“We’ll be sharing our war stories,” Earl Brechlin, editor of the Mount Desert Islander of Bar Harbor, Maine, said to a laughing audience.

Brechlin was not describing the war on terror or even President Donald Trump’s newly declared “running war with the media.”

Brechlin was describing the ongoing and often tedious struggles between community newspapers and their communities.

Brechlin spoke on a panel with Paul Miller, executive editor of the Keene (N.H.) Sentinel, and Rod Doherty, former executive editor of Foster’s Daily Democrat of Dover, N.H., at the New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention.

The panel discussion, which took place at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf hotel Saturday, Feb. 25, was titled “Heart and backbone of community journalism.” About 70 people attended.

The discussion focused on major difficulties community newspapers consistently face, with the biggest involving keeping and maintaining relationships and attempts to bribe journalists.

Doherty, now retired, described a story from his early newspaper days when he interviewed a chef at a vocational school. Doherty said the chef later opened a restaurant near the newspaper where Doherty was a reporter and which he and his colleagues frequented. Doherty became friends with the chef; the chef occasionally bought him beers and provided him with Patriots tickets, Doherty said. The chef eventually made a special request of Doherty, he said.

“He said, ‘I’m running for city council, and I need you to write good stories for me to help me get elected,’” Doherty recalled.

Doherty said that, at the time, he was confused and told the chef that he could not do that, and the chef replied: “What did you think all those beers and tickets were for?”

“It was enlightening,” Doherty said. “I was being bribed, and I didn’t even know it!”

Brechlin described his own attempted bribery story, in which he was offered tickets to travel to Key West in exchange for a good review.

“Certainly, you can’t take that,” Brechlin said.

Although the audience chuckled at the anecdotes, the three panelists reminded the audience that you can never accept gifts or services from any news sources, because it is a conflict of interest.

“You can’t afford to make a mistake,” Doherty said.

Bribes are not the only dilemma community journalists face, however.

Many journalists struggle with maintaining friendships and relationships while doing their job.

After the local fire chief proposed hiring two additional firefighters, the Keene Sentinel looked into firefighter salaries, finding that many firefighters made large chunks of money in overtime pay, Miller said. As a result, the Keene Sentinel decided to publish the salaries of all of the firefighters in the county, a decision Miller said he found personally hard because of his relationships within the department.

“I had two really close friends in the fire department staff,” Miller said. “When that story came out and was published, let’s just say we didn’t have any friends in the fire department.”

Doherty said he had few friends when he was a reporter, and that he found it hard not to strain relationships through his work, even with those closest to him.

“My son was in the police log; I didn’t cut it. My wife was in an accident; we ran the story,” Doherty said. “Was it pleasant? No.”

Doherty said those doing newspaper work are journalists first, and that you need to relay that to those with whom you are friendly.

Miller said: “You just have to know that there’s the potential down the road to hold (your friends) accountable for something.”

Brechlin said: “News and readers come first. Then, you can worry about patching up relationships.”

Although the atmosphere at the panel discussion was mostly lighthearted, many audience members voiced serious concerns.

One woman said that because she reports in the town where she grew up, she finds it hard to be taken seriously as a reporter by officials who have known her and her family for years.

“Publish their salaries and then they’ll take you seriously,” Brechlin joked.

The panelists said journalists need to command authority and respect.

“They need to know you’re a person who would hold people accountable,” Miller said. “Your primary job is serving the people.”

Miller concluded the workshop by giving the audience some advice and assurance: “Don’t underestimate the power of the newspaper, no matter your circulation.”

‘You just have to know that there’s the potential down the road to hold (your friends) accountable for something.’

—Paul Miller, Executive editor
Keene (N.H.) Sentinel

‘News and readers come first. Then, you can worry about patching up relationships.’

—Earl Brechlin, Editor
Mount Desert Islander, Bar Harbor, Maine

‘It was enlightening. I was being bribed, and I didn’t even know it!’

—Rod Doherty, Former executive editor
Foster’s Daily Democrat, Dover, N.H.

‘Violate any of my other advice before you be dull. If you’re dull, you’re signing your own death warrant. You’re telling people, “Don’t bother next time.”‘

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

Although small publications often deal with issues more pressing than font choices or negative space, Ed Henninger, an independent newspaper design consultant, advised them to have aspirations beyond their modest circulation and find inspiration in the timeless designs of iconic magazines and newspapers.

“Look to the greats,” Henninger said. “I look to Elle Magazine if I want to get inspiration for typography, visuals, photos or just overall design.”

Henninger, director of Henninger Consulting in Rock Hill, S.C., outlined his guidelines for designing with limited resources in a spirited presentation titled “Designing your niche publications,” held Friday, Feb. 24, at the New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention.

One of the most important elements of design for print publications is the nameplate, Henninger said.

