Data journalism is one way for local news organizations to publish deeper and more engaging investigative stories, according to Tyler Dukes, a speaker at the upcoming New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention in Boston.

“Data journalism is another tool that you can pull out when you want to answer big and important questions about how things are working or not working in your community,” Dukes said in a telephone interview.

As local news outlet staffs shrink because of changes in the industry, data analysis techniques are crucial for journalists seeking to answer big questions while pursuing deeper investigative or accountability pieces that engage larger audiences, Dukes said.

“With a little bit of training in some of these data journalism techniques, you think about things a little bit differently. You think about how to answer those questions a little bit faster or more efficiently.

“Or, it can help you get access to questions that are much larger and much more complicated than you’ve really ever been able to answer before just using the traditional means of sourcing.”

As a reporter at WRAL, an NBC-affiliate based in Raleigh, N.C., Dukes chased two stories in which data led to deeper investigative and accountability pieces on local public policy.

In one story, he found that one county in Northern North Carolina failed to serve one-third of domestic violence protection orders to alleged abusers, so victims were being forced to drop cases. After comparing the data with those of another, larger North Carolina county, Dukes concluded that there was a problem with how the former county was prosecuting its domestic violence cases.

“After we published that story, we heard some discussions from victims’ advocates pointing to this work and saying, ‘This is an important issue that needs to be talked about,’” he said. “The county we had featured is … really trying to figure out how to pool these resources together in one place for domestic violence victims that helps guide them through this process.”

In another story, Dukes tracked how effective the North Carolina state government’s business-attracting incentive policieswere at creating new jobs. He compared proposed job-creation numbers from the governor’s press releases with an employment database and found that in almost half of the cases, promised jobs were not being filled.

“There was a lot of discussion (in the North Carolina legislature) about this issue about how you judge the effectiveness of these programs. I think that as we continue to report on this stuff, we’re going to see more and more discussion that is informed by better reporting about incentives overall,” he said.

Dukes said that, although data is promising in its storytelling potential, data is not perfect, and journalists should treat data as skeptically as they would treat any other information source.

“It’s important to remember that there is a tendency to look at data and scores and indexes … and say that, ‘It’s data. It must be right. It’s objective. It’s the truth, with a capital T.’ But data is created and recorded by humans, and there’s plenty of errors in that process.

“Gaining a good sense of working with data and being comfortable with it is not necessarily doing the technical stuff but understanding that data analysis is not wizardry. It’s very similar to the way we interview and evaluate any other source’s credibility,” he said.

Dukes said better data literacy will help both journalists and politicians alike to evaluate policymaking.

“We’re going to see more data-driven algorithmic solutions guide public policy. We have to be in a good place in terms of our understanding of how this all works to be able to ask good critical questions of these systems,” he said.

Dukes is currently in Cambridge, Mass., on a Murrey Marder Nieman Fellowship in Watchdog Journalism. He is trying to find ways for reporters to embrace and get trained in data journalism, whether on the job in newsrooms or through college journalism programs.

At the New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention, Dukes’ speech on “Peril and promise: Journalism in the age of data” will discuss the importance of using data, and how it can be used and misused. His talk will touch on why data literacy is crucial to enabling newsrooms to tell more powerful stories and make deeper impacts.

“What I would like to focus on is convincing people of the values and drawbacks of using data in reporting and how to overcome the challenges of bringing data-driven stories into the normal budget … so that newsrooms can really decide how these techniques might fit into their workloads.

“I do believe on a really deep level that these skills are really essential to being a good journalist in this century. Even a basic literacy in the use of data can go such a long way in building a reporter’s skills,” he said.

After completing his research fellowship, Dukes will return to his position as an investigative reporter specializing in data and public records for the state politics team at WRAL.

Before working at WRAL, Dukes was managing editor of the Duke University Reporter’s Lab, where he worked on a project to reduce the costs of investigative journalism. Before that, Dukes taught at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s journalism school and was a college newspaper adviser while freelancing for several newspapers.

Dukes received his undergraduate degree in science, technology and society from North Carolina State University.

The convention will take place Friday, Feb. 24, and Saturday, Feb. 25, in the Boston Marriott Long Wharf hotel.

‘Gaining a good sense of working with data and being comfortable with it is not necessarily doing the technical stuff but understanding that data analysis is not wizardry. It’s very similar to the way we interview and evaluate any other source’s credibility.’

—Tyler Dukes, Investigative reporter
WRAL-TV, Raleigh, NC

Mobile publishing tailors its content to the public’s specific information needs and might be the next big trend in local news reporting, according to Lee Little, one of the speakers at the upcoming New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention.

