Special
Features / May 2006
News Worthy
 Maribeth Anderson
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By Pat Lawrence
Maribeth Anderson makes the news five times a day-and two hours each morning.
It’s her job.
The news director of WSAZ must judiciously balance what is in the public interest with what interests the public. In television, the news director holds a position of perpetual dichotomy, balancing journalism with entertainment, impartiality with independence, responsibility with influence and great responsibility without celebrity.
Maribeth says “Over 148,000 people in thirty three counties and three states watch our six o’clock news. We have to think about that number. Every word we write has power. Television news is a serious business with a serious impact.”
It’s a collaborative business, too, according to Maribeth, with producers, reporters, anchors and photojournalists contributing to the outcome. “Each day begins with a morning meeting and a folder full of press releases and clippings. Then we ask ‘What are people talking about today?’ We discuss what stories we’re going to cover and how we’re going to cover them.”
She says their goal is to help people see what the story is and how it affects the community. “We try to tell the story behind the story, not just that an individual addicted to crack cocaine was arrested, but how the city got where it is, how crack cocaine became part of life here and what it means to the people who live here.”
Community activities, “the ribbon cuttings, announcements and traditional events like turning on the fountain, are real news too. But we try to find the thing that will make it memorable, not just that there is a new business, but the woman who raised her family on the property before it became a business.”
Maribeth says there’s another important element they try to include in the news. “It is giving voice to the voiceless, telling the stories that no one is talking about.” She admits, “Sometimes we have to get outside of our comfort zone to find the other stories, We have to visit places we don’t usually go and think outside our daily realm. Service in the public interest creates an obligation to reflect the diversity of the community and provide a full range of information.”
The daughter of a United Methodist pastor, Maribeth was born in West Virginia and raised in Ripley, though the family moved to Huntington when she was 14. She attended Marshall University on a Yeager Scholarship, earning degrees in Journalism and Economics, clearly comfortable with the inherent duality of her chosen profession early on, and completed coursework at the University of Valencia, and Christ Church College at Oxford.
She joined WSAZ in 1992.
“I wanted to do news since high school, but I liked the energy of the newsroom rather than being outside as a reporter. There’s a real camaraderie that is infectious; I always enjoyed that. It’s why I became a producer.” She became the news director three years ago and has enormous respect for the members of the news team. She counts on the expertise of ten photojournalists to present the ‘stories behind the story’ with visual impact. “It takes talent and sensitivity to capture the moment and the great reactions.”
Maribeth goes home to a kindergartener and a three year old at the end of days that are often“non-stop and exhausting!” It takes fifty producers, directors, photographers, reporters and other team members to broadcast the five and a half hours of news each day from WSAZ, along with breaking news and severe weather. “A lot of people in the media move around, but I couldn’t be happier to have stayed at WSAZ. Actually a lot of the people here have been part of the station even longer than I have.”
Although the station produces a split simulcast for Charleston and Huntington, most of the station’s news originates in the Huntington studios. “When you write for broadcast you have to write whether you feel like it or not. And you have to make it matter right away.” The sense of connection to what’s going on is essential for her. “News should be relevant to you. If it’s not relevant, people don’t watch local news.”
“And every now and then”, she says, “you get a story that stops you in your tracks, something that brings out the humanity in people, something that you can feel. You ought to get those, every now and then.”
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