Making the Media

S3E08:

What are news organizations doing to support journalists and crews facing mental health challenges and how is the rise of online hate impacting those teams?

In the eighth episode of season three of the Making the Media Podcast, host Craig Wilson is joined by journalist Hannah Storm, founder and co-director of the Headlines Network, to discuss how to handle these issues.

Our Guest This Episode

Hannah Storm, Founder and Co-Director, Headlines Network.

Hannah is the former CEO of the International News Safety Institute and the Ethical Journalism Network, as well as a sought-after speaker, facilitator, trainer, and writer.

Hannah co-authored the first study into moral injury and the media for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism with Professor Anthony Feinstein and has written extensively at the intersection of gender, mental health, physical and online safety.

In 2020, she wrote publicly about her own experiences of post-traumatic stress, her recovery, and how those experiences shape her work. Hannah is also a qualified Mental Health First Aider with MHFA England.

More Resources

For more on this topic, check out:

Rise Up – A podcast on the work of the Rise organization to champion inclusion and diversity in the media industry.

The Headlines Network– A network to support those working in the media

Contact Us

Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Matt Diggs

Social: Wim Van den Broeck

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

S3E07:

VICE Media Group has built a successful news brand aimed at a young audience, but how are they trying to expand that audience, stay true to their values, and deliver commercially in a tough and competitive market?

In the seventh episode of season three of the Making the Media Podcast, host Craig Wilson is joined by Maral Usefi, vice president of news and editorial operations at VICE Media Group

Our Guest This Episode

Maral Usefi , Vice President of News and Editorial Operations at VICE Media Group

Maral is responsible for news and documentary coverage, unscripted series, development, and specials. She also leads all internal VICE News operations with oversight over its studios, control rooms, and production scheduling.

Maral serves as a Senior Executive Producer of the award-winning VICE News Tonight, along with a number of series including Small Town Secrets, Border to Border, and BLM: A Global Reckoning. Usefi is the recipient of multiple National News Emmy® awards, a George Polk Award, two Edward R Murrow Awards, and a Peabody, among others.

Prior to VICE, she developed and launched Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien for CNN and served as senior executive producer of the morning programming slate for Al Jazeera America, along with a stint at Fox News. She got her start producing the morning show at KCRA in Sacramento. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

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Tomorrow’s News—This series of articles details the findings from a recent major report from the DPP.

Making the Media with Avid CEO Jeff Rosica – Get the thoughts of Avid’s chief executive on the state of the media business and the future.

Contact Us

Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Matt Diggs

Social: Wim Van den Broeck

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

S3E05:

The media industry is facing a skills crisis right when the demands for content are soaring. What can be done to encourage more people to join the sector and to retain them once they are there?

In the fourth episode of season three of the Making the Media Podcast, host Craig Wilson is joined by two guests to discuss the issue.

Our Guests This Episode

Charlotte Layton

With over 25 years in the industry, Charlotte has worked across the content creation pipeline. From a transmission controller at first L!VE Tv and then MTV, she joined BBC Resources (now Studio Works) in the early 2000s as a post-production producer. She then became Commercial Manager, taking on responsibility for the Television Centre studios, as well. After relocating the studio provision to Elstree, following the TVC site sale, she joined The Farm as Commercial Director, growing the business over seven years in preparation for its sale in 2019. Following the sale, Charlotte co-founded Racoon with The Farm's senior management team in 2021. Racoon is the post-production model for the future, focussed on redefining how we collaborate creatively in the work-anywhere world.

Jay Welk

Jay recently retired from the Davis School District after having oversight for the design and build of the Davis Catalyst Center, a technical high school where students work with industry partners to develop technical and professional skills in preparation for career and post-secondary education opportunities.

Davis District is the second largest district in Utah with an approximate K-12 enrollment of 72,000 students. The ten high schools in the district offer a full menu of courses in all career and technical-education pathways.

More Resources

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Live and Learn – Trevor Rumes from Thomas More University outlines how they prepare the next generation of media students.

Avid for Education – Find out how Avid is helping education the media workforce of the future

Contact Us

Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Matt Diggs

Social: Wim Van den Broeck

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

S3E04:

Innovative ways of engaging with sports audiences may be driven in the future by smaller leagues and teams because they are more willing to take more risks to attract new viewers and followers.

