Story ideas — due Friday, June 20
June 15, 2008
Hello Scholars! This week, please share one lesson you’ve learned in connection with pitching a photo or story idea. Your lesson could involve telling us how you came up with the idea, how you researched it, how you pitched the story or photo to your editor, etc. — and it can stem from a successful or unsuccessful effort (remember, the most lasting/valuable/important lessons often come from our setbacks — and if we’re pushing ourselves, we’ll have more than a few of these in life!). Deadline — end of the day on Friday, June 20.
I always pitch a story in the context of other beats.
For example, two weeks ago, I had lunch with my editor to pitch stories relating to nutrition, something our daily didn’t have, and something I have always wanted to write about. First, I let her know that I have a passion for it, explaining my background knowledge on the subject, and then I started discussing all the ways Food related to other beats.
I discussed food in the context of rising prices (gas) for a hard-news story; local sustainable eating for the environmental beat and local communities beat; and a possible up and coming feature story on the diet analysis of 4th of July celebration foods, among a wide array of other beats. My editor said they would definitely be interested but I didn’t hear back for two weeks…
Until last Friday, when another editor referenced my earlier lunch date with the other editor, to tell me to email him with story ideas for a summer-long series of stories relating to the rising costs of both Gas/transportation and Food. I will be doing the food part of the series, while my fellow Chipster colleague in the newsroom, Elida, will be tackling the gas and transportation portion.
In conclusion, I think it worked! I get to do an investigative type series all about FOOD, where I will get to incorporate nutrition! So…always remember the bigger picture for the biggest sell!
Most excellent, Sally! From the moment we met you at orientation, we learned of your passion for nutrition — and you’re showing us now how you’re turning your dreams into reality one step at a time through a winning combination of persistence (indefatigable!) and patience.
My editor is usually pretty busy all day long, unfortunately, and I literally have to catch her in spots, so I usually write my story ideas in e-mails. Kind of impersonal – I’d prefer to talk with my editor face to face when I can – but I find that it helps me to flush out the most interesting details of my idea, which in turn gives me a better handle on the direction the writing and reporting. She answers e-mail pretty quickly, and she will always give good feedback on what she likes (and doesn’t) about my pitches.
I try to do some ground research on my story ideas before I pitch them, again to get a bigger handle of what the story is all about. Last week, I read a Boston Globe story (other news sites are a great way to start combing for ideas) on how the demand for hybrids is exceeding the supply. I started making calls to see if that was the case in Austin, calling dealerships and rental car agencies, and I discovered that rental car companies are having a hard time getting hybrids and compact cars because the dealerships are keeping them to themselves to sell to consumers.
I wrote my editor an e-mail, told her what I had learned, who I had talked to, and what I expected the focus of the story to be, and she gave me the go ahead a few minutes later.
Research is definitely key to pitching a story, because you want to make sure what you have is newsworthy and will pan out into a story. Even if you are put on the spot for an idea, still take some time to do a little digging first. Last week, my editor told me to give her a story idea for Juneteenth, and I told her I would check into some leads I had first (I had none) then get back to her. But after about 30 minutes of internet searching, I came up with an idea on a historical feature about early 20th century Juneteenth celebrations on Austin’s Emancipation Park, which is now a housing complex (It’s running A1 tomorrow!).
For longer, enterprising stories, though, a sit-down meeting with your editor is a must. I scheduled a time to meet with my editor on one of her lighter days to go over an in-depth story looking at people dealing with the housing crisis and financial setbacks. We sat down and discussed the idea, and she pointed me in the direction of potential sources, helped me narrow my focus, and discussed writing and packaging for the story. The meeting was waaaay more productive than e-mail correspondence would have been!
My current newspaper is not so keen on story ideas. (And to tell y’all the truth, they’ve kept me so busy that I haven’t even thought about pitching any.) In fact, my editors typically have each day’s stories scheduled a week out–which is fine, though not particularly conducive to enterprise reporting.