“No other organization in a community can do what a newspaper can do, and those same principles that work in print will also work in mobile to make a successful mobile solution,” Little said in a telephone interview.

Little’s speech on “The mobile landscape for publishers” will be one of dozens of sessions at the convention. The convention is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 24, and Saturday, Feb. 25, in the Boston Marriott Long Wharf hotel.

Mobile apps and websites channeling online content have challenged local newspaper circulation in recent decades. Little said, however, that print and mobile publishing, while fundamentally different in content type and delivery, can work together to serve a local community.

“Print and mobile can coexist, and they complement each other … Print is more about discovery. Mobile is about getting the information you want at your fingertips,” he said.

Little said newspapers would continue to specialize in printing longer forms of storytelling and reporting. They would also remain a place of engagement where readers could encounter stories they would have never read before, something that newspapers are better at doing than mobile publishers.

“Mobile’s not necessarily a good fit for long-form editorial content. You don’t want to read a long article on a 4-inch screen,” he said.

Still, although a relatively new business, mobile publishing has big potential to help local newspapers jump into digital media, Little said.

“The biggest challenge in the newspaper industry is (facilitating) an understanding of the real opportunity in digital that newspapers should be embracing. We believe that the local newspapers are best positioned to own the digital market.

“To be successful in mobile, you need to have content, you need to have the ability to monetize it, and you need to market it,” he said.

Little foresees that mobile websites teamed with local news organizations could display local high school football game scores as well as events, coupons, and deals in any given community. One concept, which he calls the City Portal, would link a community’s local newspaper with its tourism group to offer information for both visitors and residents in an official town app or mobile website.

Local businesses could advertise on mobile apps or websites, and newspapers could profit off banner and interstitial ads.

Little’s speech will raise questions about how mobile publishing attracts readers and generates revenue for local news outlets.

“I’m going to be talking about the mobile marketplace,” he said. “How are people using mobile today? Where are the eyeballs? How much time do they spend on the apps? What’s the difference between a responsive design website and an app? Why is mobile important to the local publisher?”

Little’s speech will also try to convince newspapers of the importance of mobile publishing. Big technology companies such as Apple and Google are not going to cede their mobile publishing businesses, and mobile publishing is not going to go away, he said.

“They’re not going to take their foot off the pedal on mobile, and the local newspapers should embrace it and own it,” he said.

Little is the founder and chief executive officer of Bar-Z, an 11-year-old mobile development company based in Austin, Texas, that offers clients a range of newspaper-centric mobile solutions. Bar-Z develops iPhone and Android apps and responsive-design mobile websites for a variety of publishers, 70 percent of which are newspapers.

Under Little’s management, Bar-Z uses a centralized back-end content management system to work with clients to develop, publish, and promote content with app marketing, sales, and monetization training. Clients have used its platform to publish content relating to travel and visitor guides, dining services, and real estate.

Before founding Bar-Z, Little was a salesman and marketing consultant for 20 years for technology companies such as Dell and Epson. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware and later received a master of business administration degree from Pepperdine University.

‘No other organization in a community can do what newspaper can do, and those same principles that work in print will also work in mobile to make a successful mobile solution.’

—Lee Little, Founder, CEO
Bar-Z, Austin, Texas

Anyone who has worked in a newsroom any length of time has war stories they tell about memorable incidents there, and some even involve physical confrontations. But few if any recount murders.

Not so the tales that will be told at the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s winter convention.

Those who attended the NENPA’s winter convention last year might be familiar with the book, “Murder Ink,” which debuted there.

This year, the sequel, aptly named “Murder Ink 2,” will be officially launched Saturday, Feb. 25.

“Murder Ink 2” is similar to its predecessor in that it is a collection of 16 different murder stories, all unified around the theme of a newsroom in trouble. The stories also feature a New England angle, and so those attending the NENPA convention are an ideal audience for the news-driven stories.

“This is a general-interest murder series,” said George Geers, publisher of the book series and a veteran newspaperman. “Newspaper folks are most welcome to enjoy.”

Those who have read and enjoyed “Murder Ink” will be happy to know that some of the stories from the first book have continued where they left off in the sequel. With returning writers such as Brendan DuBois, sisters Karen and Roxanne Dent, Dan Rothman, Amy Ray and more, fans of the first book will be delighted to continue reading about murderous newsrooms in New England.

The second book follows the same concept as the first, Geers said.

“Some returning writers are continuing the settings they wrote about in ‘Murder Ink 2.’ Plus, new writers are being introduced,” he said

A press release by Plaidswede Publishing of Concord, N.H., publishing company of the “Murder Ink” series, describes the book as “a collection of hard-bitten newsroom crime fiction based in New England.”

