Education has often been overlooked. Feder backed up his philosophy by allocating resources to education coverage. Ford has a part-time producer assigned to help her. Ford is rarely pulled from her education specialty to cover general news, but pitches in when big stories or staff shortages demand it. Newscast producers understand that education coverage is a signature of WABC's newscasts, and give the stories appropriate play.
Reporters build expertise over time .
Celeste Ford has worked for WABC since 1988. Education has always been an interest of mine. Getting into the schools can be tricky. But Ford the generalist continued to mine the schools for stories. Her persistence paid off.