Marni Hughes: Odyssey of a NewsNation Anchor

With a few tweaks here and there her course matches that of many top people in the field You get in the door of a smallmarket TV station often multitasking as a reporter cameraperson sound person andor tape editor for any given assignment You master your craft well enough to catch an opportunity at a mediummarket station then a largemarket station or allnews cable channel and perhaps one day you leap into the role of nationally seen anchorperson or correspondentquotYou nailed itquot Hughes acknowledged during an interveiw withamp160 MediaVillage quotThat pretty much explains the last 20 years of my lifequotA pair of internships launched her career path One was at CNN39s Atlanta headquarters working on the weekly newsmagazine Fortune while in college Then fresh out of school she joined WBNSTV in Columbus Ohio Hughes39 favorite TV station growing upquotI got my foot in by begging them to let me follow around great reporters that I had watchedquot she recalled quotI put together a resume tape while I was writing packages for the anchors After a few months working there they gave me an associate producer job because I was doing more than just being an internquotThere was one particular WBNS reporter that Hughes regularly shadowed on the job Penny Moore quotWhat I appreciated most watching Penny work was that she did more than just ask the questions that got people to talkquot she explained quotShe listened to their answers That often prompted them to share even more When she would show up for a story everybody would just watch her work She was a great storyteller and was also curious in a way that inspired me to ask tough questions to dig more It was about building trust and that has always stuck with mequotHughes39 break into oncamera journalism came at WISETV NBC39s affiliate in Fort Wayne Indiana owned by Gray Television first as weekday reporter then as weekend anchor After time there she went on to three years in the same dual role at KTSUTV in Salt Lake City followed by five years of weeknight coanchor work at KMSPTV in MinneapolisThen came the plum topmarket position in 2012 anchoring a new lateafternoon newscast for Fox affiliate KCPQTV in Seattle a role that expanded over eight years to anchoring fiveandahalf hours of newscasts a dayWhen not anchoring Seattle newscasts Hughes launched a series of quotHealthy Livingquot reports exploring topics from heart disease to autism often with a sharp focus on the impact of the spotlighted subject on families The series earned Hughes several local Emmy awards including one for her series of autism reportsquotThat was born out of a close relative of mine who is on the spectrumquot she said quotIt was a marriage of my interests and the need for my station at the time to do a series that impacted a lot of people I hope that in the end it helped a lot of peoplequotRight now in her first network role Hughes presides over two hourlong newscasts soloanchoring NewsNation Prime at 8 pm ET and coanchoring NewsNation Special Report three hours later with Leland Vittert Under the current Prime format three or four stories are covered indepth per hour through field reports and interviews with newsmakers and expertsSpecial Report which started as a roundup of developments in the UkraineRussia war two months ago now reviews the day39s major stories and looks ahead to likely developments the following dayquotI don39t know what I expected working for a startupquot Hughes admitted quotIt has been challenging exciting educational There39s a lot I didn39t know that I didn39t knowquotIt has been quoteyeopeningquot to watch NewsNation39s evolution she continued quotWhat I39ve learned here is that you39ve got to be adaptable and true to the reason that you came which for me is doing good journalism asking great questions and presenting important storytellingquot she saidHughes also puts together recurring quotMissingquot reports on NewsNation featuring indepth stories about missingperson cases across the country and inviting viewers to get involved if they have any information on someone39s whereabouts In the coming months look for Hughes to start quotPrime Conversationsquot a series of special interviews with a wide range of industry leaders and entertainersHughes shared some advice for those just starting out in TV journalism today no matter how they get their foot in the door they should be ready for anything be a team player and be willing to learn at every turn quotStay curious be relentless in pursuit of the truth and really listen when you ask questionsquot she concluded quotIt39s a privilege to do this job every dayquotClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Marni Hughes: Odyssey of a NewsNation Anchor

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