
DATE: Tuesday, September 9, 1997            TAG: 9709090048

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: LARRY BONKO

                                            LENGTH:  120 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: * A caption and text pullout in Tuesday's Daily Break gave a wrong first name for WVEC weatherman Jeff Lawson. Also, a pullout with a story on Emmy awards referred to Emmy ``nominees''; it should have been ``winners.'' Both stories contained the correct information. Correction published Wednesday, September 10, 1997. * PARTNERSHIPS BETWEE PAPERS, TV NEWS ROLL ALONG EFFORTLESSLY

NOW THAT Don Slater of WAVY is forecasting the weather for the Daily Press - the Peninsula paper runs Slater's mug and the NBC peacock with his five-day outlook - shouldn't The Virginian-Pilot ask WVEC's Jeff Lawson to do likewise?

Just wondering . . .

WAVY is partners with the Daily Press in covering stories that break in Hampton Roads. The Virginian-Pilot, WVEC and Cox Communications came together to form Local News on Cable.

Slater said he faxes what he calls his short and simple forecasts to The Daily Press between the 6 and 11 p.m. WAVY newscasts. If a storm is approaching, what's this man's first piece of advice?

``Don't get your pants in a bunch.''

Slater has done very well in this merging of print and TV in Hampton Roads.

He is seen three times a day on WAVY and at all hours of the day on cable on the Local Weather Station operated by the NBC affiliate. At the Daily Press, they gave him a column on the weather page, which has splashes of colors on it.

It's wall-to-wall Slater.

Might Lawson's five-day forecasts appear in The Pilot one day soon?

``I'm open to suggestions,'' said Shelley Chevalier, LNC's general manager, who announced that LNC will cover Virginia's vote for governor live on election night Nov. 4. See reporters from The Pilot and WVEC working as a team.

The candidates for that office will debate on LNC at 8 p.m. Oct. 6.

Chevalier also announced that LNC is seen in 400,000 households after recently signing on in Newport News, James City County, York County and Williamsburg, with Hampton and Poquoson to come later in 1997 or early 1998.

Once upon a time, TV stations and newspapers were bitter rivals, going after the same stories and the same ad dollars. In this market, both daily newspapers made peace with TV and crawled snugly into bed with the rabbit-ears family.

We have not one but two alliances between print and television. If there is another such newspaper-TV love fest in the United States, Chevalier is not aware of it.

Those involved shout it from the rooftops.

``We're a powerhouse of news gathering,'' boasts WAVY and the Daily Press. On LNC, they remind you constantly that three media giants think as one to deliver local news around the clock . . . anytime . . . at your convenience.

Everyone who is a part of this enterprise - the newspapers, the TV stations and the cable company - indicate it's going great. Lisa Finneran of the Daily Press says her paper's reporters and WAVY's news staff have worked together on stories ``too numerous to mention.''

They keep no secrets, she said. They give one another a peek at the day's news budgets. They cooperate in getting photographers and reporters to where stories are breaking.

Same story with WVEC and The Pilot.

When Chevalier and her staff, including co-anchors Mike Lewis and Barbara Ciara, meet to talk about what will go into the night's live 10 p.m. newscast on LNC, The Pilot is there to share.

For example, reporter Lorraine Eaton wrote a Page One story last week about students in the cyber age - computer literate kids who bore easily at lectures and other schoolish stuff.

That story, picked up by LaSalle Blanks on LNC, led the ``Pilot 13 News at 10'' newscast.

Tomorrow's headlines tonight! That is what WVEC delivers for The Pilot at 10. WAVY does the same for the Daily Press on its 11 o'clock newscast.

There are times, says Chevalier, when stories that appear on ``Pilot 13 News at 10'' help sell newspapers the next day.

For example, Blanks introduced a story about the Navy's retiring its workhorse aircraft, the A-6 Intruder, then suggested the viewers read about it in The Pilot.

The Pilot sold 460 more papers than usual in and around the Navy base in Norfolk. Another time, Blanks reported The Pilot was knocking itself out to cover the homecoming of a carrier battle group.

The next day, sales rose by 851 papers.

At WAVY in Portsmouth, there is also joy over the coming together of printing press and TV camera. ``It's worked out great,'' said David T. Strickland, WAVY's news director. ``It's far more than a surface relationship. We've worked together on some great stories.''

WAVY at times broadcasts from the Daily Press newsroom. Every night at 10, WVEC signs on with Blanks in the midst of reporters and editors from The Pilot who are getting the paper out.

If only the TV camera could capture the squeeze - the pressure - of meeting a deadline.

With its neighborhood news, sports buzz, ``stories you will see only in The Pilot,'' and parting shots in which the work of The Pilot photographers is featured, LNC's ``Pilot 13 News at 10'' moves along at a brisk pace, even if Blanks needs to loosen up a little.

``Pilot 13 News at 10'' is a nice idea, but I want more than a buzz and pictures from satellites. I watch LNC mostly for the weather - local weather 24 hours a day. I'd like to see weather at the top of the 10 p.m. newscast and at the end. (It's always been there in the middle).

I'd also appreciate more of The Pilot on ``Pilot 13 News at 10.'' How about bringing on a Pilot editor to show what the front page of tomorrow's Daily Break will look like? A peek at Page One in the making, maybe?

While we see more of Pilot reporters on LNC than we see of Daily Press writers on WAVY, it would be great to hear from Pilot staffers who have been in the paper for years - the people whose words you read over coffee and toast every morning.

The Pilot's sports guys sometimes show up on LNC on the weekends, but where are Larry Maddry, Guy Friddell, Mal Vincent, George Tucker? Why aren't they on LNC? And why doesn't the paper's public editor have a spot on LNC?

Chevalier says she's open to suggestions. I suggest, Shelley, that you rescue ``Pilot 13 News at 10'' from the WVEC newsroom and put more printer's ink in it. ILLUSTRATION: Staff file color photo

WVEC meterologist Jim[sic] Lawson

FILE PHOTO

Don Slater of WAVY lends his forecasting skills to the Daily Press.

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by CNB