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There are no dumb questions, and other interviewing advice

There are no dumb questions

Bulletin photos by Nadine El-Bawab

 ‘This is not personal; we have questions to ask. I’m not trying to be a jerk, but I’m not trying to be their friend.’

— Eric Rasmussen,
Investigative reporter,
 Boston 25 News

 There are no dumb questions,
and other interviewing advice

By Jesse Goodman
Bulletin Correspondent

Among the tips Eric Rasmussen delivered to journalists at the recent New England First Amendment Institute was this answer to a query about what interview questions to avoid:

“The only dumb question is the one you don’t ask. If it doesn’t end with a question mark, you probably won’t get what you want.”

Rasmussen, an award-winning investigative reporter with Boston 25 News, had much advice to share on his topic of “The Confrontational Interview and Transition to Audio or Video” at the Institute Oct. 31 at Northeastern University.

“Interviews take on all shapes and sizes,” Rasmussen said. “Every interview, almost without exception, doesn’t go (according) to expectation.”

Rasmussen, a news anchor in Orlando, Fla., Chico, Calif., and Champaign, Ill, before returning to Boston, the home of his alma mater, Boston University, recommended identifying what kind of interview is planned.

He mentioned three kinds: Interviews for accountability (Why was this person let out of jail with this kind of record?); emotional (How does it feel to get out of jail?); or informational (When were you released from jail?).

Rasmussen showed examples of his work. They included an unscheduled interview with a man using an alias to sell food stamps on Facebook as a part of a report on the abuse of food stamps in Massachusetts. Rasmussen figured out who the man was through his friends on Facebook, and tracked him down before confronting him.

That doesn’t have to be the case for all interviews, Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen showed another clip of him talking to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh about the building of a fence to keep drug users away from a particular area, only to have them use another end of the same street. Walsh’s team didn’t want him to meet with Rasmussen at first. But after Rasmussen interviewed Walsh’s chief opponent in the mayoral race, Tito Jackson, Walsh was ready to sit down with Rasmussen and talk about the fence.

“This is not personal; we have questions to ask,” Rasmussen said. “I’m not trying to be a jerk, but I’m not trying to be their friend.”

Rasmussen’s other tips included structuring a story with characters, context, conflict, and resolution.

He recommended reviewing quotes from the person you’re interviewing, to come up with additional questions. Rasmussen suggested trying to make most questions open-ended, to encourage the interview subject to respond more expansively.

Rasmussen urged never allowing someone being interviewed to get away with saying something that isn’t true.

“You can really miss out if you don’t listen to what they say,” Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen suggested getting contact information to follow up with the person interviewed, even if it’s just to let the person know that the piece has been published or aired.

Presenter Eric Rasmussen provides interviewing tips to his audience at the New England First Amendment Institute.

 ‘You can really miss out if you don’t listen to what they say.’

 — Eric Rasmussen

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Like mac ’n’ cheese, papers due for resurgence

Jim Stasiowski, writing coach

Jim Stasiowski
Writing

Writing coach Jim Stasiowski welcomes your questions or comments.

Call him at
(775) 354-2872
or write to:
2499 Ivory Ann Drive
Sparks, Nev. 89436.

Maybe I was just in the right mood for a metaphor, or maybe the girl on the swing was just a girl on a swing.

But she bolstered my faith in the resurgence of newspapers.

On a chilly Saturday morning, as my wife, Sharon, and I walked past a park, we saw a 12-year-old whirling on the kind of swing set we remembered from our childhoods.

Later, as we passed in the opposite direction, the girl still was flying.

“Notice,” I said to Sharon, “no cellphone, no texting, no earbuds. She’s just swinging.”

When we were her age, the Cold War was raging, so all we had to worry about was nuclear holocaust; she is facing something much more perilous: social media.

Watching her, I thought: Maybe 1950s’ passions – swings and Elvis and TV dinners and newspapers – are making comebacks.

(Oops. Sorry, Elvis.)

It was a Saturday in the school year, so the girl had the day to herself. She could have stayed inside, warm and connected electronically to her friends, even her president.

Instead, she sought the yesteryear thrill of the swing.

It’s a metaphor for newspapers’ future.

First, a young person disdains social media in favor of real life.

Second, reading isn’t easy. Unlike zombieing in front of TV or YouTube, reading requires the mental labor of processing words arrayed in sentences, paragraphs and stories. Similarly, swinging requires arm strength, leg push, weight shift, balance and, that morning, a sweater.

The internet requires one finger’s movement.

Third, the girl’s swinging illustrates the line from the “Casablanca” song: “The fundamental things apply, as time goes by.”

Take macaroni and cheese, long derided as the nutritional equivalent of cigarettes. Today even the most protective parents and renowned chefs are serving it, hoping arteries won’t notice.

Or records. Despite modern listening methods, music on vinyl, declared dead decades ago, is reviving. Magazines and newspapers say so.

And baseball. Prehistorically crowned “the national pastime,” baseball, we constantly hear, is archaic: too slow, too static, too Nixonian.

