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A dozen ways to break news
December 1, 2008 |
By Clarence Cromwell
For anyone new to reporting on local government, it takes a while to reach the point where you can regularly and consistently uncover important stories–before everyone else knows.
It’s not magic. All it takes is a steady effort and a methodical way of searching in the right places. Over and over.
Here are some tips to get you started. Most of these are standard operating procedure for newspaper reporters, and some are tricks that will give you an extra edge.
1.) Read the agenda.
If you report on an elective body, you can get a list of the decisions they’ll be making before each meeting. Find out how to subscribe to it, online or otherwise. Read it thoroughly, pick out the interesting stories, and ask for more information. If you’re interested in an item, there may be a staff report to help the elected officials make their decision.
2.) Attend every meeting.
You never know which items will become controversial. Also, keep in mind that members of the public can raise concerns that are not even on the agenda. Meetings also give you a chance to buttonhole public officials, and this is handy if they are hard to reach or just avoiding you. It should be no problem to walk right up to them before or after the meeting and ask a few questions.
3.) Do a plenty of legwork.
Meetings are important, but most of your research will take place outside of the meeting room. To interview enough people so that you can write with authority, you shouldn’t rely on whoever shows up. For example, if your article is about a zoning decision, visit the property; see how anything built there would affect the neighbors who are complaining. Look at the layout of the property, so that you understand what people are talking about when they discuss removing trees, planting them, or blocking someone’s view. And as long as you’re in the area, knock on some doors at the neighboring houses to find out what they think.
Wearing out shoe leather, and talking to a lot of people–these are the heart and soul of a journalist’s craft.
4.) Talk to everyone involved.
When I was a greenhorn reporter, I surveyed editors at several major daily newspapers and asked them precisely the question that this article poses–how do I find out what’s going on? They all gave me the same answer: Talk to a lot of people.
That also means talking to different kinds of people. Your sources should not all be members of the school board, if you happen to be an education reporter. You should regularly be talking to board members, administrators, teachers, students and parents. Everyone involved.
But be especially sure to interview those who stand up to address their elected officials; they’re available during the meeting, and some of them are well informed. If they show up for the meeting, it also means they are among the constituents most concerned about the decision.
(By the way, I met those editors at one-day conventions and seminars put on by the Society for Professional Journalists, and by my state press association. If you can’t get membership to organizations in your area, at least ask whether they’ll let you attend seminars. They’re priceless, especially when you’re starting out.)
5.) Be available.
Hand out business cards wherever you go, and tell people to call you if they think of something that should be written about. Include your contact information at the end of every story. Make sure readers have your name, work phone, cell number and email address. Printing your email at the end of the story works wonders: Sometimes when you hand in an eye-catching investigative story, your next project will materialize within 24 hours, because someone will contact you and ask you to write about another thorny issue.
6.) Keep tabs on your sources.
Catch up with the administrators of your city, school district, or what-have-you, and ask them how they are spending most of their time this week or this month. (You can frequently catch them before or after public meetings, because they’re often required to attend.) You can’t ask them what’s newsworthy, because that actually causes people to clam up. If you don’t believe me, try it. But for some reason, people will tell you what they are spending time on, and chances are that whatever they allocate the most time to is a high priority.
7.) Talk to the gadflies.
Every city, or school district, has a group of grumpy old men (or women) who sit at the back of the room during public meetings, harrumphing at each decision. Keep in mind that some of them are genuine quacks. But some are former members of the board, or are otherwise leading citizens. Some know what’s going on. Just don’t call them gadflies in your story, because some people consider the term pejorative.
8.) Leave no stone unturned.
If you’re looking for something to do, ask to see code enforcement complaints, recently issued building permits, or the police blotter. You’ll end up sifting through a lot of pointless information. You might spot one report that is a significant story, or you might find an interesting trend in all that data. If a pile of records exists, take a look.
9.) See them in court.
Check your local courthouse and the nearest federal court. Look for complaints filed against the government agency you write about. They may or may not be newsworthy, but either way, they will never be discussed in public meetings. You have to look for them.
10.) Keep an eye on subcommittees and committees.
Sometimes they make a recommendation on an issue before it reaches the main decision-making body. Most newspapers will cover an issue as soon as it appears on one of these agendas. Don’t get left behind.
11.) Cultivate sources on the inside.
Once you have established a professional relationship, sources on the inside of an organization are priceless. They don’t have to be people at the top of the organization. Everyone who works in the building can tell you what is happening there. Sometimes you can piece together a difficult story by getting a little information from several sources.
12.) Be ubiquitous, and dig your way in, one shovelful at a time.
The best way to arrive at a big scoop is to write a lot of minor stories. The easy ones help you learn your way around city hall, build your network of contacts, and hone your reporting skills. They keep you in touch with whats going on, because interviewing people for a minor story gives you the opportunity to ask questions about anything you want. By the time a big story comes along, you are ready for it, if you have been dilligently working your beat. And you can unearth the big story without setting off any alarms, because people expect you to walk around and ask questions.
Here are three bonus tips, to employ as you go about the legwork.
13.) Ask for documents.
Most states have a freedom of information law, which requires a government body to provide you with access to any documents you want to see, unless they are part of a police investigation, or evidence in ongoing litigation. There are a few other exceptions, but rest assured that 99 percent of the paper inside government buildings is considered public information. This is useful if you want to write about a particular subject, because once you know what you are looking for, you can just ask for access to the paperwork.
14.) Keep in touch.
Make sure you have work, home and cell numbers for important people you will have to write about. If you need to complete a story, you have to be able to reach them. In fact try to collect business cards or at least a phone number from every person you interview. You may need to call them back with additional questions. You may also benefit by being able to contact them later for a different story. I used to always ask for a business card, and then I would staple it in my rolodex. Now I have a phone with Palm software to keep track of phone numbers, addresses and emails.
15.) Be willing to listen.
People who recognize you will walk up on the street and suggest stories. Likewise, when you are digging for big news, your sources are going to suggest that you write about their pet projects. If an issue is important or at all interesting, it can’t hurt to write an objective story about it. Or at least pretend to think about it for a while. Being ready to listen will also encourage people to come back later. On the other hand, refusing to entertain the idea of a story can cause a surprisingly large amount of ill will–it’s like telling people that they don’t matter.
16.) Repeat if necessary.
Remember it’s a process. Check the courthouse, but if you don’t find anything about the agency you’re covering, let a few months pass and then check again.
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