2006 December

Utah Journalists Snub Samuel Johnson Tip

by Randy Hines

’Tis the season for questions.

“Ho! Ho! Ho! What do you want for Christmas?” asks the mall Santa.

“Who’s coming for the holidays?”

“What was your year-end bonus?”

“What is your New Year’s resolution?”

So many questions. So little time. It’s no wonder Samuel Johnson, 18th century British literary giant, seemed pessimistic toward the topic.

"Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen. It is assuming a superiority, and it is particularly wrong to question a man concerning himself. There may be parts of his former life which he may not wish to be made known to other persons, or even brought to his own recollection" (Boswell’s Life of Johnson).

Yet, questioning is the mode of operation for Nebraska journalists. Interviews are frequent tools in the quest to uncover information and opinion from news sources. In my workshops and journalism classes, I typically go over news-gathering tips that make a lot of sense. However, journalists and students still forget at times to follow them while on the prowl for news.

Almost every interviewing technique guidebook tells you to do preliminary research before you make an appointment with the source. For one thing, that may direct you to the proper individual with the right answers, rather than one you previously thought could help you. And doing your homework will allow you to ask intelligent questions, rather than appearing dumb to your interview subject.

Show up on time and greet the person properly. Present your business card so your source will have contact information if needed later. Obtain one in return for the same reason.

It’s wise to prepare open-ended questions in advance. Listen carefully to the responses since one answer could cover two of your inquiries. Always be ready to leave your list of questions if the person opens up a new avenue of interrogation. Follow-up questions should be a routine part of your interview process.

Ask one question at a time. Be friendly, but aggressive if necessary. Rephrase the question if the source doesn’t seem to understand what you need to know.

Take legible notes profusely. If a tape recorder is being used, ignore it. Pretend it won’t work properly—and you won’t be disappointed when it happens. Tape recording an interview with permission will help you to get complete direct quotes when writing your story. But if you’re on deadline, you won’t have time to endlessly replay and type to get the entire transcript.

My voice-activated recorder was used in my interview with Alaska’s Tom Bodett of Motel 6 fame. Unfortunately—despite my checking tape, batteries and buttons—Tom’s soft-spoken natural voice, unlike his radio commercial style, didn’t activate the recorder until his third or fourth word of every sentence. Fortunately, I took extensive notes and had a one-month magazine deadline.

Every Nebraska reporter who has used a recorder probably has similar horror stories.

If you have a controversial or embarrassing subject to explore, save that question for the latter part of the interview. That way you’ll at least have a story to write from the prior responses if the mayor of Logan or another source clams up and refuses to comment.

Once you thank the informant and leave the interview setting, try to transfer your notes immediately into a more comprehensible format. That could involve keying them into a laptop or merely rewriting them more fully in your notebook. In either case, you’ll be able to recreate meanings from strange scratchings and abbreviations that will make little sense the following day.

Readers have always liked direct quotations. It gives them a sense of understanding the source closer, or of being in on the action. Students are told to include complete sentence quotes (vs. partial quotes) and to frequently start paragraphs with them, rather than giving attribution at the beginning of the graph. However, don’t go overboard with the DQs. It’s best to use them for statements that are opinionated, doubtful, controversial or catchy. Mundane information or facts easily obtainable elsewhere don’t merit the status of direct quotes.

Your story itself will need to drop in background information, observations and indirect quotes along with the actual words of the source.

One mistake beginners frequently make in writing the interview story is to insert their own long-winded questions into the article. How often do you see these types of wordiness examples?

When asked how she felt about being the only female chief executive officer in the company’s 80-year history, Brown said….

A journalist should try to stay out of the story. Your source is the key individual.

Your interview should help you obtain additional information that’s not readily available through news releases or Web sites. Getting good direct quotes is a bonus for your Nebraska readers.

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Dr. Randy Hines teaches in the Department of Communications at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa. He can be reached at (570) 372-4079 or randyhinesapr@yahoo.com. © 2006

Transcript-Bulletin hires new managing editor

by Karen Hunt

Friday, 27 October 2006

Jeff Barrus has been named the new editor of the Tooele Transcript Bulletin, bringing more than 15 years of national and international reporting and editing experience back to his home county.

