Staying a step ahead of your editors
Jim Stasiowski
Writing
Writing coach Jim Stasiowski welcomes your questions or comments.
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A recent enjoyable email exchange with a reporter I once supervised included this from him: “OK, maybe we don’t miss the inevitable entreaties to ‘make just one more phone call,’ but we do miss most everything else you brought to the newsroom.”
I do especially value the reporter who, without being prodded, makes that “one more phone call.” But I also realize that if any reporter actually required entreaties that were “inevitable,” I did a poor job of helping him or her frame the story.
I almost always resisted my editors’ efforts to guide what I wrote. Part of my attitude was immaturity – who wants to have his work follow a blueprint handed down by someone else, no matter how experienced or wise? – but part of it was my wish to have a story reflect who I am, not who my editor was.
I know, I know, I sound like some egotistical artist who cannot accept anyone’s help, advice or rules. I also know that journalism, unlike such arts as painting, music, poetry or the writing of fiction, requires a devotion to facts.
So when I became an editor and a coach (and later, a combination editor-coach), I tried to instill in reporters a set of general expectations within which they could express themselves as individuals rather than as editor-pleasers determined to finish each story and head home confident that they wouldn’t have to put up with my tracking them down with “entreaties to ‘make just one more phone call.’”
Here are a few tactics reporters should adopt to ward off editors’ intrusions:
Scratch the itch: As you’re listening to a debate in a government meeting, something tells you the course of action being considered violates some ordinance, law, charter or constitution. But no one raises that issue.
Take the trouble to look up documents that spell out or restrict what a government can do.
“But,” you reason, “the government (be it city council, county commissioners or state legislature) has lawyers who advise the decision makers, and surely the lawyers would point out the error.”
Don’t be so sure. Government lawyers are neither infallible nor immune to political pressure. Your editor probably will have the same question that made you wonder, so checking and explaining might prevent a bounced-back story.
Push the source: A former colleague wrote a story about a man in the prime of a successful career who suffered a devastating injury, leaving him a quadriplegic. The reporter included an interview with the man’s wife, who described her new, unexpected and difficult role of constant caregiver.
All of us would wonder: Will the wife stick with the man for another 25 or 30 years? None of us would be comfortable asking that question. But when the reporter did, the wife acknowledged that the future was uncertain, and although her answer was colored with hope and love, it also was realistic and no doubt painful for both her and her husband.
Get to the point: You’re convinced an anecdotal lead fits the story you’re working on, but when you write the lead you love, you realize you then need to contort five (or more) paragraphs to get back to revealing the story’s central conflict.
Many editors will either rewrite the top or, if there is time – and there often isn’t – instruct you to do so. If an anecdotal lead requires that much explanation, it is a reach. And a hard-news lead, while not as satisfying to your artistic side, almost never is wrong.
Be creative: This is a follow-up: Stop thinking that the lead sentence is the only place to show off your individuality. Find ways to weave into your stories a vivid description of a scene, an enticing slice of history, a source’s quotation that is not only relevant but also thought-provoking, original, amusing or unexpectedly emotional.
Analyze: Show your editor (and thus, your readers) that you’re thinking ahead, that the hard news means something more than just what happened that day. Maybe an isolated traffic accident is part of a pattern no one else noticed, or a public official’s latest proposal is based on some significant experience in his or her life, or a school district’s policy revision might lead to bigger problems than the one the revision is designed to solve.
Rehearse: Before your fingers hit the keys, tell your editor the story. If he or she wants more questions asked, you can find that out before laboring over the writing, then being asked to revise. You also can explain why you think you don’t need the extra call. Remember, no editor’s “entreat(y)” has to be “inevitable.”
THE FINAL WORD: In one of William Safire’s compilations of his language columns, he highlighted the verb “obnubilate,” which means “to make unclear, indistinct, vague, etc.,” something we journalists do when we’re too lazy or too busy to fully explain.
(I used to say, “I fuzzed that up,” but now I can say it more eruditely.)
Getting to the heart of ‘heart of humanity’ stories
By Bailey Knecht, Bulletin Correspondent
‘I want to get it perfect. You want to perfectly portray this person who has spent time with you, to give the most authentic record of what this person is like, and that’s always the most difficult challenge. It’s a frightening challenge, really.’
