Information is everywhere. It's almost a total overload. With the advent of the internet I now get more than 200 emails a day and, after I junk the spam or the irrelevant shit, I still end up with dozens of potential 'stories'.
In reality very few emails are trouser tightening exclusives. Most are PR bull shit; others charity I've-climbed-a-mountain-shaved-my-head-presented-a-cheque-bathed-in-beans kind of nonsense you have seen a million times before; the rest crazies with baffling tales of council/police/hospital corruption.
Press releases should go in the bin without exception (let them pay for an ad if it's that important).
So where do we get our stories from?
We have to remember the basics. The more people you know, the more stories you know (or can stand up).
By relying on whatever comes through the door (or inbox) to fill your paper you are doing your readers a disservice.
You should be out in your communities finding out what real people are thinking, what is happening on the streets.
It is too easy to think you are writing a paper for the people by churning out endless police, council or heath authority releases which look like real stories.
If you really had your fingers on the pulse these releases should become a healthy string of nibs on page 8 rather than the page leads they often are.
And before you blame your workload or the fact you don't get out of your office, think about the reason why.
Could it be that you are too busy writing up the chod to go out and get the real stories?
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
Evolve or Die (But remember the basics)
Evolve or die has been my motto since I started in this business.
Journalism and journalists have to move on. I accept this and, with some exceptions, I relish this.
Some of you young 'uns may not believe this but I advocated the use of the internet in my office when it was in its infancy.
My boss dismissed it as useless. "It's just for porn," he declared. This was in the early to mid 90s.
By the late 90s I was working on a major national daily and I was telling experienced hacks how to search online for the subjects of stories. I explained search engines as like a major extension of the cuts library. They had not a clue.
I still push the internet as one of journalism's greatest tools. I am Generation X. I had a mobile phone before any of my friends. It was a brick and had an actual aerial. I was cool.
Now I continually ask my reporters (and these are supposedly Generation Next reporters) if they have googled the subjects in the story. Flesh on the bones and all that malarkey. I normally get a response in the negative. Do you do it?
I like new technology and I embrace internet journalism because I know at some point in the future I will be uploading this blog into a node in my head so that your cranial nodes can read it.
But new technology cannot replace old skills.
Even I laughed when old hacks told how they typed out copy on a typewriter (non-electric) to be handed to their editor on a sheet of fullscap. He would make the relevant changes (on paper) or put it on an actual spike where it would remain forever more.
Hot metal and hundreds of production staff. Things have changed.
But the job really hasn't. Journalism is the obtaining, simplifying and spreading of information. However it is distributed.
Don't forget free papers are quite recent inventions. They are just a different method of distributing the product. Same with t'internet.
Embrace it, move with it, but don't get lost in it.
Journalism and journalists have to move on. I accept this and, with some exceptions, I relish this.
Some of you young 'uns may not believe this but I advocated the use of the internet in my office when it was in its infancy.
My boss dismissed it as useless. "It's just for porn," he declared. This was in the early to mid 90s.
By the late 90s I was working on a major national daily and I was telling experienced hacks how to search online for the subjects of stories. I explained search engines as like a major extension of the cuts library. They had not a clue.
I still push the internet as one of journalism's greatest tools. I am Generation X. I had a mobile phone before any of my friends. It was a brick and had an actual aerial. I was cool.
Now I continually ask my reporters (and these are supposedly Generation Next reporters) if they have googled the subjects in the story. Flesh on the bones and all that malarkey. I normally get a response in the negative. Do you do it?
I like new technology and I embrace internet journalism because I know at some point in the future I will be uploading this blog into a node in my head so that your cranial nodes can read it.
But new technology cannot replace old skills.
Even I laughed when old hacks told how they typed out copy on a typewriter (non-electric) to be handed to their editor on a sheet of fullscap. He would make the relevant changes (on paper) or put it on an actual spike where it would remain forever more.
Hot metal and hundreds of production staff. Things have changed.
But the job really hasn't. Journalism is the obtaining, simplifying and spreading of information. However it is distributed.
Don't forget free papers are quite recent inventions. They are just a different method of distributing the product. Same with t'internet.
Embrace it, move with it, but don't get lost in it.
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Why we are fucked......................
Some of you may have already seen this, others should pay close attention.
The seven biggest media companies with most to lose set up an organisation called the Local Media Alliance.
It represents the worst of this business in the form of Trinity Mirror, Johnston Press Newsquest/Gannett, Northcliffe, Guardian Media Group, Archant, and DC Thomson (do they do the Beano?).
I imagine you either work or have worked for one of these newspaper companies. They represent all that is greedy and evil in this world.
They hired a chump called Roger Parry to head their bullshit cabal.
He wrote this: "Journalists are often busy doing things the audience no longer want. The traditional professional output is no longer valued by readers. Much, but not all, of local news gathering, feature production and photography are better done by enthusiastic amateurs for next to nothing.
"Want a critique of local rubbish collection policies? Ask a local resident for 500 words. It matters to them and they are more connected than a journalist sent over in a taxi. Want passionate reporting of local sports? Ask the fans. There will remain a vital role for trained journalists in investigations, analysis and quality control.
