For more information about the Huck Boyd National
Center for Community Media, please contact:
Gloria Freeland,
director,
huckboyd@ksu.edu

Huck Boyd National
Center for Community Media
105 Kedzie Hall,
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506-1501
tel. 785-532-0721
or 785-532-3958
fax. 785-532-5484

 

Tips from 2001: A Community Journalist's Odyssey

Recruiting and retaining quality employees:

Four Kansas college journalism advisers shared their ideas for how to recruit college graduates to community newspapers. Tom Eblen is the general manager and news adviser for the University Daily Kansan, the student newspaper at the University of Kansas; Sally Turner is the director of journalism at Emporia State University and adviser for the twice-weekly student newspaper, The Bulletin; Les Anderson teaches journalism classes at Wichita State University and is the publisher and editor of the Ark Valley News, a community weekly in Valley Center, Kan.; and Ron Johnson is the director of Student Publications Inc. and the adviser for The Kansas State Collegian, the daily student newspaper at Kansas State University.

Their advice:

  • Contact all journalism programs in the state, not just the larger ones.
  • Go to job fairs. oDon't limit yourself to full-time workers; be flexible in scheduling.
  • Help students make living arrangements in your town.
  • Promote your town and your paper as a good place to live, work and raise a family.
  • Tap into organizations for potential employees such as the Associated Collegiate Press or Journalism Education Association (for high school journalists).
  • Jeff Burkhead, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, added that community journalists should be mentors to students who work for them. It takes an investment of time, but itŐs worth the effort, he said.

Dynamite design on a budget:

Ron Johnson, the director of Student Publications Inc., is the adviser for The Kansas State Collegian, the award-winning daily student newspaper at Kansas State University. He teaches editing and design courses and is a member of the board of directors of the Society of News Design. Good graphics enhance content, and some information is better conveyed graphically, Johnson said.

Among his suggestions were the following:

  • Use news judgment: the more important the news, the stronger the placement. (Remember content drives design.)
  • Have a centerpiece package Ń something special, with a dominant photo. Play good pictures BIG.
  • Package related information. Make it easy for the reader to find information.
  • Keep it simple. Less is more. oKeep the page balanced.
  • Use white space wisely. White space can make dominant elements more powerful.
  • Be consistent through typography and margins.
  • Use serif and sans serif type for contrast.

They say Ôit canŐt be doneŐ:

Bill Osborne is the director of advertising and marketing for the Kansas Press Association, and has 40 years experience in sales and marketing. Osborne discussed the importance of having a positive attitude and being able to adapt to changes in life. To illustrate this, Osborne shared a story posted on a sign in a General Motors plant:

According to the theory of aerodynamics and as may be readily demonstrated through wind tunnel experiments, the bumblebee is unable to fly. This is because the size, weight and shape of its body in relation to its total wingspread make flying impossible. But, the bumblebee, being ignorant of these scientific truths, goes ahead and flies anyway . . . and makes a little honey every day.

"Never say Ôit canŐt be done,Ő" Osborne said. "CanŐt never did anything. We canŐt fly to the moon, we canŐt put anything in outer space that will stay put, we canŐt change, because the unknown is too scary. Nonsense. We CAN change. We DO change. The world is constantly changing. ItŐs how we adapt to those changes that determine how well we will thrive in this changing world."

A recent survey conducted by Accountemps found that risk-taking is often critical to business growth, Osborne said. Allowing employees the latitude to take chances is not only motivational; it can also increase efficiency and spawn new products and services. So how do you encourage risk-taking?

Here are some suggestions:

  • Listen to employees. Encourage innovation from all levels of workers and boost morale by acting on their ideas.
  • Hire people with courage.
  • Reward risk-taking Ń win or lose. Those who take risks will have failures, but donŐt penalize them for mistakes. Failed attempts, too, can lead to success.

Enterprise reporting and coaching on a deadline:

Steve Buttry is the writing coach and national correspondent for the Omaha World Herald and has presented writing workshops around the country.