— Tracey O’Shaughnessy, Associate features editor
Republican-American, Waterbury, Conn.
Capturing the essence of a person through writing isn’t a simple task.
Sometimes, journalists just have to become part of the story themselves. That’s why, when Tracey O’Shaughnessy began working on a feature on Robert Accetura, a beloved hairstylist in Waterbury, Conn., she decided to take a seat in the styling chair and have Accetura work his magic on her hair.
“I watched him, and I listened to him, and then I realized if I really wanted to understand him, I was going to have to get the treatment, and I was going to have to go under the scissors,” O’Shaughnessy said. “He sort of exudes this sense of capability and expertise, and this incredible sense of caring about the people whose hair he cuts, and it was really through the process of listening to him as he worked on me that I could really see him come out.”
The connection O’Shaughnessy formed with Accetura turned into a personality profile that would go on to win first place for that category of story in a daily newspaper, among the New England Newspaper and Press Association awards presented at NENPA’s winter convention in February.
O’Shaughnessy, associate features editor of the Republican-American of Waterbury, is no stranger to that style of writing. She’s been at the Republican-American for 23 years, and before that, she spent time writing for the Potomac Almanac in Bethesda, Md., the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin, and Gannett News Service in Washington, D.C.
Rich Gray, features editor of the Republican-American, said the award was well-deserved, because of the amount of dedication O’Shaughnessy displays.
“She always impresses with the spirit that she brings to things and the base of knowledge that she starts from,” he said. “She never worries about admitting that she doesn’t understand something. I listen to her talk to sources all the time, and see how the wheels turn. It’s quite a process, and I’ve seen her grow, believe it or not, and she still seems to get better and better with what she does.”
Gray said O’Shaughnessy has built a strong relationship with the Waterbury community, which has helped to increase readership.
“She’s got a base of followers already established, and readers know what to expect from a Tracey O’Shaughnessy byline, which we sorely need these days,” he said.
Even with O’Shaughnessy’s positive reputation in the community and years of experience, writing feature stories can still be difficult for her, she said.
“I want to get it perfect,” she said. “You want to perfectly portray this person who has spent time with you, to give the most authentic record of what this person is like, and that’s always the most difficult challenge. It’s a frightening challenge, really.”
Despite that pressure, she has developed a few techniques that have been effective when dealing with sources.
‘She’s got a base of followers already established, and readers know what to expect from a Tracey O’Shaughnessy byline, which we sorely need these days.’
— Rich Gray, Features editor ~ Republican-American, Waterbury, Conn.
“I often say that the two most important qualities in this business are humility followed by curiosity,” she said. “The two work hand in hand. I go in there completely aware that I know very little, and the one thing I do know is that, in this world, people do not get the respect they deserve, so I’m very, very careful when I’m speaking with people to give them the respect they lack.”
She discussed the necessity of building an immediate relationship with subjects such as Accetura.
“The most important thing in any interview is rapport,” she said. “You have to develop a rapport with the person that you’re speaking (to), and that rapport happens in a matter of seconds, so you have to be very deft and very swift.”
O’Shaughnessy said that, in the writing process, bringing her interview subjects to life is her main goal as a features writer.
‘Feature stories are the heart of humanity, and the heart of humanity is what I’m aiming for. If you don’t have a newspaper that bleeds and cries along with its readers, then you don’t have a going concern. You’re not doing your job.’
— Tracey O’Shaughnessy
“I always remember that we who are journalists only have black-and-white figures — print on paper — to create color and music,” she said. “So you have to use the words and the way the words fit on the page as a kind of color and as a kind of music.”
O’Shaughnessy said she hopes through her profiles to create a space for her readers to feel strong emotions while they’re reading the Republican-American.
“Feature stories are the heart of humanity, and the heart of humanity is what I’m aiming for,” she said. “If you don’t have a newspaper that bleeds and cries along with its readers, then you don’t have a going concern. You’re not doing your job.”
Sun Journal, sister publications being purchased by another Maine-based newspaper group
The family-owned newspaper group whose flagship is the Sun Journal of Lewiston, Maine, is being sold as of Aug. 1 to SJ Acquisition, which is controlled by RFB Holdings, owner of MaineToday Media, Alliance Press in Brunswick, Maine, and Courier Publications, based in Rockland, Maine.
