Friday, March 29, 2024

Answers I gave to J-Schoolers

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I was recently asked by some journalism students from different area universities to give them advice about journalism and I said: Walk the streets of your community with your camera always at the ready. Walk, ride a bike, take mass transit or, at the last resort go in a car. If you are driving, drive real slow.
You will understand that hands are for shaking, not for simply driving by and waving. Get to know the mayor or local merchant, stop by and say hello both on and off the record.
If they have a product you can use, buy it. A service you need? Use it. I don't care if journalism was an accident in your life at age 40 or if you were wanting to be a reporter since you were eight and watching The Adventures of Superman starring Clark Kent.
Go to a nursing home and visit and learn stories from the old codgers because they've seen it all. I did a story about two centenarians in Elko, Nevada about 20 years ago who were at the same home.
It was a big hit and a blast for me to do. Go to the local churches and be brave enough to just state that you are a visitor when asked. Or, go to a church that you were raised in and make new friends because they will give you leads and event invites to last you a career in that space if you indeed want that space to become yours.
Developing friendships and relationships and, yes, a few enemies along the way, is the way I want my reporters to act. It is the way I tried to be
as the managing editor for five publications. Four weeklies and one monthly business journal, ranging in age from 32-year-old (Wenatchee Business Journal) to the Lake Chelan Mirror at 126 years old. We (NCW Media, owned and operated by Bill and Carol Forhan) take pride in the stewardship of these community papers.
Be brave and write from your heart.
People will notice and people will greet you and people will give you more leads than you could imagine. People will feed you and invite you to events and special moments in their lives and ... get the picture?
That was a double-entendre which also means, bring that camera, always bring that camera.
As far as determining who gets the top of the front page (above the fold), the editor is in charge of figuring out the article that is either the most compelling because of human drama, or the article that is vital to the whole community, or a breaking news item like a major fire or plane crash, body found, death, election victory, etc.
I do not personally micro-manage the 4 community weeklies, but I check in with them and might mention my like or dislike of story placement, headline or whatever. I need to trust that my reporters have the basic facts straight or they are not long for their jobs. Period. Credibility is earned by telling the truth and relating the correct comments from those that were there.
Most weeklies have a graphic artist and an editor, but not all. Some weeklies are so small they must have a "working editor" who actually shoots (photos), writes, does headlines, crops photos, chooses everything from A-Z as far as what page it goes on and, sometimes, is also the paginator (page designer, usually using Adobe InDesign).
I always feel privileged to serve the community by being a journalist with integrity so I want those working with and for me also to show integrity. I have also worked as a government reporter on five dailies where there was a staff of from 6-50 depending on the circulation (the size of the main city is a good hint).
Dailies are a completely different animal than weeklies, as are weeklies to monthlies and monthlies to quarterlies and quarterlies to annuals.
I even know journalists who are just working on writing a book based on several years of coverage on certain subjects or people. Only they know when they are ready to go to press.
One word of advice about being too friendly to some of your sources: Don't let them manipulate you into seeing things only from their perspective, as sometimes that was exactly what and why they befriended you in the first place.
If readers from any of the NCW Media publications have specific kudos or complaints or questions about a story please let me know: Gary@ncwmedia.net.
Regards, Gary

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