If you think the spelling is bad, you ought to see the math!
Years ago I worked at Fairchild Publications (parent of Women’s Wear Daily and a string of other business newspapers). None of the young reporters could do an earnings report well because they couldn’t tell if earnings were up by 0.07% or 7% or 700%. They’d toss all of the calculations to me because I’d taught math in a previous job.
*Why just the young rpeorters? Who knows – but the old guys apparently eventually learned to calculate percentages . . . *
I am a business owner who has had dealings with a large educational institution and its property management group. The group was buying up land and buildings to make a new business development area with new retail, theatres, etc. I was approached by a reporter from a newspaper that had taken a stance against this development. He was doing an in-depth piece about how business owners feel about the development group.
Well, I had mostly good dealings with the group, though I didn’t like how they let their property in the area sit vacant and neglected for two years while getting the rest of the area declared a “blighted” district. They then used “emminent domain” from the city to force the last holdouts to sell their holdings for development. To me, they gave a good deal early and I wanted out of the area anyway. I took the money early and set up shop elseware with no problem.
When the article came out, it made it sound like I thought the development group ate babies for breakfast. It kind of soured me getting some finishing deals on the upcoming construction and I was pissed. (Was…now the whole development is in danger and the project has been scaled way back, so I really didn’t lose anything) The reporter or editors left out all of my good remarks and left in my objections. I called and complained.
My question: I know how they responded, how would you as an editor respond? And, how would you as a reporter explain/ defend what you did as a reporter?
I would talk to my reporter and see what his/her take on the interview was and listen to any tapes of the interview. I have found that at times what the interview subject thought that he or she was communicating does not always come across in the interview.
If, after talking to both of you, I felt my reporter was in the wrong, I would suggest he/she do a follow-up article. If on the other hand, I felt that he/she represented what you said in an accurate manner, I would suggest that you write a letter to the editor expressing your opinion of the company and of our handling of the interview and story (honestly, I feel more people read the Letters to the Editor than the news section, anyway).
note to** Sub Contractor**,
Although I am not a journalist in any sense of the word, I recently listened to someone give a talk on censorship. This person was Dr. Alan Chartock of WAMC (Public Radio Station in my area). Dr. Chartock has been involved with just about every flavor of journalism, either as a jounalist or as a subject of interviews. He would say that what you experienced is the F sharp theory of journalism.
The F sharp theory is this: What do you do when you play piano and you want a F sharp? You push the black key which causes an F sharp to be played.
The same principle applies in journalism. If someone doesn’t say what you want them to say, you find someone who will.
His example was someone had called him recently to ask if Mrs. Kroc’s (widow of McDonald’s founder) large donation($200 million?) had caused it to be more difficult to get donations from other people. Dr. Chartock said" I don’t know, but we have a fund drive next week" Person said he’d call back after the fund drive. Fund drive went off beautifully, got the money in less time than they had predicted it would take. Person calls back, hears the results and says congratulations. No more mention of Dr. Chartock appearing on person’s show. He didn’t say what person wanted to hear.
We live in the same sleep-deprived world. Just this week I got 2.5 hours of sleep on Tuesday night, followed by one hour of sleep on Wednesday night. It’s fun wearing all the hats, huh?
And to follow-up on the question about the “dedication” phrase…along the lines of what Jonathan has already correctly pointed out. The phrase is an opinion of the man’s character. You, as a reporter, don’t have an opinion. You are reporting facts. If it were a tribute in the form of an editorial, it would be one thing, but in this case your job is to report facts. You can report on the opinion of other people,which is where and why you need to attribute the remark. Otherwise you are making a judgement, expressing an opinion, and in straight news reporting, that is a big no-no. “His colleagues described him as a man of dedication…” puts you back into reporting mode.
Johnathan chance, I’m honored that you even remembered this thread.
I’ve continued on the same path and have been “reporting” for about a month now.
I guess, at this point, my question would be how do you get over the personal let down that no one gives a shit about a “reporter”? meaning, friends think the story writes itself so I basically do nothing and basically repeat that sentiment…
Unless you’re working for the New York Times or your name is Bernstein or Woodward, no one gives a shit about reporters, period. It’s not really a glamor job.
Besides, if you’ve set up your story properly and you’ve got all your facts together, the story does write itself.
Robin, who gets to cover, write, and produce two stories by herself today!
Financial journalist with more than a decade’s experience here to make a pitch for considering covering business or finance. It’s nothing I ever would have thought about doing for a living, but having drifted into it pretty much by accident I’ve found that the work really interests me.
