Why Local World's David Montgomery is right and so very wrong

With almost impeccable timing David Montgomery, chairman of Local World the publisher which swooped on the former Northcliffe Group of local and regional newspapers, announced he wanted his papers, or rather its websites, to "harvest content and publish it without human interface."

This, he said could all be achieved within four years. He argued that newspapers “cannot sustain a model from the middle ages, where a single journalist goes out on a single story, comes back and writes it up”.

He is wrong, of course. But not quite so wrong as some of his loudest critics have argued.

For the time being, since you are probably one of the journalists who will be affected by this, let us concentrate on why he is wrong.

Within days of him making his ill-judged comment something happened in a corner of south east London. Drummer Lee Rigby, leaving Woolwich Barracks, was run over in a car by two fanatics who then attempted, at least according to reports, to hack off his head.

Although the initial incident was not captured on film, at least as far as we know, all the subsequent events were. From the attackers' blood soaked preaching, to the angels of Woolwich, to the gunning down of the pair. All were caught on mobile phones, in colour, with sound and from a dizzying array of angles. Hollywood itself would have been proud.

So how did this shocking footage make it onto the television screens and websites bringing the full horror shocking horror of what had happened on a British street into our homes? Well, there is the problem for Mr Montgomery... it was down to the "human interface", the very outdated model he believes is a thing of the past.

It was that human interface which was able to get the footage immediately from the dozens of eyewitnesses standing around - to stop them before they uploaded it to YouTube or put it on Twitter - that gave them the scoop and the huge rewards that go with it.

A lot of that footage and the subsequent interviews were also free.

But, under the brave new Local World, this would not happen - although let's be realistic how many local reporters were at the scene? And even if they were there, for how long? 

Indeed, for many papers fighting ever shrinking circulations and decreasing ad revenues Mr Montgomery's vision is in fact a reality.

So let's not be so fast to lambast the man who is at least saying what he believes in. There are a fair many publishers who are already doing this by stealth. The one man operation already exists in many newsrooms or, indeed, Starbucks.

The ultimate logic for Mr Montgomery is of course the further closure of offices and the  even further moving away from the patch that is already part and parcel of many reporters' working lives. The weekly visit to the patch - especially in wealthier areas where rents are too expensive for a journalist on sub-£20,000 a year salaries to afford - being not unlike that of the parish priest who must tend his flock from afar.

No, the absolute conclusion is that reporters locked in aircraft hanger-sized newsrooms, hundreds of miles from their patch, never going out, never seeing the community they are meant to be working in, is the future.

What happens then is that stories go wrong, subtleties get lost, basic mistakes get made, press releases become news, sometimes those press releases will be countered by opposing press releases or statements. Meshed together they form the basis of a story. That is sometimes, not always.

Sometimes those press releases might even be good.

Those press releases and Twitter and Facebook and YouTube become the non-human interface of 21st Century newsgathering.

But these sources are flawed. Could you, would you, dare trust them on their own? Can - let alone should - journalists even rely on press offices (which themselves are subject to periodic cutbacks)?

However, let us put aside our natural prejudices on this matter and again remember, in too many newsrooms that is already the reality for too many stories.

(Some years ago I wrote a press release for a friend's restaurant. It was written to be cut at five, 12, 20 and a whopping 40 pars. It went to all the local papers and apart from minor changes to the intro went in at five, 12, 20 and 40 pars - even I was surprised by the latter.)

So again, let's not jump down Mr Montgomery's throat for outlining his vision. 

Only like those papers the veteran newspaper man has forgotten a few things. Those papers are all shrinking in circulation.

Because who still buys newspapers? It is readers. People who still read for pleasure and  information. In the rush to emulate The Sun's still sizeable circulation, editors cut the length of stories down to 15 par max "page leads". The art of writing was lost in order to cram even more "news" onto its pages.

And what news it was. Garden fetes, appeals, charity collections, coffee mornings, annual fairs. In fact so much of news that could be found stuck to the lamppost in the average town.

In fact everything except that you - or the casual or first time reader - might actually want to read.

All of this, and a propensity of some of the more baser editors to exaggerate so-so stories with ever ever increasingly hysterical headlines, made real readers disappear in droves, even those who still believed in the importance of community news.

Even more importantly those new readers attracted to the garish, brash, made up stories, were hardly the prime targets for advertisers.

Local papers became dull rags. Something that, to quote one reader: "You always felt that you'd be missing out on something if you didn't buy the paper... you never did."

How long does that go on for?

Now let us put aside our higher notions of what a newspaper actually is. Look at it, as every reporter or editor should now do, for what they really are in the commercial world. Let us, for a minute, be grown up about it and deal with the real world. 

Strip the news - the baubles that entice the readers to pick it up or buy it in the first place - from its pages and what are we left with?

The answer, though we may be loathe to admit it, are the adverts. Those things that pay the wages, that keep the whole operation running.

And when advertisers read a paper that appeals to them and their customers, then they will carry on advertising. That, and not simply insisting upon saying "advertisers and readers" whenever talking of them is the nub of a newspapers long term success.

Occasionally this has been tried. For a short while, there was much talk of using Mosaic to target readers. It didn't work. It didn't work because too many editors had no idea how to change from the formulaic approach they had used for years.

So in areas that were seeing a boom in wealthy younger pensioners, newspapers made little or no effort to capture a potentially lucrative market. They played to core audiences, insisting that hundreds of pictures of children - or worse pictures by children - would sell papers. This on the basis that the mother would by two copies, so would an aunt and a grandmother and so on and so forth...

Of course they wouldn't be doing that the following week, indeed, it would be the turn of the next doting parent. No one else would get a look in. That is, unless they were running a coffee morning.

And in other areas house prices booms saw entire areas change readership profiles. Would you believe it from what you are reading? The content remains stuck appealing to its traditional public sector housing estates readership, the paper itself is cheap, the layout grey or tabloid brash.

Meanwhile, all around them, smart publishers produce glossy magazines, with little or no actual news content but rich in advertising.

