America’s most watched television station is debuting its newest newscast, Channel 2 Action News at 4 p.m., on Thursday. Monica Pearson and John Bachman will anchor the newscast with chief meteorologist Glenn Burns forecasting the weather. You can follow this blog throughout the day to see how a newscast develops and join our conversation on Twitter all day and during the newscast. Use the hashtag #2at4 and you can interact with Channel 2 Action News and our team.
9:00 The Channel 2 Action News team arrives in our daily editorial meeting. Launching Action News at 4 means even more reporters on the streets covering metro Atlanta news. News Director Marian Pittman begins the day by announcing that Channel 2, once again, won every single newscast in the May sweeps period. Meteorologist Karen Minton gives a brief update on approaching storms, then the reporters begin to pitch their stories.
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9:50 Channel 2 Action News producers decide which reporter stories they would like to air in their shows and begin plotting their newscasts. The producer of Channel 2 Action News at 4 has been already building the newscast during the meeting. It will change dozens of times before the show begins and sometimes the show changes dozens of times after it begins.
11:00 Reporters have their assignments and head out into the field. Some reporters have already been working through the meeting, and they’re preparing for a live report at noon. By this time, most of the 4 p.m. newscast is filled with stories. The order will change up until 3:59 p.m. Now the producer will continue to tweak the rundown and add graphics and other production elements. A team of writers will start to write the stories he has selected.
11:15 The 4 p.m. producer receives an update from our Washington, D.C. bureau. They are working on a story with an Atlanta angle. The rundown of all 3 evening shows shift again.
11:40 We’ve closed voting on our viewer’s choice story. Channel 2 Facebook fans were asked to pick between two Clark Howard stories. A story on saving money on travel using social media edged out a story about protecting your mailbox from identity theft. Hundreds of people voted in the past 24 hours, the first time viewers have ever been able to chose a story that runs on Channel 2 Action News.
11:59 Channel 2 Action News at Noon is on the air. The writing and editing staff will continue to work through the hour finishing up this show, then turn their full focus to 4 p.m. Meteorologist Karen Minton and David Chandley are updating their weather models with storms approaching. Once the noon newscast finishes, Glenn Burns joins David in Severe Weather Center 2.
1:00 The producer of Action News at 4 regroups with executive producers. No surprise that with a thunderstorm watch and storms coming that the first story at 4 p.m. will likely be weather.
1:35 The producers use this time to touch base with reporters and the assignment desk. This is when stories can jump from the back of the show to the first block as producers learn about elements and stories the reporters have uncovered throughout the morning. A nearly finalized 4 p.m. rundown will be put together for the 2 p.m. editorial meeting. Channel 2 Action News at 4 anchor John Bachman has arrived early, eager to dive into the show.
Keep Checking Back All Day For Updates On Our Blog As We Launch Action News At 4
