[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - Hi, everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with the great anchor of "NJ Spotlight News," Briana Vannozzi.

Briana, good to see you again.

- Hey, Steve, thanks for having me on the show.

- You got it.

Listen, part of our mini series, I came up with this media leadership thing, like, "Hey, we, in the media, are challenged.

It's an uncertain time.

Some call us the enemy of the people."

Where do you believe we are in the media, particularly in public media in 2025?

Big picture question, I know, but your thoughts matter greatly to our audience.

- Well, we've been having that conversation for a long time, actually, about what does our future look like and how do we get back to what public media's charge initially was, which was, you know, both filling the void of a small market that otherwise doesn't get coverage by large commercial markets and telling local stories that essentially act as an archive of our history that no one else is going to make or create.

And we often get stuck in this, you know, talk about, is linear media still going to be around?

Does broadcast media, is it going to exist?

And it is and it does.

It's just in different forms, and we have to not pigeonhole ourselves to think about media being this one item.

It's all about our storytelling and about our interviews and about our journalism, honestly, and our ability to package it in the ways that consumers now are doing it.

So yeah, it's a tricky time.

I think it's just a tricky time for media, in general, for, you know, quote unquote, "Legacy media," when the rise of influencers on social media are playing a much more prominent role than they have in the past.

And what that says about your credibility as a citizen journalist versus, say a, you know, seasoned journalist, who's worked for a media outlet.

And we're all sort of figuring it out as we go, but I don't think it's going to go anywhere, but we are going to be changing.

I mean, we have already over the years, right?

I mean, look at how we're filming this right now.

- But being the anchor of "NJ Spotlight News" is different than what it would've been 10 years ago, what it was 10 years ago.

Is this what you thought it would be, Briana?

- Well, first of all, I never thought that I would be doing this, quite honestly.

- You did not?

- I did not, no.

I mean, I didn't even think that I wanted to go into TV until I actually got into TV, and then, you know, met my mentors and started doing this type of work.

And then, as we like to say, you'd get bit by the bug and you see your blinders go up and there's almost nothing else you could see yourself doing.

And I still feel that way.

I cannot imagine not doing this.

That being said, no, I really didn't ever see myself as the anchor.

I think I had a little bit of imposter syndrome, if I'm being really candid with you.

- Hold on, Briana, did you see yourself as a, quote, listen, she's a producer and all of us who are on camera, if we're not producers, we're not doing our job.

Did you see yourself, dare I say, as a behind the scenes, sorry for interrupting, behind the scenes producer of someone else?

- I saw myself as a journalist always.

That's always what I wanted to do.

Whatever form that took was going to play out organically, and it did.

And I've always been one, you know, Steve, to seize whatever opportunity I have.

I saw myself as a journalist and I still see myself as a journalist.

In fact, when I talk to people in my personal life and they ask what I do, I say I am a journalist.

I don't even say I'm, and as we get to talking, I'll say, you know, "I'm the anchor at NJ Spotlight News" on NJ PBS.

- You don't lead with being the anchor?

- I never do, I never do.

I always talk about being a journalist because at my core and at our core, that's what we are.

Yeah, I'm a TV host or presenter, on-air talent, you know, all those terms that we love to use, but really, I'm a writer and a producer, and a storyteller and a journalist.

And so my whole point is that, yeah, that takes different forms.

And so now even our show that we do, our nightly show, it is so different now because it's in conjunction with everything that we're doing for our digital platforms, our multimedia stories that we tell, just the format that we do, because people have a lot of choices and people love to curate their news.

You know, I'm speaking to the choir here.

And fundamentally, we are trying to stay focused on what it is we do best, which is local creation, local coverage, local content that is uniquely ours.

- Along those lines, Briana, for those who do see us, quote, "As the enemy of the people," and folks who think, they think we have an agenda, per se, you never have, you don't.

Explain that to folks.

Your agenda is not ideological.

Your agenda is not partisan.

Your agenda is not with a candidate, with a party.

Explain to folks how you do that.

- Well, first I'll say that's why I, and myself, and a lot of us who work in public media, work here.

That's the number one reason why.

- As opposed to a network that, sorry for interrupting, a media platform that clearly has a point of view and an agenda.

Pick up your point, Briana.

- It's not what we learn as journalists, and it's not, for me, first of all, that's not in my core.

But I have no, this is not to knock any of that, right?

I mean, there are a lot of really good journalists on lots of different platforms, whether or not they have an ideology that I agree with or disagree with.

There's good storytelling happening and there's good reporting happening.

But for those of us who choose to work in public media, this is the reason why.

We don't wanna be beholden to anything.

We don't wanna have that commercialization that is inevitably just the business model of how media organizations need to be run in order to keep the lights on, quite frankly.

But it is a very difficult business model to sustain.

So we do it by having very difficult, very frank editorial conversations.

We do it by making sure that we are not just reaching out to the right voices, but to all sorts of diverse voices, that we're representing the people who we cover, and making sure that our news and our stories are of the people who are in New Jersey, who are our, you know, our audience on all of our platforms.

So it's definitely getting harder to do, I'll say that, because more and more- - The economics are challenging, let's just say that.

- Well, the economics are challenging, and more and more folks want you to fall hard on one side or another.

Although, we know that there is a desire for just straight reporting, but it is a tricky landscape.

I'm not going to sugarcoat that, you know, everyone knows we've gone through layoffs here in our newsroom.

That was a gut punch, honestly.

We're not isolated by any means from what every other media organization has been going through in these last few years, really, since the pandemic.

- Yeah, I take back what I said.

Briana Vannozzi does have an agenda and it's what she just described, serving the people together with her colleagues in "NJ Spotlight News" every night, their needs, their issues, their concerns, their lives.

Briana Vannozzi is the great anchor, whether she leads with that or not in her introduction to people, she's the anchor of "NJ Spotlight News."

Check them out every night and also check them out online as well.

Briana, my friend and colleague, we're all proud of you.

Well done.

- Thanks so much, Steve.

That means a lot, I appreciate it.

- You got it.

That's Briana Vannozzi, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

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