enterprise reporting

is alive and well

GATEHOUSE NEWS & INTERACTIVE DIVISION

Call-in: 888.251.2909; Code: 585.851.9696

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Today’s host

MIKE TURLEY Content team manager — Large Daily DivisionGateHouse Media News & Interactive

585.851.9696mturley@gatehousemedia.comTwitter: @ml_turley

• Call-in: 888.251.2909; Code: 585.851.9696• Please silence your phones• Do not hesitate to ask questions

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• Define enterprise reporting Perception often does not match reality. Seriously, enterprise work happens every day in some fashion.

• Management From time to staffing, where do you find the resources?

• Fact-gathering and reporting Tips to help set the stage for enterprise efforts.

• Case study How four papers joined forces to bring Illinois budget woes into the spotlight.

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Defining enterprise

• Boldness or readiness in undertaking;adventurous spirit; ingenuity

• A watchdog approach to reporting that goesbeyond covering daily events. It is a type ofreporting that examines the forces dictating theevents.

• Any story that moves beyond the headline of the day and makes WHY the most important of the five Ws: Why did this happen?

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A new approach• Enterprise reporting does not

need to take large blocks of time out of the newsroom or from a reporter’s weekly schedule.

• Enterprise reporting does not mean you have to let the daily coverage slip.

• Enterprise reporting can become part of the daily routine and not an occasional endeavor leading into contest season.

“Change has become the new normal in the world of work. Change is a constant, driven by two major forces: the economy and technology. If you want to build, maintain, and improve your workplace, you have to become adept at not just managing, but leading change.”

— Work Happy; What Great Bosses Know / Jill Geisler

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A little bit goes a long ways

• Instead of running a massive project that takes months of resources and time, break the topic into bite-size pieces.

• Publish the work in print and on the Web as the information is gathered. This will drive interest in the topic and keep it in the public eye.

“Instead of emphasizing only ambitious projects that can take months, quick-hit investigations, blogs, consumer-focused watchdog stories, and searchable databases are stressed.” — Mark Katches /editorial director for the Center for Investigative Reporting

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Find the hot topic• Recognize and focus on three

franchise topics to strengthen your brand.

• Create a beat out of the franchise topic or go beyond the routine coverage of an existing beat to write enterprise stories.

• Drill deep and find the systemic problem, issue.

“Newsrooms will be less about the day’s news — much of which has already been taken out of our hands by the 24-hour, minute-by-minute news cycle — and become more like a war room, or a science lab, where teams of researchers think about how to contextualize, present, illustrate, and spread key information, whether it happened that day or not .”

— Heidi Moore / U.S. finance and economics editor of The Guardian

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‘Beat’ strategy

• Identify and prioritize story segments.

• Set aggressive deadlines to complete these segments.

• Modify story plans as reporters build on their knowledge.

• Have reporters be expected to “own” the topic and cover related news developments.

“As editor, I must consider whether each segment will offer fresh insights. I also need to weigh whether our reporters — and ultimately our readers — will be able to make sense of the parts of the story without understanding the whole.”

— Lois Norder, investigative editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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By the numbers• Smaller staff means fewer

reporters to keep an eye on the big stories; therefore …

• … Turn to the public for tips and suggestions, concerns and complaints. What seems insignificant may be significant.

• File FOIA requests. You never know what will surface.

“Encourage readers to become part of your FOIA army. … List sample FOIA letters on your website, and ask readers to provide you with ideas.” — Tips about FOIA filings / Rob Walters

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Gathering the facts: Make complex issues understandable

• Determine best approach to finding sources and gathering information

• Prioritize: Make a list; do the most difficult things first.

• It is great to be ambitious, but wise to be realistic.

• Updates on social media will help develop direction of story.

“We turn to social media during news events for immediate updates and eyewitness accounts, constantly refreshing and trolling for every possible bit of news and commentary. There isn’t a major event that we can’t visualize through social trends. But in our fixation on immediacy, we’re missing opportunities to tell a larger story through social means.”

