There are few things that test a local television newsroom more than covering breaking news. And to be clear, we mean an actual breaking news story, not just slapping that label on something that happened hours ago. In this edition of The Topline, we will focus on one such story that broke last Thursday in New York City when the first reports came in that a helicopter had crashed in the Hudson River.

Having worked in local news in the nation’s largest market, we know there is a lot in New York City that is different than other places. The pace is intense, even on a normal day, and the competition is fierce. As a reminder, five local TV stations produce news in English and 2 in Spanish, along with a pair of 24-hour local cable news operations and countless independent video journalists, all covering not only the five boroughs but the entire Tri-State area that has over 7.3 million television households.

So, did we mention the competition is just a bit more intense here? Yes, it is. And indeed, there are more people, more resources, and more news. However, some things are applicable from market number one to any in the country. Here is what we saw last Thursday in New York City:

The first reports of the helicopter crash began to come in after 3:17 p.m. local time. The first reports we saw from social media started appearing at 3:37 p.m. We haven’t been able to verify which station broke into regular programming first, but within minutes, all five local television stations that primarily broadcast in English were on the air shortly after 3:30 p.m. That would be WABC-TV, WCBS-TV, WNBC-TV, WNYW and WPIX. (Sorry, but we did not monitor other local TV news sources on this occasion.)

One thing became apparent early on: because of their newsroom’s new location at 7 Hudson Square (which they just moved into a few weeks ago), WABC-TV was physically best positioned to get video from their rooftop camera position in Lower Manhattan. From there, they could see the scene over towards the New Jersey side of the river. That was just a case of being in the closest position as the story started to unfold.

However, there are many reasons why WABC-TV has been "New York’s #1 News” for most of the past 50-plus years. In 1968, newly arrived News Director Al Primo installed his “Eyewitness News” format and philosophy into the newsroom there. One of the key reasons is how WABC-TV approaches covering a breaking news story. And that can be best summed up in a phrase used by the Commissioner of the NYPD in describing the order given to the department in a major incident such as a helicopter crash: DEPLOY ALL ASSETS.

WABC-TV knows what all local television newsrooms who excel in covering breaking news know. When you confirm that it is more than likely that a major news story may be unfolding, you mobilize everyone you can and start them moving on the story. We have had this conversation in multiple newsrooms across multiple markets, big and small. And the gist of it is, “When it might be one of those situations, you start moving people as soon as possible. You can always pull them back if you need to, but in the initial minutes, there needs to be less debate and more action.”

These stations also have and know their breaking news plan. That’s because they practice it, teach it to new people wo join the team, and are ready to execute it.

We’re not saying that other NYC stations don’t know this or that they don’t practice it. We are saying that on this Thursday afternoon in April, when the report of a helicopter crash came in, WABC-TV executed better than the competition.

All stations got on the air with their breaking news coverage in short order. All had basically the same shot of the scene from the West Side of Manhattan looking toward the New Jersey side of the river. One key concept to note right from the beginning is once you have a live picture from the scene of breaking news, it should never leave the screen. Double-box other elements if needed, but do not take the picture of what is happening off the screen—unless it is to show other angles from the scene. Or video that witnesses had shot on their phones. So many stations will cut back to anchors on the desk because they think there isn’t enough happening on camera.

From what we saw, WABC had the first crews live from New Jersey, where the story was really unfolding. Witnesses were describing to Eyewitness News reporter Lauren Glassberg what they had first heard as a loud noise, described as “a sound like an explosion.” Looking towards the sound, they saw the horrific sight of the helicopter’s blades falling out of the sky and the aircraft then spinning out of control towards the water. Some witnesses had video from their phones of the tragic final moments of what would turn out to be a sightseeing flight for a visiting family of five from Spain, along with the helicopter pilot. No one on board survived the crash.

It is worth pointing out that Lauren Glassberg is listed as WABC-TV’s features and lifestyles reporter on its website. But her command of the situation unfolding by the minute was impressive. She handled a barrage of live interviews with those who claimed to have witnessed the tragic events in real-time. She treated each person, from adults to younger ones, with courtesy and respect. She let them tell their story but would jump in with a question if they started to falter in telling what they saw. This was the work of an experienced reporter who embodied the entire philosophy of “Eyewitness News.” How? Because she let the viewers hear the story being told by those who were there when it happened.

