The package is broadcast's biggest lift — and it starts with a blank page and three hours of gathered material. The Package Generator builds the architecture so your storytelling can start where the structure ends.
Open Package GeneratorThe package is the marquee format of local news — the fully produced story where the reporter tracks the narration, the sound carries the humanity, the standup plants the flag, and it all cuts together into ninety seconds of actual storytelling. It's the format young reporters dream in and the one that eats the most clock in the building. Because before a single frame gets edited, somebody has to architect it: what's the track saying, where does the sound land, which bite opens and which one closes, where does the standup belong (and why does it belong there instead of bolted onto the end because that's where standups go). That architecture is invisible when it works and painful when it doesn't, and building it from scratch — every day, on deadline — is where a lot of otherwise good storytelling stalls.
The Package Generator takes your raw material — your notes, your description of the interviews you've logged, your source copy — and builds the package framework: the structural skeleton a reporter fills with their voice, their sound, and their storytelling. Paste whatever you have (wire copy, field notes, a description of your bites and what each person said), pick a story type and target length, and the tool constructs the architecture of the package.
What comes back is the package laid out the way the format actually works: the anchor intro that sets the table without eating the story. A suggested track structure — the narration beats, in story order, written for the ear. The sound mapped into it: where the bites land, what each one is doing there, and setup lines that hand off to them cleanly. A suggested standup placement — the bridge moment where a standup earns its keep, instead of the tacked-on-at-the-end standup that every photographer has quietly endured. And an anchor tag that closes the loop. The whole house, framed up. You build the rooms.
The tool covers six story types because each one has a different architecture. A Breaking News package leads differently than a Feature. An Investigative piece is structured differently than a Developing Story. Three target lengths — one minute, ninety seconds, and two minutes — come with word-count guardrails that keep the track in time with the edit.
Understand what this is and isn't, because the distinction is the whole tool: it's a first structure, not a finished story. Packages are the most personal format in news — the reporter's voice, their eye, their relationship with the people in the story. No tool touches that, and this one doesn't try. What it replaces is the blank page: the thirty minutes of "how do I even build this" that stands between three hours of gathered material and the first line of track. Reporters don't struggle with storytelling — they struggle with starting. This gets them started.
It's also — and I say this as someone who's mentored a lot of young reporters — a teaching tool hiding inside a workflow tool. The framework it builds shows the anatomy of a working package: why the strong bite goes early, why the track shouldn't say what the sound is about to say, why the standup belongs at the turn in the story. A new MMJ who builds ten packages with the Generator absorbs more structure than a semester of critique. The craft transfers through the reps.
Who lives here? Reporters and MMJs on the daily turn — this is their tool the way the VOSOT Generator is the producer's. The one-person bands who shoot, write, track, and edit alone, for whom every saved minute is a minute of actual journalism. Producers restructuring a package that came in soft. And EPs coaching by example — running a reporter's material through and handing back structure instead of a shrug and "make it sing."
What stays yours: everything that makes it a story. The tool doesn't know that your third interview was the emotional spine, or that the nat sound of the door knock is your open, or what your market's been feeling all week. It builds the house. You make it a home — and your name, not the software's, goes on the story.
County press release: MILLBROOK COUNTY — The Millbrook County Department of Public Works is responding to a significant water main rupture that occurred at approximately 4:40 a.m. Tuesday beneath Route 9, resulting in the closure of a three-mile stretch of the roadway between Ashford Road and the county line. Approximately 4,200 residential and commercial customers are experiencing service interruptions, and a boil-water advisory has been issued for affected areas as a precautionary measure. Repairs are expected to be completed by Thursday.
Logged interview — Marcus Webb, Public Works Director (break site, 11:20 a.m.): :14 — "This is a sixty-year-old cast iron main. When they fail, they don't fail small." :52 — "We've got to excavate, replace the section, pressure-test it, and then the water itself has to be tested before we can tell anybody it's safe. That's why this runs to Thursday." 1:37 — "My crews will be out here around the clock. Nobody's going home until this is fixed."
