EPTAnyhow, I just wanted to share this email containing advice from my editor on the daily duties of a reporter. If you are considering pursuing the field of journalism or reporting, read this as a peek into a day in the life:
0. Get blotter on your way to work. Take notebook everywhere with you and you won't have to come to office first. Follow up on any real crimes of relevance in blotter. For those, don’t forget to get more information about that incident from documents and officers who may be seen at magistrate's. get from the docs: Who the arresting officers were. Time of arrest. Etc. if we don’t have that stuff and the thing goes to court and they seal the files, well, then we don’t have that information later during trial to report.
1. Followup yesterday’s crime and breaking stories. Get them in the paper. Scan the paper and determine what to follow up. Did the suspect get arrested? Did the family get another place to live after losing their home to a fire? The guy in the high-speed chase? Did he get arrested? Was it a guy? Things the cops don’t tell us are still fair game. If we can find out other ways. Always follow up stories that will change and develop, or that likely will change and develop. That’s an easy start. Did the run generate much money? Even small stories can help fill your day and you can file the stories for us to run the upcoming week.
2. scan all news media.
Anything we missed, we must catch and publish online immediately. These stories we missed and we can’t spend all day on them.
2. Check google news for [OUR CITY]. And all other realms of our coverage. Set up RSS feeds that come directly to your email. And get your email sent to your phone.
3. Call, email, even if you have it set up automatically with a week updated time stamp, all emergency agencies in our coverage area. Crime Sweep first thing in the morning as soon as you get here. Shotgun approach. It will take time to build sources, but it has to start now. Check all phone lists in all reporter’s cues because you basically are covering for them on the weekends. They are willing to share if asked nicely. A call to them isn’t off-limits. They can help you.
4. Any feature assignments from last week. Those have to come after doing the above due diligence.
5. Only when your reporting is done, you can help [EDITOR] with clerical duties. First, go through all briefs in Cdesk to make sure none should run and may time out. Put those in a file or email and get them to [EDITOR].
6. Obits.
7.Always check blotter when you go home. Or just check it late and return to newsroom.
Other things for [EDITOR] to help you with:
Remind me to get you copies of: how to write a budget story, how to write a weather story, how to write crime story, and a copy of the courtroom version. I need to go with you to the magistrate’s a time or two just to see what you have to see.
Other rules that everyone in newspapers knows
1. no females, males. Boys, girls, women and men.
2. never ever write “located”
3. no quotation marks except quotes and words used as words. Will explain later
4. active voice
5. specific
6. no severals, no fews. Those aren’t specific. Maybe you didn’t ask how many.
7. Two-letter acronyms and abbreviations usually take periods
8. No acronyms. Or try to limit them. The reader doesn’t know what they mean. There always is an alternative. [CITY] Police Department on first reference. Police on second reference. Or department on second reference.
9. “which” precedes an independent clause. Always put a comma before which. If it does not need a comma, you need to be using “that.”
10.
1. Followup yesterday’s crime and breaking stories. Get them in the paper. Scan the paper and determine what to follow up. Did the suspect get arrested? Did the family get another place to live after losing their home to a fire? The guy in the high-speed chase? Did he get arrested? Was it a guy? Things the cops don’t tell us are still fair game. If we can find out other ways. Always follow up stories that will change and develop, or that likely will change and develop. That’s an easy start. Did the run generate much money? Even small stories can help fill your day and you can file the stories for us to run the upcoming week.
2. scan all news media.
Anything we missed, we must catch and publish online immediately. These stories we missed and we can’t spend all day on them.
2. Check google news for [OUR CITY]. And all other realms of our coverage. Set up RSS feeds that come directly to your email. And get your email sent to your phone.
3. Call, email, even if you have it set up automatically with a week updated time stamp, all emergency agencies in our coverage area. Crime Sweep first thing in the morning as soon as you get here. Shotgun approach. It will take time to build sources, but it has to start now. Check all phone lists in all reporter’s cues because you basically are covering for them on the weekends. They are willing to share if asked nicely. A call to them isn’t off-limits. They can help you.
4. Any feature assignments from last week. Those have to come after doing the above due diligence.
5. Only when your reporting is done, you can help [EDITOR] with clerical duties. First, go through all briefs in Cdesk to make sure none should run and may time out. Put those in a file or email and get them to [EDITOR].
6. Obits.
7.Always check blotter when you go home. Or just check it late and return to newsroom.
Other things for [EDITOR] to help you with:
Remind me to get you copies of: how to write a budget story, how to write a weather story, how to write crime story, and a copy of the courtroom version. I need to go with you to the magistrate’s a time or two just to see what you have to see.
Other rules that everyone in newspapers knows
1. no females, males. Boys, girls, women and men.
2. never ever write “located”
3. no quotation marks except quotes and words used as words. Will explain later
4. active voice
5. specific
6. no severals, no fews. Those aren’t specific. Maybe you didn’t ask how many.
7. Two-letter acronyms and abbreviations usually take periods
8. No acronyms. Or try to limit them. The reader doesn’t know what they mean. There always is an alternative. [CITY] Police Department on first reference. Police on second reference. Or department on second reference.
9. “which” precedes an independent clause. Always put a comma before which. If it does not need a comma, you need to be using “that.”
10.
<3 u tl