The editor of the series, Dan Szczesny, is enchanted by the idea that the book is set in New England and even more excited to have the stories written by those native to the area.

“This region is so rich in newsroom lore, and who better to tell those stories than writers from the front lines of the news,” Szczesny wrote in the press release. “And who knows, some of these stories might be true!”

The New England Newspaper and Press Association’s winter convention is being held at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf hotel Friday, Feb. 24, and Saturday, Feb. 25.

The “Murder Ink 2” book launch lunch will be held from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25.

At last year’s New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention, Dan Szczesny, editor of “Murder Ink,” gestures to the audience before introducing the 10 authors who read excerpts from the book. To the right of Szczesny is George Geers, whose company, Plaidswede Publishing, published “Murder Ink” and this year’s sequel, “Murder Ink 2.”

Ed Henninger is no stranger to newspapers.

Henninger, an independent newspaper consultant for more than 25 years, is the director of Henninger Consulting, based in Rock Hill, S.C.

Henninger will speak on “Designing your niche publications” at the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s winter convention at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf hotel Friday, Feb. 24, and Saturday, Feb. 25.

To him, a newspaper and its readers have an important relationship – one that works both ways.

“Design is a two-sided relationship – how the paper approaches the reader, and how the reader approaches the paper,” he said.

Thinking like a news designer requires a balance of being analytical and creative, Henninger said.

“A right-brained person is someone who is more visual, more willing to explore the rules if not bend the rules. They’re more ready to try something new,” he said. “Left-brained people are word people, they’re writers, they’re editors. They know and can state and follow the rules.”

Henninger sees value in having both an understanding of the rules and the courage to stray from that foundation.

“Newspaper design is not about how it looks but how it works,” he said. “I know what the laws are; I know what the rules are of design.”

“What I’ve discovered is that when I’m working on the design of a page, I jump from one lobe to the other. That’s part of the fun of what I do,” he said. “The right brain is saying, ‘That’s really cool,’ the left brain is asking, ‘Does it work?’”

He urges big thinkers to have that flexibility between the intellectual left brain and the innovative right brain.

“Really great designers are people who can do that all the time because they can do something that just really works,” he said. “You ask them, ‘Why did you do that?’ and they’ll say, ‘I don’t know.’

“It fits all the rules, and yet it stretches those rules,” he said. “It’s really fascinating to get into that kind of talking and thinking.”

That fascination is critical to a news career, said Henninger, who differentiates a career from a job.

“You have to like it, don’t you?

“Designing newspapers is a profession, and that’s important to me. We need to think, act and design like a professional,” he said.

Henninger was introduced to news design through working with his college newspaper.

“I didn’t realize that I was falling in love with design at that time. It took me 40 years,” he said. “You have to like it, you have to love it.”

Henninger thinks that training is important to help this passion grow.

“A profession is what you want to get better at doing,” he said. “There are many people for whom news design is a job, and the reason it is is that they haven’t been given the kind of training that becomes a profession for them.”

He thinks that managers should see that their employees receive that pivotal training so that their employees will be capable of accomplishing the tasks expected of them.

“Too many managers ask their people to do design without a lick of training,” he said. “I don’t bear any ill will toward people who are put into that positon, I actually feel bad for them. And they’re doing it to their readers and to their publishers. They don’t see that they’re doing the wrong thing, and I don’t mean that in a negative way.”

Henninger outlined the various resources available to designers.

“Just like any skill, they need to learn,” he said. “There are webinars, there are all kinds of blogs. They could look at newspapers that do design well and emulate them. I didn’t say copy. Emulate.”

That notion – publications emulating, not copying, other publications – is an important one to Henninger, who has worked with publications throughout the country and held workshops in several countries.

Although the principles of design do not change from newspaper to newspaper, each publication should have its own look, he said.

“It would be a mistake … if every newspaper looked like every other newspaper,” he said. “The look of a paper will differ markedly from a paper right up the road. It has to do with locality, and what they’re trying to do for their readers.”

Henninger feels promising about the future of news design because of the advanced design capabilities available.

“We have better type,” he said. “We have better presses so we can push print. We have color on every page in some newspapers. We didn’t have that at first. Plus software’s made it possible to do all kinds of things.”

He also noted that publications are paying more attention to design.

“Even small-town papers are seeing that design matters, and they want to be better designers,” he said. “They’re seeing the papers and learning that they can’t just do things the way they’ve done it. I’m encouraged by that.”

‘Design is a two-sided relationship — how the paper approaches the reader, and how the reader approaches the paper.’

— Ed Henninger, Director
Henninger Consulting, Rock Hill, S.C.