NBC New York’s Jen Maxfield: Telling the Rest of the Story

“Sometimes, I would even dream about some of the people I had interviewed on the stories. And, so through the years, I had the idea to write a book and put it all together and try to return to some of the stories.”

On July 6th, Merion West’s Celine Sleiman was joined by Jen Maxfield, an Emmy Award–winning reporter and anchor who has reported live from thousands of news events over her 22-year career. In addition to working at NBC New York, Mrs. Maxfield is an adjunct professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. In their conversation, Mrs. Maxfield discusses her new book More After the Break, in which she revisits ten memorable stories from her career as a television news reporter. Combining past interviews with Mrs. Maxfield’s own reflections, the book immerses readers in visceral, human struggles before aiming to inspire them by sharing their ultimate triumphs. In returning to find these people after so many years, More After the Break answers the ultimate question: What happened when the cameras stopped rolling? What is the rest of the story?

Jen, you’ve obviously been sharing stories for years as a journalist, but More After the Break is your first book. To begin, I wanted to ask: Where did it all start? What made you decide to revisit these stories—and through this specific medium of storytelling?

I had been thinking about a number of stories for many years after I actually first reported them on the news. Sometimes it might be when I read something about them, or perhaps I drove past the scene where I interviewed somebody. Sometimes, I would even dream about some of the people I had interviewed on the stories. And, so through the years, I had the idea to write a book and put it all together and try to return to some of the stories. This was not only to find out about what happened after I left the scene but also to take a deeper look—a behind the scenes look–at what it actually takes to get these stories on the news. I think people are accustomed to watching the news on TV or clicking on stories through their Twitter feed, but I felt that it would be interesting for the general public to understand what it’s like to do these interviews and to be with people on the best, the worst, the most chaotic, and the most tumultuous days of their lives.