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Tonight on Fox31: Georgia TV station buys iPads for news anchors

Someone at Fox affiliate WFXL in Albany, GA must have had the brilliant insight that an iPad looks a lot like a pad of paper. That insight is going to save the TV station about $9,600 per year.

WFXL purchased 6 iPads to replace the paper scripts that their news anchors use. According to News Director and anchorman Terry Graham, the station is expected to save hundreds of thousands of sheets of paper every year. The scripts are composed in their usual manner, but instead of printing the files, they're now formatted as PDFs and emailed to the iPads.

The 16 GB iPads cost the station $499 each, but should pay for themselves in less than 4 months. Graham expects the station to purchase more iPads in the future, and once he's confirmed the savings he'll pass the word to other Fox stations. WFXL also has plans to use instant messaging to link producers and reporters, elicit viewer input through social media, and "enhance the way our journalists gather information."

[TVNewsCheck.com via 9to5 Mac]

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iPad

Someone at Fox affiliate WFXL in Albany, GA must have had the brilliant insight that an iPad looks a lot like a pad of paper. That insight...
 

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Unregistered

Our news anchors have been using laptops for the past few years to reduce paper use. It doesn't have to be an iPad. Just use an existing laptop.

April 25 2010 at 11:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jim Wellington

As a news anchor and former producer, I can tell you we go through almost two reams of paper just for the morning newscast, not to mention the noon, 5, 6, and 10 pm broadcasts as well.

Of course, the morning show is two hours long, but you're looking at 8 rundowns (sortof a table of contents of the show, each 2-hour show's rundown is 6 pages) and show scripts. Show scripts typically run about 225 sheets of paper for the whole morning newscast, and that's to three different people (two anchors, director).

So...that's 723 sheets of paper for ONE newscast.

I'd say we go through about 5 reams of paper a day...and that's JUST by printing out show-related things.

April 25 2010 at 5:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Doug Adams

Paper scripts are mostly safety nets in case the promptr goes whack. This is a back-handed greening. TV just wants to look modern. It's not like paper couldn't have been replaced with built-in monitors scrolling the promptr feed before now.

April 25 2010 at 8:40 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Justin

To me this sounds more like a combination of trying to increase viewership by appearing trendy and buying themselves some fun new toys to play with. The paper saving angle is a PR spin to appear more economical and "green".

April 24 2010 at 11:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Canelo

Nothing new... here in Mexico the guy from Hechos (News Program) in TVAzteca had one since the very first days of the iPad.

April 24 2010 at 10:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jakethepianist

Hooray for Georgia!
Sorry, just felt like saying that. Anywho, I swung by a Best Buy in Marietta and tried an iPad out. Let's just say that I'll be getting one very soon.

April 24 2010 at 8:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Roger Wilco

OK, I love the iPad as much as anyone but let's try the math another way. For the $499 cost of an iPad you can buy 13 cases of paper at Staples. I'm taking retail her, not the contract prices that an office could buy it for. That's 65,000 sheets of paper. If each iPad is fully used for two years, 365 days a year, then each anchor has to avoid using 90 sheets per day. Now I know that much of the saving comes from drafts rather than the few words read on the air but ... 90 sheets?? This is just to break even, to save the sort of money being claimed, the consumption would have to be at least four times as much -- about 350 sheets per day per anchor.

Oh hang on a minute, did you say Fox News? Sorry, forget it.

April 24 2010 at 8:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Roger Wilco's comment
Dan

Actually I ran all of the numbers and here is the result.

Using a common model of business printer:

Konica Minolta bizhub C652.

Black toner is $57.95 Each and can print 45K pages at 5% printed coverage.

Color Toner is $413.85 for the three colors and can print 30K pages at 5% coverage.

A case of paper contains 5K pages and costs $44.99

6 iPads Cost $3,293.40 with 10% sales tax

6 anchors reading 20 pages of copy for 3 daily broadcasts will consume 43,200 pages (or 8.64 cases), .96 Black cartridges (If black only), 1.44 Color cartridges (if color only) in 4 months.

Totals:
Paper $388.71 + Black Toner $55.63 = $444.35

Paper $388.71 + Color Toner $415.29 = $804.00

In order to pay for all 6 iPads in four months the numbers are the folowing:

Black- 6 anchors reading 148.236 pages of copy for 3 daily broadcasts will consume 320,189.76 pages (or 64.04 cases), 7.115328 Black cartridges (If black only) in 4 months.

Totals:
Paper $2,881.07 + Black Toner $412.33 = $3,293.40

Color- 6 anchors reading 147.611 pages of copy for 3 daily broadcasts will consume 318,839.76 pages (or 63.77 cases), 10.627992 Color cartridges (if color only) in 4 months.

Totals:
Paper $2,868.92 + Color Toner $424.48 = $3,293.40

In order to pay for all 6 iPads in a year the numbers are the folowing:

Black- 6 anchors reading 48.7351 pages of copy for 3 daily broadcasts will consume 320,189.61 pages (or 64.04 cases), 7.115328 Black cartridges (If black only) in a year.

Totals:
Paper $2,881.07 + Black Toner $412.33 = $3,293.40

Color- 6 anchors reading 48.5296 pages of copy for 3 daily broadcasts will consume 318,839.76 pages (or 63.77 cases), 10.627992 Color cartridges (if color only) in a year.

Totals:
Paper $2,868.92 + Color Toner $424.48 = $3,293.40

Now this also does not include the price of the printer they could eliminate if they stopped printing all together.

The Konica Minolta bizhub C652 printer costs $29,687.06 all at once, $2,440.03 per month, or $81.33 per day.

If it is rented (Most businesses rent) the price is $3,090.72 per year, $257.56 per month, or $64.39 per week.

April 24 2010 at 11:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
evan

Okay, I misspoke. The math seems fine. It's the first assumption that seems way off.

April 24 2010 at 6:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
evan

They're going through $500 in paper (x6) in four months? Math seems off here...

April 24 2010 at 5:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to evan's comment
tdowling

Well, assuming that the $9600 savings per year is correct...
9600 / 12 = 800 saved per month
800 / 6 = 133.33 per device per month
133.33 * 4 = 533.33 per device per 4 months

The math seems to work out, no?

April 24 2010 at 5:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rego

It's a good thing that they were not talking about illicit viewer input!

April 24 2010 at 4:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Rego's comment
Dick Applebaum

No, those were the Government SEC employees who were responsible for overseeing the likes of Goldman Sachs.

April 24 2010 at 6:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rego

Yes!

April 24 2010 at 7:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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