Royal Baby Hospital Funny News Coverage
With a Purple Babe Due, News Outlets Are on High Alert
Ask television news executives how long they have been planning for the royal babe's inflow, and they're liable to answer with a joke: about as long as Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge have been.
Thanks to their plans, the birth, whenever it happens — any day at present, if the tabloids are to be believed — volition be a spectacle unlike any other in the modernistic media historic period, complete with sweeping helicopter shots of St. Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, and Buckingham Palace. "This is probably the well-nigh predictable nascency since the dawn of Twitter," said Jon Williams, the foreign editor for ABC News.
When Prince William and his blood brother Harry were built-in in the 1980s, tweets were simply sounds made by birds and 24-hour news channels were a novelty. In the 30 years since, media companies have become much better at preparing for big events — sports matches, murder trials, elections, even way shows — and capitalizing on them through wall-to-wall coverage on television set, commemorative editions of newspapers and magazines, and advertiser-supported special sections on Web sites.
Now, with Prince William's child on the fashion, scores of reporters and photographers are on standby in London. ABC News has a whole regal baby section of its site sponsored by Nestlé, plus an online guest book for visitors to sign. NBC News has a site called RoyalBabyGuess.com, asking for predictions nigh name, nascence time and weight. To make information technology more fun, the people whose guesses come closest might be mentioned on the "Today" show. "We're going to do our best not to intrude and to be respectful, but also to comprehend it for people who are really interested," said Mark Lukasiewicz, the senior vice president for NBC News Specials.
While news organizations will undoubtedly be criticized for spending too much fourth dimension roofing a famous childbirth, executives say there is ample public involvement in what volition about likely exist the quintessential "good news" story, a reprieve of sorts subsequently weeks of stories well-nigh the George Zimmerman trial in the United States and uprisings overseas. Non only will the birth exist historically consequential, Mr. Williams said, information technology will also be inherently relatable because "the nascency of a baby is something that every family tin can identify with."
Including the long wait.
"The big news is still that in that location is no news," Tom Sykes of The Daily Beast wrote on the site's "Majestic Baby Sentinel" alive blog on Sunday. For days now, Mr. Sykes and others accept been swatting away rumors about the duchess, formerly known as Kate Middleton, checking into the hospital and being in labor.
News executives say they expect to be notified when she does actually arrive, most probable through a side entrance, at the hospital. The main vantage indicate for photographic camera crews is forth a narrow street outside the principal entrance to the individual wing where the duchess will be — "a typically charming, difficult London street" as Mr. Lukasiewicz described information technology. With so many strange broadcasters, including those from throughout the Commonwealth, jockeying for positions in that location, each news outlet has but a couple of feet of space. "So we're going to have a narrow correspondent at that spot," he joked.
More rumors will surely zip across social networks in one case the duchess is in labor, and news organizations will have to exercise caution. "We will wait for the Palace to confirm," said Paddy Feeny, a spokesman for BBC News. "This is ane declaration where guessing won't practice."
The birth's confirmation process is rooted in tradition, but information technology will be televised in high-definition, which was something else that didn't exist the terminal fourth dimension there was a royal baby. The duchess's doctors will sign a birth discover. The notice will be hand-carried to a car. The car will be driven to Buckingham Palace. So the detect will be placed on an easel in the forecourt of the palace, informing the world of the baby's birth and possibly his or her name.
All the while, a news helicopter belonging to the British broadcaster Sky News, whose pictures will be shared with every network, will exist hovering overhead, almost as if covering a deadening-speed car chase. But that's assuming the helicopter, stationed south of the city, can get in that location in time. News executives look to get five to 10 minutes observe, at most, before the automobile starts on its short journey. A Heaven News spokeswoman, aware that the world'southward news media are counting on its coverage, said she anticipates that the crew will accept "plenty fourth dimension to become airborne."
Sky News and the BBC will also have cameras at the palace to have close-ups of the nativity notice. "We are praying for good visibility and no rain," Mr. Feeny said.
News producers have been holding meetings with palace officials almost the staging of the declaration for the last several months. "It'south gotten down to the level of detail that three minutes after the discover has been put on the easel, they'll cut off the signal," said 1 producer involved in the planning, who insisted on anonymity to protect important relationships with the palace.
That producer and several others said they had been assured that the babe's nascency would be announced only between viii a.1000. and 10:thirty p.m. in London, or between 3 a.grand. and 5:30 p.m. in New York. Quondam afterward, photographers will have their hazard to see the family equally they leave the infirmary.
Some news organizations, of course, are almost shrugging off the baby drama. CBS News, which has sought a reputation as the well-nigh serious American network news division, volition depend on its reporters already in London to cover the news, a spokeswoman said.
NBC and ABC, on the other manus, are sending over anchors. The "Today" news reader Natalie Morales flew to London on Sunday. The "Good Morning America" weekend anchor Bianna Golodryga has been there for well-nigh a week, and she will be joined sometime soon by a regular on the weekday edition, Amy Robach. Mr. Williams said Ms. Robach will board a plane spring for London "equally before long equally Kate goes into the hospital."
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/business/media/with-a-royal-baby-due-news-outlets-are-on-high-alert.html
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