“After four generations of family ownership, selling Sun Media Group was a difficult decision for the Costello family,” said Steve Costello, vice president of advertising and marketing, on behalf of the Costello family. “The decision was made after many discussions by the family, together with our outside board of directors, and we determined that the company could best succeed in an organization with broader resources and reach.
“Reade Brower, owner of RFB Holdings, shares our belief in a bright future for the community newspaper business, one that includes printed products as well as exciting new products and services made possible in our continually evolving digital world,” Costello said.
Sun Media Group has grown from one daily newspaper based in Lewiston whose origin dates to 1861 to owning and operating 17 publications, all in Maine. They are the Sun Journal; the Forecaster and Current Publications, based in Falmouth and with the following editions: The Portland Forecaster, Northern Forecaster, Mid-Coast Forecaster, Southern Forecaster, the American Journal of Westbrook and the Lakes Region Weekly; the Advertiser Democrat of Norway; the Rumford Falls Times; The Bethel Citizen; The Franklin Journal of Farmington; the Livermore Falls Advertiser; The Rangeley Highlander; The Penobscot Times of Old Town; Maine Women Magazine, 95 North and My Gen magazines, all based in Falmouth. Sun Press, a commercial printing division in Lewiston, is also part of Sun Media Group.
RFB Holdings’ Maine print and online publications and printing services include MaineToday Media, made up of the Portland Press Herald, Maine Sunday Telegram of Portland, Kennebec Journal of Augusta, Morning Sentinel of Waterville, and Coastal Journal of Bath; Courier Publications, made up of The Courier-Gazette of Rockland, The Camden Herald, and The Republican Journal of Belfast; VillageSoup.com; VSTV, based in Rockport; The Free Press of Rockland; RFB Print Co-Op, based in Rockland; Alliance Press in Brunswick; and specialty publications, including travelMaine, based in Rockport, and TREB (The Real Estate Books) of Mid-Coast Maine, Portland and Portsmouth, N.H. RFB also owns the Rutland Herald and The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, both in Vermont,
Brower said: “It is an honor to become the next steward of the Sun Media Group brands as I have great respect for the Costello family. We are focused on a smooth transition and pledge to continue the traditions established by four generations of the Costello family serving readers and the community.”
Lisa DeSisto, chief executive officer and publisher of MaineToday Media, will also be chief executive officer for Sun Media Group.
“We have been collaborating with Sun Media Group for years in printing, distribution and digital services. This acquisition gives Sun Media Group and MaineToday Media even more opportunities to collaborate while maintaining the distinct and trusted brands of each company. We are excited to work with the Sun Media Group team to see all we can accomplish together,” she said.
Costello said: “Our family takes great pride in our award-winning publications and in the talented and dedicated employees with whom we have worked through the generations. We are also enormously thankful for the support and loyalty of our readers through the years.
“We have been committed stewards of Sun Media Group and we felt strongly that the new owner needed to reflect our community journalism values as well as the responsibility we feel to our employees and the communities we serve. We found what we believe to be the best fit in RFB Holdings, a strong, Maine-owned company with similar values and the resources and expertise to maintain and develop what we have built.
“Throughout our four generations of family newspaper ownership, we have appreciated the privilege of serving the communities of Central and Southern Maine, and we continue to be extremely grateful for their support. By combining the resources available at Sun Media Group and RFB Holdings, community news, community sports, digital platforms and advertising services will be enhanced with expanded coverage throughout the region,” Costello said.
The sale of the Sun Media Group assets is scheduled to close Aug. 1 according to John Cribb and Randy Cope of Cribb, Greene & Cope, representing the Costello family. Cribb, Greene & Cope is a merger and acquisition firm with offices in Montana, Virginia, and Missouri.
The story is based on information from a press release by Sun Media Group.
NENPA moves to Woburn, Mass., from its longtime home at Northeastern University
The New England Newspaper and Press Association has relocated.
As of the week of June 26, NENPA is headquartered at One Arrow Drive, Suite 6, in Woburn, Mass.