You still won’t get rich, but the pay can be better than in less specialized jobs. There’s also the possibility of working overseas, if that’s something that interests you. The financial news services such as Dow Jones have bureaus all over the world, for example. I took a foreign assignment in the expectation of working for the three years mandated by my then-employer and then returning to the U.S. but have turned into an accidental expat - as of December, I’d been living in Europe for 10 years. (The first 2 1/2 years in Brussels, since then in London.)
Working with a variety of people from different countries is a lot of fun. You can do a lot of different things, too. I’ve covered stock, bond and derivative markets as a reporter or editor and am now an editor on a team that reports on European consumer-related companies - food and beverage makers, retailers, tobacco, luxury goods and hotels, among many other things. Some of the better-known companies we cover are Nestle, Heineken, Gucci and L’Oreal.
If you are in it for the glory, you are in the wrong business. Your job as a reporter is not to be cared about, but rather to find and tell a story. That people do not know that you spent five hours on a story is so secondary to the story you’re getting out, it is not to be noticed. Your recognition comes in other ways; that something gets done about the substandard fire escapes, that more than two people came to Joe Schmo’s funeral, that somebody knew that Joe died, that a pot hole got fixed on Pine Street. That’s how people give a “shit” about you in this business. They read your story. And that’s the way it should be.
I don’t know how big the publication you work on is, but I bet that on an average day 10,000 people read what you put on paper; they are looking at what you are relating about what you saw and felt. People are literally hanging on your every word, and you are upset because they don’t appreciate you?
When you look at a painting that really grabs you, do you realize how much time the artist spent on it mixing his paints, getting the light just right, finding the canvas that best communicates his style, how many times he reworks one special portion of the painting, or do you just say, “Wow, that touches me.” Does that demean the artist?
Sat on Cookie when they start thinking more about you than the story you wrote, you will have joined the ranks of the likes Bill O’Rilliey, Geraldo Rivera, Molly Ivans and Jimmy Breslin and you won’t be a journalist any more.
Your peers do notice when you do a good job. They know what it takes to do our jobs and that is the best recognition there is. Making it look so good that the public thinks it’s easy and your peers respect you: What more could you want?
That being said, let me also say, on very rare occasions, someone will come up to you and say, “Hey, you did a really good job on that story I read in the paper the other day. It really touched me,”
You will float home. Your feet won’t even touch the pavement.
I’ll clarify that I don’t believe I’m in it for any glory, but it’s also something I somewhat fell into and I haven’t really evaluated my core reasons for enjoying it so far. I had never considered being a reporter, but the opportunity arose and here I am. I do a lot of creative writing and have always received feedback (positive and negative); I’ve been caught off guard by the lack of feedback (positive and negative) with reporting and features.
That’s as simply as I can put it. Thanks for the input.
Sat on Cookie sorry about the rant, another late paper this morning.
It’s just that I love this profession so much and can’t imagine anyone not loving every aspect of it (except maybe publishers).
I sometimes think my reporters hope when I call them into my office it is to fire them rather than give them an inspirational speech. Can you imagine having to sit in your editor’s office and listen to him (or her) go on like I did above? Usually, I bring Mark Twain, Damon Runyon, Red Smith and Ernie Pile into the rant so I guess I was not as long winded as usual.
To be clear – I’m gaining a love for this profession but for many different reasons. I’m blown away by the amount of folks that have given me interviews or returned phone calls when all I had going for me was “I’m with a new weekly community newspaper.” I’ve never been one to be really involved in the community, so it’s heartening to realize that there’s so much going on and that there are so many people out there who are passionate about local issues.
I started this thread because I don’t know what I’m doing. All input, including “get over yourself, it’s not about you” is appreciated, and I sincerely mean that.
And people would not be able to find out what was going on out there and become passionate about it if it weren’t for reporters like you doing their job.
That’s the nature of the game.
It is natural to question your place in the grand scheme of things, especially as a reporter. Just wait until you do an OK job and they find that by five or 10 minutes work you could have broken a great story. Perhaps the worst emotionally is when you do do a great job and everybody in town hates you for it because you chrush a dream (the business they thought was coming to town wasn’t or the wonderful leader they thought was helping them wasn’t). You will really question your choice of professions then.
You’re right, we all need some feedback ocasionally. Go to your editor and tell him (or her) that I told him to get off his rear end and tell you how you’re doing. And if it turns out that you’re one of my reporters, be gentle about it, it’s hard on a guy finding out he’s denser than he thinks he is.