This brings us to a key theme we would stress about the breaking news coverage we saw that day on WABC. Each Eyewitness News team member was in command of their situation and their part in the evolving coverage. They were focused on telling the story as it was unfolding. We can’t count the number of stations we have watched over the years when they are thrust into breaking news coverage, and the feeling you get is that there is uncertainty—not just about the story unfolding but also coming from the coverage of the story. Understand our meaning here; we are not suggesting that there aren’t a lot of unknowns in the first minutes or even hours of a story. But if we can make it as simple as possible, “tell us what you know, tell us what you don’t know, and tell us what you expect to happen next.” Some will think this is just a riff on the ever-popular "new, now, next” trope that permeates many newsrooms (and you know who you are.) We would counter that telling people what we don’t know at any point in a breaking news situation is being honest and transparent with the viewers. Struggling with this idea is where many people on the air begin to get twisted in knots and lose their “command” of the situation.

A few other notes here about executing breaking news coverage: Don’t feel compelled to have someone speak every single moment during the coverage. Take breaths and let the pictures and natural sound tell the story. Let the moment breathe as you are narrating it. We hear anchors feel the need not to allow any moments of “dead air.” We know that when people are being bombarded with information, especially in an emotional moment, they are not hearing everything being said. Take a page out of CBS's stellar coverage of the dramatic final hour of The Masters yesterday. It was a masterclass of letting the pictures tell the story, often without any narration.

Take the pause and reset the scene. This is the perfect opportunity to speak to viewers who may have just joined the coverage. Give them a time check (it helps reestablish that the coverage is actually live) and summarize the factual points that are confirmed at that moment. Treat this like radio, and imagine they can’t see your logo on the screen or the “Breaking News” banner. Tell viewers in simple terms what they are watching: “It’s now 4:30, and you are watching continuing Breaking News coverage from ABC 7 Eyewitness News of a crash of a passenger helicopter in the Hudson River.” From this simple reset, you can go anywhere with the coverage that you need to go to.

Another moment of praise for WABC-TV’s coverage last Thursday was that they didn’t just rely on the reporters in the field, but they also moved quickly to deploy one of their investigative reporters in the newsroom to begin going through all of the data sources that might apply to this story. Checking resources like FlightAware.Com to see if the helicopter's flight path was tracked prior to the crash (it was) and gathering as much data about the aircraft from the FAA records. The station also interviewed its airborne reporter, John Del Giorno, who would normally have been in the station’s own helicopter covering the story. He explained that the weather had deteriorated in the time since the crash, keeping News Copter 7 on the ground. He added good perspective from someone who has spent a lot of hours in a helicopter over these same waters that were now being searched for clues as to what went so terribly wrong.

We believe that in breaking news, everyone can contribute, so once again, we stress that phrase again: “DEPLOY ALL ASSETS” available in your newsroom. Have your digital team begin scrubbing social media for pictures and videos from the breaking news story. One of the first videos that showed the helicopter falling from the sky into the Hudson appeared to have come from social media.

Don’t stop with the obvious assignments of people and resources in the news department. If you need help answering the phones on the desk, ask for help from other departments in the station. Anyone can answer a phone and help direct calls to where they need to go—or politely ask the caller to call back another time if their matter isn’t urgent. 

One more thought in a major breaking news story--as this one quickly became. Begin compiling a list of questions to follow up on. This will become a great list to inspire follow-up stories. We’ve seen stations do this on an old-fashioned whiteboard, and others do it on an open file in the newsroom computer system. Don’t try to edit these on the fly. When a question arises, such as “How old are these helicopters that fly tourists around NYC?” that should go right on the list. The idea is just to capture all the topics that will be the stories to come in the hours, days, and weeks to follow. Dedicate someone to this task if possible.

We absolutely saw moments of strong coverage from other NYC stations last Thursday afternoon. But in the first hours after everyone went on air, WABC-TV was the station we felt executed more aspects of its breaking news coverage better—and it would have been the station we would likely turn to the next time there was a major breaking news story.

And that is the whole opportunity for every station in every breaking news story. 

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