"Nightly Business Report" introduces cartoon segment

“Nightly Business Report,” the daily business news television show on PBS stations, introduced a new segment on Friday‘s show called “Inkonomics with David Gillette,” which is a cartoon-strip explanation of a business or economics issues. Talking Biz News was at NBR’s Miami-based offices on Friday and got a sneak peek at the segment.

Gillette is an Emmy-winning illustrator and essayist at Twin Cities Public Television. On Saturday, he spoke with Talking Biz News about the new segment, which will appear once a month.

The segment came as a result of talks between Rodney Ward, the executive editor of “Nightly Business Report,” and executives at Twin Cities Public Television about finding new voices for the business show. Gillette began producing the first piece within days of talking to Ward by phone.

“I have a couple more in the works,” said Gillette. “I think of myself as a storyteller because I come from a creative writing background. I look for things that are interesting from my perspective. And I inject myself in the story as the protagonist.”

The first segment is Gillette as the consumer who is blamed for the problems in the economy because he has stopped spending and recommends that viewers do the opposite in terms of investing than what Gillette is doing. Right now, he’s hearing good things about gold.

Gillette spent a couple of days doing the drawings, which appear on a clipboard. “The clipboard style is meant to be a looser style and have fun,” he said. “I can also do drawing in the field if I feel like it.”

The next segment will focus on how some U.S. residents have been unaffected by the recession. “I’ve seen both sides of it very clearly,” said Gillette.

Here is some of Gillette’s earlier work in explaining the economy: