Who Decides What News You'll See Tonight?

It's 11:45 on this cool february morning and NBC2 executive producer Shiree Woody is grilling reporter Jason Ferrell on the cell phone. She's only got 15 minutes to spare. She leans across the desk and tells fellow EP Samantha Syoen, "We can't go with this. The next-of-kin hasn't been notified."

Ferrell is standing outside a Naples house where two bodies were found; he's ready to lead the noon broadcast. If the house can be seen on TV, it could give away the deceased's identity, so Woody makes a decision: "We can't do that." And Syoen agrees. "Kill it," she says with a wave of her hand.

Debates erupt throughout the newsroom-Ferrell was the first on the scene and NBC could break the story. At 12:25, the managers instruct the on-site crew to shoot the scene without revealing the home's address. "We decided it was most important to get the information out there with a live shot," Ferrell says. "By that time we had to get the story out."

At 12:30, the story was on the air. Twenty minutes later, the competition showed up.

That evening, you saw Ferrell's story again on the 6 p.m. newscast, along with Lake Okeechobee water release debates and a report on men who endure domestic violence. What you didn't see was the latest on FEMA City in Charlotte County and the possibility that a murderer from Ohio could be hiding in Southwest Florida. Why do some stories make it and others get killed? Who makes these decisions? We spent three days with NBC2 (WBBH)'s editorial department getting the answers-and also found out how stories are developed and what one news topic will always beat all the rest. Let's step inside the newsroom .

Woody and Syoen share an office at the end of the long, narrow newsroom with Kelly Monahan, the evening executive producer. Ideas, plans, assignments and decisions fly in and out of their office as fast as their young staff members can bring them. The room is the hub of both NBC2 and ABC7 news departments. The two stations, owned by Waterman Broadcasting in Fort Myers, share a newsroom, assignment desk, photojournalists and Web department. Both get their marching orders from executive producers and their boss: executive editor and news director Darrel Adams.

When the bodies were found, nearly everyone in the newsroom had an opinion. Webmaster Matt Koenigs was fighting to release the story on the Web and on air.

"People have the right to know what's going on," he said later. "They trust us to provide the information we know. In my opinion, there wasn't any good reason not to."

When it comes to breaking news, the managers agree, you race to get the story on the air as soon as you can pull the facts together. On a slow news day the pace and attitude change. This is where creative enterprise must take over.

The next morning, reporter Jamie Yuccas looks like she's about to break out in dance. She's got a good story pitch.

"OK," she announces. "At the [J.N.] 'Ding' Darling National Wildlife Refuge, there's a 13-foot crocodile, and in the winter, they hope for cooler weather because it will come out of hiding, and you can see it!"

The rare sighting would make for some good TV.

"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!" Syoen says.

"Croc watchers!" producer Justine Herl shouts. "Jamie gets a photographer!" someone else says.

That's the prize moment. A cameraman assigned almost always guarantees the story will make it on the air. When it comes to TV news, two factors rule: time and images. Stories have to be told quickly and succinctly, often in less than 60 seconds. In an ideal situation, the visuals help tell the story.

Recently, a reporter was explaining that registered sexual offenders had to stay 1,000 yards away from schools. Together, the reporter and photojournalist measured out 1,000 yards while on the air.

"Ultimately, it's about getting the information to the viewers in a way that's usable," says Todd Ofenbeck, director of photojournalism. "We try to visualize concepts that may not make sense when you're just talking about them."

Once reporters and photojournalists are paired after the 9:30 a.m. story pitch meeting, they hit the road. Their assignments are written on a board that lists the day's show times (NBC2 has two-and-a-half hours to fill every evening).

Those reporters who do not get paired for an assignment appear a bit deflated. Getting on-air face time is key for these reporters, many of whom are just starting their careers. But their boss Adams has another idea.

"There's lots of news to gather without going and shooting video," he tells the remaining handful of reporters. "Work your beat and come back with a great story tomorrow. You're not being benched."

And they shuffle off to their desks and get on the phone. If they are lucky, they might get a breaking news assignment that comes across the constantly buzzing police scanner, a source might call with a tip, or they might see something on one of the 11 television monitors positioned throughout the newsroom. (It turns out that Yuccas' story had to wait a day because the stubborn croc didn't show.)

David Sutta, crime reporter for NBC2, puts his downtime to productive use. He reads booking logs and incident reports looking for crime trends. For instance, he says, gang activity is growing in Southwest Florida, as is metal theft. The extra effort, he says, pays off with enterprising stories other media won't have.

With the reporters in the field, producers begin planning the show in the newsroom. NBC2 producer Kara Kelly has worked with 6 p.m. news anchors Craig Wolf and Jessica Stilwell for three years. Kelly, 27, prepares the list of stories, determining the order and how much time will be devoted to each. She is the link between the reporters and the anchors, as she balances the length of on-air reporter stories with the scripts the anchors read-most of which she's written. It's a pivotal, often hectic role she took on as her second post-college job.

On the night the bodies were found in Naples, Kelly, stressed, holds her hand to her forehead within the first few minutes of the 6 p.m. broadcast. She finally confesses: "[David] Karsh is 40 seconds over," with his domestic violence report. Kelly whips her long hair into an unruly ponytail and does what she has to do: "FEMA City is killed," she announces to Wolf, Stilwell and everyone in the control booth, and she's gained about 20 seconds. The story had aired on the 5 p.m. program, so she figures it's a safe kill. (The story about the suspected murderer had also aired at 5:30, so she didn't have to squeeze that into her show.)

Kelly shaves another 10 seconds from weather (senior meteorologist Tom Rector has a cold, "so I don't feel quite as bad," she says) and the sports segment gets trimmed several seconds, too. She asks Wolf to speed through a story, and he swiftly complies. Kelly has to keep the show to exactly 30 minutes so it doesn't cut into NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams.

It's a lot of last-minute, on-the-fly decisions for a junior member of the staff, and her bosses rely on her news judgment. "Yeah, they're young, but once they're in the booth, we have to trust them to make those decisions," says Woody of the stations' producers.

It is the experienced anchors who often challenge the producers' decisions and have the last look at stories before they air. Trent Butler, the morning and noon anchor, says he rewrites all of the scripts just before going on air. "When you've been here this long, you know the nuances, the history of a story. You throw in insight, if you can, and fact check," he says.

Most of the anchors show up at least four hours before they go on the air. They attend story-planning meetings, read scripts and at times prepare on-the-street reports.

Wolf, NBC2's senior anchor, says not only is gathering and disseminating information important, but also, "we have to do it an entertaining way," he says. "The sizzle is just as important as the steak. I'm a realist. I have to sell my product every day, so I'm a journalist and a salesman."

This need to push the product strikes everyone in the newsroom hardest during sweeps, the period when television ratings are surveyed nationally and advertising rates are determined. Everyone has to play his or her A game to come out ahead. "You can feel it-there's pressure," Kelly says. "I'd like it to be intense like that every day."

During Gulfshore Life's visit to Waterman Broadcasting, NBC2 was in a tight race for the highest ratings during the 6 p.m. news. WINK narrowly edged in front the rest of the pack several days in a row.

"WINK does better with older viewers," Adams says. "Why? I wish I had the answer. But we believe we are the news winners in this town. We produce 11 hours of news every day. We have more newscasts and Webcasts than anyone else."