By Todd Feeback and Jason Shoultz
Bo Rader, a photographer at The Wichita Eagle, was preparing to cover the 10-year anniversary of a tornado that had flattened the small town of Greensburg in western Kansas. He planned on shooting photos and video of the town 10 years later, to illustrate how much had changed.
Bo was an early adopter of drone technology and a licensed drone pilot, having passed on his own initiative the FAA Part 107 test (a test for operators of unmanned aircraft). New FAA rules allowed journalists to use drones for news gathering, but unfortunately for Bo, there was no insurance coverage yet to allow for drone use within McClatchy.
In the spring of 2017, that changed when McClatchy formed a taskforce to look at the costs and feasibility of launching a company-wide drone program. This team worked with editorial staff and corporate risk managers to secure liability insurance for the pilots in the company.
With insurance coverage in place, Bo was able to get the aerial shots to show Greensburg’s dramatically altered landscape from above. Those visuals, combined with a resident’s testimonial shot by his colleague, Travis Heying, created a powerful story made possible through the new technology
“I really wanted to duplicate the image that (visual journalist) Jaime Green shot from the air the next day that shows how massive and completely devastating this storm was. The drone just gave me so many opportunities and ways to look at how Greensburg was — and in some cases wasn’t — recovering. I could use the images from 10 years ago and pair them closely with current footage from the drone.
“In the past we would rent a plane (maybe a helicopter) to fly out and shoot, but it’s cost prohibitive today with our operating budgets. And, video from a plane is not that great. With a drone I can look at the video, closely compose the shot and make much better use of my time.” — Bo Rader, senior photographer/photo editor, The Wichita Eagle
Two months after McClatchy’s first drone flight, we purchased a mix of DJI’s Inspire 2 and Phantom 4 Pro drones, built a two-and-a-half-day training program in partnership with a professional drone pilot and instructor and held our first class in Kansas City with 23 McClatchy journalists from all over the country.
Two years later, we’ve trained more than 50 pilots and have over 30 drones in our fleet across 19 of our newsrooms. We’re training an additional 25 pilots this year.
Storytelling and breaking news coverage
Shortly after our first class in 2017, pilots at the Miami Herald used drones to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. The technology allowed the Herald’s photojournalists to capture aerial photos and videos from locations that otherwise would have been difficult to fly over in a rented plane. The Lexington Herald-Leader’s Alex Slitz showed the incredible scope of damage after a bourbon barrel storage facility collapsed in this aerial video.
From California wildfire zones, to tornado and flood-ravaged areas in the Midwest to hurricane-hit communities along the East Coast, our pilots have given aerial perspectives that help tell the full story in breaking news situations.
“We knew the destruction from the Camp Fire in Paradise, California was bad, but capturing the first drone video from the town showed our audience the true scale of the disaster.” — Hector Amezcua, visual journalist, The Sacramento Bee
The ability to use drones on a variety of assignments has given a fresh approach to many local events and stories that photographers have covered for decades. Ron Garrison, a Lexington Herald-Leader drone pilot, provided this unique view of the tobacco cutting process. Travis Heying’s perspective on a controlled burn of native prairie in Kansas offered dramatic visuals. And Craig Kohlruss took viewers above the annual cotton harvest in Fresno, California.
Flying cameras across all McClatchy divisions
In addition to our 19 newsrooms, several divisions of the corporate video team also have licensed drone pilots — including McClatchy Studios, McClatchy New Ventures Lab and our branded content division, The Creative Lab.
“We use drone videography regularly in our unscripted documentary series not only to elevate the production value of our work but also to offer a perspective of our local communities that often isn’t available. We tell local stories with national appeal, so it’s important to us that location becomes a character in all our series. In Ground Game: Texas, our drone footage demonstrated the vastness and diversity of the Texas landscape as 2018 Senate candidates — and our team — crisscrossed the state. For The War Within, we leveraged drone visuals as transitions that moved us through multiple storylines and regions with a singular connective tissue: the hidden effects of war.” — Ayana Morali, Executive Producer, McClatchy Studios
“The drone is one of the most valuable tools at McClatchy New Ventures Lab (NVL), which is experimenting with telling non-fiction stories in virtual and augmented reality. When our journalists can access exclusive places we can convey that very powerfully with 360° video (or cinematic VR). Sometimes the easiest way to go somewhere exclusive is to go ‘up,’ and recently we began flying a drone with our smallest 360° camera. They are particularly critical when producing volumetric VR and AR, allowing for the ability to scan large scenes from one location to another.” — Ben Connors, Lead Strategist, McClatchy New Ventures Lab
“Drone video has added an important dimension to the storytelling for McClatchy’s Creative Lab, which was founded on the idea of telling compelling stories with journalistic sensibilities for our advertising partners. Our drone work helped convey the enormity of the situation both literally (in the case of Miami-Dade Parks’ vast land and conservation efforts) and philosophically (the slowed-down, sweeping shots used in the Education Together trailer to set the mood for the enormous life goal the subject about to take on).” — Eric Brandner, General Manager, The Creative Lab at McClatchy
Equipment
We started off with DJI Inspire 2 and Phantom 4 Pro drones for the first year of the program. As technology and hardware have improved, we have migrated towards smaller drones. DJI’s Mavic Air and Mavic Pro drones have proven easier for our journalists to operate in breaking news situations.
Training
All McClatchy pilots are required to pass the FAA Part 107 test before they go through our internal drone training. The two-and-a-half-day course covers everything from rules and regulations to care and maintenance to flying techniques, plus plenty of hands-on practice in the air.
We take a safety-first approach to everything and discourage pilots from ever flying if they’re not comfortable or if conditions are not optimal. Pilots are required to log flights, abide by FAA rules and ensure that the public is not endangered by drone flights. Pilots are also encouraged to practice weekly when not on assignment.
Having an operating procedures manual with clear policies in place is also a critical piece of McClatchy’s drone program — especially as unmanned aircraft rules and regulations evolve.
The Future
Communicating with newsroom leaders and sharing evolving drone program policies and expectations have been key in helping this initiative get the support it has needed to grow across McClatchy.
We do realize, however, that regulatory winds are shifting. Federal, state and local laws regarding drone use, privacy protection and preservation of safety are expanding. That’s why it’s critical for our media organization to be focused on this exciting new technology while remaining nimble when it comes to incorporating changes into our drone program guidelines.
If we do that, our newsrooms will continue to soar to new heights — using drone technology as a valuable storytelling tool — while upholding our long-standing commitment to providing exceptional local news coverage for the communities we serve.
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