Louisville, where we introduce you to the people, places and things that make up Kentucky's largest city.

This week, meet Shay McAlister.

Now, you may know her best from her decade, bringing you the news on Whas 11 here in Louisville.

Or maybe you remember her from the popular Bardstown podcast, or her recent appearance on Dateline to share her insight on that case.

She is an accomplished investigative journalist with six Emmy Awards, three Edward R Murrow awards.

But earlier this year, she made the decision to leave local television news and instead bring you the news her way.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Well, welcome to my friend Shay McAlister.

We are so excited to have you here.

And most people probably know you from.

So there is so much to talk about in this new journalism.

I want to start at the beginning, though.

Tell me about your background.

What made you interested in journalism in the first place?

>> Sure.

So I first decided I needed to be a broadcast journalist when I was ten years old, and I was doing home videos with my parents, and they would record me and I would do a live report from a vacation, from a birthday party, whatever it was.

And they told me, this is a this is what a reporter does.

This is what a broadcast journalist does.

And so having no other information besides that, I could just got to be on camera and talk.

I was like, perfect, that's what I'm going to do.

Then that's my job.

And it really was decided, like as a ten year old, of course, I made a lot of other decisions along the way.

>> Yeah.

>> Went to University of Missouri so I could go to their journalism school, one of the best in the country.

I always like to add.

>> Yes.

>> And then I met with a recruiter for a company that owned TV stations all over the country, including one in Louisville, and got placed here for my first job.

>> Yeah.

So at your first job out of the gate, which knocked it out of the park and ended up as an investigative journalist.

Now not everybody.

That's not for everybody.

So what made you end up in that role?

And was that something that you wanted to do to begin with?

>> No, I don't think so.

You know, in college I started to learn more about ethical reporting and the power of journalism holding people accountable.

This you're in this unique position where you get to ask anyone questions about anything, and they kind of have to answer you, especially if they're a person of power.

So I thought that was really interesting, but very intimidating when I first got started.

And as you know, when you start your first reporting job, you don't get to do those big, hard hitting stories you're doing whatever happens that day.

You know, the 100 year old birthday party, right?

The honor flight, the car crash, the vigil for a homicide victim.

>> News of the day.

>> It's whatever.

Yeah, but then I started to find these little opportunities where I could go a little bit deeper on a story.

I could ask a few more questions.

I could maybe take one topic and do it a few different times in a few different ways.

And I loved that.

I loved getting to spend more time on one specific thing.

And then the first time I had a story that had some sort of outcome and I remember it, it was a law was proposed to be changed in Indiana because of the story.

That was like a high for me, you know, just figuring out that, oh my gosh, I can actually make a difference.

I can fix broken parts of our community.

You know, that was so cool for me and kind of sold me on the investigative journalism.

>> Because you can actually make a difference.

Yeah, that's the wildlife story, right?

>> That one was actually it was called Laura's Law.

>> Okay.

>> And that was a domestic violence case in Madison, Indiana.

And it was so sad.

But in doing multiple reports, it kind of was revealed that it really could have been prevented.

You know, this woman shouldn't have died if this person did their job right.

And this person listened and this person had followed this instruction.

But there was a loophole in the law.

And so I took it to lawmakers and presented it, and they agreed.

And they were like, yes, this is this is broken.

We should fix this.

And they fixed it.

And so that was the first one.

That was it was just empowering and rewarding.

Yeah.

You know that feeling of like, okay, this hopefully this doesn't happen again.

>> Yeah.

And this is actually making a difference in the world.

And I should say too, I started was when I was getting ready to leave.

But we were there around the same time.

And I do remember, you know, you were able to find these stories that nobody else was able to and really dig in and expand on them.

And that is a true talent.

And what, I guess, how do you how do you find the stories and how do you, you were able to connect with the community in a way that I don't think everybody, every reporter does.

>> Well, thank you.

I mean, back then, that was I think I'd been a reporter for a year when I did that first one that I felt like really made a difference.

I would say I just didn't want to be one and done.

I didn't want that to be my reputation that I dropped in in this moment of tragedy.

And I did a news report and I laughed and I never thought about it again.

I wanted the people who were in that community to know that I was listening, and I really cared.

And I wasn't just coming in for one news report.

I wanted to make a difference.

I wanted to help them.

And I felt like you had to be more committed than just that one day.

>> Yeah.

>> You know, so just staying in touch with people afterwards and continuing to ask questions.

And now, ten years later, all of my stories, 100% of them come from people.

