8:30 A.M. The morning meeting begins. Ten people sit around a long table. Five of them are producers. Two other producers are present via speakerphone. They're at home, tired after an unusually late shift, ready to go to bed. The oldest person at the table is news director Steve Paulus, who came to New York 1 after ten years at New York's WCBS-TV. Paulus is thirty-seven. He and Paul Sagan, vice-president of news and programming, and the five -- no, seven -- producers listen as assignment editor Lucian Chalfen goes through the day's scheduled stories.

Election day is only three weeks away. Hillary Clinton is coming to town to stump for Mayor David Dinkins, who's being pushed hard by challenger Rudy Giuliani. Three of the channel's twenty-nine reporters -- or videojournalists -- will be covering the race. They will lug their own cameras; they will report and tape and help edit their own stories. Chalfen reports that Melissa Russo, for one, will be covering three events, including a Hillary/Dinkins fundraiser at the Grand Hyatt Hotel at 12:30 and a 1:45 Hillary "appearance" at a health clinic in the Bronx.

Several of New York 1's trademark "local-local" stories that have been pitched earlier by the reporters are discussed. Barbara Wood, New York 1's Brooklyn reporter, plans to shoot footage of a dangerous intersection near a school where residents are pushing for better traffic regulation. Consumer reporter Lynda La Vergne will get the local angle on a lawsuit filed by major drugstore chains against leading pharmaceutical companies, accusing them of price-fixing.

10:00 A.M. The meeting breaks up. The producers go back to the newsroom and their computers.

Most of what appears on New York 1 is pre-taped. Edited stories are barcoded and put into a sort of video jukebox, a Sony LMS (Library Management System). The LMS is in the master control room. A team of producers is punching up intros and stories to create the half-hour "news wheel" that goes out over local cable lines to more than a million subscribers. Graphics, too, are produced by computer. The finished segments are played out through the high-tech jukebox.

The anchor desk is on the other side of the room. Anchor Brad Holbrook, who's been on duty since 4 A.M., is taping spots for the morning news shows, News 1st and New York 1 News All Morning. Anchors spend six to eight hours at the desk, writing their own copy, then taping their written leads by running their own teleprompters and speaking into computer-activated cameras. Holbrook tapes news intros and transit updates and does weather, sports, and business updates for the news wheels that are repeated, with occasional changes, throughout the morning.

Holbrook is almost ready for lunch. He'll go off duty in the next half hour or so, and New York 1 News All Day will start taping with a new anchor.

10:30 A.M. After making a few phone calls, Lynda La Vergne gets ready for her assignment. She plans to shoot an 11 A.M. press conference, then get additional footage at one of the drug chain's local branches.

She goes to the small room where the station's video equipment is stored, grabs a black backpack filled with extra tapes, batteries, and wires, shoulders it, then picks up a tripod and hoists a twelve-pound Sony Hi 8 camera. She places her equipment in the trunk of a New York 1 car, which is parked on Forty-second Street.

10:55 A.M. La Vergne arrives at the Doral Tuscany Hotel and rushes up to the Renaissance Room, where the press conference is about to take place. She sets up the tripod and camera, hooks the New York 1 News microphone to the lectern, focuses the camera, and -- just as the press conference begins -- presses the "record" button. During the conference, La Vergne asks an executive from the Rite Aid drug chain how much extra the average consumer is paying as a result of the alleged price-fixing. She later explains that she hopes to have a graphic in her piece that will show how the alleged price hike affects specific prescription drugs.

The conference ends. She gets into the elevator, where a reporter from another news station asks La Vergne if she thinks that New York 1 will ever get camera operators. She says she does not. We step out into the lobby. La Vergne says that, initially, news crews from other stations were hostile to New York 1's videojournalists. Now, "a lot of people are getting terrified about what we're doing. They know they're probably going to be doing this in a few years." At the start, she adds, she found it hard to concentrate on both the technical and editorial parts of newsgathering. "At times you are distracted by checking something like the lighting or the audios and you may miss something in an interview." But, she adds, "when you have to do it, you do it."

La Vergne drives to Grand Street, parks her car near the local Rite Aid pharmacy, and shoots footage, including an interview with a pharmacist and some customers. She then calls her executive producer, Tom Farkas, who says that on her way back to the office she should get footage of the symbol on the New York headquarters of one of the companies named in the suit. He also suggests that she get some comments from an independent, or nonchain, pharmacist.

2:00 P.M. La Vergne arrives back in the newsroom. She starts editing her twoand-a-half-minute story. It's nearly 3:00 when she finishes -- time to start writing the script. At 3:45 she hands her script to Farkas, who approves it. La Vergne now works with an editor to finish packaging the piece -- tracking her voice, putting the portions of tape in proper order. Then it's time for Farkas to check it again.

The story is bar-coded and fed into the Sony LMS, ready to be called up for broadcast during the 6 P.M. half-hour news wheel. At 6:20 P.M., viewers of New York 1 hear: "I'm Lynda La Vergne and this is the New York Living Consumer Report." Other viewers hear it again at about 7:20 P.M., and on into the night and morning.

Note: Since Priluck's visit, Paul Sagan was promoted to senior vice-president for cable programming; Steve Paulus took his place as vice-president of news.

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