— Amanda Zamora / senior engagement editor, ProPublica

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Questions to ask … yourself

• Through whose eyes am I telling this story?

• Who has something at stake?

• What’s going to happen next?

• What’s the story really about?

• Where should the story begin?

• Ultimately, find out, Why?

— IREPORT / cnn.com

“In today’s unsettled news environment, watchdog reportingalso is necessary for our survival. It sets professional journalistsapart from bloggers and cell phone videographers, providingadded value that readers and viewers simply can’t get anywhereelse.”

— Redefining a Newspaper’s Watchdog Approach / Les Zaitz and Brent Walth

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Suggestions

• Governmental coverage; readers are more interested and passionate during economic downtimes about how their tax dollars are spent.

• Local law enforcement and other officials

• School administrators and board members

“Enterprise stories are always at risk during periods of retrenchment. They take time, and as the staff shrinks, it’s tempting to forgo them to concentrate on the meat and potatoes.” — Rem Rieder, senior vice president, American Journalism Review

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Define what is importantto your readers and community

Determine the areas where you can strengthen coverage through enterprise reporting.Do a quick time audit: How much time do you spend each day on what’s important? Build time into each day to work on what’s important. How much time? That is up to you.

—

Journal Star crime reporter Matt Buedel reported on misconduct in the Peoria Police Department.

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Case study: Deadbeat Illinois

• Four newspapers in Illinois have joined forces to give in-depth coverage of the state’s budget woes.

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Deadbeat Illinois

• Each newspaper is responsible for generating one story segment of the overall theme of the state falling short on paying its bills to individuals, businesses, schools and third-party vendors.

The Register-Mail in Galesburg, Ill.

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Deadbeat Illinois series

• The stories are available to anyGateHouse-owned newspaper in the state.

“This series is a great credit to the editors andwriters at each paper. We have a schedule, and everyone is making deadline. … I can see us using this model to tell another statewide story.” 

Bob Heisse, executive editor The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill.

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Deadbeat Illinois series

• A new story focusing on a specific example of the real-world effects of the state’s failure to pay its bill appears every Monday in print and online.

“Each reporter needs about six to eight hours toreport and write, which isn't that bad given that wehave to do them just once a month. I think it worksbest when we keep stories to 10 to 12 inches with aphoto and a breakout box. Any longer and I think youhave the chance to lose the reader.” — Dennis Anderson, executive editor, Peoria Journal Star

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Deadbeat Illinois series

• The Better Government Association in Chicago, www.bettergov.org, has expressed interest in a partnership with the papers as they work on future systemic issues associated with state and local government.

The Rockford Register Star

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Deadbeaton Facebook

• The creation ofa Deadbeat Illinois Facebook page has helped the enterprise effort gain traction. More than 800 people have “liked” the page.

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Pressure is on

• This week the press secretary for the Senate president asked the newspapers for a compilation of Deadbeat stories as the Senate calls for a special committee on unpaid bills.

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Taking care of business Tend to the daily assignments as quickly as possible so you can spend more time on the important things.

“Think about how to tell the story. Don’t follow the crowd.”

— Mark Konkol, Pulitzer Prize winner, Chicago Sun-Times

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Next steps:If you are an editor …

• Find, develop and fine-tune the franchise topics.

• Determine what coverage you can alter, do with less or give up completely.

• Dedicate time and resources; stay committed to the cause.

“Change requires us to learn new skills and to let go of past practices and assumptions. But changing our customs doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning core values.” — Jill Geisler, Poynter Institute

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Next steps:If you are a reporter …

• Embrace new approach; learn everything you can about the topic.

• Drill deep; Ask, “Why is this happening?”

• Break coverage into segments; stay committed to the cause.

• Use all of your delivery platforms to disseminate the content.

“We owe it to the importance of our journalistic mission to consider and reconsider all options, all opportunities for positive change. Frankly, that rethinking, and that re-creation, will happen whether we want it to or not. The question is whether we do it ourselves.” — Richard Gingras / head of news and social products at Google

enterprise reporting

is alive and well

GATEHOUSE NEWS & INTERACTIVE DIVISION