Poynter Uses WTVF Story As Teachable Moment
The journo think tank Poynter.org singles out WTVF Nashville, and reporter Nick Beres, for standout work on a recent report involving a compelling news story, but a limited amount of resources to make the story work.
The story involves a man who tried to run down his girlfriend in his pickup truck, and ended up slamming into (and through) a convenience store.
Poynter’s Al Tompkins breaks down Beres’ report like a professor.
He writes:
Nick explains the video, he doesn’t narrate it. That is the key to writing to video. Don’t compete with the images, and don’t say what I can already see. Tell me what I would not know from watching the video.
The fellow who drove through the quickie mart then backed up and drove out of the store and parking lot, and headlong into a giant truck.
The girlfriend was OK. So was the store manager that was pinned between the truck and a sale rack.
It’s reporting like this that keeps WTVF ahead in Nashville.
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Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.