KVOA – News 4 Tucson
After spending nearly two years in Iowa, Anthony returned to Tucson’s NBC-affiliated television station, News 4 Tucson to lead its digital news division from July 2018 to July 2022. In the lead digital content producer role, Anthony helped create and implement an overall digital strategy to help KVOA move into the new digital age. This strategy included creating roles for various news team members, from producers to anchors, and highlighting their strengths to help grow News 4 Tucson’s overall digital presence. This included assigning on-air talent to manage the station’s Instagram page to give it a more personal feel and requiring them to host Facebook Live videos to enhance overall audience engagement, allowing our broadcast producers to show off their writing skills by assigning digital stories for them to publish on our website, and mandating photographers to take photos when out in the field and sharing them on our Twitter page.
Through this strategy, News 4 Tucson became the second-highest news presence in Southern Arizona on Facebook. In addition, KVOA led its competitors in overall engagement in Anthony’s four years of service.
News 4 Tucson Facebook Analytics
AG files motion to lift Pima County’s injunction that blocks 1901 abortion ban
Published on July 13, 2022, this story covers the latest developments on abortion in the state of Arizona. This story goes into the legal complexities of the state’s current abortion laws after the Supreme Court ruled on June 25, 2022 to end constitutional protections for abortion. It touches on the state’s 1901 abortion ban, Pima County’s injunction that was implemented to halt the territorial-era law, the recently approved SB-1164 15-week abortion ban, the blocking of Arizona’s 2021 personhood law, and the current climate surrounding abortion access and clinics in the city of Tucson.
Shell Yeah! Tucson police help tortoise safely cross the road
Published on Jul 26, 2021, this story covers a tremendous act of a Tucson Police Department officer going above and beyond for one of the desert’s most beloved residents. Through navigating social media, Anthony was able to create this web story, which ended up being one of News 4 Tucson’s most engaging digital posts of the year. * digital analytics included in the headline link
End of Era: Tucsonans share beloved memories amid closure of Old Tucson Studios
Published on Sep. 8, 2020, Anthony and the News 4 Tucson created this story after reaching out to the community to share their memories about a major tourist attraction in the Old Pueblo after it closed indefinitely due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Published on Aug 16, 2021, this story details the legal feud between the City of Tucson and the State of Arizona in regards to the nationwide vaccine policy. From city council-approved actions to executive orders issued by Gov. Doug Ducey, this story outlines the legal complexities of the COVID-19 vaccine and mask requirements in the City of Tucson. This article also touches on how Pima County leaders handled the vaccine and mask requirements.
TPD releases body cam footage of fatal shooting of 17-year-old
Published on Sept. 2, 2020, this story covers the controversial shooting of a 17-year-old Hispanic male in connection to an undercover investigation into the purchase of illegal narcotics. As a result of the 2020 death of George Floyd, this case was closely followed on the national circuit, as many police reform advocates used this incident to promote change in policing practices in the City of Tucson.
Evacuation orders issued due to Bighorn Fire
After a lightning strike ignited a wildfire in the Catalina Mountains on June 5, 2020, Anthony and the News 4 Tucson digital team served as an important emergency notifications service for Tucson and Oro Valley residents impacted by the Bighorn Fire, which burned 119,987 acres by the time it was completely extinguished on July 23, 2020.
The devastating impact of the fire could still be seen two years later.
Special Delivery Nandi the elephant’s sister born at Reid Park Zoo
Published on April 6, 2020, this story captured one of Tucson’s most precious moments of 2020 — the birth of a new baby elephant. Later named Penzi, this little elephant and her big sister, Nandi became the unofficial mascots of the Old Pueblo. From marking each major milestone to celebrating each birthday, this was one of the few bright spots of 2020, which was highlighted by the pandemic, many major shootings and devastating wildfires.
