Day Two, Sept. 26, 2011


Online Writing Tips
CBS President Jeff Fager's keynote address
How to Find Feature Stories
Indepth Reporting is Alive and Well on the Web


Victoria Lim, reporter/anchor, Bright House Sports Network, talked about Online Writing.

Online readers want to go to places and get things clear coverage, comprehensive but specific and with brevity.

Online writing should be in short paragraphs, use bulleted lists, use white use, use highlighted links or boldfaced, put in subheads and be in inverted pyramid.

Lot of breaking news is updated through incremental reporting that should show:

  1. Say: ‘Here’s the latest’
  2. Stress just what happened
  3. Get today in the first sentence
  4. Get to the point

The definition of breaking news has changed. The old definition used to be an unexpected news event.

MSNBC definition news that is going on, continuing to develop, moment by moment

Do this:

  1. Keep updates coming
  2. Make it easy for readers to see what is new
  3. Give the reader what she or he is looking for.

In updating, some use a timestamp showing the new information. But sometimes the new information is not necessarily the most important, and this should be done on a case-by-case basis.

Updates could be:

  1. Writethrus
  2. Quick list, at a glance as latest or the most important
  3. News blogs
  4. Mapping application

Search engine optimization

Word choice and location matters

Use keywords in headlines

Headlines: Give it to them straight but descriptive, not cute and clever

  1. Use most interesting
  2. Avoid names unless famous
  3. Write straightforward with a twist
  4. Short

The BBC website is known for good heads

Google Trends show hot topics, what people are searching for

Ethics concerns

  1. Speed
  2. Interactivity, response to comments and abusive comments
  3. Ease of use
  4. Plagiarism

Links should be necessary but credible, should be content relevant

Interactivity

Do vetting

Watch out for anonymity

Do you engage people?

JEFF FAGER, CBS president, said people want: "Real news, real reporters"

Fager, longtime "60 Minutes" exec, said that at one time the show had too many evergreen stories done way in advance. He has made an effort to make stories more relevant, more investigative stories, filling a void. People want important news.

"We work hard on every single line, we work hard on every interview."

The Bush National Guard story was a low point. Reporters should never go into a project with their minds made up – it keeps them from asking the important questions against publication.

He also said never trust a document, at least a Xeroxed copy.

Big effort to go on Twitter.

How to get ahead: "It’s just about doing as much as you can … Be the first person in in the morning and the last person out … Never be above something … Do whatever it takes to make the story."

Fager noted how he swept floors at his first job and wrote scripts on his own at home for the radio station.

Asked about story time limits, Fager said: "The story should get the amount of time it deserves."

LANE DEGREGORY

Features writer, St. Petersburg Times

20 Tips Your Editor Won’t Tell You

Only four general assignment reporters left at St. Petersburg

She finds the best stories come because she is curious. She transitioned from news to features on her own time – writing on the weekends.

TIPS

Finding people

  1. Talk to strangers. Be a nosy neighbor, sit by the old woman on the swing, everyone has a story. People often respond: "You don’t want to hear my story." She responds: "Yeah, I want to hear your story" and usually gets someone to talk.
  2. Play hookie, roam aimlessly, let someone else drive, ride the bus, walk the docks, look around.
  3. Read the walls. Check bulletin boards, scour classifieds. One man provided a dog poop scooping service. "Who would want to scoop poop?"
  4. Sit on the bench. Be a fly on the wall, eavesdrop at hair parlors.
    5.

    ONE TIP: Rather than break up someone’s narrative, put questions down the side of the notes and come back to the issue.
  5. Make freaky friends (talk to people in circulation and advertising)
  6. Get a life
  7. Ignore important people. When doing stories done before or no fresh angles, look for stakeholders. She did this one time on a twice-profiled Miss St. Petersburg. The gown fitter turned out to be a statistical junkie on Miss America factoids.
  8. Celebrate losers. They are interesting and have to make a decision about what to do next.
  9. Wonder: Who would ever?
  10. Hang out at bars. Bartenders can be rich sources of stories.
  11. Give everyone your phone number
  12. Be late
  13. Work holidays
  14. Take stories no one else wants
  15. Look for the bruise on the apple
  16. See stories from a new angle, write from a different perspective
  17. Listen to the quiet. She was following Weather Channel hurricane hunk Jim Cantore. In a quiet moment, she overheard Cantore say on the cell phone he’ll be home when the hurricane is over. Turned out his wife has MS and has a hard time cooking for the kids and dropped the salmon on the floor and the family didn’t have anything to eat for dinner.
  18. Go along for the ride
  19. Play dumb
  20. Don’t be afraid of yourself, share your life, open up, tell stories, take risks.

SHERI FINK

Doctor and 2010 Pulitzer winner

ProPublica reporter

DEEP DIVE INVESTIGATIONS AND NARRATIVE FORM IN THE AGE OF TWEETS

There is still an appetite for long indepth piece online.

There are 50 investigative news sites.

Ones like ProPublica are a partnership of news organizations and universities or foundations.

There are other forms emerging such as Amazon.com. "I ‘m optimistic there will continue to be a platform for this product."

Create a timeline and fit in details as you go along. You will see connections

Give yourself freedom to write the story and edit it later. Don’t spend a lot of time on perfecting it because things are going to be edited

If you craft a really indepth piece you won’t have to worry about being scooped

At ProPublica, the board of directors doesn’t know the stories they’re working on until they’re published.