Ford saw a very fixable problem that citizens would care about, so she pitched the story to her shop. She suggested it as a sweeps story. It was not a hard sell. Former WABC News Director Bart Feder made education coverage a priority in his shop. The decision was based on Feder's news values and buttressed by viewer surveys.
Research says viewers want education reporting.
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.