Important, real news, is lost forever because, ironically, news is a parasite on advertising and newspaper advertising, of itself, cannot live without the news.

And so let me return to the news "without human interface" and why it is a danger, not, for loss of news, but for long-term advertising. For this symbiotic relationship the advertising need to feed on something and in the brave new online world local papers have only one thing: Local news.

This is the very advantage Local World has. It already has in place its very biggest advantage, the largely trusted brands it bought from Northcliffe.

Pulling away from the medieval model may make sense commercially in the short or even mid-term. But losing - or even downgrading - the paper version now or even four years time does not make sense.

To do so puts the online content on a par with the one-reporter set-up of the local news blog. Set up by those with drive and a vested interest, other than advertising. Look around the country and more and more are springing up.

Too often they fail, not least because one man bands are difficult to sustain. But good writing and investigative reporting attracts new writers, those who want to be associated with a local brand. And that writing and those investigations are improving.

(Again, I know this from experience. As a local newspaper editor at 10 to 20 percent of content came from writers willing to offer their services or content for free. The time saved was reinvested back into the news content of the paper making it more attractive to readers. Poor articles were rejected, somewhat mercilessly to maintain quality.)

Now imagine poor content from a paper with a "non-human interface", written far away from the very people it is meant to be serving. Online does not have the high overheads of the newspaper industry. Any slob with a computer and a will can write (as you are reading). 

How soon before they attract real advertising? Before the directors of small local firms decide they prefer the content of this upstart online media publisher? Before small groups of local writers staff to form together to challenge the big conglomerate, whose local HQ is 60 miles away? Who offer cheaper advertising to cover wages and not profits?

Local newspapers, as they exist, need to change, Mr Montgomery is right. They cannot go on forever as they currently do. We need a change in the way news is gathered. A smarter way to collate the information, sent back to a newsroom (perhaps even hundreds of miles away) is packaged for individual newspapers and web by teams of subs. Not because they know the area but because they know the target audiences of each of the areas. Subs who will know how to use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the rest as a secondary and not a primary source. That should remain the place of the reporter.

58. Lessons from the movies: Always be thinking about deadlines

For as long as there is printed media, or radio stations, or television there will always be deadlines.

You could have the best story in the world... but you get it in late and it is worthless. Now this may be an outmoded concept in a few years time.

And indeed it is arguably an already outdated idea for internet news bulletins but for everyone else it is still useful.

There is nothing like the pressure of a deadline to concentrate the mind. The news editor breathing down your neck can - oddly - bring clarity and focus to your work.

No more worrying about the right choice of words for your intros - just get the bloody thing written, broadcast, read.

And do not think that because a final deadline is, say 7pm, that's when you have until to write it. Unless you are writing the splash it's often a lot earlier.

Even on weeklies there has to be a steady flow of copy coming through. Those sub-editors don't come in just to eat their packed lunches.

So if out on a job - especially if you are working for a daily - keep a constant eye on the time. Don't forget to report in - but not too often - when you have a significant line or there has been a major development (apart from any thing else your story could be moved up the list).

If working fresh on a story allow yourself at least 20 minutes before the deadline to write your copy. If you are working on a developing story start writing before you get there.

But that is breaking news.

For the most part that is not the case. It is just filling in the bread and butter stories that is an issue.

Again this is why diaries are often useful. They allow a paper to propel itself into the forthcoming week - even if nothing much is happening on the patch.

Today's clip is from the 1940 classic His Girl Friday...

Cary Grant plays the cynical newspaper editor trying to hold on to his ace reporter - who also happens to be his ex-wife.

Sounds cheesy but under Howard Hawks's direction it is hilarious and fast-paced. And there's some great lines about journalism.

It is based on a 1929 play The Front Page - which was adapted into another movie in 1974... called The Front Page.

Anyway if you are interested you can buy the movie from Amazon - which, you see, is my effort at advertising.

This is the link:

56. Making money from journalism. Finding news stories you can sell.

In this and over the next few posts we will be going into detail about selling news stories.

Any idiot can give away content for free (and if you are struggling to do even that than perhaps you should reconsider your career options).

But why should you be doing it? The immediate answer is obvious: The cash.

That, however, isn't the only or most important reason (it is highly unlikely you will be paying off your university fees - more likely a couple of takeaways).

Getting into the habit of selling stories concentrates the mind more than any classroom exercise. You will be on the look out for news stories in your day to day life.

You will start to see what makes a story and what doesn't. You will be competing against journalists in the real world... and have to deal with the public in the real world.

And after that you'll have to put up with seeing your byline robbed and a 50/50 chance you won't get the money... or at least have to spend an age chasing it up.

So a few generalisations:

1. Local newspapers and websites rarely pay for stories - even front page ones.

2. Tabloids pay better than broadsheets.

3. Sundays usually pay more than dailies.

4. Human interest sells better than hard news - celebrity exclusives pay best of all.

5. Bad news tends to sell better than good news.

6. Stories about middle-class young people do better than stories about working-class old people.

7. Good new photographs will help sell a story.

8. Exclusives can pay more than selling all around - but you will only get paid on publication.

9. Prepare to be ripped off time and again (and not just by the nasty papers - who are actually more likely to pay).

10. Being first helps but until you gain trust it might not always be enough.

And remember above all else - the most important byline is the one on the top of the cheque, as the (old) adage goes.

First off if you intend to sell a story to a national or a magazine or an agency do not merely pass yourself off as a student journalist. While strictly speaking it may be true it's also dishonest.

People may be more inclined to help a student rather than a professional reporter - and, understandably, they may get mightily pissed off if they discover you've been flogging off their story and soon as you've left them.

It's a greyer area if you run it in your student publication and then sell it on because than it is in the public domain.

Secondly don't go around telling people you work for the publication you WANT to sell it to. News editors take a very dim view of this -  not least because it will be they who will be dealing with any mess you leave.

And anyway these days they have enough problems dealing with complaints (mostly imagined or exaggerated) about their own reporters without having to deal with wannabes claiming to be on their staff.

(Oh yes, that too is dishonest.)