ButtryŐs tips for coaching on a deadline:

  • Ask, don't tell.
  • Hope for a story that exceeds your expectations.
  • Suggest that the reporter write as he reports.
  • Identify one skill for the reporter to work on in each story.
  • Try to give one specific piece of feedback on each story.
  • Every now and then, tell the reporter "Make this story special."

ButtryŐs tips for juggling daily news with enterprise:

  • Manage the size of your daily load.
  • Manage the scope and pace of your enterprise load.
  • Communicate with your editors about your management plans.
  • Sell your editors on your enterprise stories.
  • Make your enterprise stories newsy and specific.
  • Spend at least an hour each day on enterprise.
  • Don't get discouraged.

Convergence: using content, marketing and technology to your advantage:

Bernie Re is the online general manager for the Lawrence Journal World and other World Company news properties. He has more than 25 years of experience in marketing, design and communications.

His advice for using content, marketing and technology:

  • Think of it as doing more of what we do best.
  • Unlock digital assets and people assets.
  • Empower your people with "targeted action" plans.
  • Help your people grow. Don't keep them in a job they don't want to do.
  • Use cross-promotion as the first step to convergence.
  • Remember what we do best. We are both communicators and marketers. oIntegrate, grow, cross-promote and converge your content. For example, his paper packaged the election coverage that was already in the print version, with more information online, and promoted it to advertisers.
  • Open up the process to more people. Use e-mail discussions to outline projects, then meet to set an action plan for the project. E-mail can keep all the project partners informed and eliminate the need for extra meetings.

Anatomy of libel case:

Paul Parsons is a professor of journalism at Kansas State University. He teaches media law and ethics, among other courses. He spent the 1999-2000 school year as a visiting professor at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

During his session, Parsons outlined the circumstances of the Osborne County (Kan.) Farmer case, in which the owner of a stolen car was misidentified as the car thief. The information was read to the reporter by the sheriff, but the reporter never actually saw the police report. Even after corrections in the newspaper and apologies, the plaintiff sued for libel. The case was eventually dismissed and a settlement was reached in which the newspaper admitted no fault. The plaintiff was unable to prove that he had suffered significant damage to his reputation or to his ability to earn a living as a result of the error. The judge said the paper did not deliberately seek to harm the plaintiff, though it could have been more careful.

Parsons outlined the plaintiff's burden of proof and the defendant's defenses in libel suits:

Plaintiff's Burden of Proof:

  • 1) publication
  • 2) identification
  • 3) defamation
  • 4) falsehood
  • 5) fault (media error)6
  • 6) harm/damages.

Defenses against libel suits are:

  • truth
  • fair comment and criticism
  • qualified privilege

Parsons emphasized the importance of accuracy and careful fact checking in reporting, especially for crime stories.

A more detailed discussion of this case is available in Parsons' article, "Anatomy of a libel suit against a community newspaper," in the Fall 1999 issue of Grassroots Editor, available online from the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors on their Web site.

Finding a point in the pointless forest:

John Hatcher is the director of educational programs for the Center for Community Journalism in Oswego, N.Y.

His tips on finding the focus of your story:

  • Remember that every story has a point.
  • Follow a process: find the idea, do the reporting, organize your notes, find the focus, do a first draft, revise.
  • Think about the story and get it clear in your head, then you can write.
  • Think about stories you've succeeded with and what made those work.
  • Do an outline.
  • Ask: "What's the news? What's the story? What's the image?"
  • Tell the story to someone else.
Preparing for and covering disasters:

Ann Charles is the publisher and editor of the Parsons (Kan.) Sun, where she has worked for 20 years. On April 19, 2000, Parsons was hit by an F3 tornado. For her coverage of the tornado and subsequent community activism, Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts recommended in Editor and Publisher that she be awarded some sort of "tornado Pulitzer."

Bill Felber is the executive editor of the Manhattan Mercury, and was involved in the news coverage of the Manhattan community during the Flood of 1993.

Charles is in the process of revising an Emergency Disaster Plan for her newspaper. The document lists specific instructions for her staff on how to deal with different scenarios after a disaster, such as whether the building is safe to work in, whether equipment has been damaged, whether there is electricity, how to cover the national story, what types of stories need to be covered, how to get the paper delivered, and how to handle advertising (particularly if many businesses were damaged or destroyed in the disaster.)

