Webster Citian Emma Stroner poses with the set for Local 5 News in its West Des Moines studios. From an early age she dreamed of a job in broadcast journalism, one that focus and hard work made a reality.

Her Webster City Past

Each year, 20 to 50% of graduating high school seniors enter college without a declared major. By graduation time, 75% will have changed their major at least once. This may be due to an evolving job market, the unknown effects of artificial intelligence, or the simple fear of making a poor career choice.

Emma Stroner was never in doubt about what she wanted to do in life, and her recent hiring by WOI TV confirms what she knew from a very early age: She wanted to be a journalist.

Stroner was born at Hamilton Hospital in Webster City March 10, 2003, the daughter of Holly Stroner and Brian Stroner. She spent her entire childhood in Webster City. She fondly remembers those who took an interest in her education, especially Tiffany Larson and Mo and Don Seamonds.

“In Webster City, you can always find a familiar face,” she said recently.

An early indicator of her ultimate career path was 5-year-old Stroner’s insistence on taking her camera on family camping trips.

“As soon as we started setting up camp, she’d start interviewing people, those in our family, people we were camping with, anyone, really,” Brian Stroner said. “Before long, she and her cousins would be making up their own TV show based on those interviews. The result was always entertaining.”

Young Emma enjoyed listening to local news casts on the radio.

“She thought of Pat Powers at KQWC as a celebrity because he was on the air,” Brian Stroner said. One day, at about age 7, she visited the radio studio and got to meet her hero in person. “That left a big impression on her.”

In a recent interview, she recalled, “When I was little, I grabbed my grandmother’s iPad, started interviewing my relatives and friends, and was always putting together videos.”

In one form or another, she has never stopped producing and editing videos, steadily improving her skills along the way.

She credits Webster City Community Theater’s summer theater camp with “giving a big boost to her confidence, at a key time.” By the way, the program runs August 4-8 this year. Students, who range in age from 7 through eighth grade rehearse songs, dance steps, lines and blocking daily, and perform the show the last day of that week.

In middle school, Emma became involved in the “From The Middle” program run by teacher Patsy Brock.

“She asked us to write about and film whatever we were learning at that time. Mrs. Brock did the actual filming, since we were too young to run the equipment, but we were doing all the other work ourselves.”

Brock, now retired from teaching, said, “Emma’s poise and presentation set her apart. She could write and report in front of a camera without hesitation or fear. I told her: ‘You’re a natural.'”

Brock added, “Emma participated in mock trial, which required them to solve problems and develop and present their case before a ‘jury’ in a persuasive way. All these experiences added to her skills.”

Beyond Webster City

While she was a senior at Webster City High School, Stroner took college-level classes at Iowa Central’s Webster City campus.

“I got dual credit, meaning I could finish college in three years rather than four. I knew I would major in journalism, and was especially impressed with the award-winning journalism school and curriculum at Drake, but I also applied to Iowa State.”

She chose Drake.

Once there, she took full advantage of the career-related options to use her new journalism skills. She wrote for The Times-Delphic, the university’s newspaper, and Drake Magazine, an award-winning publication issued in both print and online formats. She was especially proud of an investigative article she wrote about the state Legislature passing the school voucher bill.

On balance, though, it was broadcast work that held the most interest for her.

“I always enjoyed being on camera and always wanted to be that person you could trust to deliver the news,” she said.

Today

Emma Stroner graduated from Drake in May 2025 and a month later was hired as a Multi-Skilled Journalist (yes, that’s really her title) at WOI-TV in West Des Moines.

Today’s media companies operate in a tough, competitive environment where every penny of cost in producing the news must be accounted for. The size of the staff at the TV station is greatly reduced, and everyone has to pull their weight for the company to survive.

Once assigned a story, she goes to the scene and does the reporting, conducts interviews and shoots any video needed for the final broadcast.

Back in the office, she writes a script, then records and edits all the elements into a coherent news story. When she’s done her best work, it still must get her supervisor’s approval before it can appear in a newscast.

Every story has to be completed on a strict deadline.

Emma Stroner has worked hard to prepare herself to be a broadcast journalist in a tough, demanding business. But from the very start, from those early campground interviews, she never doubted she’d get there.