Working the beat in news

Baron, it was a joke.

A good joke only needs a little bit of fact to go a long way.

You're response reminds me of the WaPo "fact checking" last week's SNL skit.

Laugh with it. Sure, it was at your expense, but it was meant in good fun.

 

It's what happens when waking up too early. Happy Thanksgiving.

 

I can see value in doing enterprise instead of a straight-up council meeting story, if warranted. To me, if there is a hot topic at the meeting, a regular story works. If there's no big topics, it's a good time for enterprise. Either way, the idea is to get at least one good story from the meeting, even if that means doing a story on the police department's new K9.

 

Some officials actually believe that public information should actually be public. Others will help you - particularly under the cover of anonymity - if it makes a rival look bad or helps satisfy their earned/unearned sense of grievance.

Some don't realize the importance in the information they're giving you. Some - in theory - will help you out after X number of beat sweeteners or a source-to-reporter relationship develops.

And a certain type of information is simply too public to sweep under the rug.

 

You tell 'em, Pookie.

 

We are having the same discussion in our newsroom (along with several web-related pushes).

I am arguing against this, and part of it is math. I usually come back from a meeting with a bylined story, a capsule and notes on at least one other story.

You work the crowd, you talk to people. You read the bulletin board.

"Working the phones" is great, and is an important skill but nothing beats being there and actually seeing stuff happen, rather than depending on what other people tell you.

It's even better when you have been covering the same boards for a couple years. For me, the second Monday is always a choice among four meetings in key towns, so I have to stay on top of that and pick the right ones. (And report the other meetings by working the phones.)