In the third episode of season three of the Making the Media Podcast, host Craig Wilson is joined by Brian Leonard, Head of Engineering: Post and Workflows at the sports producer and rights holder, IMG.

Our Guest This Episode

Brian Leonard

Brian has been working for IMG for more than twenty years in the engineering department, working across all facets of TV production (both live and post).

Working his way up from a junior engineer to now heading a department that supports some massive federations with typically a focus on their world distribution, Brian is based at IMG Studios technical hub in London. He is trying to push boundaries in all AI/ML/Virtual and cloud production while holding some big manufacturers’ feet to the fire in all areas of what they are offering, while also asking tough questions on all things around sustainability.

He is excited about what the future holds in sports production and thinks we are approaching a new age in cost-effective sports production, especially with a focus on the lower tiers.

More Resources

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Getting Games Ready– Trevor Pilling from Olympic Broadcasting Services details the preparations for the world’s biggest sporting events.

Avid NEXIS Shared Storage – Avid’s shared storage powers the biggest productions in the world. Find out more.

Contact Us

Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Matt Diggs

Social: Wim Van den Broeck

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

S3E03:

TV news is already a crowded market, so when launching a new channel, how do you make shows which are distinctive and find an audience, and where is that audience, anyway?

In the third episode of season three of the Making the Media Podcast, host Craig Wilson is joined by Erron Gordon, executive director of News UK Broadcasting, the company behind TalkTV, one of the UK’s newest news channels.

Our Guest This Episode

Erron Gordon

Erron is the executive director of News UK Broadcasting and is head of studios and creative for TalkTV and Piers Morgan Uncensored. He was the launch and former series director of Good Morning Britain and Peston for ITV. Erron is a patron of The National Student Television Awards.

More Resources

For more on this topic, check out:

Getting Creative – John Mason from STV in the UK shares his passion for live TV

Avid Maestro Graphics – Discover the new Maestro Graphics, now available as a software-only subscription

Contact Us

Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Matt Diggs

Social: Wim Van den Broeck

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

S3E02:

Newsmakers know they need to adapt to survive in a multi-platform world—but how can they do it, continue to remain profitable and relevant, and deliver to a new audience? Not easy.

In the second episode of season three of the Making the Media Podcast, host Craig Wilson discusses a new series of reports on the news business, called “Tomorrow’s News”, with the chief executive of the body which produced them, the DPP, Mark Harrison.

Our Guest This Episode

Dr Mark Harrison

CEO

DPP Ltd

Mark began his career as an historian at Cambridge University, before moving into the media industry. He spent many years as a director, producer, and executive producer, and won numerous awards for his filmmaking, including an International Emmy and a BAFTA nomination.

Mark has held senior roles within the independent production sector and the BBC. He was MD of an independent production company before being appointed to be BBC’s head of arts, and then head of multiplatform production. He was subsequently controller of production for BBC North and leader of the BBC’s End-to-End Digital program, before becoming director of transformation for BBC Design & Engineering.

In 2015, Mark became CEO of the DPP—the media industry’s international business network, which he founded. Today, the DPP has nearly 500 member companies from across the whole media supply chain—from global tech giants to start-ups.

More Resources

For more on this topic, check out:

The Future of News and Cloud Production – Hear from news leaders from the BBC and ABC

Avid Enables Story-centric News – Find out more about MediaCentral | Collaborate

Contact Us

Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Matt Diggs

Social: Wim Van den Broeck

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

S3E01: Look Ahead

Enabling production teams to work efficiently and delivering innovations to aid the media industry on their journey to the cloud are key elements of Avid’s strategic direction.

In the first episode of season three of the Making the Media Podcast, host Craig Wilson discusses the state of the media business with Avid’s chief executive officer, Jeff Rosica.

Our Guest This Episode

Jeff Rosica

Jeff Rosica was appointed CEO of Avid Technology in February 2018. He joined the company in 2013 as the senior vice president of worldwide field operations and later became senior vice president, chief sales and marketing officer. He has more than 30 years of experience in broadcast, media, and entertainment technology, which includes a variety of senior leadership roles for Thomson/Grass Valley and Philips Electronics.

