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Every year at this time, just before the July 4th holiday, we take a minute to look back at the stories that resonated most with you, our readership of local TV news professionals, in the first half of the year. Even with the pandemic still shaping our lives inside and outside the newsroom, stations are innovating on multiple fronts, taking on the challenges of a rapidly changing media, business and social environment.
Here’s the Top 10 list — just click on each title to read the story.
Innovation begins at home, Part 1
When longtime WBAY sports director Chris Roth walked in to pitch an unusual format for the new 4:30 p.m. newscast on Gray’s Green Bay station, news director Matt Kummer listened — and he’s glad he did.
The realities of ‘engagement’
Laura Kraegel’s story focused on two new works of scholarly research: Andrea Wenzel writes about the new skills stations need to strengthen community ties, and the Cronkite School’s own Jacob Nelson explores whether there’s really a direct connection between engagement and profits.
(Courtesy of Andrea Wenzel and Jacob Nelson)
The power of collaboration and community service
Gray Television won a Google News Initiative Innovation Challenge Grant for this ambitious project called Bridging the Health Divide, focused on health inequity in Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta. Gray’s 25 stations in the region will work with the company’s national resources in a collaboration that could involve more than 100 people.
The rewards