency in providing outstanding news
photography coverage for and about the audience it serves.
The award singles out an individual station as one that has
achieved a standard of quality in photographic coverage that
is unmatched by any other. Selection as TV Photography Station
of the Year honors excellence and most importantly, it serves
to raise the standards of the industry.
By Al Tompkins
Group Leader Broadcast & Online
The Poynter Institute KSTP finally got a break. In the last year, newsroom
cutbacks cost the station two anchors, six photojournalists
and three editors. Last week, the news director left.
But NPPA says KSTP is now America’s photojournalism leader.
Chief Photographer Mark Anderson says the award is important
to his staff.
"We had a meeting the other day and someone said how
nice it would be if we won. Wouldn't it be great to tell our
new news director (who was hired on Thursday) that the photographers
at KSTP have a giant heart?"
"During all of the changes of the last year, the photojournalists
have moved the newsroom along," Anderson told Poynter
Online. "We've got passion. Nobody has taken away our
passion."
In the last five years, KSTP has won Station of the Year
twice. KARE11, the station's cross-town rival, has also won
the award twice. Anderson says one reason that Minneapolis
stations have won the awards so often is because high-performing
stations are constantly competing against each other. "It
pushes the bar higher every year," he said.
Anderson says KSTP photojournalists also have a clear mission
statement for their work. The mission statement hangs on Anderson's
door, "We talk about it all the time, everyone on the
staff could recite it to you. It is "Steady, sequenced
video; meaningful, compelling sound," Anderson said.
"Our mantra is that we shoot stories as the eye sees
human life. Life is not a bunch of wide shots. We remind each
other of our mission statement all the time."
The NPPA judges were impressed by the variety of stories
on the KSTP Station of the Year entry. Anderson was not surprised.
"From spot news to in-depth storytelling, we know that
storytelling does exist. We want our photojournalists to look
for characters and emotion. We try to do stories that television
stations normally don't do stories about. I think it is cool
that we dare to cover stories that others would not try to
cover."
Just two days ago, while the bleary-eyed judges were still
closeted in darkened rooms 1,300 miles to the south, Anderson
delivered an
expanded set of storytelling guidelines to his photojournalists
that will lead them through a new year. The closing paragraph
is vintage Anderson. NPPA judges had some difficulty reaching
him to tell him the good news. Anderson was taking the day
off to attend a parent-teacher conference for his 1st-grade
daughter. He said the meeting was so important to him that
he wasn't taking calls. While NPPA judges buzzed his pager,
Anderson said, "I beamed while my daughter's teacher
was telling me that my daughter Berit has great people skills
and that she respects other people around her. I hope she
got some of that from her dad, the photojournalist. As great
as the NPPA call is, that teacher conference was the best
news I got today."
Anderson closes his newsroom memo with these lines; "If
we don't care about our assignment, our viewers won't care.
We are going to do our part to make the world a better place.
It is up to you. Win the story! Attitude is everything."
STATION PHILOSOPHY
The mission statement/philosophy for KSTP Photojournalism
is very simple and fundamental: Steady sequenced video and
meaningful, compelling sound. Every photojournalist on staff
knows it by heart. It's what we do on a daily basis, telling
stories with steady sequenced video (wide, medium, tight and
super tight shots) that are laced with meaningful and compelling
sound.
For 2002, our staff may have appeared large with 34 fulltime
photojournalists and 10 editors, but when you realize that
we were running TWO stations, KSTP channel 5 and KSTC channel
45, out of one newsroom, with a total of 5 and a half hours
of news five days a week plus weekend news on BOTH stations,
you start to understand that our staff was very busy covering
Minnesota and the upper Midwest. That was 2002.
However, 2003 is already a much different year. Early this
past January, our station lost 27 people due to economic cutbacks.
6 of the unfortunate 27 workers who lost their jobs were full
time photojournalists, which brings our staff total today
to 28 full time photojournalists and 8 editors. The hour-long
newscast on channel 45 was cancelled due to locking revenue.
It was devastating to lose 6 outstanding photojournalists
and two editors. But ultimately, our photojournalists/editors
continue to pull together and grow as a team as one of the
countrys best photo staffs.
At KSTP, we take pride in thoroughly covering spot, breaking
and general news in the Minneapolis/St Paul market. We are
live daily with our outstanding reporters and editing in the
field is very common. But we also take great pride in our
ability to emotionally connect with our viewers through feature
storytelling. Our features are much more than pretty pictures;
they are about people who are making a difference in our communities.
Don't get us wrong, we love pretty pictures too, it's just
that we are elevating our pretty pictures into great stories!
Thats what makes KSTP special.
We are fortunate to know we work in a team environment at
KSTP. Our entry truly represents a station wide effort-after
all, it is a "Station Of The Year" award.
We hope you enjoy our tape and find it memorable. We had a
lot of fun putting it together.
Photojournalistically yours,
Mark Anderson, KSTP Chief Photojournalist.
3415 University Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55114
JUDGES COMMENTS:
The winning station deserved the award and my hats off to
them. They displayed great work on their entry tape. It’s
very difficult, at this level, to crank it up a notch and
even harder when you consider where this staff has been and
their history and tradition. The tape clearly evidenced that
this staff achieved that extra notch. I asked a former editor
of the year once, “Now that you’ve achieved this honor, do
you feel that you’ve reached the apex and your dues have been
paid?” He answered, “No. I just have to work harder and pay
twice as many dues to try and stay here.” I hope the station
understands and appreciates the challenges that exist in our
industry and the unique challenge of continuing to pay twice
as many dues to stay where they are. You’re in the gun sights
now. Others are hot on your heels. Stations you may have never
heard of before are narrowing the gap that has traditionally
existed between Minneapolis, Denver and the rest of the country.