When in doubt try: Freelance reporter, which more or less covers everything.

Now stories come from anywhere - and there are no hard and fast rules. Previous posts in this blog have given you pointers on where to find general news.

But essentially what makes a story can be anything. Your college is a good place to start (ie a college netball team playing in a foreign town hit by a hurricane would probably make a story that people would pay for - especially with photos).

If you are a journalism student and assigned a patch listen out for the unusual - a celeb moving into the local area (be careful about this as estate agents have been known to conjure up these stories at times when an expensive property in their area isn't selling).

Journalism Tips 53. Lessons from the movies: Keeping a diary

To begin with I am not taking about a Piers Morgan style diary as I suspect that it is highly unlikely that your expose of the mayor fiddling his expenses and the cold stares he gives you will be of much interest to a wider audience.

Today's post is about newsdesk diaries.

One of the things you soon find in any newsroom - be it newspaper, television, radio or website - is that news does not come in nice easy to handle packages.

And that goes for nationals, regionals to even the most hype-local of weeklies because news is funny like that.

One week you are scrabbling around trying to find nine page leads and something that will vaguely look slightly less embarrassing to stick on the front and the next the editor is agonising over what they should splash with that day.

(Admittedly the former is rather more common than the latter.... and when I say rather more common I mean usual.)

Now this lumpy and, quite frankly inconvenient news scheduling is a bit of a pain in the butt for news editors and will soon prove to be a rather bigger one for you since it will be you (the reporter) who has to find the stories to fill the pages.

The result is a constant scramble of chasing after so-so news stories to turn into page leads and shorts or nibs (news in brief).

And what that means is time is constantly running out for the edition, minor stories are propelled into page lead status and longer investigations are forgotten about.

So it is worth considering the introduction of the newsdesk diary. A full diary - which admittedly does take time - will pay long term dividends.

Many newspapers already have them. But they are all too often restricted to upcoming court cases and dates of forthcoming meetings (councils and the like).

A really good diary will go much further. It is worth taking half an hour each week after edition (or better once the paper is printed) to see which stories are worth a follow up.

A few examples: A new major supermarket announces it is coming into town. Everyone says that it will be the end of the small independent shopkeeper.

Inevitably protest groups are set up. There is much anger and many meetings. People are up in arms (literally, because all you can afford is to live in a rough part of town).

The council gives the go-ahead and in the store rolls. And for some reason everyone thinks the story has ended there.

Of course you may run odd follow ups about boycotts, protests and so on (which always happen on a Saturday morning when no one is working). You may also, if people can be bothered to tell you, run stories about small shops closing down as a result of lost business. But this is waiting for events to happen.

Now think again. A diary entry making note that the store opened three, six, nine and 12 months before will help you gauge how the town is coping with new supermarket.

Instead of writing that the local shops have closed down you can chart their progress. Is it as bad as everyone feared? If the answer is yes, a campaign: Shop local! Save Our Shops! Over the next few weeks and months you will have a series of engaging, relevant local community stories that will engender good will from locals and - more importantly - fill that space on page nine. (I will deal with running a campaign in a later post).

Or what about an inquest? A small child dies after drowning in a pool. The parents are naturally devastated and, understandably, at the time really do not want to talk. But the issue is an important one. Making a note of the anniversary of the death and asking again if they wish to talk a year on from the tragedy is not unreasonable. No one is suggesting their pain is any less. However they may feel they now want to talk so as to warn others. Well told, the story will have lost little of its relevancy or importance.

Example three: A local nursery has shut down and the parents have had to find somewhere else for their beloved brats to go. One month, two months, three months on... have they found new places? What does it mean for the parents? Have they had to give up work because they can no longer afford child care? And so on...

A few quick calls - to the organisers of the campaign to save the nursery - will soon establish if there is a problem. If there is a page lead... if not a nib.

There is a spin off from all of this as well. In two of the above you have taken stories about buildings and committees and turned them into stories about people (again this will be covered later).

Now here is a clip from ITV's mid-1980s fantastic sitcom Hot Metal that perfectly demonstrates everything I am talking about in terms of news desk diaries.

Loosely modelled on The Sun's own history and the Kelvin MacKenzie era it was not as Hugh Grant may have you believe a documentary but a sitcom.

The Crucible's ace reporter Greg Kettle (played superbly by Richard Kane) is busy at work in the hotel room of a royal's girlfriend...

(One thing: The entry should have been at two and a half months before any official announcement at nine months the whole world would have known and there would have been no exclusive.)





For part one of journalism tips from the movies click this link.

Journalism Tips 50. Working your first patch. Contact building.

Today young reporters are taught all about data journalism - effectively glorified number crunching.

There's nothing wrong in this, in fact it can produce some brilliant investigative stories. It's also not that much fun.

Getting out onto a patch is really one of the best parts of the job. Actually talking to people you would never normally come into contact with makes it interesting.

Building up a relationship with someone so that they take you into their confidence is where - and I'm rather loathe to use the word - scoops happen (or at any rate half decent stories).

Now there is no point simply running around your patch trying to catch everyone and expecting them to tell you easily packaged, off the shelf, exclusives.

Like everything that takes time a fair amount of effort. But it's worth investing the time, especially if you are planning to be on the patch for a few years.

Quite simply having a number of a person does not make them a contact - otherwise we could all walk around with the Yellow Pages and call it our contacts book.

Real contacts need to be cultivated (which sounds slightly cynical but isn't). The contacts that will give you the best stories are those you make an effort with, the ones you speak to regularly.

You have to give them a reason to trust you - and you do that over time. If they see what you are writing and it is well researched, well written and fair - sometimes even if it is not in their best interests - they will begin to trust you.

It really does not take long. But really don't try and score cheap points, or sensationalise or needless stitch a person up over a minor joke (believe me public life is dull enough without trying to make everyone so paranoid they never try humour again).

If you fairly reflect what the person is trying to tell you, they will tell you more. And with trust comes information, better information, more guidance, advice on where to look for that better story... that exclusive which is going to get you a decent page lead in a national.

