Breaking News Bond: A Journey from NBC News to Public Relations at Nickerson

It takes time to build a successful team – you need to have trust, familiarity, and a sense of each other’s strengths. It’s something Shannon and I have thankfully had the opportunity to build upon for years and it goes well beyond our current roles, Shannon as Director of PR & Media Relations and myself as Senior Manager of PR & Communications.

Both Shannon and I arrived at Nickerson via a nontraditional route. We spent years working in television news at stations across the country; Shannon as a reporter then anchor, myself as a producer and eventually executive producer. We met in 2017 as our station in Boston prepared to launch as a brand-new network. Working in television news, you become close; think 10-12 hours a day and sometimes more in extreme, high-stress situations. Our relationship started as anchor and producer, and we quickly developed a trust in each other’s abilities. I joke that I can hear Shannon’s voice in my head. It’s not really a joke, I really can, and to this day I would be able to write any story you might ask me to in her exact delivery. You learn each other’s quirks, preferences, and habits.

To give a little insider insight, if breaking news is happening, an anchor rarely has a full script in the prompter. Instead, they rely on the producer in the booth to relay that information, often while they are talking live on air. Shannon and I became particularly adept at this. She knows how to give a perfect pause while I quickly give her the bullet points of what we learned for her to share with the viewers.

Through the years, we both grew into our roles at the station, launching an 11pm newscast in a new building with a team that truly cared about creativity and making a difference. We tried everything: from segments where we seamlessly blended English and Spanish reports to reach a broader audience, to extreme weather coverage where we would decide on the fly what came next, to championship runs for the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins.

When the pandemic hit, we were among the few people still in the building every day. Storytelling and facts were of the utmost importance. The world shrank for our viewers, and we needed to provide the updates they desperately needed to connect. We also needed that connection in our own small newsroom bubble. News is always personal, but it took on a whole new level as we lived what we were reporting.

When people ask me to describe how I know Shannon, it always gives me pause. How do you describe a person you have spent so much time with and trust so implicitly? It’s more than a colleague, it’s more than a friend, it’s the definition of a teammate. Our longstanding relationship has proved invaluable at Nickerson, as Shannon and I collaborate to deliver media coverage and communications initiatives for our client-partners. We are grateful for our time in television, as it’s allowed us to know what makes a good story.