The move ends a 67-year residence at Northeastern University for NENPA and one of its predecessor organizations, the New England Press Association, including in several locations on its Boston campus and, most recently, on its Dedham, Mass., campus,.
The move involves new telephone and fax numbers and email addresses as well as new mailing and delivery addresses.
The main telephone number is now (781) 281-2053. The new fax number is (339) 999-2174. The website remains www.nenpa.com
The new telephone numbers and email addresses for the NENPA staff are as follows:
Linda Conway, executive director, l.conway@nenpa.com, 781-281- 7648
Megan Sherman, assistant director, m.sherman@nenpa.com, 781-281-7284
Una Creedon, finance director, u.creedon@nenpa.com, 781-305-4957
Lynette Williams, operations coordinator, ly.williams@nenpa.com, 781-281-2053
Dawn Orvis, media coordinator, d.orvis@nenpa.com, 781-305-3134
Kristen Hafford, Web/technology manager, k.hafford@nenpa.com, 781-305-3134
Link McKie, NENPA Bulletin editor, l.mckie@nenpa.com, 781-305-3134
Please email the staff if you have any questions, and you will receive a response as soon as possible.
Obituaries
Henry E. Josten, ex-newspaper owner, reporter, columnist, editor, publisher
Henry E. Josten, 94, of Old Saybrook, Conn., died June 17 at the Bride Brook Health and Rehabilitation Center in Niantic, Conn.
He was a reporter, columnist, editor, publisher and newspaper co-owner during his 65-year career.
He was president of the former Connecticut Editorial Association and New England Press Association. He became a member of the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame in its first year, 2000. Josten and newspapers with which he was associated won more than 200 state and national awards.
His career began in 1941 as a copy boy for the New Haven (Conn.) Register. A year later, he became a reporter for The Middletown (Conn.) Press. He later was promoted to county editor.
In 1947, he joined The New Era of Deep River, Conn., as managing editor.
The next year, the company that owned the New Era added The Hamden Chronicle and, later, several weekly newspapers, including the Connecticut Jewish Ledger of West Hartford, The Dolphin of Groton, the Niantic News, East Hampton News/Colchester Citizen, and Branford Review, all in Connecticut.
Josten became a co-owner and president, co-publisher and editor of the company in 1960.
The ownership group of which he was part sold the New Era in 1974 to the owner of the Pictorial Gazette of Old Saybrook, who merged the New Era into the Pictorial Gazette.
Josten was appointed as editor. He wrote stories, editorials and three columns a week: “The View from Here,” “Business Beat” and “Josten’s Jottings.” He retired from the Pictorial Gazette at age 71.
During his career, Josten interviewed headliners in Connecticut in politics, theater and sports, and did travel writing.
For 25 years ending in 1973, Josten did public relations for the Ivoryton Playhouse in Essex, Conn. He met and dealt with Hollywood and Broadway stars, including Don Ameche, Marlon Brando, Gloria Vanderbilt, Doris Day, Jack Lemmon, Claudette Colbert, Mae West, Tallulah Bankhead, Shelley Winters, Sylvia Sidney, Groucho Marx and Karl Malden
He leaves his wife, Elsa; a daughter, Madeline; three grandchildren, Eric, Caroline and Jay.
Mark H. Batterson
Mark H. Batterson, 65, of Rocky Hill, Conn., died in his home June 21 after battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, since November.
Batterson was employed with the New Britain (Conn.) Herald beginning after graduating from college, including as suburban editor, night editor, and managing editor.
“Working with Mark was stepping up your game,” James H. Smith said in Batterson’s obituary in the Herald. Smith was executive editor of the Herald and The Bristol (Conn.) Press in 2010 when Batterson was managing editor and the Herald won a New England Newspaper of the Year award from the New England Newspaper and Press Association.
“He somehow made you want to do your best. You didn’t want to disappoint him. And nobody worked harder than Mark. He knew news. He knew the community he served. He knew justice and truth and he interjected it into his newspaper with vigor every day of his working life,” Smith said.
Batterson was business editor for The Middletown (Conn.) Press
He had freelanced for other newspapers and magazines in Connecticut.
