leveraging the apple ipad to disrupt broadcasting

If you have been following me over the past year, you would know that I have been ideamaking within the walls at WFXL FOX31 in Albany, Georgia, and I can tell you with absolute confidence that the experience has been NO LESS than amazing. As an Innovator/Designer I can still remember why I took on the role of Interactive Managing Editor at the station, and what I was taking the role for.

The broadcasting industry, along with the print industry, news, as a whole really, is going through a major shift. A change. I thrive in environments where change is happening and after talking with Jenny Collins (CEO), Terry Graham (Executive News Director), and Richard Harold (Director of Content Barrington Interactive Corp.) I understood that my role would transcend the ideals and boundaries of just the online initiatives, BUT I would, and COULD be instrumental in helping redefine and industry, and how they do things. 

Welcome to the iPad

 

Trees_vs_ipads_3

 

 

Pictured above - One day worth of printed scripts vs the Apple iPad

The idea to launch iPads at WFXL FOX 31 was pretty straightforward. Some say the move was "innovative", "clever", some even said "genius" ... I feel it was simply the business of innovation. We were spending about 2,000.00 a month in paper related task, with a BIG portion of this tied into the execution of scripts. After talking with Terry Graham, a seasoned broadcast Pro, and Deborah Gay (Human Resources and Finance) - we started formulating ideas around the iPad well before it's launch. I had hunch that if the device could handle PDF's, that we could leverage the device for many of the day to day, "paper dependent" task that we had at hand, ultimately saving Barrington Broadcasting Group thousands of dollars across their portfolio of 15 stations. We had to change how we handled paper and the value we put in it. Within the first week of execution, the morning team China Sellers (Anchor),  and Mat Ortiz (Meteorologist, Co-Anchor) had fully adopted the device, and it was only a short time after that the evening teams adopted the iPad, all refusing to go back to paper... 

Press (as of 4/26/2010)

Apple News Daily

Georgia TV station buys iPads for news anchors - Apple News Daily http://ow.ly/1D9qg

MacLife

TV News Team Retires Scripts in Favor of iPads | Mac|Life http://ow.ly/1D93V

TVNewsCheck

TVNewsCheck - Georgia Station Gets Innovative With iPads http://ow.ly/1D8Sg

MacDirectory

MacDirectory: Apple Culture | The iPad gets a job in TV news ahttp://ow.ly/1D8I2

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