NEFE Spotlight: How Innovation Can Bring Financial Reporting to a New Audience

When Chris Chmura, Consumer Investigative Reporter, KNTV-TV / NBC Bay Area, and his colleagues first had an idea to make financial “How To” videos and post them directly to YouTube, they first were met with a “no.”

“This was outside the comfort zone,” Chmura said. 

But he believed in the project, a way to reach a new audience with financial advice. So he and his team persisted. Eventually, they were given the green light to try the project on a trial basis. 

“The viewers are responding,” Chmura said. “The users on YouTube are responding. We’re getting questions back, and that’s important for us. We’re engaging with the audience.”

For his successful, and innovative, work, Chmura was the winner of the 2021 Excellence in Personal Finance Reporting Awards, TV, presented by RTDNA and the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE). He spoke during a panel discussion featuring other winners of the award at RTDNA 21 in Denver.

“We always look for a lesson that applies to everyone, that’s really general,” he said. “So our goal with this project is to take that lesson, break it down step by step, produce it for the YouTube audience and then — this was a big deal — make the jump to take that YouTube video and put it back on the television. There was resistance at first, but … it’s been a great success.”

Hear more from Chmura in the video above. Watch his award-winning video here.