“Create a great nameplate,” he said. “Not an ‘eh’ nameplate, not just one that’ll do, not one that has to go through a committee of nine people, seven of whom are visually brain-dead.”

Henninger displayed examples of the nameplates of local niche publications, including Hartford (Conn.) Magazine, Marblehead (Mass.) Magazine, and Worcester (Mass.) Magazine. Designers and editors from some niche publications, including VT Ski+Ride magazine, based in Middlebury, Vt., and Stowe (Vt.) Guide and Magazine, were in the audience of about 25 people as Henninger critiqued their designs.

Niche publications often make the mistake of abandoning good nameplates in favor of seasonal kitsch, Henninger noted.

“Don’t think ‘Oh, it’s wintertime, let’s use that snow font,'” he said. “No, no, no, no, no. We’re not going there.”

In consulting for smaller newspapers and magazines, Henninger sometimes encounters misuse of formatting software.

“If I could have a cup of coffee with the guys who create (Adobe) inDesign, I would ask them to make an administrator-level inDesign so you can’t do things like squeeze type,” he said. “I’m dealing with a client now who sent me his inDesign pages … with headlines squeezed to 65 percent.”

Henninger’s session included a lengthy discussion of typeface choices, beginning with Henninger polling the audience on what fonts they use in their publications.

“Oh, wow, I’m really not happy to hear that (you use Arial),” Henninger told an audience member. “Arial is, to me, characterless and lifeless.”

He offered suggestions for different display typefaces, including Berthold Akzidenz-Grotesk.

“It is neither an accident, nor is it grotesque,” he said. “I’ve used it a lot.”

Closing out the session by noting his many pet peeves, Henninger advised the audience to remember the little things that improve the reader’s experience.

“Steve Jobs once said, ‘Design is not about how it looks, it’s about how it works,’” Henninger said. “Putting page numbers in the same place on every page is how it works.”

His biggest grievance is with dull design. The only unforgivable sin in newspaper and magazine layout is being dull, Henninger said.

“Violate any of my other advice before you be dull,” he said. “If you’re dull, you’re signing your own death warrant. You’re telling people, ‘Don’t bother next time.’ ”

‘Look to the greats. I look to Elle Magazine if I want to get inspiration for typography, visuals, photos or just overall design.’

—Ed Henninger

Panelist Stephen Kurkjian, center, shares a laugh with fellow panelists Kevin Landrigan and Anne Karolyi.

For Stephen Kurkjian, a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, dealing with a source is a lot like an arm-wrestling match.

“It is important you conduct yourself with professional(ism) and graciousness,” he said at a panel discussion Saturday, Feb. 25, on “A Source Guide: How to choose, reach and max out your news sources” at the New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention.

The match is about balance between giving and getting, Kurkjian said. Terms of engagement should be set at the beginning of the relationship, as a reporter tiptoes the line of almost being friends with a source, while carefully avoiding actually being one.

He advised being prepared before meeting with a source and making sure never to promise a source a flattering story.

Kurkjian, a retired investigative reporter for The Boston Globe, was one of four panelists. The others were Shelley Murphy, a Boston Globe reporter who shared in the Globe staff’s Pulitzer Prize for breaking-news coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings; Kevin Landrigan, a veteran, award-winning political reporter now with the New Hampshire Union Leader of Manchester; and Anne Karolyi, managing editor of the Republican-American of Waterbury, Conn., which won the top prize for large daily newspapers at the convention’s news awards ceremony that night.

The panelists used personal experiences in discussing how to work with difficult sources and cultivate lasting relationships on a beat.

Karolyi discussed the Republican-American’s policy of avoiding the use of anonymous sources. She said the only rare exceptions to the Republican-American’s policy include an overriding importance for the public to know something or if every other way of obtaining the same information on the record had been tried to no avail.

An anonymous source can be a great starting point for a reporter, but the reporter must fact-check the information, whether by obtaining a public record or obtaining the information from another source who will speak on the record, she said.

“It does make it harder,” Karolyi said. “It’s not fatal, just much more work.”

Karolyi said many journalists at the Republican-American have gone on to well-known news organizations, and those reporters have told her that being forced to work harder to back up their stories made them better reporters.

Murphy said the Globe doesn’t like unidentified or confidential sources, and neither does the public. She said, however, that sometimes a reporter must promise a source confidentiality because of the nature of a story. But generally, the only promise a reporter should make is that a story will be fair, Murphy said.

“I make sure that people know this is what I am writing,” Murphy said. “I never promise anyone a favorable story, but I promise them that it will be fair.”

Murphy cautioned those in the audience to avoid being used as a reporter.

Being a reporter is “all built on trust,” Murphy said.

Kurkjian said too that trust is integral to reporting stories fairly. A reporter must get to know the source and let the source know that the reporter cares and respects the source, and that the reporter expects that to be reciprocated by being trusted to get a story right, he said.

“That’s what the weekends are for,” he said about learning the jargon some sources use.