"But it will need fewer of them. They will need new skills of assembling user-generated content including video, digital pictures and audio."
So the head of a consortium of the companies that publish 72 per cent of all local newspapers in this country thinks -
a) journalists are out of touch, not valued and too busy
b) amateurs can do it better and cheaper
c) People actually watch the shitty videos we knock out
d) we travel around in taxis
Read his sentences again.
Then read the utter shit your online community correspondents spew out (if you haven't got 'em yet you will, I guarantee it)
This man represents seven of the largest organisations in this business.
This is why we are fucked.
ps We wouldn't need taxis (read public transport) if the arseholes hadn't decided that having offices outside the area was a fucking master stroke. I used to walk to jobs from my High Street offices Parry, you absolute cunt.
The seven biggest media companies with most to lose set up an organisation called the Local Media Alliance.
It represents the worst of this business in the form of Trinity Mirror, Johnston Press Newsquest/Gannett, Northcliffe, Guardian Media Group, Archant, and DC Thomson (do they do the Beano?).
I imagine you either work or have worked for one of these newspaper companies. They represent all that is greedy and evil in this world.
They hired a chump called Roger Parry to head their bullshit cabal.
He wrote this: "Journalists are often busy doing things the audience no longer want. The traditional professional output is no longer valued by readers. Much, but not all, of local news gathering, feature production and photography are better done by enthusiastic amateurs for next to nothing.
"Want a critique of local rubbish collection policies? Ask a local resident for 500 words. It matters to them and they are more connected than a journalist sent over in a taxi. Want passionate reporting of local sports? Ask the fans. There will remain a vital role for trained journalists in investigations, analysis and quality control.
"But it will need fewer of them. They will need new skills of assembling user-generated content including video, digital pictures and audio."
So the head of a consortium of the companies that publish 72 per cent of all local newspapers in this country thinks -
a) journalists are out of touch, not valued and too busy
b) amateurs can do it better and cheaper
c) People actually watch the shitty videos we knock out
d) we travel around in taxis
Read his sentences again.
Then read the utter shit your online community correspondents spew out (if you haven't got 'em yet you will, I guarantee it)
This man represents seven of the largest organisations in this business.
This is why we are fucked.
ps We wouldn't need taxis (read public transport) if the arseholes hadn't decided that having offices outside the area was a fucking master stroke. I used to walk to jobs from my High Street offices Parry, you absolute cunt.
Questions
What is about reporters and asking questions?
When I edit copy and notice there is no age/job/address for a person I naturally ask the reporter - why not?
Quick as a flash they come back with 'they didn't tell me'.
I respond 'But did you actually ask them?' and generally a bashful junior (sometimes senior) hacklet comes back with the answer 'umm....no'.
Our job is to ask questions. If you don't know something ask. If you struggle to hear an answer, ask again. Ask, ask, ask. The more you ask questions, the better you get at writing stories and thinking about what your tale needs.
Some questions seem too personal or too intrusive. Ask them anyway. The more natural your questions sound, the more likely the interviewee is to answer them.
I have asked some hideously insensitive questions. I remember live on Sky TV asking a senior politician's spin doctor whether the minister was going to make it through the night after an accident. The weeping PR was forced to admit it was unlikely thus giving the whole pack that night's headlines.
Did I feel bad? Of course not. It was the question everyone wanted to know the answer to.
But someone has to ask it.
Many times I have heard journalists interview over the phone and had to scribble furious notes to push under their nose when they pussy foot around the issues.
Most of it is experience, but you need to start asking those awkward questions now.
Start with checking the spelling of every name, age, address and occupation and work your way up from there....................
When I edit copy and notice there is no age/job/address for a person I naturally ask the reporter - why not?
Quick as a flash they come back with 'they didn't tell me'.
I respond 'But did you actually ask them?' and generally a bashful junior (sometimes senior) hacklet comes back with the answer 'umm....no'.
Our job is to ask questions. If you don't know something ask. If you struggle to hear an answer, ask again. Ask, ask, ask. The more you ask questions, the better you get at writing stories and thinking about what your tale needs.
Some questions seem too personal or too intrusive. Ask them anyway. The more natural your questions sound, the more likely the interviewee is to answer them.
I have asked some hideously insensitive questions. I remember live on Sky TV asking a senior politician's spin doctor whether the minister was going to make it through the night after an accident. The weeping PR was forced to admit it was unlikely thus giving the whole pack that night's headlines.
Did I feel bad? Of course not. It was the question everyone wanted to know the answer to.
But someone has to ask it.
Many times I have heard journalists interview over the phone and had to scribble furious notes to push under their nose when they pussy foot around the issues.
Most of it is experience, but you need to start asking those awkward questions now.
Start with checking the spelling of every name, age, address and occupation and work your way up from there....................
What it's like to be a real local reporter
This man is a legend....and you know what, I have never met him. But this short piece says it all.....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8015245.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8015245.stm
Feedback
We gag for comments on our own newspaper web sites. We love it when you get a hot one. I am also a media whore and so if you agree, disagree or simply hate my guts and want to tell me to get fucked. Please leave a comment on any of the topics.