Barrus got his start in journalism editing The Branding Iron at Grantsville High School and writing for the old Grantsville Gazette. He has since served as managing editor of Utah Business and Fairways magazines, and editor of Hawaii Business magazine, the nation's oldest regional business magazine. In addition, he has written for such publications as Travel + Leisure, Four Seasons, DestinAsian, Island Life, The Jakarta Post, Pacific Business News, and The Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Barrus spent eight years in Indonesia writing on travel and adventure, as well as teaching English composition and literature at Brawijaya University. His past assignments have ranged from tracking the endangered Javan Rhino in the jungles of Southeast Asia to interviewing Michael Jordan at an NBA All-Star Game to reporting on Japanese businesses in Tokyo. Now, he's excited to be home.

"This is a great opportunity for me to come back to the place where all my family live and do work that's related to them and our Tooele County community," Barrus said. "I'm looking forward to building on the fine editorial tradition and rich history of the Tooele Transcript Bulletin."

As editor, Barrus wants to increase accountability and accessibility for the paper's readers. He says he will work to ensure all stories are accurate, fair and balanced. In addition, he wants community members to know they can always contact him directly if they have story ideas, questions or comments.

Barrus also wants to make sure the Transcript Bulletin gives everyone in the county a voice, and that the paper doesn't favor any one group of people over another. He says he's helped in that mission by a diverse team of professional writers, editors and photographers.

"We have a very talented editorial staff and I'm excited about leveraging that to tell Tooele County's stories," Barrus said.

Barrus met his wife, the former Stephanie Estrada, at Grantsville High School. In the 16 years they've been married, they have traveled around the world together&Europe, Africa, Australia, and several years in Asia. Their 5-year-old son, Aurelius, was born in Indonesia. He will now be the sixth generation of the family to live in Tooele County.

Barrus is the son of Ray Barrus&a Grantsville sports legend who was the first winner of the Deseret News Marathon∧ the grandson of Albert and Myrtle Barrus of Grantsville.

Barrus is reachable via e-mail at jbarrus@tooeletranscript.com.

Conflict Reporting: How To Go From Enemy To Ally

By Matt Baron

When someone is accused, charged, maligned, ridiculed or otherwise in the glare of negative attention, a reporter is frequently an unwelcome sight.

In fact, those who are besieged often may want to slay us. Instead, they should stay with us. We are not the enemy, but a potential ally in helping them tell their side of the story.

When people express skepticism, or even hostility, in the face of questioning, we must not take it personally but ought to emphasize that we are simply doing our job. But how can we effectively “open up” those leery of speaking to the media?

Here are three approaches that have helped me, as well as advice on how to handle that dreaded “no comment” when your best efforts still aren’t good enough:

1.No Begging: The Reverse Psychology Approach

Under no circumstances should you beg people to talk to you, as if you need their input to complete a story. Obviously, it would help provide more details, and balance. And, yes, of course we want their input. But all we can do is give people an opportunity to talk. Never give anyone the sense that they have control over whether a story makes it into print.

This confident posture worked wonders for me a few years ago when a source got huffy over my inquiry into his financial dealings with a government body.

I let him cool down and dialed him up about an hour later. As I expected, he repeated that he wouldn’t talk to me. And, just as I had planned, I responded breezily: “OK! Have a great day!” My hang-up came a millisecond later.

Within a minute, my phone rang. “I might as well talk to you,” he sighed. He knew from my demeanor that I didn’t need to talk to him. So, he reasoned, he may just have needed to talk to me.

Use this approach when dealing with someone who is highly emotional and unlikely to heed logical reasoning. The next two approaches are for those who are open to logic.

2.Validate The Source: The Feel-Felt-Found Approach

In any interaction, whether it’s selling a widget or building trust, an effective technique in overcoming objections is to see things from the other person’s point of view: “I know how you feel, I felt the same way…and this is what I found.”

In the process, you figuratively stand side-by-side with the individual as you look at the situation from the same perspective. It’s much more productive than a head-on battle of egos and wills, in which you both see things from your own, opposing viewpoint.

This approach has consistently worked for me when someone recounts a journalistic horror story involving a misquoting, out-of-context-taking, mama-misspelling reporter.

