Having been on the fringes of journalism for some time, I recently fully immersed myself in the field when I became Sports Editor at Page News and Courier.
I know there are some who are interested in my thoughts on journalism. But this is a two-way street. I imagine they have insights for me, too.
PNC publishes weekly. It is a teaching/learning paper that likes to give journalists experience to move on to general editor positions at other weeklies or reporters for dailies.
I knew going into the position that I am a good observer, with a penchant telling the tale of what I've seen. However, I knew that one area I'd need to work on is interviewing and getting specific information from sources.
Interviews
Six hours into my job, I was on a farm, interviewing a farmer for an agriculture article. (No, ag is not a sport, it's just a specialty beat that I've been covering.) I didn't crash and burn on the interview, but I also had a lot of room for improvement.
I still do, but I think I immediately improved. I'm still working on interviewing.
One thing I have experimented with is how to conduct the interview. I think it's a perennial journalism debate. Take notes or use a mini recorder? I do both. I've used the recorder for some interviews, but I guess I usually take notes. The main use I have for the recorder is for post-game interviews with coaches.
I'm interested in the thoughts that any journalism-types have on their preferences.
Job interview
One good sign when I looked at this position was when I interviewed in khakis and a polo-style shirt. I was slightly over-dressed. When I got the offer, I was dressed similarly.
I generally wear the same type of clothes to work, although I've been known to wear jeans--especially when I know I'm going to a farm.
Publication cycle
Our publication date is on Thursdays. The paper actually comes out on Wednesday morning, but it bears the Thursday date. Deadline day is Tuesday, and the paper is printed overnight Tuesday.
When the papers arrive at the office, we have a part-time crew that goes out and sells the papers on the street at the town's main intersection.
So our week starts on Wednesday, basically. Usually at 1 p.m., the editorial staff meets to go over story ideas and budget space for them. At the beginning, we go over the current issue, mentioning good things or weak spots.
We go into the meeting with pitch sheets, which summarize our story ideas. Then we pitch the stories that we want to cover. Many stories are pitched for the next issue, but many are pitched and scheduled for later publication.
After the meeting, everyone has clear-cut stories to pursue, and work begins in earnest on the next issue. Of course, breaking news will change what actually ends up in the paper.
I generally have to write four to five sports articles each week, along with getting photos at events (enough for 3-4 photos per issue), laying out 3 pages of the paper, gathering scores, stats, and schedules, and choosing the player of the week--including a writeup on why--for an advertiser in the sports section. Once a month, I am responsible for another article and photo for a specialty page, which I also lay out.
Until now, I have been covering agriculture for the Agri-life specialty page, but this week my beat was changed. Now I will cover outdoors--hiking, biking, skiing, hunting, fishing, canoeing, etc.
Being responsible for writing, art (photos), and design has pros and cons. I know what I will need to put together my section, which is great. But on the other hand, when I'm at a game, I'm busy trying to capture good photos of the action while jotting down notes in my notepad. If I could do one or the other, I think the quality of whichever I was doing would improve.
Just the facts?
Of course, journalists are supposed to present what they observe to their audience. Omission can skew a story just as much as inclusion can. We've all seen that in various media branches. But I don't think anyone can be completely free of the "bias" that big-shot journalists say they fear.
They have one worldview, and I have another. Our reporting will reflect that.
I say all of that to say that as the reporter covering the county's two high school sports programs, I'm in a position where I have to write as a fan of sorts. I think sports journalists can have that "privilige" to some extent--if they are covering local teams for a local media outlet.
But I still try to report what happens at games. And that's a challenge. Neither football team has had a winning season in several years. One team has a 2-plus year losing streak.
The tools
I have the chance to use a nice digital camera at work--better than my personal "consumer-level" 5 megapixel camera. The sports department has a Nikon D100 SLR camera.
My computer is an E-mac G4. I write in MacWrite and layout in Adobe Pagemaker.
My family has given me several useful books. One is the current Associated Press Stylebook, a must for a journalist or PR specialist. The other two are also put out by the AP, which has other books which I'm sure are also good.
One is a guide to Sports Writing and the other is a guide to Photojournalism. I highly recommend both. They don't have much nitty-gritty how-to. You should have that already.
They cover concepts and give real-life examples from the AP journalists and other journalists. My editor gave me a similar AP book to read about newswriting.
Input welcome
I'd be glad to hear any thoughts that other journalistic types have.
What works for you? What doesn't? Why?
Posted by JRC at October 3, 2003 06:44 PM