Local news

You're originally from Washington State.

And you were also a reporter for a local news station in Seattle.

Did you always wanted to work in journalism specifically as a news reporter?

No, never occurred to me when I was growing up because there weren't any Asians on television, right? Yeah, yeah.

What was it? I mean, I got a job as a secretary, I think in 1974 or something.

Anyway, I lose track of the years.

In my career, I watched local news blossom into this really big industry.

You know, newsrooms had money, they were big operations, local news.

Yes.

yes and it's and it's something you truly have to love if you decide to go that route right because you're sacrificing your personal life you're sacrificing what you're used to you're going essentially to a new culture in the united states and you're living there whether it's montana or alabama wherever you come from originally it feels really different and all of a sudden you have to get to know these communities very very well So really, it's a grind that has a lot of purpose, a lot of meaning, because these local news journalists, they do incredible work.

We're uncovering things left, right, and center that typically would not even be covered if it weren't for people with eyes on the news there.

So got my start, Huntsville, Alabama, an incredible experience.

So I started at CBS New York.

I was a reporter there and I covered the borough of the Bronx, which was extremely an undiscovered, untold borough where I got to tell incredible stories of people, everyday people who never really had a voice in the news, who never really had their space.

And Stella, you know how important local news is because it gives this voice back.

Yeah.

Let's do this.

You know, there's lots of talk about local news dying.

And that's because whether it's short attention spans or people are just getting their information from different platforms, a combination of both, or people just wanted to know because there's just such crazy crap happening in the world that, you know, they don't want to look at it or hear it.

Now, I've been in news for, you know, over 12...

And you can just read it.

And that's that.

But, you know, when it comes to local news, again, I just, it's become almost show busy.

I talk about KTLA here in Los Angeles.

But as that advertising model collapsed, first with Craigslist taking all the classified dollars out the door, but then also with 2008 taking more revenue out the door in terms of advertising, and finally the big tech pioneering these more targeted online ads, which have lost us a lot of revenue.

you basically saw the advertising model collapse and there was a brief period where we tried the engagement model you know the click model that did not work out for us and at this point we have seen a couple of marquee players the new york times and others transition to a subscription model and and find real success in that but for the most part the rest of us have not thrived We've seen a decline in local news, especially.

We've seen a decline in investigative reporting.

And as newsrooms have contracted and mass layoffs have happened, outlet closures have happened, my contention in the book that there's been a degrading of the quality of reporting.

Investigative journalism, just basic reporting, it takes a lot of time, and it takes a lot of resources, and it can be litigious, and...

So the environment that we're in right now, with some exceptions, can't really afford to do that kind of journalism.

And as well with local news, that's a lot more on the ground.

But we're not doing that.