>> Yeah, people.

>> Send me a tip.

Did you know about this?

Have you heard about this?

This is so wrong.

You know, what can we do about this?

Every single story I do starts with an email or a message on social media.

>> Yeah.

And it's it's the trajectory has been really, really interesting for for me to watch.

Obviously I'm a little bit of a news nerd, so but I think it is a broader picture of journalism and how journalism is changing.

And so I know a lot of people want to know, you know, you had ten amazing years in Louisville and all these awards.

You get this plum anchor job, which is what most journalists would aspire to.

And then earlier this year, you decided to walk away.

What made you make that decision?

>> I think it was a lot of things.

Number one was growth.

And opportunity has always been so important to me, and I have always had it at was.

I started as this little baby reporter who was working on the weekends, and when I asked for the opportunity to do bigger pieces, you know, investigative pieces, I got it.

You know, a few years in, I was promoted to investigative journalist.

And then I started feeling like, okay, I like this, but I want more responsibility.

I asked for anchor opportunities and I got it.

And then eventually, you know, as you do, I was in that position.

I was anchoring the four and 5:00 news in the evening.

I was doing investigative during the day and it started to feel like, is this is this it is this.

Yeah.

Is this as high as I go here?

Is this as much as I do here?

And I wasn't sure.

And then I had a baby.

>> Yeah.

Which changes everything.

>> Which changes everything.

And all of a sudden, getting home from work at a certain time was really, really important.

And being able to be with her when she was sick was really, really important.

And I started weighing that, because when you're an anchor, you have to be there.

Your show is at the same time every single day.

There's no leaving work early.

You know, it's just it's a different thing.

And then the third layer was just the change in media landscape, the change in how people are consuming news.

I started to wonder, is there a better way for me personally to do this job, and is there a better way for people to get this information?

You know, should we be pouring all of our resources into a TV newscast that has a very small percentage of the community watching at night?

>> Yeah.

>> Which is so hard to admit when you are pouring your everything into.

>> Yeah.

>> And I thought there was I thought there was something different.

I thought there was another way, another another opportunity, another option.

And I just decided to take a leap and try to figure it out.

>> So.

So in the ten years you were there, I mean, I would say arguably the media landscape changed the most, you know, during from when I was there, probably when you left, it's like this real shift in how people consume news.

People are not sitting down at 6:00 and watching the news.

They're getting it constantly all the time.

And so you had this idea of a news platform called Shay informed that I love, by the way, but it is a you're still doing journalism, but tell us about the platform and where this idea came from and what you wanted to provide with it.

>> So the idea was born through multiple brilliant brains, not just my own.

Some of our S11 colleagues Renee Murphy, Rachel Platt, Sarah Wagner, all people we worked with at the TV station, and then my parents as well, people who I could be really honest with, that I wasn't feeling like my future was in that newsroom anymore, but that my future was journalism.

And I didn't know what what that meant.

How can I do journalism outside of the traditional options, which is newspaper, radio and TV?

And it was just lots of conversations, and it was Renee Murphy was the one who was like, I think you can do this on your own.

I think you have the knowledge, the following, and the drive to do this on your own.

And it was Rachel who was like, but how?

How are you going to fact check?

How are you going to keep up with the news, asking those questions that I needed to think about and consider?

And then Sarah came up with the name Shay informed.

And so it was, I just I cannot take any credit for, for doing it alone because it was so many minds.

My dad told me something that, like, resonates with me whenever I start to doubt, and that is that, you know, TV news is the strongest it's ever going to be right now.

And it's not that strong right now.

Yeah.

So what is you know, you have to make a change if you if you really want to do this for the rest of your working life, you have to do something a little bit differently.

Yeah.

And my dad is very, you know, ambitious and just like me, you know, goal setter has this, this kind of fiery spirit of.

Let's just go try.

Yeah.

Let's just go be bold and see what happens.

And he kind of pushed me to get out there and do it.

And so we came up with a name.

We came up with an idea which was that we wanted to I wanted to be able to put stories where people are, which is online.

Yeah.

Social media, email on your phone, easily accessible.

And more than that, I don't want to.

I want the stories to be impactful.

So not just clickbait, filler content that you have to do as an ad based journalism platform, which is TV, radio, newspaper, their ad based.

So every single click matters on Shay informed I'm ad free, I'm subscriber only.

All of the funding comes from subscribers, so that I don't have this pressure to put out clickbaity headlines, to put out things that really aren't that impactful, but get your attention because they make you mad or sad.

