Spotlight on SLA Members: an interview with Debra Bade, director of News Research at CNN - Special Libraries Association; Cable News Network - Interview

Information Outlook, June, 1999

Being a 24-hour news network means we face constant deadlines throughout the day. During breaking news events, we have only a few minutes to locate the information needed before a news report will air.

Information Outlook staff took some tune to chat with Debra Bade, director of news research at CNN (Cable News Network). An SLA member since 1988, Bade is an active member of the News Division and the Georgia Chapter. Here, she shares some information about her library, her role at CNN, and her outlook on the profession. Our thanks to Debra for letting us get a glimpse into her busy information center.

Information Outlook: What is the mission or role of your library?

Debra Bade:. CNN's Library provides research services (both video and information research) to CNN staff and to the broader Turner Broadcasting organization. In place since the creation of CNN in 1980, our facility developed as both a news research center and a corporate library with the primary focus being the CNN networks and the immediate needs of newsroom staff in developing news packages and programming for our 24-hour news network. Other clients include Turner Network Television, Cartoon Network, Turner Entertainment Reports, and others. In our corporate library role, we often partner on projects with units such as sales, marketing, or strategic planning to explore new business ventures or provide competitive intelligence.

IO: What would be a typical request? Are the requests you receive time sensitive?

DB: Our Bookings unit staff schedule guests who will appear on CNN and often conduct pre-interviews with those guests. The typical goal of the researcher working with the booker is to check out the credentials of guests, uncover anything which might make CNN reconsider using someone as an expert or guest, and discover or flesh out opinions or comments to pursue during an interview. Other common research requests are for biographical information, statistics, general background information on a topic, or company financial information.

Yes, all of the research we do is time sensitive. Being a 24-hour news network means we face constant deadlines throughout the day. During breaking news events, we have only a few minutes to locate the information needed before a news report will air. The same tight deadlines often apply with regular programming as story ideas and topics change frequently during the course of a day. With long-form programming or investigative pieces, we normally have more lead-time. One of the challenges for researchers is to prioritize incoming research requests quickly and respond immediately to high priority requests while at the same time not losing a beat with other less urgent questions.

IO: For which CNN programs do you provide research?

DB: We provide research for any and all of our programming, including our general news production group, and programs such as Crossfire, Larry King Live, Showbiz, etc.

IO: How do you and your staff keep up with current events? What is a typical day like for you or your researchers? What do you find most exciting about working at CNN?

DB: Staying abreast of current events is critical in performing our work and we keep up by reading many news publications and scanning incoming wire stories in our newsroom system during the day. A typical day for one of my researchers would be spending four or five hours on our Research Desk fielding calls for video or information research. During hours off the desk there are projects such as book cataloging, circulation, vertical rile, and indexing video records in our archive database which must be maintained.

The constant change at CNN keeps work here exciting - different questions come into our Research Desk each day. The fast pace challenges employees to respond consistently, quickly, and with the best possible research. During breaking news events this energy and climate is further enhanced. In addition, new competition in the cable industry, technological advances, and our ongoing effort to improve our programming also challenge us as a company.

IO: To whom do you report in the hierarchy at CNN?

DB: I report to Kathy Christensen, our Vice President of News Archives and Research. In terms of the larger hierarchy, we are grouped together with CNN's Information Technology and Interactive units and report to Scott Teissler, Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Turner and CNN.

IO: Tell us about your staff - how many people work in the department and what are their duties? Have you been downsized or upsized recently?

DB: A staff of forty-five people includes professionally trained librarians who perform both video and information research along with a variety of other projects; documentation assistants who view video and create an abstract or description for our archive database; and clerical assistants. I oversee our research efforts and Dina Gunderson directs our archive operation. In addition, we have a small team of people who make up CNN ImageSource and handle licensing and sales of CNN footage to external customers.