Then & Now: Former anchor Neile Jones values family over deadlines

Editor’s Note: The following story appeared in the April 25 issue of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. “Then & Now” is a profile of a past member of the Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class.

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As an evening news anchor in multiple television markets in Arkansas and Oklahoma, Neile Jones was a well-known TV personality. But after a lengthy career, the award-winning broadcast journalist recently signed off from Tulsa, Okla.’s ABC affiliate KTUL-TV, opting for fewer deadlines and more family time.

After more than two decades in broadcasting, Jones began working in January as an agency leader with Combined Insurance Co. of America, which provides individual and group supplemental accident, disability, health and life insurance products. It’s a subsidiary of Chubb, the world’s largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company.

“A lot of people don’t realize that if you are good at your job in journalism, then you are good at listening,” Jones said during a recent interview. “At this job, if you are good, you are good at listening. It’s been nice to help people in this capacity.”

A Little Rock native who grew up in Tulsa, Jones, whose father Sam Jones also was a well-known TV news anchor in Tulsa, spent the bulk of her television career in Northwest Arkansas. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Oklahoma in 1997 and landed a job in Fort Smith with KPOM/KFAA-TV, Channels 24/51.

In 2004, Nexstar Broadcasting Group purchased the stations and rebranded Channel 51 as KNWA-TV, the Northwest Arkansas NBC affiliate.

In 2008, the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal recognized Jones as a Forty Under 40 honoree. She remained with KNWA until October 2014, when she returned to Tulsa to be closer to family.

She maintained a media connection with multiple freelance roles. In Northwest Arkansas, Jones was the host and executive producer for supplier development firm 8th & Walton’s television show “Focus on Suppliers.” KTUL also hired Jones to fill in as a freelance reporter in 2015, which included an assignment at the 49th Annual Country Music Association Awards (CMAs) in Nashville, Tenn. The job turned full-time in 2016 when Jones began anchoring multiple KTUL weekday newscasts.

“When you’ve worked a certain job all your life, you get there and you’re filling in, people are nice, it’s your home… you do it,” Jones said. “My manager at the time came to me six months [after freelancing] and said, ‘Are you going to take this job or not?’ I just wanted to make sure before I dipped my toe back in the pool I could have the family life I wanted.”

In December, Jones delivered her final sign-off from KTUL in a tearful farewell. She said she needed to find something that allowed her more flexibility regarding her work-life balance.

Jones and her husband are nearing their sixth wedding anniversary, she has two “bonus children” — a 17-year-old girl and 14-year-old boy — and some of her older relatives face health issues.

“The newscast happens every day at 5, 6 and 10 [p.m.]. Period,” she said. “I just wanted a little more freedom. I miss certain things about TV, but I do not regret my decision. I am so thankful for where I am right now. It is nice to go home and make my husband dinner and sit with the kids and hear about their day and not have to wait to see them until Saturday morning.”

Jones doesn’t like to do just one thing. She is a published author and has a dual master’s degree in human resources/development and management from Webster University. She earned her health insurance license in 2015, and during her journalism career, Jones’ work in the community was second to none.

In Northwest Arkansas, Jones was known for her work with nonprofits and, in particular, raising awareness for breast cancer. While working for KNWA, she earned the Susan G. Komen For the Cure Foundation Cameo Award for Volunteerism and the Domestic Peace Award from the Arkansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Although Jones is no longer on the air, she continues to write through her website jonesn4life.com. Her nature as a people person still makes her an advocate for volunteering and sharing her experiences with others, whether as a TV professional, motivational speaker, author, host, voice-over artist or moderator.

She’s made herself available as a fill-in anchor for stations “in a jam” and said returning to television full time is possible but not in the immediate future.

“My focus is on where I am,” she said. “Television was such a blessing; my dream job. But so is this. You nurture both. Freelancing gives you that freedom, and it’s the best of both worlds for me right now.”