Because I’ve had the experience of reporters butchering things I’ve said, and making errors in telling stories in which I was a source, I have a ready response.

“I know how you feel. I’ve been written about inaccurately myself and it stinks,” I say. “But what I found is that I can’t hold that against the next reporter. That’s like getting sick after eating at one restaurant, and then vowing never to eat at any restaurant ever again.”

Even if you can’t say quite the same thing, you can at least establish solid footing by validating their concern. So talk about other sources who have had similar fears of being misquoted, how you helped restore their confidence in the process by handling their input responsibly, and that you are committed to doing the same professional work in this case.



3.Appeal To The Source’s Sense of Self-Interest

Speak in terms of your sources’ interests, not your own. So don’t use phrases or ask questions revolving around “I need…” or “I want…” statements. People care little about your needs and wants; they are infinitely more interested in their own.

So turn it around:

“I’m on deadline with a story that you deserve to have a voice in.”

“It’s only fair that you have a chance to comment for this story.”

“So-and-so said this about you. Do you want to give a response?”

4.A Few Comments on Handling “No Comment”

If any of these approaches fails to spark an interview, you are left with that unsatisfying “no comment” to insert into the story. Be careful that you don’t let frustration creep into your wording. Avoid loaded verbs like “refused comment,” as if not speaking to us were a crime. Instead, use the vanilla, but fair, “had no comment” or “declined to comment.”

At times, if the source explained the basis for not choosing to speak with you, you ought to provide that context as well. For example: “Smith had no comment, citing pending litigation” or “Smith declined to comment, saying he would so after he had an opportunity to review the allegations in more detail.”

Your readers will have no idea how much work went into that “no comment.” But your diligence in seeking the reluctant source’s input will pay off in the future because you will have become that much more experienced in seeking earnestly to draw out sources.

Matt Baron of Oak Park, Ill., is owner of Inside Edge: Public Relations & Media Services. He has more than 20 years of journalism experience, from community newspapers to national magazines. He leads training workshops for press associations and other groups, and can be reached at 888.713.5894 or online at www.mattbaron.com.

A new look at the Unique Selling Proposition

By John Foust
Raleigh, NC

One of the best headlines I've seen lately was in a recruiting ad for a trucking company. With just four words, the ad went to the heart of a common problem faced by long-distance drivers: "Be home every weekend."

There are two levels of relevance in advertising. The first generates polite agreement, but not immediate action. If the trucking ad had emphasized equipment, cargoes or routes, the reaction might have been "ho hum." Although those things may be relevant, they probably aren't deal makers.

Then there's the second level: motivational relevance. Would a prospective trucker – perhaps one with prior experience – be motivated by having weekends at home. You bet.

"Be home every weekend" is no puffed up ad slogan. It's a deal maker.

That ad reminded me of Rosser Reeves, one of the giants of the advertising industry. In his book "Reality in Advertising," he popularized the concept of the Unique Selling Proposition, the USP. Reeves believed that each advertiser should propose a specific benefit. He explained that the proposition must be one which the competition does not – or cannot – offer. It must be unique.

Motivational relevance goes beyond the standard "features and benefits" approach to advertising. Not every benefit is a deal maker. Today – as in Reeves' day – advertisers can put success or failure squarely on the shoulders of the motivational relevance of their messages. For example, I've met several people who bought cars from a particular dealership, because the service department is open until midnight. With their work schedules, it is important to be able to have their cars serviced during non-traditional business hours. They could have bought the same models elsewhere. But those other dealers had less desirable service hours.

As you work with your clients, why not develop your own USP? Why not become more than a sales person, by positioning yourself as a marketing partner. One way to accomplish this is to help your clients establish motivational relevance in their advertising. Here's a closer look:

1. Start with features and benefits. When you meet with an advertiser, see yourself in the role of a police detective. Ask questions, look around, search for clues. The more you learn, the easier it will be to uncover the uniqueness of that business. Separate the wheat from the chaff, the meaningful from the "ho hum."

2. Find a problem. Now shift your attention to your client's prospective customers. What is important to them? In other words, if they are looking for a trucking job, are they frustrated by the prospect of being on the road on weekends? Or if they have busy schedules, are they putting off their auto service because there's not enough time during the work day?