#GreenShirtGuy goes viral for laughing at Trump supporter at Tucson City Council meeting
Published on Aug 7, 2019, News 4 Tucson captured the national spotlight after its Weekend Reporter/MMJ Nick Vinzant captured Alex Kack, better known by Twitter as #GreenShirtGuy, reacting to a rant by a woman wearing a MAGA hat during a Tucson City Council meeting that was held the day prior.
The original video captured 18.1 million views and inspired a timeless GIF that has made appearances on all major social media platforms. The video caught the attention of comedian Patton Oswalt, Stephen Colbert and Kathy Griffin, and organizations like The Hill, Newsweek, Heavy.com and Mashable. * more digital analytics included in the headline link
Tip leads to capture of escaped suspects of Tucson murder
Back on April 16, 2019, Anthony and the News 4 Tucson team began their coverage of a house fire where the resident of the home, later identified as Frank Bligh, was unable to be found. After Tucson Police Department presumed Bligh was dead, a homicide investigation was launched on May 14, 2019. However, the case captured national headlines after the suspects of the case, Susan and Blane Barksdale, escaped custody during extradition from New York. After a 16-day search, the two were located in Tonto Basin, Ariz. on Sept. 11, 2019. However, after pleading guilty in connection to the case in Dec. 2021, Blane and Susan Barksdale released the location of Bligh’s remains, which were found deep in the Salt River Canyon on Jan. 4, 2022. On April 29, 2022, Blane Barksdale was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the 2019 murder. His wife received 5 years in prison.
Anthony also served as a Web Content Producer at Tucson’s NBC-affiliated television station, KVOA Communications from Sept. 2014 to Dec. 2016. Under the mentorship of Scott Oathout and Mike Truelsen, Anthony gained skills with web design using the WorldNow content management platform, social media management, audience development and the importance of immediacy, accuracy and factuality. Anthony has published over 1,000 AP-Style web stories for KVOA. The stories published include content generated from breaking news, press releases and translated broadcast script. He also dealt with managing social media accounts, including Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter, as well as done some promotions work over the same medium.
Anthony helps manage and generate content for KVOA’s news website. With nearly 30 million page views since he began, Anthony has helped KVOA’s website steadily grow. Aiding with technical website problems, fact-checking and proofreading, Anthony has helped KVOA gain regular visitors by generating new content and creating a smooth medium to connect the newscast to the web. This enhances the viewers’ experience, and ultimately maintains a healthy and positive audience-media relationship.
Since joining KVOA’s web content team, KVOA’s Facebook page likes have increased from 82,565 likes to 122,729. Since then, the audience reach, post reach, shares and comments have been steadily improving, making KVOA Facebook page the one of the highest used news page in Tucson.
Anthony also helps manage KVOA Twitter account. The page currently has posted over 74,000 tweets and has nearly 36,000 followers.
Tweets by @AnthonyVicReyesStory Ideas/Content Generation:
One of Anthony’s major roles at KVOA is generating content for the site, and being the eyes and ears of the organization on social media. Through the use of social media, personal connections and overall community insight, Anthony has helped reporters and producers fill their shows with new content on multiple occasions. The following are a few examples of story ideas that later developed into news packages.
Delta Airlines flight diverted to Tucson, 1 person detained
Published on June 6, 2016 at 6:01 p.m., this story covered a diverted flight traveling from San Antonio to Tucson. The flight was forced to land at Tucson International Airport after security had to detain an unruly passenger. This story proved a great example of social media content generation. Through the combined effort of KVOA’s news staff, we were able to compile a story that progressed over Twitter. Airport security regularly posted updates of the incident primarily on their Twitter account, and did not inform the media through press releases or contacting us directly. Through searching related Twitter timelines, we were able to find a video of the passenger being detained, and the flight being diverted down into TIA. Thanks to this, we were able to have a complete, visual story for our broadcast.
