rookie assignment editor question

What's liberal praise?

"Hey, nice sandals, dude! Is that a Prius? Sweet!"

 

Can I give him Hollywood/East-Coast-elitist praise? That's the same thing, right?

 

Funny guys. There are times when it's OK to be a bit lavish on praise for something well done.

 

Especially with those needy-ass, millenial-generation kids.

 

You are exactly right, Xan. And the more public, the better.

 

irish, I had much the same problems with a reporter a few years ago. I finally broke through with him by getting him to understand the difference between a topic and a story. To use your example, immigration in Palookaville is a topic and are dozens of stories in that topic to be told.

I'd ask the reporter to find the answers to a bunch of questions about the topic -- How many immigrants are in Palookaville? Where are they coming from? Do they live in particular neighborhoods? Where do they work? Where do they shop? Where do they go to church? What do they do for fun? The answers to those questions will lead to several cool stories. You could do a feature about neighborhoods of Ecuadorian immigrants who have elaborate block parties every Saturday, or about a business district that's slowly becoming more Korean.

Either way, it requires you to frontload Jimmy before he begins and to talk at least a couple of times throughout the process. But the result is worth the investment.

 

I'd tell the kid it's sink or swim. That's how I learned. To be a good reporter I think it's the best way. Just say "Jimmy this is the topic go write about it. There are no constraints or restrictions on what you write. You come up with the story idea, because that's what real reporters do." Then after the kid shits the bed on the story, take some time and go over it with him. Don't let him keep shitting the bed. That would set a bad precedent.

 

I worked with an intern like that nine months ago... didn't want to do features on a team untill he saw them play so he knew what he was doing...
sorry, we fly blind all the time... be a reporter, twerp

 

If you think young Mr. Olsen is the cerebral type, try engaging him in the Socratic method.

You: Hey Jimmy, what do you know about immigration in Palookaville?

JO: Not much.

You: Me, neither. I've heard some things but haven't looked into it. Where do you think we [meaning the paper] should start?

JO: We could try to find out how many illegal immigrants there are in Palookaville?

You: Yeah, but are all immigrants illegal? What about the ones who are here legally?

JO: Oh, yeah. Those ones, too.

You: Who do you think would have that kind of information on Palookaville?

JO: Dunno. Maybe the mayor's office?

You: That would be a good source. What about the Palookaville Immigration Office, too? They'd have some good numbers. What do you think are some issues that would affect Palookaville immigrants?

JO: Well, housing for one. And jobs, I guess. Education. Health care.

You: Yup, all those would be good issues to focus on. Who else would know what issues are out there?

JO: The Palookaville Immigration Office?

You: Good idea! Why don't you call them, see what kind of stats they have and ask what the pressing issues are. After you talk to them, get back to me and we'll discuss story ideas.

 

The rook who's not such a rook anymore and I tried talking about the list. He's still resistant. He won't attack one story because he doesn't know how to find the mother I want him to find. He's not being a bulldog about it. Frustrating.

 

what my boy ptown said.

the reporter interviews sources and develops the story. it's up to a reporter to take the premise and run with it. this seems like a basic minimum job requirement.

 

There's some good advice here. I'd add to it that this might be a situation where you have to be willing to allow him to work on the story two or three times. I know at smaller papers there can be a lot of pressure to GET THE STORY RIGHT NOW or else there's nothing to run.

Let the kid know that there's no hard-and-fast deadline, that he can work on the story for a little while. Obviously you don't want to give him too long a leash, but make sure he knows, and that you can accept, that if the story isn't OK to publish the first time, that's OK. Be willing to take the first draft of the story, give him suggestions on how to make it better and let him go back out and find what it's missing. Don't give in to the temptation of getting those bits of information yourself and running the story just to run it, even though you know you could get that information in about 12 minutes.

If the kid's at all sharp, he'll be able to use that to figure out what he should be asking the first time. Eventually, he'll ask all the questions the first time and you won't have to send him back.