Secrets of the Trade

Broadcast journalism attracted Jane Wells as a teenager, but it wasn’t lofty idealism that turned her on.

She heard that Barbara Walters earned a million dollars.

“My friends always seemed to tell me secrets without me ever having to promise to keep them,” Wells said recently.

“I loved getting the information and spreading it around. I thought, if [Walters] can get a million dollars, it seemed like a pretty good way to make a living.”

Today, the Thousand Oaks resident is a CNBC investigative reporter for the nightly national news program “Upfront Tonight” and will be this month’s featured speaker for the Ventura County Writers Club at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The club will meet at Borders Books and Music, 125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd., in Thousand Oaks.

Wells will discuss “Good Writing: The Core of Broadcast Journalism.” She has been in the profession since 1981, including a two-year stint teaching at USC’s School of Journalism.

Recently, she described the difference between writing for television and writing for print.

“It’s two completely different styles of storytelling,” Wells said. “In broadcast writing, you’re writing for the ear and your words have to complement the video. . . . The pictures are the most important things and you need the words for the picture to make sense. You can pack in more information when writing for print.”

The 38-year-old Wells started out in radio as a news writer, then became a reporter and fill-in anchor at KIIS-FM in Los Angeles in October 1981. She made the switch to television the following year, eventually moving into her current position with CNBC. Along the way, she has earned five Emmys--for both feature and news reporting--a Los Angeles Press Club Award and a Peabody Award.

She won two of her Emmys for work in Florida--one for a story on crack cocaine and another for a report on incest, in which she interviewed men in prison and followed up with a group of incest survivors.

Her latest assignment took her to Hyannisport, Mass., for the investigation into John F. Kennedy Jr.’s plane crash. Earlier she covered the Littleton, Colo., tragedy and President Clinton’s impeachment proceedings, as well as the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

Mother Teresa’s funeral was the most fascinating story she has covered, she said. After the nun’s death, Wells visited a leper colony in Calcutta, India, and saw how heartbroken people were.

“It was total chaos,” she said. “They had her in the church for days with no air conditioning and when they closed the church, people started to riot a little bit.”

In spite of the confusion, everything went perfectly on the day of the funeral, she said.

Wells clearly loves what she does, particularly broadcasting live. When there is breaking news, the endorphins kick in and she likens it to running a marathon. Still, she harbors no illusions about her profession.

“It’s not brain surgery,” she said. “I think some people in the business feel that we are more important than we are and that we make more of a difference than we do.”

And she has no plans to write a book, but jokes about what she would say in one about the Simpson trial.

The text: “Yes, I was there, too.”

HAPPENINGS

* Monday: 12:30 p.m. Afternoon book club featuring “Yo!” by Julia Alvarez. Barnes & Noble, 160 S. Westlake Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 446-2820.

* Tuesday: 7:30 p.m. Great Books of the Century Reading Group will focus on “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut. Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble, 446-2820.

* Wednesday: 9:30 a.m. Storytime with “Bear’s Big Blue House.” Barnes & Noble, 4360 E. Main St., Ventura, 339-9170.

* Wednesday: 7 p.m. Great Books of the Century Reading Group will focus on “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury. Ventura Barnes & Noble, 339-9170.

* Thursday: 7 p.m. Science Fiction Reading Group will focus on “Destiny Road” by Larry Niven. Ventura Barnes & Noble, 339-9170.

* Friday: 1 p.m. The Creative Gathering Group welcomes guest author Susan Perry for a workshop and signing of “Writing in Flow.” Perry interviewed 76 writers and authors for her book. Borders Books and Music, 125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 497-8159.

* Friday: 7 p.m. Storytime with “Cowboy Dreams” by Kathi Appelt. Ventura Barnes & Noble, 339-9170.

* Saturday: 10:30 a.m. Reba’s First Book Club, a monthly story time that benefits the national nonprofit organization First Book, which gives disadvantaged children new books of their own. Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble, 446-2820.

* Saturday: noon. Author Kris Neri will discuss and sign “Revenge of the Gypsy Queen.” Mysteries to Die For, 2940 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 374-0084.

* Saturday: 2 p.m. Suzanne Thomas will hold a seminar and signing for “Rental Houses for the Successful Small Investor.” Ventura Barnes & Noble, 339-9170.

* Saturday: 3:30-5 p.m. “Bookmaking for Grown-Ups,” for participants ages 14 and older, will be presented by Karen Thomas. $10 in advance includes all supplies. Adventures for Kids, 3457 Telegraph Road, Ventura, 650-9688.

Catch you next week.

Information about book signings, writers groups or publishing events can be faxed to Ann Shields at 657-5649.