Video of removal. pic.twitter.com/Hb2cQq1B2j
— Ryan (@ryanhealy) June 23, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Tucson dance crew wins USA Hip-Hop Championship
Published on Aug. 5, 2015 at 10:17 p.m., this story covered the success of a local hip-hop dance studio as they represented the United States at the World Hip-Hop Championships. Through Anthony’s connections in the dance world, he learned one of the hip-hop crew of his dance colleagues recently won the USA Hip-Hop Championships. Anthony compiled the information and created a web story. The Facebook post of the story reached 116,852 people with 4,299 likes, 269 comments and 447
shares overall. The post received 6,509 clicks and 3,823 link clicks. This post had the highest reach total in August. On Twitter, the story also received a month high 35 retweets and 45 favorites. Due to the success of the story, Monica Garcia did a follow-up story on Aug. 12 for the newscast at noon.
Crime Trackers: Man shot, pepper sprayed, robbed and left for dead
Published on April 19, 2016 at 6:04 p.m., this story told the story of a Tucson man after he was shot in the back of the neck and pepper sprayed during a meeting where he was supposed to meet a girl to sell her some e-cigarettes. This story was brought to Anthony’s attention through Facebook. A friend of the victim reached out to News 4 Tucson and requested to a story. Anthony then gathered the contact information of the victim and his girlfriend, gathered photos and other information, and sent it to the show producers. Lupita Murillo then did a full, Crime Trackers package that debuted on April 19 in the 5 p.m. newscast. Thanks to the help of the story, the victim’s gofundme account raised $1,349 to help pay for the victim’s hospital bills. The story reached 46,265 people on Facebook, receiving 492 reactions. The story also had 2,482 link clicks
Owners say ‘Trumpstang’ stolen and vandalized over political views 
Published on March 30, 2016 at 6:13 p.m., this story covered the vandalism of a 1994 Ford Mustang. The owners bought the car and spray painted with art that supported presidential candidate Donald Trump. The car broke down on the side of the road. After being left out on the side of road for one night, vandals totaled the car, breaking windows and destroying various parts of the car. This story was brought to Anthony’s attention through Facebook. After moderately trending on Facebook, the owners reached out to News 4 Tucson and requested to a story. Anthony then gathered the contact information, gathered photos and other information, and sent it to the show producers. Lauren Reimer then did a full package that debuted on March 30 in the 5 p.m. newscast. The story also was requested and rebroadcasted through NBC nationwide. The post, which was shared through Reimer’s Facebook, reached 20,608 people, 121 reactions and 8,006 video views.
Web Design
Anthony also help create several website pages for the KVOA website. His most recent work includes the design of KVOA’s Olympics page. In the page, Anthony designed the layout of the page. The page features a NBC #RoadtoRio Tagboard, the national NBC Olympics Twitter feed, a venues map created through Google Fusion Tables, links to kid-friendly Olympic pages, a video gallery and links help navigate viewers to learn more about the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He also managed the page daily and created rules to help navigate newly generated content to the page.
Anthony also has experience in designing and creating slideshows.
Writing Samples
Breaking News: 7-year-old shot at Southside apartment complex
Published on April 27, 2016 at 6:29 p.m., this story covered breaking details about a shooting of a 7-year-old boy who was shot in the back allegedly by his aunt’s boyfriend. Through social media mining, Anthony was able to find information about the shooting immediately and shared the details with the newsroom shortly after it was published. On Facebook, the post reached 64,336 people with 578 likes, 64 comments, 277 shares, 10194 post clicks and 6,353 link.
News Cast Script: Tucson Premium Outlets prepare for Thursday’s grand opening celebration
Published on Sept. 24, 2015 at 4:41 p.m., this story announced the grand opening celebration for a new outlet mall in Marana. This story was an expanded version of the broadcast script covered by Allison Alexander in KVOA’s 6 p.m. show. Anthony transcribed the script into a AP-style print copy. He also expanded the material and provided links for more information to expand the viewers experience. The post reached 58,449 people on Facebook with 1,121 likes, 250 comments and 242 shares overall. The post also received 4,581 post clicks, 2,845 link clicks and 1,736 other clicks.
Anthony Victor Reyes 