And it all starts with a simple introduction (and probably, but not always with a pint).

So let's go through this. You should have contacts among:

Local councillors

The police

Tenant and resident associations

A smattering of some of the larger religious groups

Licensed Victuallers Association

Federation of Small Business

Local theatres

Larger businesses

The shopping precinct

Local newspaper

Pressure groups - including friends groups

Sports clubs/leagues

This is only a very basic list but it's a solid start. If you followed the previous tips and started a Twitter feed for your patch you have a basic in.

Anything they tweet about that maybe of interest you have an immediate point of contact. Tweet them and ask for a chat. See if you can develop that moan about funding cuts or local road works killing business into something more. First check it's not been done before... or see how you can take the story on.

Local councils are often the first place. It may not seem it but these are incredibly important sources for your local area, more so than national Government.

This is the organisation that is the frontline when it comes to dealing with national policies. The local councillors are the ones that deal with real people in their surgeries, so they will see how those policies work in the real world. 

Running alongside this is the council's own policies - these too will affect local people. Then there is planning, not necessarily a full council policy, but a policy made from the planning committee.

Too often local papers aren't very good when it comes to dealing with councils. It may be in part that local newspaper reporters are often young and councillors are often middle-aged and old. It is a generalisation but it works as a rule of thumb.

Usually the most helpful councillors are the ones in opposition (funny that). So first off if you are going to contact people on your personal Twitter account I suggest removing any political stance you may have on your profile.

'Lefty' or 'Europhile' or whatever you may have may make people wary of talking to you. Bias will be seen in your copy anyway without you explicitly stating the fact.

Personally over the years I've been told I'm a Tory and a Socialist - even from people reading the same story.

Secondly local government often transcends party politics for the vast majority of its work. Thirdly you should be on the side of your readers (I will deal with this in a later post).

And finally most councillors are doing the job to help their communities and do the job not for money but a sense of duty. 

Now all of this is not to say you can't get on with some particular councillors more than you do others. 

Remember too that more often than not these people live in their areas they serve. By nature of their position they know a great many people, they hear about things both relevant to their work and not.

They are reading through reports, they will know the background to them. A long serving councillor will know what has been tried before... and why it didn't work. In short they can bring alive an otherwise boring planning application, or new road scheme, or parking costs and so on.

In other words lots of stuff you won't necessarily know.

And if they are very good - and media savvy - they will highlight potential areas and advise to stick around or turn up at a particular council meeting.

So yes it is worth attending a few meetings, even as a student. And if the local paper isn't there it may be worth filing a lead and seeing what happens.

But again wherever possible take the story out of the council chamber and into streets. Few things are more boring than a dialogue between half a dozen councillors at a meeting.

What is useful about attending is that you see first hand the councillors with the strongest opinions or those with particular interests. Make a note of them in your contact book - say a councillor interested in the local market it is worth going back to them again next time it comes up in a story.

A good contact book does take time to build up 

Journalism Tips 49. Getting started on your patch: Refining your Twitter feed.

Now, if you followed the advice in the previous post, you should have a Twitter feed with an awful lot of drivel... welcome to Twitter.

Day to day this will be mostly useless - especially if the few gems of stories are lost among the endless promotion of club nights.

To get around this you will need to learn how to use lists. Click on the cog, select lists and create a new one - then add those that seem to be constitently tweeting relevant news.

This is not to say your main Twitter feed is redundant. Remember people Tweet about interesting things they see - if they are in and around your patch they are likely to Tweet mostly about that area.

A list will allow you to separate the news wheat from the promo chaff - and allow you to hold onto the chaff just in case it later proves useful.

To demonstrate - and to make sure I still knew what I was doing - I set up my own feed about an area I don't know very well - in this case the London Borough of Hackney. You can find it at @MyHackney1. If you are living in Hackney let me know... I'll follow you.

This isn't your personal account so you own interests do not come into it. I simply typed out Hackney and clicked on everything that was relevant. Ditto: Shoreditch, Stoke Newington, Dalston, Clapton, Homerton etc etc.

Searches through the lists of people I followed added more names, venues and businesses. And within a few hours I had followed 400 people. So far, so good,

Remember to include a profile. A quick Google Street View grab and a vintage picture - distinguishes your account from Spam. A written profile encouraging people from the area to follow in return to a follow back yielded a few more.

And finally a first Tweet, in my case generic, in yours a shout out for news, stories, tips and photos.

Over the coming weeks I'll follow more people, Tweet out relevant news and RT stories

So anything interesting? Possibly and a few more things look like they may be shaping up.

Journalism Tips 48. Getting started on your patch: Building your contacts

If you started your journalism course at the beginning of the academic year you should have been given a patch or beat (that's an Americanism) to cover.

And by now you should have most of the important contacts in place. If you haven't then read on:

Let's start, as we always do, with the very basics. Now I am going to attempt to imagine the difficulty of being student reporter because press officers aren't going to deal with you.

This is a good thing because really all you want them for is the "you've got us bang to rights guv'" quote at the end.

Over the next few blogs we will look in detail about how you should be building up your patch. And how you should already be pitching to your local newspapers.

Today we will keep it simple.

Your (ahem) patch

Your contacts book should have at least 150 numbers in it by now. It may prove utterly useless to you when you finish the course but never discount them. I have hundreds of contacts in my book I've never called. But if I ever need them they are there.. or at least I know who I am chasing if the number turns out to be old.

We will come back to contacts but there are other things you should have done by now. You should have a Twitter feed for anyone in your area. By all means keep it separate from your personal account - it would help if you give it the name of your patch (or at least include it) and you keep it open. First tap out the name of your patch. See what comes up and follow them. Follow any obvious landmarks pubs, schools, local council etc. Make sure you include local councillors, the local MP and so on. Then using the advanced Twitter search that we saw in a previous post see if there is anyone less obvious you can follow.

Follow anyone that follows this Twitter account - if you've called it say My Whitechapel then the people will probably have an interest. You should be constanty tweeting from it asking for any stories always include the name of the patch. Inform people of the stories you are working on, give them updates, throw out more appeals for information.

