Reeling in viewers

Nick Tucker makes about 100 Miner videos

NEWPORT — The Miner’s ad salesman Nick Tucker started making social media videos for his own site. He sings for Spokane Indian baseball games and other events, including the Newport Rodeo and put videos on his own Facebook site.

That evolved into producing videos, called reels, for The Miner, which appear on The Miner’s social media like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. He started with some basic, unscripted reels.

“I did a few dad jokes as I was walking through Newport,” he said. “Those were some of the first ones.”

The videos evolved into scripted videos with graphics and music. Tucker did interviews with student athletes such as last season’s state qualifying football team. He’s interviewed wrestlers, both boys’ and girls’ teams. He did a history of The Roxy Theater video, an interview with Newport School District Superintendent Dave Smith and board chair April Owen. He figures he’s made about 100 videos for The Miner.

Tucker finds himself being recognized in public from the videos. He said people approach him.

“It’s happened several times,” he said. “They see my face and let me know they recognize me from The Miner’s reels. I’ve even had people give me some ideas.”

Tucker does regular series of reels with themes. One of them is History Monday, leading up the country’s 250th anniversary. People have given him topics for that.

“Especially at the grocery store you run into long-time residents who have some ideas for you to look into,” he said.

The idea is to have businesses sponsor the reels. History Monday is sponsored by Vincent Realty and Leon Vincent. Tucker is looking for sponsors for the other series, which include Journalism Tuesdays, in which he highlights the importance of local journalism. Wednesdays is This Week’s Headlines, sponsored by Alisha Krause, and Thursdays is Upcoming Events.

“Some Fridays, not every Friday, I have my ‘Just Sayin’,” he said. It’s sort of a video editorial. “I try to make it something relatable, funny, something like that, lighthearted.”

People are watching the reels.

“The latest history reel received 950 views” Tucker said. Only about half of the views are coming from The Miner’s Facebook followers, he said. “The rest are coming from recommendations and shares.”

Tucker, 45, grew up in Newport and is a Newport High School graduate. He’s involved in the Rotary Club, is the vice-president of Pend Oreille Sports Association, head coach of the Newport High School boys’ soccer team, as well as a substitute teacher. All that is in addition to his full-time job at The Miner.

He was a member of Northwoods Performing Arts when he was younger, which gave him some experience performing. But he says his decades in sales probably is more useful with the videos.

Tucker enjoys making the videos.

“They’re fun,” he said. “I like doing the research and writing the script for it.”

All the videos can be found on The Miner’s Facebook page, in the reels section. They’re also on instagram.com/minerpapers and tiktok.com/@ newport.miner.new.