In live news, impact matters

NBC Washington's Assistant News Director Matt Glassman discussed the importance of urgency, impact and Facebook in today's world of live broadcast news to a small class of Interactive Journalism graduate students at American University this afternoon.

Glassman said that the way broadcast news is written and reported has changed in the past few years. Now, everyone looks at their phone the first thing in the morning instead of turning on the television and they most likely already know the biggest headlines in the evening after work.

In order to stay relevant in today's media world, Glassman said "impact, urgency, and things you don't already know" matters most.

To rope viewers into NBC Washington's three-hour block of evening news, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. during the week, the news station teases their stories using video and Facebook, which Glassman said is "the most important platform" of the moment.

Glassman said a non-promoted video that the station posted on Facebook featuring Washington Redskin's Coach Jay Gruden received over 6,000 views in 12 hours.

The news station also teases viewers by using a technique that Glassman calls "Conversational Choreography", where the station asks questions on social media and throws out interesting factoids about the story until the newscast premieres.