Set up a special email account and link that to your Twitter feed.

On Google (I'm really not going to give you a link to that) set up Google Alerts, firstly for the name of your patch. But also the names of markets, major streets, the council, councillors, local celebrities etc etc.

Check out local news websites - even seemingly defunct ones which can spring back to life suddenly and for no obvious reason. Check also local bloggers - follow them and bookmark them.

Buy the local newspaper - yes, buy it every week! Again after a few weeks it will prove a wise investment (but I will come back to this).

Now all of this gives you a rolling news feed. It hasn't taken long - maybe one day of concentrated effort. But over the next few months this is the start of having some proper cuttings - AND possibly (just possibly) the start of making you real money for your journalism.

To keep up to date with future tips follow @journalismtips on Twitter or sign up below.

Journalism Tips 47. Christmas ideas and Freedom of Information. Start thinking now. Plus a few more book ideas.

Last week I suggested that you start thinking about your Yuletide stories - you'll find it here along with a few suggested books.

A week has gone by so let me repeat the basic message: You really do need to be thinking about them now, especially if they are going to involve festive Freedom of Information requests.

Even more so if you've never made an FoI request before and have no idea how to do it. And if you're a student looking for work experience on your local paper or you simply want an easy cutting in a real newspaper then here is your chance.

And while you may think you have plenty of time - there are 61 days until Christmas it's not quite that simple.

Remember it takes 20 working days to get a FoI response it is rarely that easy. So from tomorrow (Friday 26) there are 42 working days (in theory).

But you won't get a response from most places on Christmas Eve - so we're down to 41.

Then you have to have your copy ready before the edition goes to print, so really you need to have it ready to go by December 14 (36 days) - even if the article is for between Christmas and New Year.

Of course it may take a few days to contact all the relevant people to make it a story - and it is Christmas so people will be busy... even if you have their contact numbers to hand. Let's say two days to contact the relevant people (34 days).

And if you haven't another two days (32 days) and then you have to actually write the thing - another day for you to write and read and re-read it (31 days).

The definition of a full working day means that even if you do get it in by 9.01am tomorrow morning - and to the right department the day will be practically over and the 20 working days won't actually start until Monday (30 days).

Allow for the request to be at the very least four days late (26 days); there to a problem with the request itself (does not comply etc) another five days (21 days) and a couple of days to actually make sense of what they send you (19 days) and you will see you are late already.

(Admittedly that was painful towards the end.)

So while you console yourself at missing this valuable deadline here's another few journalism books to add to your Christmas stocking... And in an exciting new development you can now click on the title and it will take you straight to the relevant Amazon page. I will master technology.

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
William Boot possibly the most famous countryside correspondent of all time. A legend - and a living one since he was based on W. F. Deedes - in his own and many other life times. Briefly: confusion runs at the Daily Beast and a lowly rural reporter finds himself (and an awful lot of stuff) in Africa awaiting the much expected civil war.
There, by accident rather than design he finds himself beating the rest of the assembled hacks - including that of the Beast's (Daily Mail) arch rival the Daily Brute (Daily Express) - to pull of an amazing newspaper coup.
Waugh is brilliant and typically acerbic. A must.
First published 1938.

A Crooked Sixpence by Murray Sayle
Set in the - then fictional - Sunday Sun of the 1960s. Australian hack James O'Toole comes to try his luck in Fleet Street. He soon finds himself writing an article about a hit  pop star Ricky Roger's dubious parentage (or at least it was back then) and finds himself up against Ricky's publicist Mary Lou. The story continues with Mary Lou: "You can't give us publicity like that. After all, it's not Ricky's fault, is it?"
"Look, Mary Lou," said O'Toole. "We're not in the business of giving Ricky good publicity. This is supposed to be a newspaper. We print what we think people will be interested in.
"For years you have been feeding us your cooked-up rubbish about Ricky's ties and his favourite dishes and we published it because deluded editors thought it was interesting. Ricky got rich in the process and you seem to be doing all right yourself.
"Now we've got something which is even more interesting. Maybe Ricky's income will go down but that's no concern of ours. We're not here to build him up in the first place. Those who live by publicity can't squeal if they die by publicity, can they?

Pratt of the Argus by David Nobbs
It is the 1950s and Henry Pratt has just finished National Service. joins a small Northern newspaper in the mid-1950s. We follow him as he makes contacts in the worlds of politics, crime and sport.
Naturally they all come together for an hilarious finale. It's part of a series but you don't need to read the first book as this stands on its own.
And it is very, very funny... especially if you are a journalist (even after all this time).

To keep up to date with future tips follow @journalismtips on Twitter or sign up below.

Working in journalism. 46. Finding people: Using Twitter.

So far social media has not played much of a part in these posts. But it can't be ignored and so to state the bloody obvious - it is now very important... although probably not quite as much as it thinks.

Now this is not going to be another of those 10 Twitter Tools for the reporter. I don't doubt they are not useful but they come and go as Twitter sees fit. (However if you have any suggestions please send them in and I'll give it a test run.)

So to Twitter. It's a useful resource - and one that no reporter should be without these days.

If you know the name of the person than it is obvious. But, as with many of you, not everyone uses their real name.

Hence we go back to our information trawl - Did they have any nicknames? What were the names of their friends? - that we looked at earlier.

The more unusual the name the easier it is. If the person we are searching for is John Smith clearly it's not going to be an easy task.

But what if we know they have a friend Eamon Starbrook - that is a useful first starting point. Check them first and run through their follows/followers.

It is possible that among them will be the John we are looking for.

Remember also to try out the different possible combitions of a person's name (ie James, Jimmy, Jim).

Read through the old Tweets. Small clues can be found. A mention of a particular shop may give you some idea of the area they live in - in other words narrowing down your search location all the time.

It does not matter how irrelevant the information may appear at first, what we are doing is building up a picture of the person's life.

Now it is very hit and miss whether people are actually on Twitter, many are not and many accounts remain idle.