He retired for health reasons last year from the layout department of the Journal Inquirer of Manchester, Conn.
He leaves his wife, Ellen; a daughter, Liz; a grandson; a granddaughter; a great-granddaughter; a sister.
Louie Frank Blackwell
Louie Frank Blackwell, 80, died June 24 at Norwalk (Conn.) Hospital.
He was employed at the Norwalk (Conn.) Hour.
He leaves his wife, Laura; a daughter, Audrey; a son, Elgin; a surrogate daughter, Paulette.
Lee M. Hammel
Lee M. Hammel, 68, of Framingham, Mass., died June 18 from natural causes in Framingham MetroWest Medical Center.
Hammel was a reporter for what is now the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, Mass., for more than 40 years.
He leaves his mother, Ernestine; his wife, Martha; three brothers, Victor, Robert and Steve; a brother-in-law, Abe.
The obituary rewrites were done, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondent Joshua Leaston, an undergraduate student at Northeastern University.
Transitions
MAINE
Joseph Charpentier is joining the Boothbay Register of Boothbay Harbor as a full-time reporter. He replaces Morgan Callan Rogers, who now will be a part-time news contributor to the Register. Charpentier’s coverage will include local government, schools, sports and community events. He has been with a couple of newspapers and has been a copywriter.
MASSACHUSETTS
Dan Cotter has left GateHouse Media New England, where he was director of sales development and training, and moved to Chicago, where he is a consultant on revenue, sales training, product development and research for newspapers. Before his job with GateHouse Media New England, which publishes six daily newspapers, 98 weekly community newspapers, and 168 local news websites in five states, Cotter spent five years as executive director of the New England Newspaper and Press Association. Before that, he spent a decade as chief operating officer of Urban & Associates Inc., a newspaper research and consulting company based in Sharon. He also spent almost 20 years with Pulitzer Publishing Company in St. Louis, Mo. He was its director of newspaper strategic planning and its vice president of marketing for Pulitzer’s community newspaper division. Also with Pulitzer, Cotter was publisher of the Santa Maria (Calif.) Times; vice president and circulation director of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; vice president and circulation and marketing director for the Chicago Daily Southtown; and marketing and research manager for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He founded a company that designs and coordinates research studies known as the Suburban Focus Group-Boston. In 1990, he received the Gerold Zarwell Award, which is the Newspaper Researchers Council’s highest honor.
The Transitions were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondent Joshua Leaston, an undergraduate student at Northeastern University.
Dominant photo is basic in sports front design
Ed Henninger
Design
ED HENNINGER is an independent newspaper consultant and the director of Henninger Consulting.
Website: www.henningerconsulting.com
Phone: (803) 327-3322
WANT A FREE evaluation of your newspaper’s design?
Just contact Ed: edh@henningerconsulting.com | (803) 327-3322
IF THIS COLUMN has been helpful, you might be interested in Ed’s books: “Henninger on Design” and “101 Henninger Helpful Hints.” With the help of Ed’s books, you’ll immediately have a better idea how to design for your readers. Find out more about “Henninger on Design” and “101 Henninger Helpful Hints” by visiting Ed’s website: www.henningerconsulting.com
Many community newspapers put strong effort into covering high school sports. They understand that their high school teams are a key ingredient in the glue that holds the community together.
When designing their sports front page, however, many sports editors try to give all sports fair play. By doing so, they often create pages much like example #1 illustration.
There’s only so much space on their front page (and sometimes less, to allow for ads), and they cram in too many photos. As a result, none of the photos is large enough to be the lead visual.
When too many photos of like size are placed on the page, it’s difficult for readers to know which of the packages is more important. There’s no focus — each package calls for attention with the same “visual volume” as those around it.
What’s the lead? What’s the second most important report? What’s the third, and so on? Readers get no sense of hierarchy on a page with four or five like-sized photos.
Example #2 works much better. It immediately gives readers a sense that the larger photo is part of a lead package. The other photos are no more than half the size of the lead photo, helping readers to understand that those packages are not as important as the lead report.
I appreciate that sometimes it’s difficult for us to decide which is the lead item. What if the boys basketball team just lost in overtime to their cross-county rivals, but the girls volleyball team won a squeaker over the same cross-county school? Hmmm … which gets the lead? Well, there you might have to rely on the better photo. If the picture shows the winning spike by the girls volleyball team, I’d want to make that the lead.
