Joe Bartels

Reporter

Joe Bartels falls more in love with Las Vegas each day and has been on the front lines of Las Vegas’ biggest stories for KTNV since joining the ranks in 2017.

Just weeks after coming to the station from ABC15 in Phoenix, he was one of the first reporters on the scene of the October 1 Las Vegas mass shooting.

“It was a surreal experience that I will never forget,” Joe says.

He comes to KTNV from our fellow Scripps station in Phoenix, where he was general assignment reporter and multimedia journalist since June 2015.

His extensive background covering a variety of issues from fires and floods to crime and politics has garnered national attention.

Joe joined the Las Vegas CBS station in October 2011 as a general assignment reporter, where he stayed for more than three years.

During his previous time in Sin City, he was nominated for four Emmy® awards, and won one of them.

Before that, Joe reported in the windswept area of southeast New Mexico where he served as the Roswell Bureau Chief for KOB Eyewitness News 4 for more than two years. No, he didn't see any aliens. "I wouldn't admit to seeing anything even if I did, for fear I might be abducted," Joe says.

While in New Mexico, he covered many stories from devastating wildfires and the sentencing of an ax murderer, to a woman who kept her husband's body in a freezer for more than seven years to continue to collect his pension and Social Security income.

Joe was born in the suburbs outside of Chicago but relocated with his family to Arizona in the late 1990s.

He attended Pinnacle High School in north Phoenix and graduated from Arizona State University. While at ASU, he trained at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, receiving his degree in broadcast journalism.

Joe reported for the school's award-winning Cronkite NewsWatch; a 30-minute newscast reported and produced completely by students.

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