Breaking News Barriers: Northeastern-WCVB Partnership Honored with regional Murrow Award
A research partnership between Northeastern University’s School of Journalism and WCVB-TV in Boston has been recognized with a major journalism award.
WCVB received a 2025 regional RTDNA Edward R. Murrow award for excellence in innovation. For the award, WCVB submitted ten videos produced by Leanna Scachetti. Scachetti joined the WCVB newsroom in December 2023 as a video innovation fellow through the Reinventing Local TV News Project, led by Northeastern School of Journalism professors Mike Beaudet and John Wihbey. WCVB hired Scachetti full time as an OTT reporter and producer after her fellowship ended, signaling the station’s recognition of the new role’s value.
Scachetti said the Murrow award “strengthens the resolve that I have that the work that we’re doing to engage younger audiences in a variety of formats is worthwhile… and [that] other people are recognizing [its] value.”
Scachetti called the award a “group win” because of all the people who have contributed to the work, particularly WCVB’s digital team led by digital media manager Phil Tenser. She noted that one of the videos included in the submission was a story about Boston nightlife produced in partnership with students at Northeastern who were learning to discover and produce underreported stories.
Other videos in the submission covered a range of topics including severe weather, fire safety and ballot questions in the 2024 election. Scachetti’s video about how to enjoy Boston while spending just $40 for the day was part of a collaboration that she produced with animation fellow Gabrielle Aidam, WLS fellow Angela Chen and WCBS fellow Maggie Cole. Videos included in the submission amassed more than 1 million views on various platforms.
WCVB learned they’d received this award in addition to seven other regional Murrow awards at the end of May, when the newsroom began hosting internal workshops based on lessons learned from Scachetti’s fellowship and the Northeastern research project. Led by news director Margaret Cronan, the sessions demonstrated strategies for reporters and photographers to produce vertical video content designed for social media.
WCVB’s parent company Hearst has also embraced Scachetti’s work and Northeastern’s research. Scachetti partnered with the Hearst Digital Strategy Team to present best practices in vertical video to digital content managers at the nearly three dozen stations the company owns. The Reinventing Local TV News Project will be hosting additional workshops later this fall when they release detailed findings from their most recent research phase.
Producing stories for platforms like TikTok and Instagram allows newsrooms to be part of the conversation where young viewers are, and hopefully build brand association, said Schachetti, “so that when something happens in their community…there’s this association with Channel 5 that they can connect with us as their local station.”
Because today’s younger adults might not be engaging with traditional news formats as much as previous generations, Scachetti said it’s essential to bring them trusted information, saying, ”We need to serve them just as much as we serve any demographic.”
Keep up with the Reinventing Local TV News Project by signing up for their email list here. Read previous stories about their work here. Their research findings and industry playbook, including best practices for engaging younger generations with news media, will be released in the fall.