Again you should be cross-referencing all the time. Look for other accounts that are linked, look for husbands, wifes, mothers, fathers, brothers, bosses, colleagues.

If we are searching for a person who has been in an accident try typing in the name of the road where it happened or the area. And remember to try different combinations so:

High Street Kensington

High St Kensington

High Street Ken

High St Ken

All produce different answers but all are talking about the same place.

If there has been a death try both Rip and R.I.P plus whatever other information you may have garnered from sources elsewhere.

Certainly using these techniques we were able to track down a name for the man shot by police which was to later spark the London - and later national - riots that swept the major cities of England in 2011.

Now Twitter also has an Advanced Search page which allows you to narrow your terms of reference to within 1mile. It's a powerful tool.

Having tried it out it does throw up some interesting connections and some not so obvious ones. So is well worth considering.

It can also make connections - although this is possible with TweetDeck. This could come in handy as your own investigations progress and you narrow down your searches.

It is worth considering using Topsy too. This will allow you to search tweets up to three years ago - but it is not foolproof and there are gaps. Again using this will help you make connections and perhaps confirm information you may have already picked up from elsewhere.

To keep up to date with future tips follow @journalismtips on Twitter or sign up below for email alerts.

Reporting for beginners. 44. Finding people in the real world (part 3).

In the previous posts we looked at what factors to take in with names and use of search engines when trying to trace someone. In this one we are going to look at gathering the information - in the real world.

First off don't ignore the obvious no matter how unlikely it may be. I once tracked down a Duke by calling directory enquiries. It can still happen, although it is increasingly rare.

Again much of this depends on how much time you have and how desperate you are to find someone.

But always keep in mind many of the people you want to track down have good reasons for not wanting to be found. We also live in a very transitory age. People can move not from street to street but county to county.

Again as part of our information gathering we need to look in many different places.

At the scene of an accident look for memorials. People will go there to lay floral tributes and leave messages. Keep in mind my earlier tips regarding death knocks which can be found here and here.

The same basic rules apply. In this case give the person time and only approach when they have begun walking away. Try not to hover too closely, so keep a respectful distance but not so far that you won't be able to catch up with them once they go.

You yourself should read through the messages. Look for any clues, obviously names and nicknames, as we will see in a later post even a first name is worth checking. But keep a note also of relationships ie aunts and uncles and make a note of their details, it may come in handy later when trying to track down family members.

Bear in mind that you can't ask people if they want to talk to you if you can't find them - and they not know or even think about the newspaper being interested in their story.

Check also local businesses and nearby homes as the person may live locally and be known. Keep a note of which properties you've tried and their response - if you need to go back at a later stage it will stop knocking on the same doors.

It is also worth checking with the police although don't rely on this unless you have a very good relationship with them, thesedays there is an almost automatic assumption that the family of the deceased or a person involved in an accident will not want to talk with you and they will refuse to ask on your behalf.

Many will also be fearful that you will get in the way of any subsequent investigation, forgeting that libel and subjudice laws will still apply in the event of any criminal action.

If the person has died speak with the coroner's office. If the inquest has been opened (albeit and adjourned) the details are a matter of public record and should be available to you.

It is also worth checking the local newspaper...even if you work for it. The BMDs (Birth, Marriage, Death or Hatched, Matched and Dispatched as it is also known) column can already have a notice in it.

Knowing the timing of an accident also helps. People generally follow the same patterns returning to a scene at about the same time may help you find someone who was around and may have witnessed it.

But it is not all about trying to find the relatives of people who have died. Journalists are always trying to track people down for all sorts of reasons for good as well as for ill.

The best way to find them is to keep a good contacts book. Having their number in the first place it certainly the quickest and easiest which is why having a good, up-to-date contacts book is worth its weight in gold.

However we can't have everyone's number but we can use what we have. A good relationship with councillors, who because of their role in the community will have their ear to the ground, will help if you know the rough area the person lives in.

Also try chairmen/women of residents and tenants associations. If they do not know ask them for any long term residents who may be living in the area.

Don't be put off if someone says they moved out some years ago. Keep asking for specifics: When did they move? Any idea where they moved to? What was their job? Married, divorced, single? Any known relatives/friends? Where did they live previously? Every scrap of information helps.

If you are after a particular expert try other people in their field or call magazines/websites that deal with their specialism and ask them. They are usually very helpful.

In smaller communities ring anyone whose number you find and ask if they can help. You would be surprised how many are still willing to put you in touch or contact the person on your behalf.

If you believe they have a business try rivals or better still go to the Companies House website and check for directorships.

As always, the more detail you can collect the easier it will be. Constant cross-referencing helps narrow down searches all the time. But, as always, there are no guarantees.

To keep up to date with future tips follow @journalismtips on Twitter.

Tips for reporters 43. Finding people part 2

As explained in the previous post there really is no great secret to finding people.

In the olden days (that's pre-internet) there were telephone directories and communities; today there is the web and social networking.

However there are still a large number of people who fall in between these categories, although this will slowly fall as more people come of age and the older populations die away.

Of course in the future there will be other issues to deal with, namely the growing emphasis on privacy, which may or may not turn out to be an issue du jour.

But in the meantime let's work with what we have for the time being.

Always remember research is key. The more information you can collect the easier it is.

But let's not forget the obvious. Check electoral rolls, most decent newspapers have access to them nowadays. They range in sophistication with more or less data on them (name, address, public telephone numbers but also data such as ages, marriages, deaths, directorships and county court judgments (ccjs) - ie bankruptcies.

In the UK there is www.192.com which is available to everyone. You get 10 free basic searches a day but you only get limited information. You have to pay for the premium details.

 It does come at a small charge. But even if you don't have access to this or are not inclined to spend your own money it is worth trying it out as it can give certain clues. Having tried it out on myself it was of limited value when free. However cross-referencing the info with a search engine would have given me a starting point for my searches.

Another simple method would be to type out the name of the person I'm searching for and mobile (in the US I guess that would be cell) or contact. It's especially useful when looking for councillors (although they ought to include their details on the council website many don't these days); other public officials or prominent local business people.