>> Yeah.

>> I don't do that, and I don't want to do that.

I want people just to have clear access to what is really important in their community to be informed and make good decisions for their family without all of the junk.

>> Yeah, I think they just said rage bait was like the word.

>> Oh, it was yes.

>> Yes, which makes sense.

You know, there's a lot of that out there.

And so you touched on it a little bit.

But I think people are curious how does how does it work?

How do you you just make money from subscribers.

>> Yes.

So it's a subscriber based platform.

So it's a monthly fee.

It's 4.99.

Or if you do annual it's a little bit of a discount.

It's $50 a year.

And that gets access to the stories that I describe as originals, things you'll only see on my website.

A weekly podcast that is just a rundown of a couple of the big things that happened during our week, and eventually new podcasts that I have planned coming up.

But 90% of what's on the website is free to members, which is just you sign up with your email, and I wanted it to be like that.

I don't want it to be so exclusive that, yeah, you know, only people who can pay have access to to it.

Anything that is time sensitive based on health information, based on public safety is free on the website.

There is no never a paywall behind it.

The stories that have the paywall are more stories that are coming.

From my experience, my connections, my sources, and they're specifically things that you won't find on other websites.

>> Yeah, you touched on the podcast, so I have to go back and we have to talk about Bardstown, because I think a lot of people came to know you through that investigative work, which was incredible, by the way, and not only the the way you covered the story in Bardstown, but then the, the podcast.

And that, I think, is the first indication of realizing that there's more to do journalism wise than what's on TV.

Right?

It was it was that kind of a turning point when you're like, oh, this is interesting.

>> Definitely.

Yeah.

I mean, that was planting an early seed that there's this entire audience who has never seen me on TV and never did see me on TV, but started to follow me just because of the podcast.

It was kind of an early, very early.

>> Yeah.

You're not.

>> Six years.

>> Before.

>> I left TV news, but this early indicator that there's other other platforms that people care about as much or more than TV.

But the podcast was it was such a turning point in my career because it was something I'd never done.

It was just putting myself out there, seeing if if this would make a difference.

At this point, all of the cases are unsolved and have been for years just sitting.

So all of the family members were very eager for any way to just get the information out there.

And like you said, the community really grabbed on to it and loved it and and showed me so much love for it that I saw this, this real desire for this particular story and leaned in.

>> Yeah, well, and that's why, you know, it was the relationship building that you did with that story that put you, you know, in the center of everything and that, you know, that relationship you had with the family led to a lot of exclusive interviews and more information.

And you were recently on a Dateline episode about the story in Bardstown.

What was that like?

That's got to be a crazy moment.

>> Oh my gosh, an unbelievable experience.

You know, Dateline is like the pinnacle of true crime.

And I have to say, after working with them so closely, I was lucky.

So I wasn't just an interviewee, but I was brought on as a contributor.

So I kind of got this look behind the curtain, which was so cool because they are a top notch news organization.

They are ethical, they are fact checking every single thing.

I mean, when I tell you I worked with them for, I guess it was about four months on this and they were texting me every other day.

Is this correct?

Is this we got video of this thing, is this the right house?

Did this happen on this day or, you know, was it on Tuesday or Wednesday?

I mean, every single Small thing, they wanted to make sure it was right.

And I really appreciated that about them.

It wasn't just entertainment.

It really is fact based journalism, which is important to me.

If I'm going to put my name on it and my face on it, sure.

But that's what they're doing and that is what they're doing.

>> And ultimately seeing a little bit of resolution in that case, what was that like?

>> That was I mean, unlike anything sitting in the courtroom on the second trial for the Crystal Rogers case, hearing guilty verdicts was almost an out of body experience.

After ten years.

>> Ten years of covering this case?

>> Yes.

And of and of knowing, you know, for police named a main suspect in the case within months of Crystal's disappearance.

It wasn't there wasn't a big question mark as there is on some of the other cases.

There was someone in mind and that person was just out free living life.

And for the family to get that final closure.

I mean, it was just it's hard to describe.

I mean, it was I had to like, check myself back in as a journalist in that moment and put my own emotions on hold until later that night.

>> I bet that's that's a big part of it.

When you do get so involved with a story, particularly with that one, when you're, you know, becoming really close with the family, you're a human being.

So how do you separate your own emotion and feeling from covering something like that?

>> It was challenging in that one, but it was so critically important because I felt like I had the trust of the public, because I had been fair and honest and transparent and factual, and I never want to sacrifice any of those things.