The more than 65 people who attended the discussion were encouraged to participate in the discussion. An audience member asked the panelists how to penetrate and cover a police department that is reluctant to provide information to the press.

Kurkjian returned to his point of trust and fairness.

“You’re the most important person in the town – not the chief,” he said.

Murphy suggested seeking out police officers “who have been disciplined because they are usually the ones who are unhappy,” and that there are always people in the police department “that want to talk; tell them that they can trust you.”

Maneuvering through different sources who are connected to a hard-to-reach source might help in getting that difficult source to talk with a reporter, said Landrigan, who in covering New Hampshire’s presidential primaries has interviewed every president since 1980.

Sometimes asking sources you are on good terms with to reach out to the difficult source might also help, he said.

Reporters should acquaint themselves with their state’s shield laws, which allow a journalist to keep confidential sources confidential. Landrigan said that when he is reporting in New Hampshire, he can promise a source confidentiality, but he can’t promise that he won’t face court action if he refuses to identify a confidential source.

Nonetheless, he said a story shouldn’t hinge on one unidentified source and that if someone’s top concern is confidentiality, then he or she isn’t very committed to releasing information and the reporter should find more sources.

The workshop shed light on the balance Kurkjian mentioned when comparing the use of sources to an arm-wrestling match.

“It is a match of wits … but always handle yourself professionally,” he said.

(A handout with 10 tips for dealing with news sources was distributed to audience members after the panel discussion ended.)

‘It is a match of wits … but always handle yourself professionally.’ 

—Stephen Kurkjian, Retired investigative reporter
Boston Globe

‘I never promise anyone a favorable story, but I promise them that it will be fair.’ 

—Shelley Murphy, Reporter
Boston Globe

Fellow panelists listen as Kevin Landrigan makes a point to audience members, some of whom took notes and asked questions.

Reporting on child-related crises requires being both a journalist and a human being, according to Jennifer Berry Hawes.

Hawes, projects reporter at the Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., and winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for public service, was one of three panelists at a workshop Friday, Feb. 24, titled “For the sake of the children … Reporting responsibly on kids in crisis.”

About 25 people attended the workshop at the New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention. The discussion, moderated by John Voket, associate editor of The Newtown (Conn.) Bee, explored the challenges and solutions to reporting on kids after traumatic events.

As a reporter during a Charleston church mass shooting in 2015 that resulted in a man’s killing nine victims, Hawes has experienced the impact press coverage can have on the lives of young victims. In her eyes, kids aren’t being protected as they should be in reporting today.

“There used to be a day when stories went straight to archives,” Hawes said. “That stuff is out there forever now.”

Panelist Lisa Jones, a research associate professor of psychology at the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, discussed responses to news reports.

“When a youth is reported in an article, it is an involuntary disclosure,” Jones said.

Jones said that whenever a news story discloses information, the subject of the story gets both positive and negative responses back from the public. Jones said that, in her experience, negative responses tend to overshadow positive responses victims receive, affecting a young child throughout his or her future.

A victim’s identity sometimes is not protected in reports long after the incident occurs. Jones discussed the decision to disclose information and its continuing effect on a victim’s well-being in future reporting.

“It’s important to remember there is also decision-making needed months and years after the event,” Jones said.

Panelist Robert Franks, president and chief executive officer of Judge Baker Children’s Center in Boston, discussed the state of mind of a child after a life-altering event.

“You’re dealing with someone with a significant loss of control,” Franks said.

After life-changing trauma, victims can experience post-traumatic stress disorders. Memories of the event can be re-lived when triggered by traumatic reminders. Franks said the way journalists cover stories can contribute to those traumatic reminders.

“As journalists, we don’t think of trauma as the long-term disease it is,” Franks said. “Everyone responds differently to trauma.”

Panelists gave advice on the use of different interviewing methods to avoid harming the mindset of a victim.

Hawes said she does all of her interviews on the record, but offers an option to the person being interviewed to contact her with any concerns after the interview. That option gives authority to a victim who has lost a sense of control, she said.

“I tell the person I’m interviewing ‘If you feel uncomfortable with any of the information you give me after the interview, tell me’,” Hawes said.

She thinks that the most effective way to approach someone after a traumatic event is to talk to someone in common with the victim.

“I try to reach out to people through a trusted friend,” Hawes said. “It gives a buffer and encourages the victim to trust and cooperate.”

‘As journalists, we don’t think of trauma as the long-term disease it is. Everyone responds differently to trauma.’

—Robert Franks, President, chief executive officer
Judge Baker Children’s Center

‘I tell the person I’m interviewing “If you feel uncomfortable with any of the information you give me after the interview, tell me.”‘

—Jennifer Berry Hawes, Projects reporter
Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.

The audience of about 25 people listens to the panel on ‘For the sake of the children … Reporting responsibly on kids in crisis.’