3. Watch your language. "Be home every weekend" is a strong headline. "Work convenient hours" is weak.

Both sell the same benefit. But it's not just what you say, it's how you say it. Given a choice between the specific "every weekend" and the vague "convenient," specific will win every time.

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(c) Copyright 2006 by John Foust. All rights reserved.

John Foust conducts on-site and video training for newspaper advertising departments. His three new video programs are designed to help ad managers conduct in-house training for their sales teams. For information, contact: John Foust, PO Box 97606, Raleigh, NC 27624 USA, E-mail: jfoust@mindspring.com, Phone 919-848-2401.

Don’t close the books just yet on 2006 elections

By Jim Pumarlo

Mention election coverage in the aftermath of the midterm contests, and most newsrooms will likely turn a collective deaf ear. Yet this is the perfect time – before the files are formally closed - for editors and reporters to evaluate how they performed in 2006 and to identify steps for improved coverage in 2008.

As a start, convene a brainstorming session to review and reflect on some of the basic aspects of election coverage. For example:

Consistency of coverage: Review overall coverage from the beginning to end; select one race as a case study. Did all candidates receive equal treatment in their initial announcements? If candidates issued press releases, were their challengers given opportunity to respond and/or offer their perspective in the same story?

Emphasize the local connection: Coverage of school board, county board or city council races is local by its very nature. But was the local perspective emphasized in statewide races? For example, did reporters quiz gubernatorial candidates on what their platforms meant to local constituents?

Provide forum for ideas: Were newspapers able to handle the overload of letters, especially the predictable barrage of the final days? If some letters were withheld, what were the criteria? Was the letters policy defensible and clear to readers?

Recommend candidates: Newspapers gather a great deal of information on candidates and issues including some that is not available to all voters. Did editors take advantage of their “inside seat on elections” to study the candidates and make recommendations as to which individuals would best serve their communities?

Analyze the election: Read the election edition again. Were readers given more than just “votes and quotes”? Did stories offer some analysis of which areas the candidates polled best and worst, and which issues resonated with voters? Did the stories help readers make sense of the results?

Expand the discussion: Kudos to those newsrooms that regularly conduct election post-mortems. Be sure, however, that the discussion extends beyond the editors and reporters directly involved with planning and carrying out the coverage. Seek the opinions of others in the newspaper office; advertising representatives who deal directly with candidates are a good sounding board. For additional feedback, ask the candidates themselves through a formal questionnaire or an informal question-answer session. Finally, consider convening focus groups of readers to identify strengths and weaknesses in election coverage. In the end, the most effective coverage is that which engages voters.

Many editors and reporters can rightfully take pride in their coverage for its thoroughness, focus on issues and reader-friendly presentation. But even the most comprehensive coverage is marginalized if readers don’t have ample opportunity to weigh in on the candidates and issues though an exchange on the editorial page.

It’s unfortunate, but the examples are numerous where newspapers publish candidate profiles in the last 10 days prior to the election. These stories were often the only comprehensive look at a race other than occasional reports of candidate debates.

The practice is just as troublesome on the editorial page. The idea of endorsing candidates, especially those in local elections, generates enough controversy without exacerbating the circumstances. In other words, give readers and candidates alike the opportunity to respond. What message is sent when the same edition carries the first of the newspaper’s string of editorial endorsements and a notice that the deadline has passed for election commentary from readers.

A fruitful post-election discussion will be a springboard for two items.

No. 1, identify steps to ensure fair and thorough election coverage by reviewing the policies inherent in the various elements of election coverage. Have a plan to develop the policy, implement the policy and explain the policy.

No. 2, focus on organization to guide the newsroom through the months-long election season. Identifying a list of action steps and a preliminary timetable now will reap dividends for reporters and readers alike.

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Jim Pumarlo regularly writes and speaks on Community Newsroom Success Strategies. He is author of “Bad News and Good Judgment: A Guide to Reporting on Sensitive Issues in a Small-Town Newspaper” and is writing a book on the “elements of outstanding election coverage” which is due to be released in 2007. He can be contacted at www.pumarlo.com.

