pulse | CHATTER
PHILADELPHIA SEPTEMBER 2006
MEDIA
The TV
Guide
Laura Nachman
Why your local anchor is reading "The Bucks County Courier
Times"
Getting
hired six years ago without even meeting her bosses (which she still hasn't to
this day) is just one of the quirky details that make Nachman so refreshing, and
her columns as NBC 10's Vai Sikahema has called them, "watercooler
stories."
A
married 41-year-old mother of two and an obsessive fan of "The Brady
Bunch," Nachman digs up her dirt from home. In the six years her
"Channel Surfing" column has run in the "Courier Times,"
she's kept pace with the big boys at the "Inquirer" and "Daily
News" on juicy stories like former Fox anchor Rich Noonan's
reverse-discrimination lawsuit against his station or more recently, NBC10's
Vince DeMentri's confrontation with reputed tough guy Glenn
"Hurricane" Schwartz.
"I
grew up on Gail Shister," Nachman says of the longtime "Inquirer"
scribe who stopped focusing on local newsies years ago. "I think I
picked up the mantle from her."
Nachman
has heard from a few unhappy targets of her columns, including one anchor who
took exception to a Nach attack.
"She
wrote me a blistering e-mail 10 minutes before her newscast and called me
later," Nachman says. "It's like, I'm glad you're busy."
Getting chewed out by the talent does expose Nachman to the often maniacal egos
of the biz, but it also means they're paying attention.
"She
knows more about TV than anybody around," says an insider at one station.
"She breaks stories. It probably doesn't get as much attention
because she works for a suburban newspaper."