Do-It-Yourself Journalism

Most editors find it hard to get their staffs to produce the kind of stories they want. They teach and nag and remind, but the reporters just don’t seem to get it, and neither does the editor. What’s the problem? Our limited newsroom vocabulary makes it hard to describe what you want, or for writers to imagine it.

So create an anthology of what you want to read in your own paper.

COLLECTING GOOD STUFF

Such an anthology would include examples of the kind of stories or treatments you have in mind. Just photocopy examples and staple them together. Writers and editors can have more helpful conversations about improving stories if they have such booklets of examples in front of them. But, by definition, your own paper does not print the kind of stories you want. So you have to go outside.

Collect five or 10 examples of what you mean from other newspapers, magazines, online, etc. Choose publications your staff admires, but not too different from your own. Underline the features you want imitated. If possible, put labels on those items so you can discuss them with greater precision. For example, you might clip an example like this:

“This precious little creature may be the very last one,” said the biologist, sheltering the tiny frog in his cupped hands.

Label it something like “Attribution with gesture.” You create your own vocabulary.

The Poynter Institute’s Best Newspaper Writing series reprints prize-winning stories each year, with interviews with the winners on how they produced the stories. Such an account by a real reporter shows the staff that such innovation can happen. The accompanying discussion will also help build a critical vocabulary for discussion.

ADDING TRAINING

Reporters find it easier to imitate something they can read. You will get even faster results if you discuss how to report and write such a piece. If, for example, you want real, ground-level people in stories, you might have to teach some reporters how to find them. Calling through the rolodex of the usual suspects dulls even the best reporter’s digging skills. And having found real people, some reporters will judge them unquotable because they don’t speak quotes the way politicians do. And few reporters know how to deal with children, especially how to get them to say anything quotable. (The secret: sit on the floor with them.)

FINALLY GETTING THERE

After a while, you’ll start to get what you want. When you do, praise the writer publicly, and clip the resultant story. You can then substitute successful stories from your own paper for the earlier outside examples. They’ll be in your format, and they’ll disarm the response, “That’s a fine technique, but this paper won’t print stuff like that.”

If you make little anthologies and convert them to your own paper’s pieces, you’ll have a powerful tool to retrain expectations. Reporters learn what’s expected of them by reading the paper. To change those expectations, you need examples. You also need to print what you want, not what you don’t. You can’t complain about single-sourced stories, for example, if you print 15 of them every day.

If you get other editors to compile anthologies, you could create a shelf of helpful examples for anyone, especially newcomers, to use. You might even create your own Best Newspaper Writing anthology for your own paper. Then you’d have what you want.

More by Don Fry

Know Your Staff: Planners or Plungers
Human beings fall into two groups: “planners” and “plungers.” Planners decide what to do, and then do it. Plungers jump in and do it, figuring things out as they go along.

Newspaper writers also divide into planners and plungers. Planners know what they want to say before they say it. At a minimum, they plan their story’s structure in their heads before they start typing; at the maximum, they compose from a written outline.

Plungers tend to “write by discovery.” They have no idea of structure when they start typing. They usually type sentences or paragraphs or sections, and then rearrange them to make sense.
>>Read more | Take our quiz to determine whether you’re a planner or a plunger

Start at the Copy Desk
Every newly-hired reporter should spend the first month on the copy desk, working as a fledgling copy editor to get firsthand experience in everything copy editors do and know.

Your copy desk knows everything going on in your newspaper. When I visit a newsroom to solve problems, I always spend several nights on the copy desk. Figuratively speaking, copy editors sit in the basement with transparent floors above them. From there, they can see everything, and it ain’t all pretty. >>Read more

A previous version of this column appeared in the February 1995 issue of “The American Editor.”