But we just had a second consecutive compelling World Series, as the Dodgers and Astros awakened the nation’s enthusiasm.

Newspapers are next.

Today a “newspaper” is not necessarily printed on paper. Although I personally despise reading the news on electronic screens, I’m 70, so my three-dailies-tossed-onto-the-driveway addiction will end someday (not soon, I hope).

But in some form – electronics, Morse Code, skywriting – aggressive, credible news reporting will not die with me. In the age of President Trump, it should thrive.

Already a Trump Bump is fueling circulation growth of large newspapers covering national politics.

Local papers?

They’re next. Trump’s electoral success will encourage local candidates to adopt his tactics. Not all will be Republicans; anyone with a political itch might conclude that boisterous name-calling and abstract vows to “Make (whatever) great again” can win.

(Although Virginia voters rejected Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie, who acted like Trump, that won’t stop others from trying.)

More than ever, voters need sober coverage that cuts bombast down to size.

Why didn’t the coverage of candidate Trump thwart him?

At least in part because journalists didn’t know how to handle him. First they made fun of him, laughed at him. Later, they labeled him a sure loser. Recognize that millions of Americans are resentful because they’ve been laughed at, dismissed as losers, and you grasp why some identified with Trump.

But here’s one Trump loss: His excoriation of serious news organizations is fueling their revival. Voters are hungry for the very journalistic traits that would starve social media: care, substance, integrity, responsibility.

And no laughing.

Thoughtful local election coverage will attract thoughtful voters. When they come for the candidate stories, we woo them with the nonpolitical: creative features, analytical government stories, investigative projects. We expose local Harvey Weinsteins, the bullies and abusers.

But there’s more to my faith in newspapers than that.

Journalists see themselves as gritty realists and the rest of the population as delusional dreamers.

That’s so wrong. All of us, all Americans, are an illogical amalgam of trusting no one, yet trusting in a brighter future.

And that’s why readers are poised to come back to us.

You see, along with being skeptics, journalists are optimists. We are convinced our every story about social ills will cure them; convinced our every story about corruption will eradicate it; convinced our every story about decaying roads, bridges and utilities will repair them.

Even without immediate results, we persist, convinced our next stories, more powerful than those preceding, will make all the difference. Such displays of optimism and activism appeal to Americans, who know they want more but don’t always know what.

We fulfill the role of pointing them toward the what.

We owe such diligent coverage to all potential readers, and especially to one inspiring girl on a swing.

THE FINAL WORD: I once asked a crusty copy editor to help me come up with a fitting metaphor. “Metaphors?” he growled. “I don’t believe in them.”

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We’re a big part of the fix for ‘junk news’

Gene Policinski First Amendment

Gene Policinski
Inside the First Amendment

Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute and senior vice president of the Institute’s First Amendment Center. He can be reached at gpolicinski@newseum.org.

Follow him on Twitter:
@genefac

Let’s stop talking so much about “fake news.”

Not that we should ever cease identifying, talking about or countering misinformation, be it accidental error, the result of negligent work, or deliberately false — to which we must now add propaganda tactics aimed at destabilizing our democracy.

We face all those types of misinformation today; amplified as they are by platforms that allow for instantaneous, worldwide communication.

But the term “fake news” no longer has any real meaning as a national concern or a problem to be dealt with. The term has become far too politicized and much too imprecise, now serving as a catch-all for information anyone sees as divisive, disagreeable, biased or plain wrong. Instead, I prefer a term offered by my Newseum Education colleagues: “junk news.”

Regardless of what we call it, less talk and more action on misinformation is where our focus ought to be. Media Literacy Week, which took place Nov. 6 through 10, is as good a time to start as any.

NewseumED, the Newseum’s nonpartisan education arm, offered information and tools to help students — and all of us — navigate today’s complex media landscape. Its collections of resources are all aimed at helping us understand how news is made and how we can take a more active and responsible role in the information cycle. That includes having the skills to evaluate information, filter out fake news, separate facts and opinions, recognize bias, detect propaganda, spot errors in the news and take charge of our role as media consumers and contributors.

As junk news continues to infiltrate the newsfeeds of millions of social media users, education and awareness have become the best line of defense against the spread of misinformation and disinformation. Where journalists once served as the “gatekeepers” of society’s daily information consumption, today anyone with internet access can create and distribute content, and spread information by sharing it on social media.

For many people, that’s more comfortable and a better option: the power to choose and shape what we need to know, rather than having it fed to us by a select few. But with that power should come a greater sense of responsibility to draw our news from as many reliable, diverse sources as we can.

Failure to do that has created the now-infamous condition in which social media’s omnipresent algorithms track our every keystroke to present us with news that we “like” — or in other words, news that plays to our existing opinions and biases.

Sure, there was a time when readers would settle on a favorite TV network or, in an even earlier era, a favorite radio station for the nightly news. Newspaper readers in communities where there were multiple daily publications would subscribe to one over the others. Much of the non-local news, for good or bad, contained the same information — very often taken from wire services that prided themselves on their ability to “get it first, get it right — but above all, get it right, first.” Those were the days when CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite was called the “most trusted man” in the nation, by virtue of that news media mantle.

