We’re on the road for a few days, but we wanted to share a couple of observations.

The first: Why was it necessary to give the folks who lead newsrooms these new sounding titles like “Director of Content” or the more expansive “Director of Content and Coverage?” We are seeing this more often now, rather the traditional and more easily understood title of “News Director.” Also curious is the “Executive News Director” variation of the title. Is this because without being specifically called an “Executive,” you might be mistaken for the “Director” for the show in the control room?

Let us confirm this, if you lead a newsroom, you are indeed an Executive. The buck for the news department stops with you. And yes, you are certainly the Director of Content. And Coverage. As well as Communications. And Complaints. And all the other Crap that starts with letters other than “C.”

And for the record, we believe that there definitely need to be more workdays when Cookies (the edible kind) should be required on the job. 

Point two. Why do almost no local tv stations air credits at the end of newscasts any more? The folks in your newsroom bust their rears to get the newscasts on the air daily. We don’t seem to have any problem putting name supers up over the on-camera talent. (Well that’s not always true either. We may have written more than an email or two about getting the names of the anchors supered on the screen more often.)

Heck, we dont even seem to mind giving bylines to the folks who write the stories for the website.

So, would it kill us to spend 30-45 seconds maybe once a week to put the names of the newsroom staff on screen at the end of a newscast? 

Why? Because airing credits does one simple--but important function: they acknowledge those behind the cameras whose work makes the newscast possible. They are recognition—which the last time we checked, everyone could use a little bit more of.