Logged interview — Denise Calloway, homeowner (her kitchen, 12:45 p.m.): :22 — "First I knew about it was no pressure in the shower. Then the alert on my phone." 1:05 — "I've got a pot going pretty much all day now. Boil it, let it cool, fill the jugs. Do it again. It's like camping, except I'm in my own kitchen." 1:48 — "My mother's ninety-one and she lives with us. So no — I'm not taking any chances."
Nat sound: excavator at break site • water in trench • kettle whistling • county alert on phone • traffic at detour. Reporter notes: detour adds ~15 min • two restaurants closed • Denise's mom detail feels like the heart of this.
ANCHOR INTRO THOUSANDS OF FAMILIES IN MILLBROOK COUNTY ARE BOILING THEIR WATER TONIGHT — AND A MAJOR ROAD COULD STAY CLOSED FOR DAYS. [REPORTER NAME] SHOWS US WHY THE FIX ISN'T QUICK. TRACK 1 (open on nat sound — crews at break site) IT STARTED BEFORE SUNRISE... A RUPTURE UNDER ROUTE 9 THAT TURNED THREE MILES OF ROAD INTO A WORK ZONE. SOT 1 (Public Works Director — suggested: the bite explaining why repairs run to Thursday) TRACK 2 BUT THE ROAD IS ONLY HALF THE STORY. FORTY-TWO-HUNDRED HOMES AND BUSINESSES LOST WATER — AND WHAT CAME BACK... ISN'T TRUSTED YET. SOT 2 (Homeowner in kitchen — suggested: the human bite, what boiling water every day actually means) STANDUP (suggested: at break site, bridging personal impact to timeline) THE COUNTY TELLS ME TESTING TAKES TWO TO THREE DAYS — WHICH MEANS FOR EVERY FAMILY BEHIND ME, THE STOVE IS THE FAUCET UNTIL AT LEAST MIDWEEK. TRACK 3 / CLOSE UNTIL THEN — THE CREWS WORK... AND THE POTS STAY ON. IN MILLBROOK COUNTY, [REPORTER NAME], [STATION]. ANCHOR TAG THE COUNTY HAS A MAP TO CHECK IF YOUR ADDRESS IS AFFECTED — WE'VE LINKED IT ON OUR WEBSITE.
Notice the architecture doing its job: the official bite carries the facts, the human bite carries the feeling, the standup lives at the story's turn — not bolted to the end — and the track never repeats what the sound says. That's the skeleton. The reporter's voice is everything else.
Isn't the package supposed to be the reporter's own storytelling? This feels like outsourcing the craft.
Structure isn't the craft; structure is the container for the craft. Reporters have always gotten structural help — from EPs, from photogs in the car, from the veteran across the desk who says "lead with the kitchen, not the press conference." The Generator is that help, on demand, at 2 p.m. when the veteran's busy. Your voice, your track, your relationships with the people in the story — the tool can't touch those and doesn't try. What it removes is the blank-page paralysis, not the journalism. The reporters I've seen get the most out of it are the ones who use the framework as a starting argument, not a finished answer — they push back on it, rearrange it, and make it theirs. That's exactly right.
What if I don't have my interviews logged or transcribed yet?
Describe them. The tool works from whatever you paste — notes, wire copy, your own summary of what each person said and what you think the best bite is. "Public works director says repairs will take until Thursday because of soil conditions" is enough for the Generator to place that SOT correctly and write the setup. You don't need a transcript; you need enough information to tell it what you have. The more specific your descriptions of the sound, the better the framework. The manual step — knowing your material — is still yours, and it should be.
How is this different from the VOSOT Generator?
Scale and ownership. The VOSOT Generator is the producer's tool — anchor-voiced stories, thirty to sixty seconds, built at the stack from source copy. The Package Generator is the reporter's tool — your voice, your sound, ninety seconds of structured storytelling, built from your gathered material. Same family resemblance (both turn raw material into broadcast architecture), different chair. Rule of thumb: if the anchor's reading it, VOSOT Generator. If you're tracking it, you're here. And yes, plenty of shows use both on the same story — a VOSOT at the stack while the package edits.