In today’s news world, where those long-standing print and broadcast news outlets are barely standing, and new media players have yet to show the depth or credibility it takes long to develop, we as consumers must take less on “faith” and more on “fact.”

For their part, news operations, think tanks, social media companies and others are working on ways to help consumers play a more responsible role in the daily news cycle. Verifying stories and tightening ethical standards are good starts, but significant obstacles lay in the path — namely, the declining revenue and resources of traditional press organizations, and the new Web-based media economy that depends on eyeballs and clicks. In such an environment, thorough “accountability” reporting — often dull but always necessary — has fallen by the wayside.

There are some signs that people are rethinking a reliance on just one site, which is a good first step to improving our news diet. According to the Pew Research Center, about a quarter of all U.S. adults (26 percent) get their news from two or more social media sites, up from 15 percent in 2013 and 18 percent in 2016. But consumers shouldn’t stop with just “more” — our daily intake needs to consist of varied, credible sources. Otherwise, consumers trap themselves in a news bubble or echo chamber, in which they only see information that confirms and reinforces their opinions instead of challenging them.

At a recent forum on First Amendment issues and fake news, I advanced a long-held theory of mine that eventually news consumers will demand information on which they can rely, and will over time migrate to those sources; that credibility will be the news currency of the 21st century

But it’s no longer the province of news providers alone to build that demand. Individual consumers must join in that effort by getting savvier about the news. In a twist on an old saying, “Let the buyer be aware.”

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Transitions

CONNECTICUT

Woody Klein has retired as a news columnist for the Westport News after 50 years. Klein’s career began as a reporter for the Mount Vernon (N.Y.) Daily Argus. He then was a night police and general assignment reporter for The Washington Post for a year and a half before joining the New York World-Telegram & Sun, where he covered poverty, politics, housing and civil rights. From 1992 to 1997, beginning at age 63, Klein was the Westport News’ editor. He oversaw reporters who won many awards for their work. One piece, Behind Closed Doors, about abuse of women in their homes in Westport and Weston, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Klein wrote a 400-page book about the town’s history, titled “Westport Connecticut: The Story of a New England Town’s Rise to Prominence” and published in 2000. Klein has won numerous awards for his writing. His 10-part series, I Lived in a Slum, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1965. In 1964, Klein’s first book, “Let in the Sun,” was published. It told the story of his time as an undercover reporter in some of New York’s worst tenements. He wrote eight more books, with themes such as politics and poverty, while at the Westport News. After his time at the World-Telegram & Sun, Klein spent three years as then-New York Mayor John V. Lindsay’s press secretary. Klein later joined IBM, where he spent 24 years in communications for its manufacturing, development and marketing divisions. His last role at IBM was editor of Think magazine, the company’s international employee magazine distributed in more than 170 countries. Klein began his column, Out of the Woods, in the Westport News soon after he began working at IBM.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

John Tabor is retiring as president and publisher of Seacoast Media Group, based in Portsmouth, after 40 years in newspapers. Seacoast publishes the Portsmouth Herald, Foster’s Daily Democrat of Dover, and weeklies in New Hampshire and Maine. It also is a commercial printer whose clients include the New Hampshire Union Leader of Manchester; The Sun of Lowell, Mass.; and the Sentinel & Enterprise of Fitchburg, Mass. Seacoast provides digital marketing, direct mail and commercial delivery services too. After graduating from Yale University in 1977, Tabor interned at The Providence (R.I.) Journal. He then joined the copy desk at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and later became a police and court reporter for the Arizona Star of Tucson. After that, he bought a weekly for Mead Publishing of Lakeport, Calif., with a college friend. The paper increased its publication to five days a week before Tabor sold his share in the weekly to Mead. Tabor then published the Portsmouth Press with the former Ottaway Newspapers in 1987, initiating a newspaper rivalry with the Portsmouth Herald. An economic recession that began in 1991 resulted in the closing of the Portsmouth Press in 1993. Tabor briefly became general manager of the Pocono (Pa.) Record. In 1994, he was named publisher of Rockingham County Newspapers, including the Exeter News-Letter, the Hampton Union and the Rockingham News. In 1997, in a newspaper swap between the owners of Rockingham County Newspapers and the Portsmouth Herald resulted in the Herald merging with Rockingham County Newspapers, Seacoast Media’s first website, Seacoastonline.com, was launched that year. In 2001, Seacoast acquired the York (Maine) Weekly and York County Coast Star of Kennebunk, Maine

VERMONT

Cherise Madigan has been appointed editor of the Manchester Journal. Madigan began writing for the Journal in 2016. Madigan also covered the Manchester and mountain regions for the Bennington Banner, where she has been a staff reporter since April. Madigan was an intern for the Banner during high school.

The Transitions were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondents Georgeanne Oliver, Rebekah Patton and Casey Rochette, undergraduate students at Northeastern University

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Obituaries

Melvin Stone

Melvin Stone, 96, of Portland, Maine, died Nov. 17 at the Cedars retirement community in Portland.

