1. Finding Stories
• Beat reporting
• Reading the news
• Reading bulletin boards, virtual and real
• Attending events and meetings
• Press conferences
• Monitoring groups and issues via the Internet
2. Environment
CITY GOVERNMENT
Poverty Politicians
Cops
What is a beat?
.
Courts
Neighborhoods
Any defined area of coverage
IMMIGRATION
WEIRD PEOPLE
Politics
3. Getting started
• 1. Define the beat
• 2. Make a list
• 3. Deconstruct the dailies
• 4.Start a tickler file
• 5. Lunch with sources
• 6. Quiz yourself
4. Step 1: Define the Beat
What are the issues within your beat?
What entities does your beat include?
Who are the official people within your
beat?
What kinds of public meetings/events
happen in your beat?
What kinds of public documents exist in
your beat?
5. City of Santa Fe
Issues: Budget deficit, Public records: City
city politics, downtown
development, southside budget, city meeting
growth agendas, annual
Entities: The Mayor, City report on
Councilors, City Finance demographics, water
Director, City Planning
Director, City Planning
use, development
Commissioners, City Flak applications
City Council meetings,
City finance meetings,
City Planning meetings,
neighborhood meetings
6. Step 2: Make a list
Top 10 people to meet.
Public meetings in the next month to
attend.
Find out what documents exist, who’s in
charge of them, file the requests.
Analyze how the dailies are reporting on
this area, if at all.
7. Step 3: Deconstruct a daily story
• Highlight key names in
the story
• Highlight any statistics
and reports they came
from
• Highlight the names of
key organizations
• Analyze for follow-up
stories
8. Deconstruct & Use
• Sources: City Councilor
Rebecca Wurzburger, State
Rep. Lucky Varela, Lynette
Montoya, city economic
development director
• Documents: appropriation
request, budget document
containing rationale for
amount of money needed
• Organizations:
UNESCO, Creative Santa Fe
9. Step 4: Start a tickler file
• Create a system for
tracking who you’re
talking to and what
you’re working on:
meetings, interviews, p
ublic requests. Share
these with your editor
or other writers to get
more ideas.
10. Step 5: Talk to People
• Make regular
lunch, coffee, coffee, sn
ack meetings with
potential sources.
• Get out as much as
possible
• Talk to people when
you don’t need them.
• Don’t rely on the
Internet.
11. Reading the News
• Reading other publications, looking for stories
that were covered, but incompletely
• Reading virtual and real bulletin boards to
look for strange events, calls to action
• Using Social Media to find stories and find
sources.
• Consider using Facebook for Journalists.
12. Events, Press Conferences, Meetings
• Prepare: Research the people/issues at play
for the situation so that you know what is
happening
• Try to arrange interviews so that you aren’t
only reliant on what is said publicly
• At meetings, look for what is most
important/most interesting.
13. Use the Internet to stay in the loop
• If there are organizations or groups that
cover/work on issues you care about, sign up
for list-servs, check their chat
rooms/newsletters to find story ideas.
• Set up a personal news page so that you are
receiving articles and alerts on topics that
interest you.