But, from past lessons learned, I would suggest including the story’s hook in your pitch. I once pitched a story about how to ride public transportation from the Canadian Border to Portland, OR for $5–an idea I found novel, and information about a service people may have found useful. But instead of the glowing “go ahead and do it” I expected, my editor just looked at me before saying “AND?”
I guess what I am trying to say is, pitch the angle and why the subject-matter is important. Or, in other words, have an idea about what your nutgraph will be before you pitch the story.
So far I’ve had good luck turning really vague general instructions into story ideas. The other reporters on my desk are swamped with work, so there are entire portions of their beats that they’re not able to cover. The reporter sitting across from me was tied up reporting on the polygamist sect down here in Texas, so she sent me some information on this scheduled review of the insurance department that she hadn’t been able to get around to reporting on.
Horribly boring stuff, she said, but maybe there would be something there… I slogged through the documents. None of them were very interesting, and the review seemed to encompass so many different aspects of insurance that it was impossible to find a story anywhere. After leafing through the PDF a few million times, I caught one tiny part of the review that seemed like it might be somewhat interesting — the department wanted to give its hurricane insurance bureau more freedom to “fulfill its mission.”
I asked my editor and the other reporters whether they had ever heard anything about this hurricane insurance bureau. They hadn’t, so I made a few phone calls and all the sudden I had a story! In between doing other shorter-term stories, it took about two weeks to source and write because insurance is so complicated, but it paid off in the end. I got a story with statewide implications that no one had written about before, and it ran A1: http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/06/16/0616insurance.html
Today my editor told me to look into mental health reform. Again, vague instructions, but I’m hoping I can latch onto something small and unexpected and spin another story out of it. I’ll keep you all posted.
Well, I decided before I came to Wisconsin that I would think of a few good story ideas. I was hoping that would make it clear that I was serious about the job and that I had done my research. I want to come out of this internship with a nice enterprise piece under my belt and maybe even some Web and video work.
I proposed a story idea about water quality in rural Wisconsin areas. From what I’ve read, it’s a very big problem. There has been a lot of animal waste contamination in drinking wells. I talked to my editors about it, and they seemed really interested in it. They told me we’d meet with the writing coach to talk more about it.
I’d like to get started on it, but I think my editors have forgotten about it. I try to gently remind them when I can, but there is so much going on in the newsroom right now. I even find myself too busy to do more research on it. I’m not really sure what I should do. I don’t think this is a failure, but I’d really like start working on it soon.
Mimi, if your editors seemed interested and didn’t completely kill your idea, I would make a few calls anyway. That way, you can mention it again to your editors and tell them what you’ve found out so far (that hasn’t been written about to death since you said it’s a big problem). Hopefully they’ll see that you’re still interested in the topic and add it to the budget. Don’t be discouraged!
One important lesson I’ve learned is to communicate with the photo editor and photographers as much as your editors. It sucks to see a really good story paired with really boring photos, so I try to communicate as much as possible with the photo staff (without telling them how to do their jobs). For example, I wrote a story about pollen allergies and the photo editor considered closeup photos of pine tree pollen. After talking, we got a neat photo of an allergist and his patient taking a pinprick test. The story and photo ran on the front page of Wednesday’s paper. So it’s important to try and form a relationship with the photo editor and your immediate editor.
Most of the time I struggle to find simple everyday photo stories. I usually come across ideas when im looking through newspaper and weeklies, or even more when im talking with people and they mention an interesting idea.
I will then contemplate the idea, the availableness, amount of research/time, and the relevance to a viewer/reader. After some preliminary research I will come up with some ideas and try and focus the main point. After the basic investigation, I will then approach my editor, we will break it down, examining if it has interest to our audience, and if it has a strong thesis.
So far during my internship, i have come up with a handful of ideas. A few have sparked with my editors, but most of my ideas tend to be way to big in scope, requiring a lot of research and investigation and get lost or forgotten due to everyones busy schedules.