After service in the Army, Stone purchased Rumford (Maine) Publishing Co., which he expanded to publish not only the Rumford Falls Times, but also the former Wilton Times, the then-Westbrook American, and the former Rangeley Record, all in Maine.

Stone later established radio station WLOB-AM in Portland. He eventually owned nine radio stations and Bangor’s Channel 7 TV network, all in Maine. He brokered the sale of dozens of radio stations during his career.

Stone was treasurer of the Maine Press Association and the first president of the New England Press Association.

He retired at age 84.

Stone leaves two sons, Chuck and David, and multiple grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Richard E. Rappoli

Richard E. Rappoli, 71, of Cambridge and Rockport, Mass., and formerly of Belmont, Mass., died Oct. 27 at the home of a brother in Rockport.

Rappoli was a reporter and editor at the then-Malden (Mass.) Evening News and a sister newspaper, the former Medford (Mass.) Daily Mercury.

Rappoli leaves three brothers, Peter, Andrew and Robert; two sisters, Caroline and Janice; three nieces; a nephew; two great-nephews.

William F. Dougherty

William F. Dougherty, 79, of Hartford, Conn., died Nov. 1 in Hartford.

Dougherty began his career in journalism in the early 1960s, and was the head editorial writer for several newspapers, including The Standard Times of New Bedford, Mass., the former Boston Herald-Traveler, the former Hartford (Conn.) Times, The Telegraph of Nashua, N.H., and the Republican-American of Waterbury, Conn. He also was an editorial page editor and columnist at the Charlottesville (Va.) Daily Progress.

He leaves two daughters, Cynthia and Justine; a son, James; three grandchildren.

Anne Marie (Ridley) Scigliano

Anne Marie (Ridley) Scigliano, 81, of Topsham, Maine, died Nov. 20 at Huntington Common in Kennebunk, Maine.

Scigliano was an award-winning reporter and editor. In 1969, she became the first woman editor for the Lexington (Mass.) Minuteman.

She later became the director of community relations with Symmes Hospital in Arlington, Mass., and in 1984 was named vice president for community relations at Choate Symmes Health Services Inc. In 1989, she became the director of public relations for Winchester (Mass.) Hospital. Scigliano retired in 1995.

Scigliano leaves a sister-in-law, Barbara Jellison; eight nieces and nephews; several grandnieces and grandnephews.

Eleanor Gertrude (Olmstead) McMorrow

Eleanor Gertrude (Olmstead) McMorrow, 91, of Mount Pleasant, S.C., died Nov. 8 in her apartment.

McMorrow wrote Around the Town, a weekly column in the Westwood (Mass.) Press, and became editor of the Westwood Press. She also had been editorial assistant at the Norwood (Mass.) Messenger.

She was a member of Westwood’s Ways and Means and Conservation commissions and was chairwoman of the Westwood Council on Aging.

She leaves three sons, John, Stanley and Philip; six grandchildren; three great-grandchildren.

Frank Edward Keane

Frank Edward Keane, 88, of Yountville, Calif., died Nov. 10.

Keane was a newspaper journalist for nearly 50 years. He began his career as a reporter in upstate New York for The Syracuse Post Standard, the Oneida Daily Dispatch, and The Buffalo Courier Express.

Keane then joined The Providence (R.I) Journal, where he covered politics and general news. During his 32-year association with the Journal, he eventually became night editor.

He was also the head of the union for reporters and editors. He negotiated contracts with the owners and led a strike in 1973.

Before his career ended in 2003, he was a copy editor at the Providence Business News.

He leaves his wife, Rose; five stepchildren, Christina, James, Margaret, Mary and John; six grandchildren; a brother.

Gillian R. Swart

Gillian R. Swart, 64, of Malden, Mass., died unexpectedly Nov. 18 in her home.

Swart was city and feature editor of the Newburyport (Mass.) Current, a freelancer for The Boston Globe, and a writer for the Malden (Mass.) Observer and for the East Village Magazine of Flint, Mich.

Swart leaves her father, Fred; two sisters, Sarah and Helen; a brother, Myron; five half-brothers and sisters.

Andrew Austin Merdek

Andrew Austin Merdek, 67, of Atlanta, Ga., and formerly of Portland, Maine, died Nov. 18.

After graduating from college in 1972, Merdek was a reporter and copy editor for the company that used to own what has become the Portland Press Herald and its sister Sunday newspaper.

Merdek also had been the principal media lawyer for Dow, Lohnes, and Albertson based in Atlanta.

He later became general manager and vice president at the Atlanta Journal and Constitution.

Merdek retired as vice president and general counsel at Cox Enterprises, based in Atlanta.

He leaves his wife, Jeanne; two sons, David and Jonathan; a granddaughter, Abigail; a sister.

Derek C. Gentile

Derek C. Gentile, 62, of Great Barrington, Mass., died unexpectedly Nov. 13 at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Mass.

Gentile was a reporter and columnist for The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield for more than 30 years.