A lot are involved in other community projects, ie a local charity auction. Their contact details may well be on press releases put online. Or they may sit on the board of a local institution, a museum for example. In which case type in just their surname and where they are involved because in many cases these places are far more formal and less inclined to use first names.

To keep up to date with future tips follow @journalismtips on Twitter.

Reporting Hints 42. Finding/Tracing people (part one).

There is an art to tracing people but it is very hit and miss and it can take a lot of time for not very much reward.

However that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Naturally it helps to get all the information you possibly can on the person. It helps too if you are methodical.
So let's start with the basics:

Write down every scrap of information you can as you learn it. Make sure you include the source of that information in case you need to go back and check at a later date.
If you've found it online I suggest keeping the web address somewhere safe, it can save hours of work retracing your steps.

Names.

Not something you can take for granted. First off, you have to worry about spelling. There are, for example, around 14 different spellings of the name Mohammed - which if you think sounds pretty hard to trace wait until you hear there are 18 variations of the name Chantelle (in no particular order: Chantelle, Chantel, Chantal, Shantel, Shantelle, Seantel, Shauntelle, Shontelle, Shontal, Chantalle, Chawntelle, Chauntelle, Chantille, Chantielle, Chantell, Chantele, Chantalle).

Add to the this shortening of names. Jo could be Joanne, Jo-Anne, Josephine, Joan, Jocelyn etc etc.

Of course that is assuming that the name they go by is their first name. They may use a middle name instead of their first name. Surprisingly more common than it sounds (David Law, James McCartney or even William Pitt are some more famous examples - that's Jude, Paul and Brad(ley)).

Then you have street names, pseudonyms or nome de plumes (pen names) (think David Cornwall better known as John Le Carre); stage names (Michael Caine  -  Maurice Micklewhite), nicknames, avatars etc etc. It might even be an initial.

Surnames aren't particularly straight forward either. As well as the above you have to take in names changed by Deed Poll, married names, double barrelled names, and maiden names. Also re-marriages and, as above, misspellings.

Misspellings, even on public documents, are in far more common than you might believe. Keep this is mind especially when dealing with unusual names.

If you can get a middle name(s) it can also be useful in tracking people, especially those with common names. But remember many people drop them or simply don't use them on every document.

Ages

A date of birth is a big help. Remember in the UK it is day, month year unlike the US where it is month, day, year. Failing that it will help to get even a rough description. Are you looking for someone in their 20s or in their 70s? However never forget people are not always as observant as they like to think they are. So don't rely on it entirely. It is not unknown - or rare - for an eyewitness to describe someone as a "young girl in her 20s" when in fact the person you are chasing is actually a woman in their 40s.

Again make sure you keep a note of any scraps of information that come your way. As we shall see later it can come in handy when making connections. And even if it later transpires the information is wrong it means you can cross off avenues you may have otherwise have wasted time on


In the next part we look at where you can start finding names.

To keep up to date with future tips follow @journalismtips on Twitter.

How to be a journalist 40. The death knock (Part Two)

In my last post I dealt with how reporters should deal with a death knock. As always there is nothing - or at least very much - revelatory for experienced journalists. But then these tips are aimed at juniors and trainees who may yet have covered one. Again this is not an exhaustive list and all comments, suggestions and observations are welcome.

This latest posting concentrates on how to build up a picture of a person's life in a few questions. Again every circumstance is different so while this tries to cover everything you will still need to think on your feet and listen to the answers given.

You will also need to be aware of any on-going police action and/or the potential to libel. It will be part of your job to explain why you won't be able to include all their quotes. You could not for example quote a claim that a widow that a driver involved in a death crash was not paying attention. That is up to a coroner/court to decide. If at all possible steer them to something that will make a more general point without being unusable.

All of this said you are still looking for a line. This is not about simply writing a formulaic story along the lines of:

A family last night paid tribute to....

We could/do all write this a hundred times over. Sometimes the tragedy in and of itself is simply enough but keep in mind the family details are not revealed straight away in most cases. It could come an edition or two after the original story.

By then the immediate family will be aware, so too many of the extended family and friends as well, possibly even wider still. Or it has been revealed by a rival news organisation. All of which means that sticking to the formula is no good and why you need another line.

So assuming that you have managed to get a chat with the family and have checked relationships of the people you are talking to and double checked the details given to you what should you be asking:

1. Establish all the immediate family members and their relationships. You need names and ages. Don't assume this is all the family. You will also need to establish length of relationship to a partner. If their parents are still alive, any other family. If they are young you want to know about boyfriends or girlfriends has the family spoken to them? You want to get the general reaction from the family. I try to avoid asking "How do you feel?" and try, "I can't imagine how you feel, how would you describe it?".

2. Can you describe their personality? This isn't all about facts, it's about pure emotion. It covers a great deal of very personal information and what you are trying to do is convey their life in a few words. This is a catch-all question it allows the bereaved to talk in an open-ended manner about the deceased.

3. What were their hobbies/interests? Again this is detail that fleshes out a life. It also, as with many of the questions, can provide fresh avenues to chase. Most of the time this will simply not be necessary but never rule it out entirely. It may be worth asking if there is anyone else they think it is worth talking to.

4. What did they do for a living? And previously? Again this is about establishing the person's existence. Not everyone is defined by their work but some are and - for good or for ill - many people will be able to create an image of that person based on their work. Did they go to university? Previous employment etc. It's a sad but usually true that if the deceased is young, public school educated and went to Oxford or Cambridge the story is more likely to be picked up by nationals. For older men (born before 1945) it's worth considering if they conscripted into National Service. For children you will want to be establishing the school and favourite subjects.

5. Were there ever any worries about the situation in which they died? Does the family think they will take any action - legal/civil - in regards to the death? For example, a cyclist may have always been concerned about the particular junction in which the accident happened and had voiced those fears. Or perhaps they had had several near misses over the years or been involved in a non-fatal accident not so long ago.