During their session, Charles and Felber gave suggestions for disaster coverage:

  • Remember, the paper is a vital community resource.
  • Provide information about where to get help and how to offer help.
  • Call the Associated Press early on to make sure accurate information gets in the wire stories. (Relief efforts are often based on early reports.)
  • Get information up on the Web site as soon as possible, including how to donate to disaster relief.
  • Print notes of encouragement from the Web site in the paper.
  • Provide services such as a lost and found exchange, and business briefs as businesses return to operation.
  • Help your community deal with the aftermath Ń anger, FEMA regulations and grief.
  • Remember this will be an ongoing story. Provide regular updates throughout the coming weeks and months.

First Amendment Network:

Vivien Sadowski, publisher emeritus of the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle, was elected president of the National Federation of Press Women (NFPW) in June 1999. She has guided the organization in developing the First Amendment Network (FAN), a grassroots voice to protect citizen rights under the First Amendment. The FAN focuses upon free press and free speech issues that affect communications professions and their audiences. Government accountability and access are always high on its list. Its scope primarily involves matters that benefit from public airing and grassroots contacts.

Some examples of FAN actions and the results:

  • When Congress threatened to dramatically cut funding to the Federal Depository Library Program, established in 1813 to ensure regular distribution of government documents to libraries outside Washington, D.C., NFPW sounded an alert to restore the funding. Funding cuts were vetoed by President Clinton, and funding was largely restored.
  • When NFPW learned that FBI agents had impersonated a press photographer in the civil trial of an Aryan Nations member in Idaho, it objected. The FBI said the agents would blend in with the crowd better if they traveled under cover of press credentials. NFPW said such actions threaten the credibility and well-being of the press. The FBI answered NFPWŐs letter and said the action was being reviewed, but it didnŐt change its policy to ban impersonations.
  • When Scholastic Books, publishers of the Harry Potter series, barred young writers in Alaska and Hawaii from entering a national essay contest Ń pleading that it was too costly to bring those students to New York for awards Ń NFPW wrote in protest. NFPW was at the time meeting in Anchorage at a meeting hosted by its Alaska affiliate. It said that national programs must include people in all 50 states. Scholastic Books changed its stance and apologized to the students. In the end, a young person from Alaska won the contest.

Any NFPW member may join FAN by sending an e-mail address with "please subscribe" in the subject line. Any non-NFPW member may participate in the FAN by sending a $100 annual subscription fee to NFPW, P.O. Box 5556, Arlington, VA 22205.

Covering your community when it becomes more diverse:

James Stephens is an assistant professor in journalism at Kansas State University and teaches advanced reporting and news writing and race and the media; Patricia Hoddinott is the general manager of the Columbia Missourian at the University of Missouri; Sarah Kessinger is the Kansas statehouse reporter for Harris News Service and wrote a series on Mexican immigration to central Kansas that ran in Harris papers around the state.

They made the following observations during their panel discussion:

  • Diversity is more than race. It is also that which is dissimilar, different, or an opposite point of view. It can include things such as religion, age and abilities as well as ethnicity.
  • Your readers will guide you to the stories.
  • View ethnic groups or people with different opinions as part of the community and not problems of the community.
  • Tell advertisers that Hispanics (or other races or nationalities) need doctors, dentists, schools, groceries and housing just like anyone else.
  • Don't make sweeping generalizations about immigrants.
  • Learn about immigration law and how complex it is.
  • Cover stories that affect immigrants from their point of view; for example, school/bilingual programs, police/courts, housing, etc.
  • Your newspaper may be the only link between the established community and the immigrant community. Help both communities become one.

Tips to improve your column writing:

Ned Seaton is the general manager of the Manhattan (Kan.) Mercury and writes a regular column for the paper.