He leaves four sisters, Marybeth, Melanie, Hilary and Karla; three nephews, Kane, Kyle and Nicholas; several cousins.

Karlene Kelley Hale

Karlene Kelley Hale, 74, of North Monmouth, Maine, died Nov. 22 at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston after a long battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Hale was a correspondent for the Bangor (Maine) Daily News, covering Eastern Washington County for several years.

Hale later began a 12-year career at the Kennebec Journal of Augusta, Maine, where she wrote mostly statewide and local education stories. She also wrote personal opinion columns there.

After leaving the Kennebec Journal, she became a full-time freelance reporter for the Capital Weekly of Augusta. Her columns and news stories won multiple awards from the Maine Press Association. In 1992, Hale won the Outstanding Media Award from The National Alliance on Mental Illness for her stories about the mentally ill under deinstitutionalization.

Hale wrote three books: “Being There,” about the private lives of the mentally ill; “Hometown Champs,” about a high school basketball team; “Tap Dancing and True Confessions,” a collection of essays about her life growing up in Maine.

She leaves her husband, John, a reporter at the Bangor Daily News when they married; a daughter, Elizabeth; a stepson, Jonathan; a sister.

Mildred Cole Péladeau

Mildred Cole Péladeau, 89, of Readfield, Maine, died Nov. 4 in her home after a long bout with Parkinson’s disease.

Péladeau was a reporter for the then-Lewiston (Maine) Daily Sun, with its state department and its society desk.

Péladeau was a founder of the then-Maine Press, TV and Radio Women. She wrote a book, “Rug Hooking in Maine, 1838-1940,” a 2008 publication that explained the historical context of rug hooking.

Péladeau leaves her husband, Marius, also a former reporter with the Lewiston Daily Sun; a cousin; several nieces and nephews.

Elsa R. Josten

Elsa R. Josten, 96, of Old Saybrook, Conn., died Nov. 20 at Apple Rehab in Old Saybrook.

Josten was a reporter at The Hartford (Conn.) Courant.

She later helped publish weekly newspapers for many years with her husband, Henry, who was the owner and managing editor of Curtis Johnson Publication.

She leaves a daughter, Madeline; three grandchildren, Jay, Caroline and Eric; five great-granddaughters.

George Forsythe

George Forsythe, 93, of Framingham, Mass., died Nov. 24.

Forsythe was a staff reporter the former Boston Evening Traveller and for the New Journal of Norfolk, Va.

He later was an on-air news reporter at the then-WHDH-TV, Channel 5 in Boston.

He leaves three daughters, The Rev. Faith, Anne and Leslie; five grandsons, Timothy, Anthony, Christopher Tolson, Russell, and Christopher Booth; six great-grandchildren.

MacGregor Robinson

MacGregor Robinson, 53, of Norfolk, Conn., died Sept. 4 in his home after being diagnosed with liver cancer in August.

MacGregor had been a reporter for the Lakeville (Conn.) Journal.

He leaves two brothers, Belmore and James; three nieces; five nephews; a brother-in-law; two sisters-in-law.

Daniel M. ‘Dan’ Lynch

Daniel M. “Dan” Lynch, 72, of Plainville, Mass., died Oct. 16 after a brief illness.

Lynch was a columnist with Milford (Mass.) Daily News and the MetroWest Daily News of Framingham, Mass. Lynch retired from owning a contracting business and began writing weekly how-to advice about home improvements.

In 2004, Lynch began writing a weekly column for The Boston Globe called Dear Dan, a question-and-answer column on home repairs.

Lynch leaves a son, Daniel Jr.; a brother, James; six nieces; four nephews.

Ronald Edward Keeler

Ronald Edward Keeler, 84, of Centerville, Mass., and formerly of Redding, Conn., died Nov. 11 at his home.

He was a Linotype machinist at The Advocate of Stamford, Conn.

He leaves a wife, Georgette; two sons, Ronald and Jeffrey; a daughter, Susan; four grandchildren; four great-grandchildren.

Anthony Randolph ‘Tony’ Jenkins

Anthony Randolph “Tony” Jenkins, 60, of Boston died Nov. 17 in Boston Medical Center.

Jenkins retired from The Boston Globe after 21 years in its travel division.

He leaves a daughter, Amanda.

Ermina ‘Erma’ (Guiditta) Jacovino

Ermina “Erma” (Guiditta) Jacovino, 96, of Waterbury, Conn., and formerly of Wolcott, Conn., died Nov. 18 at Waterbury Hospital.

Jacovina was a bookkeeper for the Republican American of Waterbury for 17 years.

Jacovina leaves a daughter, Mary Ann; four grandchildren, Robert, Danielle, Vincent and Jeffery; three great-grandchildren.

Christina Caturano

Christina Caturano, 41, of Concord, Mass., died Nov. 30 after battling breast cancer.

She was a photojournalist for the Boston Herald and The Boston Globe.

She also wrote a cooking blog and children’s literature.

She leaves her husband, Shane; two children, Rhys and Meriel; her parents, Richard and Barbara; a brother.

Michael E. Shea

Michael E. Shea, 58, of Holyoke, Mass., died Nov. 2.

