Weazel News

Greetings, this is my white pink paper of what I'd do if I took over a conglomerate news network that has been failing for about a year and managed to lose 99% of my news audience to one broke guy on a faggio who works out of a shed in the hood. 

The purpose of this is to provide constructive feedback from someone who does similar work, but has no interest in applying to be CEO. This is all  my opinion and I'm sure some things mentioned here might not work with the business, but I just want some actual competition since right now my closest competition is a satirical lifeinvader page.

Disclaimer, I have no idea how Weazel currently works 100%, so there may be some things that already exist.

I do not know if the vanity positions of 'janitor' or whatever get paid, if they do, then they should not. We should not encourage people doing fuck all.

The split between Advertisers, Journalists and Reporters should be removed. Every employee should be made a reporter and the advertiser role should be dissolved. My further points should clarify why this is, but the amount of times I've spoken to Weazel workers who just want to sit and do advertising is ridiculous.

Ranks should be more basic; Journalism Intern (trainee), Reporter, Editor, then supervisory and command.

Editors make content, Reporters get info for Editors and spread info by word-of-mouth.

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Command position: Editor-in-chief

This position is effectively "head of content". The person who gives the go-ahead for youtube videos, articles etc, but that power can be delegated by them based on trust. This should be one of the 3 most senior people, ideally second in command.

Stop idling. People shouldn't be parked up for long periods of time, or idling at Weazel HQ unless actually discussing work things. People should be roaming around the city finding citizens and hotspots to:

• Find news, either for their own work, or to pass on to editors who create content.

• Actively informing the general public about items, vehicles, houses for sale

• Actively informing the public about events coming up

• Getting info from the public (see next section)

There should be a master document or submission form where reporters can submit information they've heard, editors can then browse this information to write articles, lifeinvader posts, make videos etc.

A file server where any recordings reporters collect can be submitted for an editor to handle and do with either to back up their publishing or to use directly. Every employee should be doing things like this, even just submitting "I overheard from government agent that city hall is on threat level midnight", one of the biggest problems I face at #CobbBlog is there's only 1 of me, and I drive a faggio so rely on anonymous submissions and public goodwill for tip-offs. Having a network of reporters would be hugely benificial.

Advert bonuses are damaging to Weazel currently, many employees I have spoken to like to grind adverts. These should still be incentivised but it should be changed:

• There's an arbitrary cap that you get a bonus for (would need balancing based on how many people get out usually). If you reach this goal you get a fixed bonus for the week, and because there's no advertiser role, this responsibility is rotated between all employees on duty.

• When multiple employees are on duty, advertising control should rotate between employees on a fixed time unless the person is actively reporting on a scene. That's instead of the "can i take ads" "sure".

Bonuses for content creation would change, there'd be a variable amount that an editor gets told for pushing out content (video, lifeinvader, articles) that varies based on quality and size. An editor would be obligated to document any reporter-sourced information or videos they use and set a percentage value against the content.

For example:

• Editor 1 makes a video on October events using recordings submitted

• Reporter 1 submitted some clips from Oktoberfest

• Reporter 2 submitted some clips from a Halloween event

• Reporter 3 got many quotes from the public on what they thought of the various events in the month of October

Editor-in-chief would allocate $100,000 as a bonus for this video.

• Editor 1 gets told of this 100k, and that they have to allocate 65% of the funds to reporters and 35% is for them.

• Editor 1 allocates reporter 1 and 225k each, and reporter 310k

In total:

• Editor 1 - $35k (dictated by editor-in-chief)

• Reporter 1 - $25k

• Reporter 2 - $25k

• Reporter 3 - $15k

If it's believed the editor could not be trusted with this, then the editor-in-chief could dictate the split.

When a new piece of content is made by an editor it should be promoted in 4 ways:

• Posted on website

  • The current weazel website is slow because of the super HD images, they need scaling down and content should be featured front and center

• Posted on Lifeinvader

  • Any citizens featured in the video should be named and tagged everywhere, see my own blog for examples

• A fixed number of adverts in the rotation

• 1 or 2 pop-up adverts per day

There should be a shift in focus, less about advertising and more about public interaction and retrieval of content for those who are skilled with writing and editing to thrive. The citizens of Los Santos love having their main character moment, as proven by the success of my "on the streets" videos, give it to them.

Drama pieces are fun for the writer and person investigating but don't drone on about the same topic for literal months on end, variety is the spice of life. Sure you can do a "wow lewis langley got his dong out at an ESM party, proof of government corruption" piece, but then do a trivia show, or a "is the drag an overrated vehicle?" piece or something.

I want Weazel to do well, and it is in some key areas, their advertising of events especially with the new pop-up system and their lifeinvader coverage of events has been insanely good, but it lacks in talking about the events after they've happened, and the businesses.

When did "Weazel Entertainment News Network" turn into "Weazel Advertisement Agency"? Live up to  the name, give the people entertainment and news. If I can, a government-funded organisation with the ability to hire and pay employees definitely can.

Cobb out.