Among his tips for writing personal columns are the following:

  • Describe in a compelling way what people are doing with their lives.
  • Find the universal in the personal.
  • Avoid national politics/local politics in personal columns.
  • Avoid writing about procrastination in a column.
  • Avoid "namby-pamby-ism." If you have something to say, SAY IT.
  • Sit down and write. Don't wait for the right mood to hit. Give yourself TIME; you often find gems the deeper you dig.
  • Be specific with details. DonŐt just say a dog; give the name of the dog and tell that itŐs an 8-year-old golden retriever. If itŐs a hovel, say "hovel" not "house" to provide a clearer image in readers' minds.
  • Use active verbs.
  • Use regular, conversational language.
  • Slow down pace of information.
  • Have a catchy beginning.

Historical and practical aspects of writing obituaries:

Janice Hume is an assistant professor of journalism at Kansas State University and has studied how obituaries reflect the values of American society at different points in history.

Garrett Ray is an associate professor of journalism at Colorado State University and is a former newspaper publisher and editor.

Some of their observations:

  • An obituary is a synopsis of a life.
  • Obituaries reflect our values as a society.
  • Obituaries value our lives.
  • We have lost a great deal by treating obituaries as routine and impersonal. By saying obituaries aren't important, we are saying people aren't important.

Garrett Ray's Ten Keys to Writing Better Obits:

  • Raise the status of obit writing.
  • Give special treatment to at least one obit per issue.
  • Give special treatment to ordinary people.
  • If clippings are available, do your homework first.
  • Talk to more sources. (Family-members are often happy to talk about their loved one.)
  • Ask better questions. (Ask open-ended questions.)
  • Listen for revealing quotations, examples and anecdotes.
  • Think of obituaries as profiles that could run as feature stories.
  • Write feature leads.
  • Above all, be accurate.

How to get junior high and high school students involved:

Linda Puntney, executive director of the Journalism Education Association, adviser for K-StateŐs Royal Purple yearbook, and assistant director of K-StateŐs Student Publications Inc., gave advice on how to get junior high and high school students involved in community newspapers. She challenged journalists to take advantage of the resources that are right under their noses.

Getting schools involved in your newspaper accomplishes several things, she said:

  • Gets students excited about newspapers Ń at an early age.
  • Gets students to consider careers in newspapers.
  • Gives papers access to covering schools they wouldn't normally have.

The following are some of the ways people have done this:

  • Have a player on the sports team keep a diary of what happened at the tournament if you canŐt afford to send someone to cover it.
  • Give that same student a camera and tell him or her to document the trip.
  • Have high school students write stories about activities in the younger grades.
  • Give students a page of the paper that they work on from start to finish. They write the stories and take the pictures. They edit the copy. They lay out the pages.
  • Visit schools and teach a class or two.
  • Invite journalism advisers to work at your paper for a day or two so they can learn first hand about what's involved.
  • Sponsor writing awards and contests for journalism students in your area.
  • Start an internship program for high school students.
  • Have students do weather drawings to run on your weather page.

 

News Academies help journalists brush up on basic skills

The Huck Boyd Center and the Kansas Press Association have co-sponsored two News Academies in the past year Ń one in March at Kansas State University in Manhattan, and one in July at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kan.

Twenty two reporters, editors and publishers from around the state of Kansas participated in the March News Academy. Speakers included Pam Bumstead, the student publications adviser of Pittsburg State University; Les Anderson, publisher of the Ark Valley News in Valley Center, Kan. and a journalism professor at Wichita State University; Ron Johnson, director of K-StateŐs Student Publications and an assistant professor of journalism; Linda Puntney, executive director of the Journalism Education Association, adviser to K-StateŐs Royal Purple yearbook and an assistant professor of journalism; Kevin McGrath, an editor and writing coach at the Wichita Eagle; and Paul Rhodes, publisher of the Times-Sentinel in Cheney, Kan.

Nearly 30 participants attended the July News Academy. Speakers included Ken Bronson of the Kansas Press Association; Sandy Trail of the Osborne County Farmer, John Montgomery, publisher, and Charlie Riedel, photographer, of the Hays Daily News; Les Anderson, publisher of the Ark Valley News and a journalism professor at Wichita State University; and Gene Anderson of Fort Hays State University.

 
Page last modified June 7, 2001