He was involved with transportation and delivery for The Republican of Springfield, Mass.

Robert J. Kmon Sr.

Robert J. Kmon Sr., 51, of Coventry, R.I., died Nov. 10 at Philip Hulitar Hospice Center in Providence, R.I.

Kmon was a pressman for several newspaper companies.

He leaves his wife, Lory; a son, Robert; two daughters, Sara and Amanda; his biological father, Ernest; two brothers; a sister.

The obituaries were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondents Ajoa Addae, Nadine El-Bawab, Angela Gomba, Nico Hall, Joshua Leaston, Kaitlyn Mangelinkx, Monica Nair, Rebekah Patton, Casey Rochette and Cayley Ross, undergraduate students at Northeastern University.

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Slimp

Kevin Slimp technology
Kevin Slimp technology

Kevin Slimp

Kevin Slimp is director of the Institute of Newspaper Technology.

Email questions to him at
kevin@kevinslimp.com

At the 21st session of the Newspaper Institute last week, Ed Henninger and I did something we’ve never done before. We taught a class together. It must have been a good idea because it was the most attended of the 26 classes offered.

The class was titled “What You Need to Know About Paragraph Styles,” and we took the group through a very fast-paced 90-minute session, covering everything from simple nested styles to advanced nested styles.

Afterward, while discussing our class in the hallway, Ed and I agreed we had learned something from each other concerning paragraph styles. Ed told me he hadn’t seen nested styles created using the method I used.

A nested style is a type of paragraph style that combines two or more separate styles into a single paragraph style. For instance, this is an easy way to create a style for classifieds. If the user wanted five bold words at the beginning of each classified, followed by smaller normal text, then followed by a different style of text for the code at the end of the ad, that could be accomplished with a nested style.

I was intrigued by a method Ed used to create a paragraph style based on the style that follows.

For instance, most newspaper designers are used to using paragraph styles to set body text, headlines, cutlines, and other common text styles.

Let me offer a quick explanation for those who don’t design pages. Suppose you’ve placed text under a photo. Without a paragraph style to simplify the process, you would highlight the text, select a font, along with tracking, leading, and other characteristics to create your cutline.

Using a pre-existing paragraph style, the user could simply click anywhere within the cutline and select “cutline” to achieve the same effect.

The same technique could be used to apply styles to headlines, body text, bylines, and other types of text on a page.

Ed discussed a method he uses to create styles for his newspaper clients, using a “next style” method. I noted a few of the styles he created and asked Ed to take a step back and show the class exactly how those styles were created.

Afterward, I went to my computer and experimented with different types of paragraph styles using that method.

“Wouldn’t it be great,” I thought, “if by simply clicking on a paragraph style, the headline, byline, email line, and body text were all set automatically, without having to select different styles for each?”

Let me show you how that can be accomplished. We will begin by placing some text on a page.

For this particular method to work correctly, we will create the body text style first. That is done by creating text exactly the way you want it to appear on the page. Set the font, the justification, the first line indent, etc. I named this font “Body Text” in the Paragraph Styles panel.

Suppose my stories are made up of headines, with bylines below the headlines, followed by email addresses below the bylines, then body text flowing below the email addresses.

Yes, I could place the text, then click on each of the paragraph styles individually, until each type of text was styled. By paying close attention, however, I can create paragraph styles that do all those for me, with one click, rather than having to select each piece individually.

After creating a “Body Text” style, I go about creating a style for the email line. Notice inside the “Next Style” box, I have selected “Body Text.” That will allow me to set two styles at once, an email line followed by body text.

Next, I create my paragraph style for the byline. Again, create text just as you intend for it to look on the page. Note the setting for “Next Style.” After the byline, the next line will be in the Email Address style.

Finally, a style is created for the headline, with Next Style set for “ByLine.”

Now, here is the trick. For this to work, you place your text on the page, then click somewhere within the headline with your Text tool.

Next, right-click on the headline style and select “Apply Headline” then “Next Style.”

The result is a headline, a byline, an email address line, followed by body text.

With a little practice, you’ll be setting up styles for stories with drop caps and more. I know you can’t wait. Go have fun. Remember, the secret is to right-click on the paragraph style if you want to use the “next style” method.

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How pros and amateurs differ

John Foust Advertising

John Foust
john-foust-ad-libs

John Foust has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad departments are using his training videos to save time and get quick results from in-house training.

Email for information: john@johnfoust.com

What sets advertising amateurs apart from professionals? Let’s examine some key skill areas.