Jeff also serves as Board Chairman for Boston Arts Academy Foundation, with the mission to drive awareness and funding for Boston’s only high school dedicated to preparing a diverse community of aspiring artists, scholars, and global citizens to succeed in their chosen professional paths and become active, engaged members of their communities.

More Resources

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Production Without Pause Webinar – Discover how Avid’s news solution is bringing together remote and distributed teams

Sinclair CTO Shares His Cloud Experiences – Mike Kralek from Sinclair discusses working in the cloud with Avid CTO, Kevin Riley

Contact Us

Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Matt Diggs

Social: Wim Van den Broeck

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

Making the Media is on season break! While we're gearing up for season three, enjoy this favorite episode from earlier this year. We'll be back with brand new episodes in September.

S2E12: Getting Games Ready

How do you prepare for the biggest sporting event in the world, ensure innovative ways of covering events, and deliver thousands of hours of content tailored to the needs of global audiences?

In this episode of the Making the Media podcast, host Craig Wilson talks in-depth with Trevor Piling from Olympic Broadcasting Services about the work of Olympic Channel News.

Our Guest This Episode

Trevor Piling is a seasoned sports broadcasting executive based in Madrid, Spain, working as host broadcast producer for Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS).

Trevor joined OBS in 2019 after a successful career in Canada where he was involved in the production of some of the biggest and most watched sporting events of the past twenty years, mostly working with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

Trevor has worked at twelve Olympic Games and with OBS was the director of Olympic Channel News for the past three years, leading coverage at the Tokyo and Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne, Switzerland.

More Resources

For more on this topic, check out:

What Can Newsrooms Gain from the Cloud – Discover the work of Project Origin and its bid to authenticate media

MediaCentral | Publisher – Beat the competition and distribute stories quickly and easily to all your social and online platforms

Contact Us

Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Matt Diggs

Social: Wim Van den Broeck

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

Making the Media is on season break! While we're gearing up for season three, enjoy this favorite episode from earlier this year. We'll be back with brand new episodes in September.

S2E10: The Sky’s the limit

What do broadcasters need to do to capitalize on the streaming revolution? And what skills do their staff need in order to deliver continuous innovation?

In this episode of the Making the Media podcast, host Craig Wilson talks in-depth with former Sky executive Darren Long to get his take on the hot topics.

Our Guest This Episode

Darren Long

After graduating from Brunel University, Darren spent seven years working at the National Film and Television School (NFTS) teaching students in television production and helping to run the NFTS TV department. 

After leaving NFTS, Darren spent a year working in the TV industry as a vision engineer before joining Sky at the birth of the company back in 1989. He was one of the pioneers changing the way the world watches sport, overseeing the technical, operational developments and innovations across Sky Sports—from simple ultra-motion replay, HD and 3D, through to today’s interactive and digital developments that now appear in most sports broadcasts.

Darren was the stakeholder in the conception and development of the UK’s first sustainable broadcast facility, Sky Studios, which has fourteen production studios, over 77 post-production suites, and one of the biggest integrated tapeless systems in the world which runs all of Sky’s linear, online, and OTT playout.

In November 2012, Darren took over the leadership role for Sky Production Services (SPS). Darren was responsible for 760 full-time employees split across four groups that deliver key production services to all of Sky’s content creation teams—production studios, post-production, content services, and business planning & programming. The department encompasses a vast range of skills including cameras, sound, lighting, media management, graphics, and video and audio post-production.

Darren was also responsible for setting the vision for Sky’s group content operations workflow in its strategic IP program for content distribution. This program is moving all Sky’s group content operations and processing systems into the cloud and integrating into the wider Comcast businesses, ensuring everything Sky does is done in the most efficient and timely way.

Darren’s last role at Sky was as group operations transformation design in CT&I, looking at how we transform the operations as we move into these new workflows and align our business models.

Darren is also a board trustee for the British Forces Broadcasting Services (BFBS) and is on the board of the Avid Community Association.

More Resources

For more on this topic, check out:

Secure collaborative cloud editing and storage through SaaS and subscription – Discover the flexibility of Avid | Edit on Demand

All Things AI – Is AI a threat or opportunity for the newsrooms of the future?

Contact Us

Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Matt Diggs

Social: Wim Van den Broeck

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin