by: Jacqueline Ingles

Not many people understand what working in a bureau entails or what a bureau is. Having worked in three now (all of my broadcast jobs), I am a self-nominated Bureau Queen.

Bureaus are little satellite offices (if you can call them that) of main TV news studios. I wound up in bureaus because I will do anything to work in the industry. So, yes, it was a choice when the job offers were made, but not really a choice.

It was either take it or don’t work at all. Some of the places I have worked have been home to bugs, mice, etc. I would even venture to say, I would not stick a dog in some of them, let alone a human being.

My first job working at MTV entailed me covering the State of Illinois as a backpack journalist. All of my producers were located in NYC, more than 5 states away. So, I never had an office to go into. I either worked from my kitchen or found a coffee shop to set up my editing gear. When I could not find a coffee shop, my car was my office. It was not the traditional bureau setting, but you still had to be a mini-MacGyver because if your equipment broke, it was your job to fix it.

For my second job, I headed south to WCTV and worked their Valdosta, Georgia, bureau. I originally applied for a reporting position at the main station and the ND told me they promoted out of the bureau and that was the only spot he had open. So, I took it. The bureau, located 80 miles east of the main station, came equipped with one camera and the ability to go live from inside. My bureau mate and I had to share one camera and one car.

The best part was that we either had to turn a package a day or three vo/sots a piece. Talk about time management. Again, if anything broke, we had to fix it. There is no one there to help. For instance, during a wretched storm, our computers went out. Still expected to turn work on deadline, we were forced to write our packages out by hand and fax them in! When we were done editing, we did not have FTP, so we had to feed in by turning on a little converter. And if we did go live, we had to set up our own live shots.

To work in a bureau, you must be extremely self-reliant, independent and willing to put up with a lot of unnecessary worries. When it came to cleaning the bureau in Valdosta, my bureau mate and I had to do it. When the trash had to go out, we took it. When stories had to be archived, we had to sit after work and burn the stories to a disc. Oh and let’s not forget, when the news truck needed an oil change, gas or a good wash, we had to work it into our day.

What does a bureau look like? Check out my current workplace.

For you oldies, remember the show 90210? I call this the “Peach Pit.” Welcome to KXAN’s Hill Country bureau. This little office, attached to a barn (which smells amazing in the summer heat), is located 50 miles west of the main station in Round Mountain, Texas. I manned this bureau for 26 months, and was recently promoted to crime and courts reporter at the main station in Austin. There is no glamor here just extreme humbleness.

The perk of this bureau…I do get a cleaning crew! And, I spent about 50 percent of my time here because I am lead weekend reporter and head to Austin on Saturdays and Sundays.

I know many of you are reading this and thinking, I am nuts and you would never do my job. Bureaus are not for everyone. In fact, working in a bureau is a lifestyle, just like freelancing.

To work in a bureau you must:

* Love being alone and working without supervision
* Not mind being a mini-Macgyver
* Be willing to do light housekeeping
* Do the work load of three people
* Be far away from a main station

A lot of reporters are “above” working in a bureau and look down on those that do. Well, I can tell you this, in 2011, my stories, all from the Hill Country bureau, were picked up by CNN online more than 25 times. And, it does not matter where you call your office, it is the quality of work you turn.

Undoubtedly, being in bureaus has been treacherous at times. But, it has made me a strong reporter and I do not need anyone, including a photog or producer to ever hold my hand.

Jacqueline Ingles is a multi-platform reporter for KXAN-TV in Austin, Texas. She writes, shoots, edits, fronts her story and then provides a more in-depth story version on her station’s web site daily. She founded the blog “In Ingles Please” in early 2010. A native of Chicago, Jacqueline received a master’s in broadcast journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She also graduated Summa Cum Laude from Loyola University-Chicago.

This entry was posted by Lynn Walsh on Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 at 10:21 pm and is filed under Current Events, Gen J, Gen Jers, Generation J, Job, Journalism, news, newsroom, SPJ, Tips, young journalists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.