  1. Amateurs do most of the talking in sales appointments. Professionals do most of the listening. When they meet with prospective advertisers, they work to learn marketing goals. They concentrate on discovering “pain points.” And they learn about the results of previous campaigns. That’s accomplished with questions – along with attentive listening.
  2. Amateurs use puffery in ad copy. Professionals use relevant information. They stay away from empty claims and exaggerations like “unbelievable,” “fantastic” and “incredible.” Instead, they focus on specific features and benefits that mean something to readers.
  3. Amateurs sell one ad at a time. Professionals sell campaigns. The best ads are not stand-alone sales; they are elements of bigger marketing campaigns. By taking the time to develop an overall strategy, professionals have a guideline to follow. There’s no mystery about what to do next. They simply follow the plan.
  4. Amateurs create spec ads before learning the prospect’s needs and developing a marketing strategy. Professionals believe it’s important to diagnose the patient before writing a prescription. I cringe when I hear stories of ad ideas that have been created without doing any homework first. Most of those ads are laughably off target.
  5. Amateurs don’t know the difference between image ads and response ads. Professionals know that distinction can make or break advertisers’ expectations. Image ads are designed to create and strengthen brand identities, while response ads are designed to motivate consumers to “buy now.”
  6. Amateurs see print and digital as separate entities. Professionals know that print and digital work together to project a cohesive brand image for their clients. In today’s multimedia environment, the companies with strong marketplace identities understand that everything must work together. Logos, type fonts, benefit statements, theme colors – they all play important roles.
  7. Amateurs run anything their advertisers request, because they don’t want to risk offending paying customers. Professionals know they’re obligated to stand up for solid advertising principles (with diplomacy, of course). I’ve never seen a salesperson’s business card that listed “Order Taker” as a job title.
  8. Amateurs wing their way through appointments. Professionals provide prospects with a printed agenda and follow it carefully. They know how to keep things on track. They stay away from running down rabbit trails that can derail a presentation. It’s a matter of respecting the other person’s time and making a professional impression.
  9. Amateurs don’t care about typography. Professionals understand that type has been called “the voice of print” for a good reason. They know that all upper-case type should be used sparingly in headlines – and almost never in body copy. They understand the nuances of serif and sans serif fonts. And they know how to use line-breaks to create readable headlines.
  10. Amateurs think they know everything. Professionals are not complacent. They strive to learn more about their prospects, their market, their competitors, and advertising in general. There’s truth in the old saying, “The biggest room in the house is room for improvement.”

 

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Transitions

CONNECTICUT

Jeff Otterbein has retired as sports editor of The Hartford Courant after 27 years. Dan Brechlin has been named to replace Otterbein as sports editor. Otterbein began in the Courant sports department in 1985 and has been sports editor since 1990. Otterbein has won the Associated Press Sports Editors Triple Crown for Top 10 daily section, Sunday section and special section four years in a row. Before his time at the Courant, Otterbein was assistant sports editor at the Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Brechlin was previously the deputy metro editor for the Hartford Courant. Before joining the Courant, he was city editor for the Record-Journal of Meriden for six years. He was a reporter there until 2014 and then city editor from 2014 until 2016. He also has been a reporter for the Southington Citizen and the Plainville Citizen.

The Transition was written, at least in part, from a published report by Bulletin correspondent Monica Nair.

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Ex-Globe reporter recounts his travels with John Kerry

Ex-Globe reporter recounts
his travels with John Kerry

By Jesse Goodman
Bulletin Correspondent

Glen Johnson was a reporter for The Sun of Lowell, Mass., when he first met John Kerry, then a Democratic U.S. senator from Massachusetts. That brief interaction happened in the Sun newsroom while Kerry was being interviewed by another reporter, but it would be the first of many interactions between Johnson and Kerry. More than 20 years after they first met, Johnson began working for Kerry, who was then U.S. secretary of state.

“If I was sitting in your seat, I know I’d be wondering what this was like because I stepped through a barrier that changes careers,” Johnson said.

At  New England Newspaper Conference in the Crowne Plaza hotel in Natick, Mass., Oct. 12, Johnson gave a talk

on his transition from a political columnist to the four years he spent by Kerry’s side as deputy assistant secretary for strategic communication.

Johnson had always had an interest in politics, beginning with his first coverage of a presidential candidate, when he followed the bid for the Democratic nomination of Paul Tsongas, a former U.S. senator from Lowell. Johnson covered Kerry’s bid for the presidency in 2004.

During the race, Johnson asked Kerry whether he was sick. Kerry said no. It was revealed a day later that Kerry had prostate cancer and needed to have an operation immediately. Johnson thought that Kerry might not be a huge fan of him after that incident, fearing that he had pushed Kerry’s buttons when pressing him about his health. That led to Johnson being even more surprised when he got the call.

“He told me I was his ‘first-round pick’ for the position,” Johnson said.

Johnson and his family agreed that it was an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up. He was working for The Boston Globe at the time. Johnson had doubts; he said resigning from the Globe was one of the hardest things he has ever had to do, professionally and personally. He was also worried that the editor of the Globe, Brian McGrory, would be resentful toward him. But instead, McGrory told Johnson to pursue the opportunity.

“He said, ‘If you told me you were going to work for the Massachusetts Democratic Party, I’d say you’re making a big mistake, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity’,” Johnson said.

After passing background checks, Johnson was officially working for Kerry, and was put to work right away.

“It was more grueling than expected. I worked my tail off as a reporter, but I worked harder as a government official,” Johnson said. “My schedule was too unpredictable while traveling around with the State Department; I had no idea where I’d be.”