Another point: You can’t make everyone happy.
I recall a sports editor years ago asking me: “I report on three high schools. Can you design me a front page that gives them all equal play?”
I thought that over for a moment and responded: “Yes, I can … but I won’t.”
“Why not?” the editor asked. “If I don’t try to give them equal coverage, I get calls from upset parents.”
I answered: “You’re the sports editor. You’re paid to handle those calls. What if one of the teams you cover has a record of 11-1 and the other two are 3-9 and 2-10? Do you really think it’s good journalism to give them all the same space?”
When I shared that story with the publisher, he just shook his head, grinned and said: “Yeah. That’s Bob.”
Don’t be Bob. Make choices on your sports front. And let the photos guide you to making choices that will help your readers.
Sports page example #1
Sports page example #2
Survey: More Americans see less media bias — but why?
Gene Policinski
Inside the First Amendment
Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute. He can be reached at gpolicinski@newseum.org. Follow him on Twitter:
@genefac
Attention, you so-called “enemies of the people” and alleged purveyors of biased reporting: There’s reason to think fewer people than last year might see you that way, despite the ongoing, politicized attacks from multiple quarters on the news media’s credibility.
President Donald Trump hurled that “enemies” epithet at journalists some time ago, and continues to complain about biased news coverage nearly every time there are news accounts about contacts with Russian officials by his administration.
But such criticism comes with varying levels of vitriol from a variety of quarters, and started long before Trump took office. Often, the harshest criticism of the news media comes just as much from those who consume news as from those who make it. This year, however, there are signs that the public’s disdain for the press has somewhat abated.
The 2017 “State of the First Amendment” survey, released over the July 4 holiday by the First Amendment Center of the Newseum Institute in partnership with the Fors Marsh Group, found that:
There are some likely reasons for this shift: A significant amount of TV, online and print journalism has shifted from the softer “horse race” focus of the 2016 election to this year’s focus on hard news and complex issues.
And — with more than a bit of irony — as more Americans are inclined only to consume news from sources that line up with their individual perspectives, there’s a likely parallel increase in the “trust factor” in those sources, even if they resemble echo chambers more than truth-tellers.
Among those who believe that news media tries to report unbiased information, most expressed a preference for news information that aligns with their own views (60.7 percent). Those more critical of media efforts to report news without bias were also less prone to report a preference for news aligned with their own views (49.1 percent).
So, no celebratory back flips in the nation’s newsrooms, please, especially since the uptick only puts the “bias” figure roughly back to levels seen in 2013 and 2014 (46 percent and 41 percent, respectively).
Those inclined to support the work of today’s journalists hope that the drop in those who perceive press bias generally stems from that combination of dramatically increased visibility of news operations and their reporting on serious news, such as health care reform and investigations of Russian influence in the 2016 election.
For my part, I believe that more people saw reporting of real news, not fluffy “click-bait” features and dramatic but mostly meaningless polling reports, and it earned back some of their lost approval and trust. Here’s an idea for journalists nationwide: Keep trying hard news, accountability reporting on issues that — while not necessarily “sexy” — matter the most to people and their communities, such as jobs, health care, education, and local and state government.
For years, news industry moguls and newsroom leaders have sought ways to reverse their dwindling income, which has led to fewer newsrooms resources and less real journalism, and which in turn has prompted additional loss of consumers. Clearly, mushy stories about the travails of celebrities, feel-good stories, and valuing tweets over investigative reporting are not working out that well. Acting on that realization will mean putting an emphasis on innovation and finding new ways to report on subjects that, in themselves, don’t necessarily draw in a new generation of readers.
But therein is the opportunity for those who will be the news media success stories of the 21st century. This year’s survey results show that the opportunity is there, that news consumers are hungry for imaginative reporting on issues that directly impact their lives.
But we can still take comfort in the 20 percent drop in those who presume journalists are incapable of reporting without bias: Attitudes can change, and trust can be regained.
Editor’s Note: A version of this column appeared earlier on the Newseum Institute website as part of the 2017 State of the First Amendment report.