Yu has current affair with ATV
THE new head of ATV's English current affairs department, Susan Yu, is a woman charged with zeal at the prospect of moulding the station's flagship programme Inside Story.
Yu took over the position from Sally Round yesterday.
She said she wanted to continue the tradition of solid reporting established by the previous current affairs chief.
Expanded regional coverage, more China stories and a deeper coverage of individual stories were on the agenda.
''My goal is to keep the momentum going and perhaps take it a little bit further,'' Yu said.
''To do that, I will adopt a two-pronged approach: in reports I want to avoid extrapolation of the news.
''For example, if something happened a few days before that ran in the main news bulletin, I want to stay away from that.
''I think Hong Kong media tends to be a bit reactive; I hope to be more pro-active and aggressive and also go with more visual stories.'' Yu scotched rumours of a name change for the programme.
''It was a consideration and still is but right now it [Inside Story ] has a great name and has a following.
''With programmes, you have to allow time for them to grow. I am just lucky to go with [Inside Story ] which has a good reputation and a team. It's something I am going to leave alone.'' The programme, which runs on Monday nights, has a team that includes Yu, as a presenter, a researcher and reporters.
Yu has already hired one more reporter and is on the lookout for another, although she was in no hurry to hire.
''In Hong Kong, where there's an opening there's an initial reaction to fill it right away. But I want to uphold the standards that Sally has set. I want to take my time and get the right person,'' she said.
Yu, 28, was born in California, where she later studied at the University of California, Berkeley, gaining a degree majoring in political science and mass communication.
That was followed by a masters' degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago.
Yu said she fell into television journalism when she got an internship with a Fox TV affiliate station while at college. This led to a scriptwriting job at another station which she held for six years.
After a stint with a San Francisco Chinese TV station as a videotape editor, she briefly held a position in Washington DC as a health correspondent before coming to ATV for a job interview in April 1991.
Despite her lack of experience on camera, Yu has gone from strength to strength in the territory, rising to become a presenter and ATV chief reporter for the English news service.