6.30PM: 24 Hours in the Life of 5 live
Post categories: 24 Hours in the Life of 5 live,Ìý5 live blog
| 18:30 UK time, Wednesday, 2 March 2011
The 8.30am output editors meeting
It's 7am. I'm in the coffee queue in the ground floor café in TV centre. My headphones are on as I try to keep an ear on the 7am news summary. I'm also hoping I don't bump into anyone I know in the queue. It's not that I'm anti-social (well, actually I might be but that's another story), it's just I don't want to miss the chance to hear any of 5 live's output before another day of wall-to-wall meetings begins.
Hi, I'm Jonny Crawford, though you won't be surprised to hear that my nickname is sometimes Jonny-Not-Now.
"Jonny, have you got a sec...?". Sorry, not now, I'm late for a meeting.
"Jonny, do you think ...?". Sorry not now, I've just got to make a quick call...
You get the idea? Do you think I need to go on a time management course?
So what's the job that makes me appear so self-important? Well I'm 5 live's Core News Editor. It's a fancy title I suppose but I should probably be called 5 live's Head of Juggling. I juggle today's news with tomorrow's. I juggle next week's big stories with next month's. I juggle the editorial with the managerial. I juggle meetings about 5 live in London with meetings about . And so on.
The first part of my day is always the most straightforward, and often the most rewarding. It involves working with the programme editors to help work out which stories you're likely to care most about through the rest of the day. So fresh from that coffee queue, I'm reading the papers, blogs and websites, listening to our own Breakfast programme and our rivals, reading through your texts, emails and tweets and talking to colleagues across the network.
It's obviously not an exact science. Some stories will interest some people but not others. Some stories will have global importance, others will be much less significant. Some stories will be difficult and expensive to cover, others will be more straightforward. I try to balance all of these factors and work out where best we should send our reporters and concentrate our efforts. I also make sure we're as joined up as possible with the rest of Ö÷²¥´óÐã News - pushing our own stories to wider audiences and bringing the best Ö÷²¥´óÐã journalism to 5 live.
After the early newsroom chats and huddles, a flurry of more formal back-to-back meetings then follows.The first is at 8am, the next at 8.30am and often I'll be going to another at 9am too. And at some point I need to fit in a conference call with our reporters around the UK. By the time they're all over, the aim is to be as clear as possible about what our main editorial priorities are for the day ahead. At least until another story breaks and takes us all off in an entirely different direction.
The second part of my day is usually a bit more removed from that day's news agenda. I'll be looking at stories or events further ahead and working through entirely separate management issues. It's often quite a mixed bag - today I need to;
1) regroup with programme editors to talk through our plans for the
2) work through some staffing issues
3) reply to a complaint about one of our programmes
4) try to find a reporter to cover an important story tomorrow
5) try to work out our seating plan for our new Salford office (can't wait for that one)
6) and yes go to lots more meetings.
So that's my day, in a nutshell. It's a great job on a great network, full of clever, creative and funny people. But sometimes, when I leave the building at around 6.30pm, I will have heard almost nothing since that 7am news summary.
Which is why you should be careful if you ever bump into me in that early queue. I might have to say, "Really nice to meet you, but sorry, not now..."
Related Links
Check out the time-lapse video of the 5 live newsroom
Read the first blog entry for 24 Hours in the Life of 5 live by Breakfast's Chris Hunter
Read 5 live travel presenter Nick Duncalf's blog post
Read Rachel's blog about working on Your Call
Read Jonathan's post about the Derbyshire programme
Read Rabiya's blog about working on Logan
Read Phil Mackie's post about the trials of a 5 live regional journalist
Read Andy's post about working on Drive
Jonathan Crawford is 5 live's Core News Editor
Comment number 1.
At 3rd Mar 2011, ryanw wrote:I hope we have a 5Live Sport blog post and 7pm-10pm.
I need to vent about the awful Robbie Savage.
Something very significant happened on Saturday, Savage was the colour commentator on the Carling Cup final. A truly dangerous precident.
How on earth anyone thinks this man is worthy of warming the same bench as the 5Live Sport Football A Commentary A-Team of Mike Ingham and Alan Green is beyond me.
Last night the intelligent and insightful comments of Graham Taylor showed just how far away Robbie Savage is from a quality colour commentator.
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Comment number 2.
At 3rd Mar 2011, carrie wrote:I was thinking a similar thing this morning, but I was thinking of Up All Night. In my opinion the most professional and interesting programme on the station. We also are yet to have an insight in to the (self-congratulatory) world of Tony Livesey's show, where I think the financial journalist Jenny Culshaw is fantastic and very game. But UAN is wasted quite often, the reports are very interesting, well researched and he actually does interviews as he goes instead of scripted nonsense or the prestigious Heat Magazine providing the guest, yet we never hear repeats of Rhod's work during the day.
I do agree with the comments about Robbie Savage, he is definitely not cut out for the spoken media, I am not sure if he can write if he is looking for a post-playing career. (Articles, of course that is what I mean.)
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Comment number 3.
At 3rd Mar 2011, britney pearson wrote:One thing which really, REALLY annoys me about the new Beta iPlayer though: the pages for radio shows have been removed. Now, all radio shows open in the pop-out radio player console - which has improved from the old console, but is still pretty horrible to use.Something very significant happened on Saturday, Savage was the colour commentator on the Carling Cup final. A truly dangerous precident.
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Comment number 4.
At 3rd Mar 2011, ryanw wrote:Rhod's UAN is outstanding .. many of the features are so good that they warrant being replayed at a more palatable hour. Perhaps after the 2pm news for a couple of hours.
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Comment number 5.
At 4th Mar 2011, Jackstumps wrote:Savage - just not very bright, Has clearly got a good agent who has suckered someone at Five Live into giving him a contract. They probably think he's 'edgy'. Or is it just dumb?
As for UAN, it's great when Rod is on; But Dotun, PLEASSSSE! No more. Makes community radio sound professional
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