PODCAST EPISODE #3: Anne Herbst, assistant chief photographer, KDVR-TV

Try to follow the career path on this one.

Anne Herbst studied journalism in college with the intentions of being a newspaper reporter.

Her professor said she was better at shooting video, so she became a staff photographer at a TV station.

She got hired as a staff photographer at KUSA-TV in Denver — one of the top shops in the country for video journalism — but gradually began writing her own stories … to which reporters would then put their voices.

She left KUSA to become a solo video journalist at the Denver Post. If you’re scoring at home, Herbst went from a TV station to a newspaper and went from being a traditional photographer to doing everything herself.

This past year, she returned to TV as the assistant chief photographer at KDVR-TV, Denver’s FOX affiliate.

Herbst is a hallmark of developing numerous skills and leveraging one’s talent to find high-quality positions in the field of journalism. She has charted her own course in many ways, always finding ways to progress and improve.

Oh, and it helps that Herbst is really, really good at her job.

She has twice been named NPPA Photographer of the Year for the West region — always the most competitive in the country. She has won numerous NPPA awards as a solo video journalist, as well. Watch some of her work, and you will see why.

And now, she becomes the third guest on the Telling The Story podcast.

I had never spoken with Herbst until we talked on the phone before recording this podcast; that said, I have always admired her work. She proved to be as great of an interview as she is a storyteller, giving thoughtful responses on a variety of subjects:

  •  On working as a backpack journalist: “It was a lot more challenging than being just a photographer, but I feel like it’s going to make me a better teammate now, too. I can do a little bit of everything.”
  • On the ability of newspapers to adopt video journalism: “When the Aurora theater shooting happened, I wanted to get stuff up immediately so people could see it immediately, and I don’t know that TV stations are really paying that much attention to [that].”
  • On what young journalists need to learn in storytelling: “How to use a character … You just have to find that person that’s gonna make people connect to your story.”

In the podcast, Herbst offered great advice to young journalists and gave some wonderful perspective about the differences between newspaper and TV — and what the two forms of media can learn from each other.

Listen to the podcast at the top of the page or download it and listen to it later. And subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!

(In the podcast, I mention putting up a link to the NPPA TV’s YouTube page. Here it is.)

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Matt Pearl is the author of the Telling the Story blog and podcast. Feel free to comment below or e-mail Matt at matt@tellingthestoryblog.com.

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