I do have issues of not being able to focus the story before starting the project or simply not being able to find the main focus or thesis. I feel like my most successful stories thesis have been developed while working on the project. This is where I really admire good writers, I think they have a upper hand in pre-visualizing story development/construction.
I haven’t really been coming up with too many story ideas here in Wausau. I’ve been pretty busy, but I am having difficulty coming up with ideas. The ones I did come up were a matter of keeping my eyes and ears open while writing other stories.
I was writing an obituary and was talking to someone at a church retreat center that the person was involved in. Just asking one question not related to the obit we got to talking about what the center was doing and how they were restarting some programs. Admittedly it’s not the most engaging story idea, but it was something I followed up on and am working on now. Taking a little time to just talk with with sources outside of the context of the story I’m writing can lead to getting things that would’ve otherwise slipped by me.
Brian’s absolutely right about getting a nutgraph prepared for when you pitch the story. Other ideas I’ve thought of never took off because they lacked impact.
My editor seems to have a pretty big list of stuff he has planned for me during the summer, but also seems open to ideas. I didn’t introduce a new story, but I did come up with a new angle rather than the one he wanted, and he was very pleased with the end result. It’s going to be the centerpiece of next week’s section. A former superintendent, who used to be a big band leader, picked up the trumpet again after 30 years and is now playing with a band in Florida…big whoop…but when I interviewed him I found out his wife was behind it all, and I created this 30 inch + love story about them–all revolved around the trumpet. I also pitched a photo idea which unfortunately didn’t work out so we have to use something else, but still. I was a bit nervous to go against what my editor said but when he edited the piece the other day and I asked how it was he said it was much, much better than he had anticipated and he was glad I made the story my own.
I’ve been wanting to work on a women’s interest story for my portfolio but didn’t narrow down to a specific topic. I researched at women’s magazine websites for issues they were covering and found that women were having “clothing swap parties” in reaction to the rising cost of living. I thought a clothing swap party would be great for video but I had problems with finding one in my area. I signed up at this online community to be notified when a party was being planned and haven’t heard anything.
Needless to so, my idea of the clothing swap party didn’t pan out. So I talked with my editor about my problem. He suggested that I speak with some lady reporters to get a range of other Springfield related happenings that it would remain relevant for our readers. They were a huge help, they gave me direct numbers and ideas they personally knew about as well as referring me to other reporters who did the same.
I am now looking into four women’s interest storys as opposed to my one. They are not exactly what I was looking for but they do range in topic of women’s issues that will help my portfolio in the end!
Thanks, Kelly!
This story idea had to do with Michigans left hand turns. WIth gas prices being so high, i thought this would have been something interesting.
First, what is the MLHT? It is the most annoying thing. In order to make a left hand turn, you must first go right at the stop light for example. Then you get into the most inner lane, which is to the far left, and then make a uturn around the median - that whole thing to just to go left.
Depending on how long you have to drive before you can actually make a uturn, you’ll either be using more gas or a lot more gas. My theory is that people in Michigan are using more gas just driving in the city because of those extra turns, compared to out neighboring states. At one time i was just driving in circles because i kept missing blockbuster.
I pitched the idea, which was quite easy to come up with considering i was first annoyed by it and then thought about how much gas i was using becuase of it. And after fearing that someone had already done the story, my editor encouraged me to do more research on it. I did some research in the archives and just using google search engine.
Overall, if i can spend a bit more time, then i think it could be successful. But my time outside the office has been just as busy as my time inside the office, so i havent been able to continue my research.
Great tips and advice, guys!
To sum up so far: Having a hook and doing a bit of research before you pitch, working with photo/graphics(/multimedia), “borrowing” ideas from other papers and magazines, talking with sources outside of the context of the immediate story assignment, staying alert to how you can make a story better than the original assignment — all terrific ways for finding good story ideas and refining them.