Are you up to the challenge? (Mike)
This station of the year winner displays what NPPA is all
about. Everything within the guidelines, they truly did meet
them all. Even after taking a look at the aircheck between
the SOY and the runner-up. This station underscores what being
the best is all about. The stories on this tape were without
a doubt the best tape of the field that was left standing.
You are in for a treat if you can get you hands on this tape.
A lot of examples of what it is all about. A lot of effort
and variety was clearly shown on this tape. Once again, spot
news played a big role in the judges' eyes. Spot was a step
above the runner-up. I hope you agree with our choice. (Brad)
Two stations in this category were treated to Dairy Queen
because of blatant infractions of the entry rules. One station’s
News Feature entry had been entered for judging in the individual
Feature category and the other station allowed one photographer
to contribute four stories to the reel. It hurt like hell
to have to follow the rules because both shops were legitimate
heavyweight contenders for S.O.Y.
I wish everyone could have seen the airchecks for both stations.
We pulled them to break a hung jury. Unfortunately, it’s now
when you realize not even Superman is ten foot tall and bulletproof
around Kryptonite. All of you would finally see that on any
given day (in a sweeps period, no less) even the “super stations”
can crank out mediocrity. Neither late news airchecks showed
me anything outstanding. Shaky, handheld VOs; no backlight
on a static live shot; packages that start out with strong
technique, then go to basic two-shot setups and finally come
to an anti-climatic end. We watched the ‘A’ and ‘B’ blocks
in their entirety leading right up to weather. What a grand
disappointment. Back to the original entries.
The winning tape was all about quality and out of the 11
stories on the tape, I thought only three were simply okay.
The U of M hockey riot was chock full of wild moments at a
close personal angle. The audio was crisp and I could hear
everything the kids were saying as they tore up the town.
The story never bogged itself down with the usual treatment
of flashing light close-ups and rapid-fire editing. Many of
the moments were left to occur on their own without embellishments.
The old man was quite a character in the goose poop general
news story and the team was wise to build its pack around
his rantings. It made me chuckle. I enjoyed the stylistic
elements in the break dancing story. Used sparingly, it never
detracted from the subject and the pictures were pure entertainment.
I also had an affinity for the chess player at the library.
Another great example of finding that one special person to
carry a story’s message. (Kim)
KSTP is our pick for Station of the Year.Their entry was
the most comprehensive. But beyond entering a story for each
category, the majority of stories were standouts for me. I
felt this staff reached a bit higher than our other finalist.
But it was a tough call. We went to the airchecks in the hopes
it would definitively put one station over the other. Unfortunately
it didn't clarify things much. I think a lot of photographers
would be heartened to see that each assignment in this shop
is not visually appealing and character-driven. As has been
the case throughout this entire judging process, the spot
and general news entries could have been stronger. But overall
I believe this was the best of a tight race. What the KSTP
staff has is an uncanny ability to get people to open up.
They allow the characters to tell their own stories and they
portray them with respect. (Kelly)
Like the POY winner, the SOY winning tape was not solid from
top to bottom. There were some weak stories, but it survived
on the strength of those that were good.
Minnesota riot… very good spot news tape (one of the few
good spot news tapes).
Kwan’s boxing story. My favorite overall!!! Great work!!!
Russell’s 2nd chance… very emotional. Great example of changing
the direction of a story given the sudden death of Russell.
Daylight Shines… break dancing… good editing.
Little White Blurs… funny.
Pops… another favorite. Good character.
Congratulations to the folks at KSTP!!! St. Paul, Minnesota.
(Ray)
Plain and simple, the difference between first and second
was spot news, otherwise, the quality down the line on both
entries was great. We had seen most of the stories on both
entries earlier in the week and it wasn’t surprising to know
that the best stations in the country would have placed or
won in another category. It was very disappointing to have
had to DQ two entries for not following rules regarding the
number of entries from one photographer and that a story must
remain in the same category in an SOY entry as it was when
entered singularly. It knocked our list of finalists from
5 to 3. (Chris)
Television News Photography Station of the
Year
1st Place KSTP
KSTP, Minneapolis
STATION OF THE YEAR
TAPE LOG
Spot News 1.) "Hockey Riots." Photojournalists: Misty
Esler, Aaron Achtenberg, Dave Wertheimer, Corky Scholl. Photojournalist/Editor-
Mike Paidar.
2.) "Gotta Get Out." Photojournalists: Jason Hanson
Photojoumalist/Editor-Mark Garvey.
Breaking News 1.) "Roseau Floods." Photojournalist and
editor-Dave Wertheimer.
General News 1) "5 Bucks For 2 Cents." Photojournalist
and editor-Cy Dodson.
2.) "Goose Poop." Photojournalist and editor-Dave
Ogre.
Sports 1.) "Kwan's Dream." Photojournalist and
editor-Cy Dodson
2.) "Season On The Brink." Photojournalists: Lorri
Burchett, Mark Anderson, Clad Whisnant, Dave Ogle, Dave Wertheimer,
Cy Dodson, John Gross, Dave Wertheimer. Editor-Jonathan Menell.
Feature 1.) "Russell's Second Chance." Photojournalist
and editor-Nick Clausen.
2.) "Daylight Shines." Photojournalist and editor-Corky
Scholl.
News Feature 1.) "Little White Blurs." Photojournalist
and editor- Jason Hanson.
In Depth 1.) "The One They Call Pops." Photojournalist
and editor- Corky Scholl.
Tape time 29:59:28
14 photojournalists represented on our tape which is more
than a third from our staff during 2002. There are no photojournalists
on this tape more than 3 times.
