The Survival Guide for ALL Broadcast Journalists
Second Edition—ISBN: 978-0-9843125-3-5 (softcover)
It Takes More Than Good Looks To Succeed At Television News Reporting
by Wayne Freedman, Winner of 51 Emmys
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Wayne Freedman has reported at the network and local levels for more than three decades. He has received 51 Emmy awards, all while living in San Francisco.
Readers of It Takes More Than Good Looks see what he sees, struggle as he struggles, and learn as he solves problems. “We learn through experience, so I tried to make the book a mind meld,” said Freedman, who wrote in anecdotal form while drawing lessons from his rich and fascinating career. The book is an instructional memoir. “People remember details when they relate to a story. The formula works in news reporting and also teaching,” says Freedman. “This is not a book for fact crammers. It’s about learning to tell any kind of news story in a narrative style. Stories that stick.”
The first edition of It Takes More Than Good Looks became required reading in more than fifty college journalism programs. Freedman has added new chapters, new examples, and ten years more wisdom.
“When I was a young reporter, I wanted to be exactly like Wayne Freedman. If only he’d written this book sooner.”
Steve Hartman, CBS News Correspondent
“I read the first edition as a cub reporter. Now I work in a major market, and the book helped me get there.”
Brian Kuebler, reporter for WMAR-TV in Baltimore
“I have recommended his book to countless journalism students and young reporters I have met, mentored, or hired.”
Tracey Watkowski, news director for KFSN-TV in Fresno
“Students won’t need my classes if they internalize this.”
David Hazinski, former NBC News correspondent
Professor of Journalism at the University of Georgia
Meet Wayne
Wayne Freedman has written and reported most of his life. In ninth grade, he published his first column for what became The Los Angeles Daily News, and continued writing it through high school.
He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from UCLA while working as a network page assigned to the newsroom at KABC-TV in Los Angeles. In 1978 he received a Masters Degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri.
Wayne has been on San Francisco television for more than thirty years. He began at KRON-TV in 1981, after jobs at WLKY-TV and WAVE-TV in Louisville, and KDFW-TV in Dallas. He moved to CBS Network News in 1989, producing and reporting national feature stories while based in San Francisco. In 1991 he joined KGO-TV.
Since 1990, Wayne has conducted hundreds of writing and visual storytelling seminars for newsrooms and national organizations.
Wayne has been honored with 51 Emmy® Awards by the Northern California Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He received thirteen of those Emmys for Writing, and fourteen in the On Camera News Talent category. He has received other multiple Emmys for Breaking News, Feature Reporting, Feature Series, Sports Reporting, and News Programming Special. Wayne is also a member of that organization’s Silver Circle. In 2011, he earned his 50th Emmy for shooting and editing his own stories as a Multi-media Journalist.
Wayne is a dedicated and frustrated golfer who has been known to shoot an occasional round at scratch. He is a member of the Golf Writers Association of America, having produced articles for several national publications.
Wayne Freedman lives in Marin County with his wife and daughter.
How we met
It was January 11, 2011 when I first met Wayne Freedman via email. His book was required reading by University Journalism Professors even though it was out of print.
“New copies often sell for more than $150. No kid should have to pay that much.”
