Homepage News Journalism Program News Television

Hunter News Now Students Learn about Producing Stories for a National Audience

Phil Rosenbaum speaks in a virtual session to Studio News Production students.

CBS News Producer Phil Rosenbaum has been in the news business for more than 30 years, but he never gets tired of telling stories. 

After nearly 25 years at CNN, he joined CBS Newspath in 2018 and now produces stories for more than 200 network affiliates to use in their local newscasts.

“Newspath is like its own news division,” says Rosenbaum, who visited Professor Sissel McCarthy’s MEDPL Studio News Production class in late April. 

“Basically, I get to do it all.”

— Phil Rosenbaum, CBS News producer

Rosenbaum says he’s responsible for producing a 1:30-1:45 minute news story from start to finish in about five-and-a-half hours. At first, he says it was hard to get used to the pace, but now Rosenbaum relishes it. “Basically, I get to do it all—with this package, I really own a lot it,” says Rosenbaum. 

The most time-consuming part of his job is finding all the video and then writing the script. Rosenbaum also explained to students why he edits everything in split audio and showed them in real-time how to do it on Adobe Premiere Pro (see photo below.) 

Rosenbaum’s Adobe Premier Pro Demo

Rosenbaum says this technique allows him to adjust the audio levels of the nat sound, soundbites and voiceover individually and permits a local affiliate reporter or anchor to retrack the story.

“It’s easier to excuse bad video, but if it’s bad audio, you won’t even watch the piece,” says Rosenbaum, who finished up by giving students one last tip. “My advice to you is do lots of internships — make contacts. It’s a great field.”

Our Journalism Concentration & Minor

The Hunter College journalism program is offered as a concentration or a minor within the Department of Film & Media Studies. Its curriculum is built around production courses in journalism and analytical courses in media studies. Learn more about our course requirements.

Our Archives

Journalism Newsletter Signup

Subscribe to the journalism newsletter

* indicates required

Leave a Comment