Princella: I know you’ve got four ideas going (and a fifth if the clothing swap party comes through)…but here are a couple more off the cuff:
— looking at women who are devoting their summers to working on the presidential campaign
— how are women approaching vacation for their families this summer with gas prices so high? Are family vacations taken “at home” more or less stressful for women than vacations away?
Mimi: I’m with Kelly — Don’t be discouraged! It’s an excellent story topic and would be an important story to tell: you can do it! Your editors apparently have been encouraging — it’s now up to you to carve out even 15 minutes a day to get the ball rolling, do some reporting so you can figure out exactly what your idea is. Make the time to do this. (Maybe you can propose being freed up for an hour or two each week to do the reporting…) Also, can you work directly with the writing coach without having to involve your editor — and would that help you in getting started?
Candace: Ah…I remember well those Michigan left turns…and marveled that there weren’t more accidents! In focusing the idea, also consider what the solutions might be — redesiging the roads? banning the left turns? — and their costs and practicality.
Remember everyone, a well-conceived story idea (as opposed to a story topic) will clearly answer: what is the point of this story; why the story is important to your readers (its impact); and why it needs to be told now.
And good for you, Candace, for making a life for yourself outside the newsroom!
Hi all, a little late I know, but still.
When I first blogged I mentioned how my brilliant story ideas were already being written about even before I got into the newsroom. Obviously I didn’t pitch them.
But when the local editor said fellow Chipster Sally and I would be writing a series over the summer “Living with less,” I realized this was just the opportunity to work in those stories I was interested in writing. So now, I already wrote the first of the summer series profiling one man’s transition to commuting on bicycle.
I guess my advice is not to lose hope on your ideas. There is always a way to work them in at some point. The most important thing is keep them relevant to the readers.
Hey Chipsters,
The best story ideas are the ones that come from conversations you have with the people. Especially ideas that come from people on your beat. Listen closely to the questions people you talk with are asking. Listen to their concerns. Listen for topics and issues that evoke their emotions. Readers may feel the same way.
Troll the reader comments on a newspaper’s Web site. These comments can be a goldmine of ideas for a reporter. They can lead to a new angle on a story or could suggest a follow up story is needed.
Another great source to generate ideas is Poynter’s Al’s Morning Meeting blog. Part of what makes it so great is that Al provides context for each idea and lots of resources and links. Basically he gives you the tools to do just enough reporting to pitch the story to your editor. There was a great post on summer story ideas on Monday. Check it out at: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=2&aid=144917
Now that I’ve added to your story idea arsenal, I could use some feedback from the group. I’m the queen of story ideas when it comes to enterprise or any kind long-term story. But I could use some help with how to come up with ideas for shorter daily stories.
Let me know your thoughts.
Sharahn,
As for quick hits,honestly, those usually are handed to me. They usually tend to be about an event or a news happening.
Sometimes you can find an interesting quick hit though if you do some simple searching on your city’s website, calling to chat with your contacts or perusing around the city.
The last quick hit I came up with just had to do with timing. I had a meeting at 7:00 p.m., and I got off work at 6:00 p.m. I thought that it would be a waste to go home, so I decided to stop by a meeting at city hall. If nothing else, i figured it was a good chance to rub shoulders. A hotel was giving a report. Well, I get there and they start dishing out how the hotel is struggling because of the economy. And then I found out through phone calls that this hotel gets subsidy from the city, which is controversial in the first place. It turned out to be a nice news piece. A couple of columnists at The Star blogged about it, and other city leaders referenced it. So that felt good. Even though I must admit that as I was getting bogged down by the numbers and percentages, I started thinking to myself, “Why did I suggest this?”
That leads me to my issue. I usually can get creative about enterprise stories. But often I have trouble following through on them. I struggle with letting myself get into long enterprise pieces. I am afraid that I will put tons of time into it, and it will never run. Or I’m afraid that it will end up consuming me.