I used to be a producer. Here’s what I wish every PR person knew.

My job entailed a lot of small tasks all day, and that day was broken into multiple deadlines. When I came in — actually as soon as I woke up — I started hunting. Looking for stories. Because about 30 mins after I arrived, I knew I would have to walk into a boardroom and pitch to my boss. Fully-formed ideas for stories or interviews for the show that day or night.

I don't know if you've noticed, but storytelling has suddenly become one of those words everyone uses. According to LinkedIn, U.S. job postings mentioning "storytelling" have doubled in the past year. A skill once associated with journalists, filmmakers and writers is now showing up everywhere, from corporate strategy to executive job descriptions.

But if you don't know how to find your story, it doesn't matter how well you tell it. That's because, as so many journalists know, finding the story is the hard (sometimes excruciating) part.

As any newsroom chase producer will tell you, it is crazy time-consuming to find people with interesting insights, lived experience, and anecdotes to share who also happen to sound human. So we are launching Chase-Worthy: a monthly curation of experts ready and willing to talk on the stories that are in the news – and not going away.

As Senior Story Producer and Creative Partner at That Tracks Content, Melanie will work directly with clients to bring their stories to life. Brands will gain access to an incredible depth of experience and walk away with content that feels human, accessible, and built to create momentum.

There’s a reason “deepfake” has become a dirty word. It’s synonymous with deception, with digitally altered images used to mislead or manipulate. So when CTV’s W5 used AI-generated visuals to help tell a story of sexual violence, I didn’t know how to feel.