Steph Watts- Chicago Bureau Producer, Good Morning America
10/23/2008
By Sarah Hetland
Steph Watts’ career path has been anything but ordinary. He has worked in forestry, modeling and retail, as well as behind-the-scenes film production. After finding his way into journalism, it’s no surprise Watts comes off as a hardworking and well-traveled individual.
Watts originally decided to get into journalism while working behind the scenes in the film industry. He discovered how much he enjoyed interviewing, and after returning to his hometown of Toronto to get his communications degree, he got an opportunity to study television news production at a summer program in New York. By 1998 he had moved to the city and soon landed his first journalism job working as assistant to the executive editor at The Village Voice.
What he learned there and the topics he covered was only the beginning of what would become a theme for his career, a direction that Watts said he never set out for.
“I somehow fell into covering crime and justice,” Watts said. “I think there’s a compassionate side to [covering] crime … The victim side and the family side and the back stories have always interested me, and I think I just naturally got drawn to that.”
This draw soon had Watts working as a producer for Court TV, which has since been rebranded as truTV. It was with Court TV that his career began to really take off. He gained experience with live daytime trial coverage, produced an entertainment legal show called Hollywood at Large and produced other coverage involving celebrities and the legal system.
“I remember the first case that I covered, and I just had a knack for it,” said Watts. “It worked out and seemed like a good fit for me.” He added, “It’s interesting when I talk about it because it surprises me, because it’s not something I set out to do.”
Those four years with Court TV ended up being a launching pad that has since brought Watts into high-profile newsrooms, from producing and reporting for CNN Headline News and the Nancy Grace show to FOX News Channel’s On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, and most recently his new position as producer for Good Morning America, based out of the Chicago bureau. With ten years behind him and the majority of it covering crime and justice, Watts’ career certainly hasn’t been without its challenges.
“What I really strive to do is to make sure that we’re telling the truth,” said Watts. “There’s two sides to every story and somewhere in the middle lies the truth.
“One thing that I’ve learned along the way is that I don’t take anything for face value,” he added. “As journalists we can’t be lazy and just take at face value what people tell us. We have to dig.” When the job is done right and it’s seen firsthand that a difference can be made, that’s when he enjoys his job the most.
Watts really got to see his persistence pay off while covering the Drew Peterson case in Chicago for On the Record. Their investigative work resulted in the death of Peterson’s third wife, Kathleen Savio, being reclassified as a homicide, and Watts said he is very proud of that. Being able to offer something to the families of victims is “unbelievably rewarding and makes it totally worthwhile.” He said he plans to continue to monitor that case with Good Morning America as well.
With so much of his career dedicated to crime and justice, what does this new position with Good Morning America mean for him? Watts said he thought long and hard about it, and he’s ready for the change of pace and a new direction.
“There is a certain burnout factor with what I’ve been doing,” he explained. ”You run from one tragedy to the next. Like Virginia Tech, you’re there with hundreds of grieving families, and then you go to Hurricane Katrina, and then you go to the next missing person story.”
He continued, ““So when I was approached by GMA, I realized I would have the opportunity to continue to do those stories, but I would also have the opportunity to do more feel-good stories.”
With Good Morning America being two hours long, he’ll have a chance to expand on these topics, giving him more room to balance light and serious pieces, something he’s been looking to do for a while.
“We’ve got to remember that at the core of this, and what interests people, are human stories,” he said. ”There’s a certain compassion that you have to have, and especially if someone is trying to make a decision about who they are going to let tell their story … A lot of times it’s really a sincerity, and I don’t think you can fake sincerity.
“This is a tough business and it’s a changing business, and I’ve tried really hard to hang onto the integrity that I’ve been taught,” said Watts.
Pitching Tips
Watts prefers that most pitches be sent through e-mail because he has his Blackberry with him at all times. Regarding pitches, he says, “I really want who, what, where, why, how. I really want them short, and I can’t stress that enough … A lot of people are sending me literally essays and I don’t have time to read them,” said Watts. “They really need to be short, concise and clear, really clear about what is it that you are pitching to me.
“People should also try to make stuff current,” he adds. “If you’re pitching a therapist or a doctor, pitch to me why they would be good now. Look at the economy. Look at the stress from the election. Make it current. Stuff’s got to be timely,” said Watts. When pitching an expert on a subject, he said, “Don’t just bring me experts; bring me a reason to have them on.”
He also recommends that PR professionals ask themselves, ”Is this, what I’m about to pitch him, something that’s going to be good for Good Morning America?” With the program being one of the top-rated morning shows today, Watts said, “You can imagine the stuff that we get, so people need to be realistic about what exactly it is.” He added, “I don’t mind people saying to me that this may not be right for you, but if you could help me get it somewhere else, I’d appreciate it.”
Though Watts doesn’t mind calls at the office, he stresses it can be difficult to find him there since he’s regularly out in the field or out of town, and he doesn’t always remember to check his voice mail. So with pitches that are time sensitive, e-mail is the one and only way to go.
Watts says he’s still feeling his way through the new format since starting with Good Morning America, but he’s open to a variety of topics, including lifestyle stories, human interest, crime and justice. He is most interested in the human interest and survival stories, especially with the economy the way that it is. “A lot of people have overcome obstacles, have overcome the odds; those stories are great for us,” said Watts.