Those are, you know, basic tenets of journalism.

So it was critical to hang on to them in that moment.

But I am a human.

And hearing Sherry Ballard, you know, a mom whose daughter is missing, whose husband has been killed, and she is sobbing right behind me.

She was sitting in the row right behind me when that verdict came down.

You know, it is challenging to hear that and then kind of check back in that, you know, I'm going to think about this moment later.

Yeah.

I'm going to let you know, let this resonate later.

Because right now is about the facts, right.

And is about what, you know, the case and what's happening.

>> Yeah.

And I think, too, when it comes back to the new journalism that, that you're doing with Shay and formed, I know a lot of people, including myself, wondering, how are you doing it all by yourself?

You have a 13 month old now at home.

You're expecting another baby soon, and you're out there covering really everything that's happening in the community.

It feels like.

>> It's challenging and it's something that I knew would be a learning curve, because I'm used to working in a 50 person newsroom.

Right where there's plenty of people to get out to everything.

>> Yeah.

>> So it's different, but I've had to prioritize, number one, not covering every single thing.

And to me, that was making decisions on what are the most impactful stories.

What do people really need to know?

What do people care about most?

You know, do they care about that car crash that nobody got hurt in but blocked the road for three hours?

>> Right?

>> Maybe.

>> Yeah.

>> But you know.

>> There's a place for that.

>> Yeah.

And it's not it's not my platform.

>> Right.

>> And so I've just had to kind of define that.

And I've only been doing this for three months.

>> Yeah.

>> So when I tell you my my process changes every day, it is literally changing every day.

Yeah.

I'm listening to feedback.

I'm listening to what people like, what they want to see, what they don't like.

You know, what are people clicking on?

What are they paying attention to?

What are they asking more questions about?

I'm really trying to make this what people want it to be.

Yeah.

So I spend a lot of time kind of internalizing the feedback and then deciding, okay, how can I do it better tomorrow?

>> Yeah.

Do you think this is the future of journalism?

>> I think that some form of this is the future of journalism, local journalism, at least.

I think that people no longer look to a certain agency or organization.

They look to a person.

So, for example, you know, people are looking to Doug Proffitt, you know, at Knott was and I think that's what allowed me to even take this step, is that people were looking to me, not the news organization.

And so much is changing.

So much is changing.

You know, ownership is changing.

Yeah.

We I think this time next year, TV and Louisville specifically is going to look so different just because of all of the changes that are coming to our community that are beyond anyone in our community's control.

Right.

You know, it's not it's not a change of heart by the local journalists.

It's a change of ownership.

And I don't know how that's going to impact what they're doing.

And I hope that I'm helping at least find a way to give a local journalist who is beaten down and broken by what's happening in the newsroom, another way to do this, because, you know, local journalism is so important.

>> Yeah, it.

>> Is so important.

>> Right.

And I don't know if a lot of people realize when we talk about ownership and, you know, all of the local stations here are owned by companies that are not from here.

And our our own multiple TV stations in multiple cities.

And, you know, so it's it's interesting, I think, for a layperson to realize, you know, who's in, who's in charge of what news you're seeing.

>> And it's becoming increasingly more about money.

And that hurts quality.

Yeah.

You know, it's it's becoming about getting getting more with less.

And people, you know, the burnout in local journalism because of those big corporate decisions is just becoming astounding and heartbreaking.

Sure.

Honestly.

>> Yeah.

Well, I mean, I hear from people all the time and they're like, why does nobody stay?

Why why is everybody leaving this station or that station?

And and that's why.

And and like you said, it's not because of anything we don't want to do or don't love doing anymore.

So I think it's really interesting that you've found a place where you can still do what you're so great at and what you love and, and serve the community in that way.

What do you see for the future of your platform?

Are you going to expand or are you going to hire people?

What's what's the future goals?

>> I think my dream, I mean, big, huge.

Dream would be figure this out and teach other local journalists how to do it themselves.

Yeah, I think giving other local journalists a blueprint that allows them to stay in this industry, doing this important critical work in communities would be the ultimate, ultimate dream.

>> You can watch and share this episode anytime at Keturah InsideLouisville, and be sure to give us a follow on social media, where Shay will share some of her insights about her favorite local stories that she's covered over the years.

You can find us on Instagram at KET.

LOU.

Thanks for spending a little time getting to know Louisville.

I hope we'll see you here next time.

Until then, make it a great week!