TV_Editor_SOW-Final.pdf

STATEMENT OF WORK

Central News Center TV Copy Editor Services

C.1 PURPOSE AND SCOPE

The Broadcasting Board of Governor has a requirement to acquire for a Contractor to provide Voice of America (VOA) with the services of a TV copy editor for VOA programming.

Assignments shall include a variety of subjects including national, international, sports and economic news as well as adapting scripts originally produced in foreign languages, as part of the VOA News Center’s TV Team. The specific amount hours and services performed will be included in the call orders issued under the Blanket Purchasing Agreement.

C.2 BACKGROUND

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is an Executive Branch Federal Government agency that oversees U.S. broadcasting of news and information to audiences around the world. BBG includes the Voice of America (VOA) and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (VOA), as well as grantee entities Radio Free Asia (RFA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and the Middle East Broadcasting Network (MBN). Together, VOA and VOA distribute programming in English and 42 other languages to an estimated weekly audience of 175 million people.

The News Center is a multimedia news room providing 24/7 content and editorial guidance and direction for all VOA language services and English platforms. This material includes TV reports, standups, web and digital vids, radio and web reports, photo content and animated explainers.

C.3 CONTRACTOR’s RESPONSIBILITIES

C.3.1 TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

General Responsibilities of Contractor. The contractor shall be responsible for the following specific tasks:

- Contractor shall edit incoming television script text from a variety of sources. Checks for substance, balance, bias. All scripts must confirm to VOA style and guidelines which require balance, objectivity and comprehensiveness and eschew bias.

-Contractor shall ensure copy is written in clear, concise language suitable for translation, broadcast and digital.

-Contractor shall perform all work in the VOA News Center

C.3.2 SPECIFIC SKILLSETS:

Contractor shall possess the following required expertise.

-at least five years working in a large newsroom -at least five years as a TV copy editor or reporter.

-Extensive experience working with TV/Video story telling -proven experience with journalistic principles, practices and ethics

C.3 VOA CONTROL OF THE WORK

VOA follows Voice of America journalistic guidelines and standards available at https://www.insidevoa.com/p/5831.html and VOA Best Practices. The Contractor and those reporting stories are responsible for errors or material breaches of these journalistic guidelines. Material errors or breach are grounds for VOA to refuse to provide further work to the persons breaching these standards and can be the basis for a termination for default of the contract in whole or part. The remedies in this clause are cumulative and do not restrict any other actions VOA may have under the contract, at law or in equity.

VOA and Contractor shall communicate directly.

VOA has complete editorial control over the content of stories VOA publishes in any form or media. Vendors who object to VOA editorial decisions shall present their objections to the COR who can determine whether and how to pursue the matter with VOA. Editorial decisions concerning the content or presentation of stories shall not be subject to the disputes clause of the contract. Those decisions are solely within the discretion of VOA.

VOA is not responsible for the safety or health of the Contractor when pursuing any story.

The Contractor must determine on their own the risks and are at liberty to stop and exit any story or situation when they reasonably believe they are at risk of injury, particularly if any person or persons, know or unknown, are reasonably believed to be seeking to inflict harm on journalists.

If VOA does not accept a deliverable from the Contractor due to inferior quality, errors, etc., the Contractor may, depending on the type of deliverable, be entitled to resubmit the deliverable at VOA’s sole discretion. For example, if the item submitted was a breaking news item and its publication is time sensitive, VOA will not accept resubmission of that breaking news item. In any event, the Contractor must obtain approval in writing from VOA before resubmitting a deliverable that VOA deemed unacceptable.

C.4 Period of Performance:

https://www.insidevoa.com/p/5831.html

The period of performance of this Blanket Purchase Agreement is five years consisting of a one

(1) year base period and four (4) consecutive twelve-month ordering periods. The total contract duration including the base period and ordering periods pursuant to the Options to Extend Term, clause (FAR Clause 52.217-9) shall not to exceed sixty (60) months.

C.5 Place of Performance:

Central News Center

VOA 330 Independence Ave S.W.

Washington D.C. 20237

C.6 Deliverables

PLACE OF DELIVERY FOR DELIVERABLES

Item(s) to be delivered under this contract shall be delivered in Dalet or CMS to:

Deliverable Item #

# of Copies Address

All items COR VOA News Center 330 Independence Ave SW, Washington D.C. 20237

The COR will specify the place of delivery for items to be delivered under this contract that have not been listed in the preceding table upon their assignment.

DELIVERABLES

The Contractor shall provide deliverables that are responsive to the statement of work / specifications described in the task order and that conform to the Deliverables Inspection and Acceptance Criteria section of this task order. The Contractor shall submit all deliverables to the COR identified herein for dissemination to BBG subject matter expert(s) for review and comments.

Final inspection and acceptance of all work performed and deliverables will be performed by the

COR.

The following deliverables are essential to the successful completion of this contract:

1. TV Scripts

2. Rewritten TV Scripts based on content originally written in another

3. Text Stories for house wire

4. Voice Overs

DELIVERABLE SCHEDULE

The Contractor shall submit the required deliverables to the COR in accordance with the following schedule:

Deliverables Schedule

Deliverables Due Date

TV Scripts

As agreed at assignment

Text Stories

Language Service Rewrites

Inspection The COR (or her designee) will review at the time of submission, for completeness and quality, all deliverables submitted by the Contractor, and may return them to the Contractor for correction. The Contracting Officer may delegate responsibility for review to other employees with appropriate expertise.

Absence of any comments by the COR will not relieve the Contractor of the responsibility for complying with the requirements of the contract. Final approval and acceptance of deliverables will be provided to the Contractor in writing by the COR. The COR will to inspect deliverables and return them to the Contractor for correction within 1 hour.

Acceptance Criteria All contractor-produced reports, CNVO/CNPK, voice overs or newscasts (‘deliverables) shall meet the following general acceptance criteria. Final inspection and acceptance of all work performed, reports and other deliverables, will be performed at the place of delivery by the BBG’s COR.

• Clarity − Deliverables and technical content shall be relevant and unambiguous, and shall adhere to accepted elements of style.

• Adherence to Requirements − All deliverables must satisfy the requirements of this statement of work and must contribute to the overall success of the tasks.

• Format − Deliverables shall be submitted in the format specified on the Deliverables section of the contract (if applicable), or as specified by the COR for scripts in News Center content systems.

• Completeness − Deliverables shall be comprehensive and entirely developed (i.e. have all required parts and elements).

• Timeliness –Deliverables shall be available at the time required and generated on or before specified and mutually agreed to due dates or in accordance with a later mutually agreed to scheduled date.

• Significant Deficiencies - Deliverables shall be free of significant deficiencies. Significant deficiencies are findings by reviewing officials of serious omissions, inaccuracies, noncompliance with contract requirements and standards.

C.7 SECURITY

All contractors must be able to obtain and maintain a public trust background investigation. (If applicable).

C.8 PAYMENT

The Contractor shall submit invoices only for hours worked that has been ordered, submitted to the COR, and verified and accepted by the COR.

C.9 SUBMISSION OF INVOICES

1952.232-91 Electronic Invoicing and Payment Requirements - Invoice Payment Platform (IPP) (April 2016) Payment requests for all new awards must be submitted electronically through the U. S. Department of the Treasury's Invoice Payment Platform System (IPP). "Payment request" means any request for contract financing payment or invoice payment by the Contractor. To constitute a proper invoice, the payment request must comply with the requirements identified in FAR 32.905(b), "Payment documentation and process" and the applicable Prompt Payment clause included in this contract. The IPP website address is: https://www.ipp.gov.