Johnson’s main responsibility was planning when and where Kerry would be, but he also ended up taking on more responsibility. He wasn’t happy with the quality of the photos being taken of Kerry, and ended up taking on those photography duties himself. Johnson took more than 100,000 photos during his travels with Kerry.

Johnson also was in charge of crisis communications. One such occasion arose in France, when Kerry broke his leg while riding a bike. Johnson had to help get him to

Geneva, Switzerland, then to Germany, where he got a medical evacuation back to Boston. Johnson made sure that the first photo released of Kerry post-surgery showed him doing well.

All in all, Johnson spent an aggregate 120 days in the air, visited 91 countries, and traveled 1.4 million miles. Johnson was with Kerry when he tried to negotiate a deal between Israel and Palestine, when he was meeting with the former

prime minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, and when Kerry went to the South Pole to see glaciers receding, among plenty of different diplomatic ventures both abroad and at home.

While Johnson’s time working for Kerry has come and gone, and his time at the Globe ended years ago, Johnson still misses being in the newsroom.

“It was a very sad thing for me to stop reporting. It’s been very uplifting for me to be back with this audience and see some familiar faces,” Johnson said. “I knew I always missed reporting, but to see people getting awards makes me so proud to have been part of that fraternity for so long. I hope someday I can get back into reporting of some sort.”

Johnson is writing a book about his time as an aide to Kerry. He hopes for it to be out before the 2018 elections.

Members of the audience at Glen Johnson’s talk listen intently

 

 

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Panelists: Analytics alter approaches to how news is covered, presented

The four panelists at the discussion on using analytics in news decisions, from left: Tom Zuppa, David Colantuono, Jason Tuohey and Carlos Virgen.

Panelists: Analytics alter approaches to how news is covered, presented

By Daniel McLoone
Bulletin Correspondent

A successful newspaper today is a product of combining modern analytics with conventional journalistic thinking, according to Jason Tuohey, deputy managing editor of The Boston Globe.

“We try to have analytics sprinkled throughout everything we do,” said Tuohey, who focuses on digital platforms and audience engagement at the Globe. “Some of it is based on what readers will like … Some of it is old school realizing that a story is good, and if we go at it and tell it the way we want to tell it, then readers will respond.”

Tuohey was a member of a panel invited to talk about the growing use of analytics in the newsroom. The panel discussion, “Using analytics to drive newsroom decisions,” took place during the New England Society of News Editors Journalism Conference portion of the New England Newspaper Conference Oct. 12 at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Natick, Mass.

The panel also featured Carlos Virgen, digital news director of The Day of New London, Conn.; Tom Zuppa, managing editor of The Sun of Lowell; and David Colantuono, audience development and mobile specialist for GateHouse Media New England, the chain that includes more than 100 newspapers in five of the six New England states. The panel was moderated by Tim Cotter, managing editor of the Day.

Most of the panelists discussed how pageviews and social interactions on stories dictate the way that newsrooms have changed how they cover local news.

Zuppa said the key to that is identifying the target audience of the online platform.

“Twenty-five to 45 is the (age) group of readers we’ve been looking at, so we want to find ways to draw those readers in,” he said.

The Sun now devotes more coverage to restaurants and social events because they were favored by readers in the Sun’s analytics, Zuppa said.

The long-followed formula of covering local events such as elections and town hall meetings with a traditional story is not as successful, Zuppa said. The Sun’s first story on the results of the Lowell elections this past year peaked that day at 297th on the paper’s online traffic list. Finding solutions to keep readers interested and still getting important facts across is a new challenge, he said.

Colantuono discussed changing the approach to certain beats that are suffering from lower readership.

As an example, he said: “Bullet points on what the reader needs to know work” as summaries of meeting action within a narrative.

 Virgen said using analytics is changing the approach to reposting stories on social media.

Zuppa said: “Maybe you take a more conversational tone in the post instead of (copying and pasting) the lead.”

He also recommended reducing the number of posts with story links on social media.

“We’re down from 20 to five to seven posts a day, and we’re seeing much more engagement, Zuppa said.

If 20 stories are posted on the Sun website on a given day, only the top five to seven are posted on Twitter and Facebook posts.

The Sun has cut down on social media posts so as not to overwhelm readers with such posts. With fewer posts, readers regard those as more worthy of attention and therefore those posts get more interaction. Fewer social media posts also cut down on the number of readers who might become annoyed with too many or too frequent posts, Zuppa said.

Colantuono acknowledged the difficulty of getting both a newsroom and audiences to accept changes to formats they are used to.

“It’s like moving a battleship trying to get people to think differently,” he said. “ … I think we’re slow in adopting new technology, and then we keep them around for a long time.”

Tuohey said the difficulty of changing the system should not dissuade papers from trying new things.

“You should always be experimenting,” he said. “I think the key is when something isn’t working, you don’t cling to it.”

Panelists recommended different approaches such as photo albums, podcasts, slideshows, personal pieces, and moving around stories on the front page to drive traffic to social media and the main Web pages of newspapers.

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