I'd love to hear your experiences in this golden age of media. Let it out. Let it all out. It's actually quite cathartic. (Look it up you simpletons)
I am also quite happy to tear you a new one if you fancy a ruck.
I'd love to hear your experiences in this golden age of media. Let it out. Let it all out. It's actually quite cathartic. (Look it up you simpletons)
I am also quite happy to tear you a new one if you fancy a ruck.
How journalism actually works
It's a fairly simple concept our job really. We find out about shit, we prove said shit, we simplify it and write about it. We ain't psychics. We rely wholly on others telling us things or us literally falling over stories in the streets where we work.
I mentioned contacts in a previous post and there is no greater asset to a hack than a good contact.
It helps to live on the patch you report on. It really helps to have been born there and gone to school there and to have married and had kids there and ultimately to still live there 30 years on. But not everyone is perfect.
Newspaper companies however have a different idea. They think stories come packaged via email. That the general public will inform you when something major happens on the high street. That grieving parents are only too happy to drive 40 miles to give you a collect. That the courts cover themselves. Council meetings are all webcast. And basically who needs to be in the local area to call themselves a local paper.
A large number of newspaper companies have withdrawn their local offices to industrial estates to churn out dozens of papers. I am in one of them and it sucks hairy balls.
Every day I have to weigh up whether it is worth sending a reporter out to cover a job properly - and risk a one hour minimum journey time - or get them to do it over the phone in a third of the time.
I know what I would prefer, but this is news gathering in the noughties. Pardon me for thinking young journalists might be able to actually meet people face to face.
One of the worst examples of the news hub is Trinity Mirror and its disgraceful Fort Dunlop set up. It's like a vacuum sucking up every newspaper office in a hundred mile radius.
They actually think that they can fool the readers into producing umpteen local papers from a central 'warehouse' of news. I saw an ad recently for some sort of hybrid news ed/web mong/ page planner. This creature was expected to edit and place stories into one of the multitude titles they produce at this concentration camp of news without being in charge of one of them.
How can that work? I edit three papers. It took me two months to learn which area was covered by which paper. More than a year on I am still discovering what makes my readers really tick in each edition.
Each patch is totally different. And within each of my three patches there are a myriad of different wards all with separate identities. I struggle to get it right each week, and I actually visit all of my areas on a regular basis, in my own time, and live in one. It is important to understand how your readers live and what their towns are like.
So how can a TM Fort Dunlop news beast focus and get it right on a weekly basis?
I say they can't. I say the products they bring out will be starved of all the things their readers want.
A local knowledge. An idea of what is important. A sense of community within the pages. Some stories that reflect their area.
And once again the money grubbing whores that run the majority of newspapers in this country fuck it all again for cash.
ps if you are a Fort Dunlopite and you disagree get in touch. I welcome your take on it.
pps Your bosses call you a 'combined editorial content-gathering team'. They are basically calling you cunts.
I mentioned contacts in a previous post and there is no greater asset to a hack than a good contact.
It helps to live on the patch you report on. It really helps to have been born there and gone to school there and to have married and had kids there and ultimately to still live there 30 years on. But not everyone is perfect.
Newspaper companies however have a different idea. They think stories come packaged via email. That the general public will inform you when something major happens on the high street. That grieving parents are only too happy to drive 40 miles to give you a collect. That the courts cover themselves. Council meetings are all webcast. And basically who needs to be in the local area to call themselves a local paper.
A large number of newspaper companies have withdrawn their local offices to industrial estates to churn out dozens of papers. I am in one of them and it sucks hairy balls.
Every day I have to weigh up whether it is worth sending a reporter out to cover a job properly - and risk a one hour minimum journey time - or get them to do it over the phone in a third of the time.
I know what I would prefer, but this is news gathering in the noughties. Pardon me for thinking young journalists might be able to actually meet people face to face.
One of the worst examples of the news hub is Trinity Mirror and its disgraceful Fort Dunlop set up. It's like a vacuum sucking up every newspaper office in a hundred mile radius.
They actually think that they can fool the readers into producing umpteen local papers from a central 'warehouse' of news. I saw an ad recently for some sort of hybrid news ed/web mong/ page planner. This creature was expected to edit and place stories into one of the multitude titles they produce at this concentration camp of news without being in charge of one of them.
How can that work? I edit three papers. It took me two months to learn which area was covered by which paper. More than a year on I am still discovering what makes my readers really tick in each edition.
Each patch is totally different. And within each of my three patches there are a myriad of different wards all with separate identities. I struggle to get it right each week, and I actually visit all of my areas on a regular basis, in my own time, and live in one. It is important to understand how your readers live and what their towns are like.
So how can a TM Fort Dunlop news beast focus and get it right on a weekly basis?
I say they can't. I say the products they bring out will be starved of all the things their readers want.
A local knowledge. An idea of what is important. A sense of community within the pages. Some stories that reflect their area.
And once again the money grubbing whores that run the majority of newspapers in this country fuck it all again for cash.
ps if you are a Fort Dunlopite and you disagree get in touch. I welcome your take on it.
pps Your bosses call you a 'combined editorial content-gathering team'. They are basically calling you cunts.
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