6. Were they from the area the family home is in? Essentially this is about establishing their deep background. They may have moved there for work, or an immigrant looking for a better life, or to study or any other of thousands of other reasons. If so how long had they lived there for? Or they may simply have lived there all their lives. In the case of children why did their parents move there.

7. What were their hopes and dreams? This is about showing 'a life interrupted' a life that could have been if it had not been struck by tragedy. This is particularly poignant of younger lives that have yet to reach full potential. If not married consider asking if marriage plans had been discussed.

8. Have they ever previously appeared in the news before? We're back to catch all questions but remember the person you are interviewing has been through a great shock. Without knowing anything about the deceased you have to cover as much ground as you can in as few questions as possible.

9. Can I have a photo? Preferably one with the family and ideally one of them looking smart.

10. And finally. Is there anything I have missed that was important to their life that you would like to get across? Personally I also add if they would mind me calling again and always ask for a mobile number. This is where explaining that if you can check back the details with them can be useful.

I think I have covered most of the important elements, as always, I may have missed something crucial and would appreciate any comments adding to this list.

To keep up to date with future tips follow @journalismtips on Twitter.

Journalism Tips 37. How to get a job in journalism: Freedom of Information

Since the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) public bodies have been bombarded by millions of requests for all manner of pointless and trivial data. Take this about zombie attacks in Leicestershire there is a real danger that such requests will result in pressure for the FoI to be tightened up — and believe me that's what every council, MP and every other public body wants. To a certain extent you can't blame them as FoI Man points out says we should start listening to the Act's critics.

First and foremost I'd suggest reading David Higgerson's brilliant FoI blog which is full of updates and very useful advice and suggestions.

But simply putting in an FoI is only one part of the equation. Why do we put in FoI requests? To produce copy - too often people take their eye off the ball. The aim is produce a story - simply having the figures/documents in themselves is not enough. For example stats based FoIs are useless unless there is an angle - again this is where contacts (yes, those again) become invaluable.

A good contact may be able to steer you in a given direction and help you refine your FoI to get the results you are after - because don't think that once you've lodged your request you can sit back and wait for the stories to come popping out the other end.

For local bodies have become increasingly aware of what FoIs can do and will do everything to stall and cause problems - perhaps acting within the law but not within the spirit of it.

So it helps if you have an idea of what you are looking for - otherwise it just becomes a needle in a haystack. Too often you will get back stats that show no marked difference at all from one year to the next. In most cases that isn't news - certainly not in itself.

News, at least in this context, should be dynamic. If it is not moving than is it news? Simply reporting that there has been an average of 30 deaths a year on London Underground over the past five years is not, in itself news - it is simply a statistic, a sad one, but a statistic in itself.

Clearly this is not to say that the individual stories aren't stories themselves. Or if it emerged that one station was notorious for accidental  deaths or suicides and that nothing had been done about it. Or that every year a particular month saw figures jump. In other words you still need an angle. Simply saying that over the entire network the figures have remained more or less static is not news, it is simply misfortune. Life by its very nature comes with the risk of death attached (actually it's guaranteed so let's say premature death).

Now had the figure spiked or plunged in one of those years then there is the possibility of a story, say, an investigation into why.

But the figures in themselves are dull reading and too many student FoIs are ill thought out. Simply groping in the dark for a potential story and finding little of value or nothing.

Alternatively you should be looking for stories that will produce copy whatever the result. For example the number of pensioners who have been arrested and for what crimes. In this respect whatever the figure/details it is a story within itself.

Secondly FoIs do simply revolve around figures, reports can be opened up, expenses revealed and so much more.

Again it is a question of being judicious with your search. And again you don't have to be working on a  national newspaper to make an impact. Take this for January 2011 when Cornwall Council was making massive cuts with some of its lowest paid workers being axed and all manner of "exciting" cost saving schemes.

My initial intention was to see how much was being spent on flights by the officers. This request was rejected as too time consuming. So I narrowed my request. This time restricting it to named individuals - the Cabinet and the most senior council managers, including the £200,000+ a year chief executive.

The results were (from a story point of view) pleasing. An austerity council had spent £5,000 to sent the most highly paid man on a training course to New York. The story was subsequently picked up by the Daily Express.

So here you are seeing the situation change: Council making large cuts but the spending at the top not.

Or this. In 2007/2008 there were a spate of suicides of young people in Bridgend, Wales. The media came under fire for apparently, claimed the authorities, inflaming the situation. Simply reporting the facts, they said, was making matters worse. The fact that national interest in the situation was only aroused after the fifth such death after a local news agency began to see a "cluster" develop appeared not to be of importance. The media were to blame.

It later emerged that there had in fact been 13 similar deaths - many had gone unreported initially. Even so this was the media's fault.

The deaths continued at a grim and relentless pace. Relations between the police, health authorities and the media were, to put it mildly, strained.

But it was at one press conference that the health authority revealed it had set up a task force more than a year before the cluster had started to emerge. Under questioning - as to why they had set this group up - they admitted they were acting on the advice of a report drawn up.

The next questions were obvious. What was the report? What did it say? Who wrote it? Why was it commissioned?

It took an FoI to get the report and alas the story never got the due prominence perhaps it deserved. But it did at least come out.

So to recap don't expect the FoI to be your passport to a succession of news stories. Think about the current situation globally and see if you can adapt what you are asking. For example cuts in council budgets is there a corresponding drop in the amount the local authorities spend on, for example, entertainment - or as is becoming frequently popular these days, award ceremonies for local councils.

Look at comparing two or three councils - the contrast may give you the story you are after. For example the amount a Chief Executive spends on taxis in neighbouring local authorities. If one CEO spends nothing and the other thousands than you have a story.

Learn to hone your FoIs. And keep a note of all the details - this is the start of your contact book. Once you have the details it does get easier.

Also learn to use public bodies' websites. All too often the info will be there but, as you can imagine, it is hidden away deep inside a labyrinth - and make a note of where it can be found.

And always, always, always state that your information comes from a Freedom of Information Act request. This info should be available to the public without us having to search and beg and plead or indeed have a special law...but that's the way it is.