How WBZ NewsRadio reporter Matt Shearer became New England's most viral journalist

Boston Globe

10-02-2025

'If you're not more interesting than the other app, they're going to switch to that other app,' Shearer said in an interview.
Advertisement
WBZ NewsRadio reporter Matt Shearer gathered at Laugh Boston with some of the people featured in his social media posts to celebrate the end of 2024.
Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Take, for example, Shearer's video about
Those rave reviews?
'It's alright.'
'It's fine.'
'It's cool.'
And finally: 'I mean, you know, I'll probably rot here.'
Shearer then meets a go-to tattoo artist for several Patriots players and chronicles sights, such as a church that looks like 'Disney World for popes' and a City Hall that 'looks like a middle school,' before meeting Attleboro resident Steve Fields, 71, outside a popular hot dog joint. Fields, who had just bought a few hot dogs for a stranger, quickly becomes the main character by ranting about the city's potholes and yelling at nearby Rhode Islanders who allegedly 'suck as drivers.' Shearer later visits Fields at the local Stop & Shop, where he works as a grocer, and gifts him a few franks.
Advertisement
By request, trying to find something cool in Attleboro. . Bringing back this series for 2024, let's go make some friends! .
As newsrooms everywhere grapple with declines in audience and their underlying business models, Shearer has managed to give a legacy news outlet an especially lively and popular digital presence. While he's not covering everything — viewers would be hard-pressed to find many political or crime-themed videos — Shearer has helped introduce the station to a new, younger audience.
Shearer tells 'stories that I, living in Los Angeles, would never click on if it were on a website,' said Taylor Lorenz, a former Washington Post and New York Times technology and internet culture reporter who launched her own newsletter, User Mag, this year. 'But the way that he tells the story — it's interesting to anyone.'
Often donning black jeans, Vans sneakers, and a dark hoodie, jacket, or T-shirt, Shearer looks more like the Massachusetts residents that appear in his videos than a typically polished broadcast journalist.
'People watch my videos and think I'm like this fresh-out-of-college intern who just got let loose on TikTok,' Shearer said. 'But that's not the case at all. I'm in my 30s, and I grew up in the '90s wanting to be a cool radio DJ.'
Born in Acton, a graduate of Emerson College, and now a resident of Framingham, Shearer has lived in Massachusetts his entire life, an experience he said has helped him identify the strange but endearing idiosyncrasies of small-town Massachusetts and New England. He spent over 11 years as a producer, first for local radio hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan's show on 96.9 WTKK — before they moved to GBH — and later as the executive producer for 103.3 Amp Radio's 'The TJ Show.'
Advertisement
'His ability to interact with people on the street is unlike anything I've ever seen before,' said Loren Raye, a former cohost of the 'The TJ Show.' 'He knows how to press people without being an asshole.'
While Shearer had a touch of
reviews, nothing has put him on the map more than when he joined WBZ NewsRadio in 2020
to oversee the station's social media presence.
Shearer's early videos were often typical local news fare. But he soon began to hone his craft, spotlighting quirky characters such as Nick Lavallee, a Manchester, N.H., resident who
Nick Lavallee, with Wicked Joyfull, gave WBZ NewsRadio reporter Matt Shearer his own action figure.
Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
In 2024, Shearer
He's also continued his series of traveling to random towns with almost no information, and just chatting with people. And save for the mayor of Leominster, whose down-to-earth nature has kept him in office for more than 30 years, he avoids politicians and executives.
Advertisement
'I'm tired of the big wigs, man,' Shearer said. 'What they want to talk about usually isn't as interesting to me as the everyday lives of these people that you pass on the street.'
Shearer recently
'Not only is he creating content that works well on the internet, but he's one of the few local reporters who is taking internet stories and doing real journalism,' said Katie Notopolous, a Belmont native and senior tech correspondent at Business Insider who is a fan of Shearer's work.
His strategy is working, at least on social media. Shearer
'There is an absolute spike in the graph of younger people who are giving us a try,' Borselle said.
While the
'We've done a pretty good job of mobilizing on the other platforms,' he said.
Advertisement
Despite those gains, the social media approach is taking on just one of the many challenges that media businesses face.
Social media clicks and views don't automatically translate to subscribers or traffic to news sites. The Washington Post, whose TikTok account with 1.8 million followers is revered in the industry, has been
Replicating the success of WBZ NewsRadio, where Shearer has also become one of the most recognizable journalists in Massachusetts, is also no easy task. Almost every newsroom is trying to reach audiences on social media, but strikingly few are succeeding on the same level as influencers or other content creators.
WBZ NewsRadio reporter Matt Shearer served pizza at Laugh Boston with some of the people he's featured in his social media posts to celebrate the year.
Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Still, Shearer has shown that legacy newsrooms can reach and meaningfully engage with people online. And his commitment to sticking with journalism — he has no interest in being an influencer — is a glimmer of hope that other news outlets can adapt and at least take a first step in getting some of their work in front of younger audiences.
'I really do believe that journalism is an art form,' he said. 'I want to have an opportunity to be creative and tell these stories without feeling like I'm doing it as an influencer, without feeling like I'm doing it to promote somebody or some business.'
Aidan Ryan can be reached at