retro report

PODCAST EPISODE #73: Solana Pyne, executive producer, Quartz

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Most of my guests on this podcast are in local news, because most of my audience are reporters, photojournalists, and solo video journalists in local news.

But I was reminded again watching the winners of this year’s National Edward R. Murrow awards about the fascinating, compelling work on the digital front.

How does that work come about? Perhaps it comes from a side of the industry that had to re-examine its definitions of storytelling. It’s so important to see how the standards have evolved for audiences who don’t distinguish between the types of content they receive.

Solana Pyne is setting those standards. Her work with the Quartz video team employs many of the tactics that traditional storytellers embrace, but she doesn’t stop there. Her team produces work that bends boundaries but brings journalistic chops. Last month, their joint production with Retro Report about the future of gaming – received a National Murrow award.

Pyne is my guest on Episode #73 of the Telling the Story podcast.

“It’s easy to presume your audience will be with you,” said Pyne, among other great words of advice, “so being forced to figure out how to capture people’s attentions really quickly is a good thing.”

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5 lessons from this year’s National Edward R. Murrow Award winners

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Awards season typically crests and winds down as the summer arrives, with one of the highest of honors coming near the cycle’s end.

Last week the RTDNA announced this year’s national recipients of the Edward R. Murrow awards. Whenever the list comes out, I spend hours watching the winners. So often, even working in journalism, we miss the majority of the great work done nationwide. The Murrows gives us another chance to witness the pinnacle of our craft.

Here’s what I learned from pieces that spanned the spectrum of broadcast and digital media:

THE STORY: Recovering from Rehab (Reveal/Center for Investigative Action)
THE LESSON: Slow and steady CAN win the race.

Working in local TV has conditioned me to expect a certain type of investigative story: URGENT voicing from the reporter, DRAMATIC confrontations with a person in power, and WHIZ-BANG graphics to hold the attention of the casual news viewer who’s debating whether to keep watching or head to bed.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. This piece shows how.

Recovering from Rehab took the National Murrow for investigative reporting among Small Digital News Organizations, and it’s easy to see why: it’s just as effective, just as gripping, but nowhere near as sensational as its analogues in TV. Producer Olivia Merrion and reporters Amy Julia Harris and Shoshona Walter triumph here, with a straightforward but thoroughly reported story about a man sentenced to a year in prison but diverted to an alcoholism recovery program (despite no addiction to alcohol) where he mainly worked on a chicken processing plant. The super-tight shots at the start grab attention immediately, and from there Merrion and her team unfold the story with a deliberate confidence in its content.

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