Acrobat Unveils New Tools With 8 Professional

by Kevin Slimp

Can I actually be that old? Can Adobe Acrobat really be up to version 8? Let's see, Adobe releases a new version of Acrobat every 18 months. That would be 8 times 1.5 years. Where did those twelve years go? It seems like only yesterday I reviewed version 7.

Adobe is very sneaky. With each upgrade, they seem to add at least one feature that publishing professionals must have. In Acrobat 5, it was the ability to convert gradients to smooth shades, thus ending the days of banding in gradient fills.

In version 6, Adobe added several important features. The Separations Preview made it possible to visually find color problems in a PDF file. The PDF Optimizer made it possible to correct problems right in Acrobat and save the file as a new PDF. The most important addition for newspaper folks, however, was the Preflight ability to create sets of standards by which all PDF files can be measured. Acrobat 7 Professional heralded the ability to convert spots to process colors, using the Ink Manager. To go a step further, version 7 made it easy to convert one color, spot or process, to another.

Now, with my 30th birthday a distant memory (no jokes about my age), could it really be that Acrobat is up to version 8? I've been involved in the beta testing for Acrobat 8 for several months now, so it was no surprise when the FedEx box arrived on my desk with the newly released Acrobat 8 Professional inside.

Have they done it again? Has Adobe added one or more new features that make Acrobat 8 Professional indispensable to the publishing professional? I'd like to string you along, but you probably already know the answer. Yes!

Before we get into that, let's look at several features available in Acrobat 8 Professional:

- A cleaner user interface. Adobe likes to tout the new, clean look of Acrobat when the application first opens. The user is greeted with a pretty screen that allows you to click on a button to begin a process. Most of us, however, will click on the "Do not show at startup" button to make this screen go away when the application begins.

- Adobe continues to improve the ability to easily create and combine files. Combining multiple files into one PDF gets easier all the time. And not just PDF files. To test this feature, I instructed Acrobat to combine a PDF file, an EPS file exported from QuarkXPress, a JPG file and an InDesign document. Surely, I thought, Acrobat would be stumped by the Quark EPS. But there it was, before my eyes. It worked perfectly.

- Collaborate and share reviews with others. Version 8 introduces the concept of shared reviews. By publishing comments to and retrieving comments from a server, separate from the PDF file, reviewers can see each other's comments.

- Advanced print-based features. In addition to the preflight and ink manager tools, Acrobat 8 Professional introduces improved advanced printing features. Acrobat now includes the ability to create watermarks, crop pages and set up pages in booklet form.

- The Ad Department is going to like this one (if they ever take the time to try it out). Acrobat Connect offers a way to interact with clients and others in real time. For a monthly subscription fee, Acrobat users can open their documents into personal meeting rooms, so they can be shared with others over the Web for live collaboration. Screen sharing, audio and video conferencing, whiteboarding and other features are possible with Connect.

- OK. Here it is. The one feature we'll all come to depend on. Acrobat 6 Professional offered the ability to create preflight profiles. This meant the user could have Acrobat search throughout a PDF file for any potential problems. In our business, we'd look for things like OPI comments, RGB color, fonts that weren't embedded and more. Acrobat 8 Professional has added the ability to fix certain problems when they arise during a preflight.

For instance, I created a preflight to look for various potential issues in a newspaper ad. One possible problem was the presence of OPI comments. These pesky little programming comments can play havoc when PDF files go to the press. Now, with Acrobat 8 Professional, I can create a profile that 1) finds OPI comments and 2) removes the comments after they're found!

Let me give you a moment to catch your breath. OK. You can correct such problems with a new feature called the "fixup." Basically, you instruct Acrobat to fixup a particular problem when it is found during a preflight. I could tell you more, but I dare not.

Yes, like many things, Acrobat gets better with age. It gets closer all the time to the magic standalone application we've dreamed of since its inception. There are still a few things Acrobat Professional can't do without the help of plug-ins, so don't throw away your copies of PitStop or Quite a Box of Tricks. But it's getting closer all the time.

Acrobat 8 Professional is available on the PC and Mac platforms. Upgrades are available from previous versions. For more information, visit http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat.