The top two books of all time

"The opposite of courage is not cowardice, it's conformity."  -Rollo May

"The difference between where you are today and where you'll be five years from now will be found in the quality of books you've read."  -Jim Rohn

I think the world would be a better place if more people read these two books — one is about how to treat people, the other is how to handle wealth. I'm not saying I agree with every single idea in all of them, but I think everyone would benefit from being aware of these principles and then either living their life accordingly or working to gain a clear understanding of why they would choose to consciously live their life differently. I would also enjoy knowing some of your recommendations.

1. "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. My college communication professor said there is no other book that has shaped his life as much other than the Bible. It's written in the style that would appeal to a 1950s businessman, but don't let that throw you, even if a couple of pages may seem a bit cheesy -- there's a brick of gold under the few thin slices of cheddar. I read this book my sophomore year in college, and some people made fun of me. But, alas, the book is so powerful that a few years later I noticed that some of those same people kept a copy of this book on their nightstand. Short chapters. Easy to read one or two a day. At least read the first two.

2. "The Richest Man in Babylon" by George S. Clason. Mr. Clason was a banker in the 1920s and was tired of watching people waste their money. He wrote a series of pamphlets as parables set in ancient Babylon — the most wealthy city in the history of civilization. The pamphlets were later combined to create this book; hence, you'll notice some of the stories are loosely connected and others overlap. Overall, it's brilliant in its simplicity. A short book. Principles of money haven't changed since ancient times. (While I see his point of owning a home, I wouldn't rush into it, however)

-------------------------------
Bonus Recommendations
-------------------------------

B1. "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall. We slap our foreheads when we think about stupid things that used to be common health practices -- "bleed the bad blood out to cure a fever" or "doctors prescribing cigars for patients with lung problems," etc. This book shatters much of what we know about human movement, such as running and foot health. It's also an instantly gripping and fun read of suspense, a study of biology, a journalist's venture into drug trafficking territory in Mexico, and the recounting of one of the greatest races of all time...one that most people don't know about. I have since switched to only wearing VivoBarefoot shoes, even in the office. If you do decide to switch to minimalist shoes, take 3 to 6 months to do so. I'm probably the last person anyone would think of doing this -- two years ago I was one of those who laughed at the Vibram Five Finger shoes. But now I get it, and I'm even more fascinated with the way our feet were designed. I don't wear the Vibram Five Finger shoes, but prefer the previously mentioned brand, which is born of the same concept. This book may cause one to wonder what else our society is pushing in the name of health that is actually harmful.

B2. "How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World" by Harry Browne. Like I said above, I don't necessarily agree with every single idea in this book (his views on marriage are a bit independent, but even he later got married, as he mentioned in the afterward of the 25th anniversary edition), but everyone should recognize our cherished institutions for what they are instead of being awed by them and thus hindered from reaching our own potential. The title says it all -- who wouldn't want to live a more freeing life? He has two sentences in the afterword that should appear in every book: "You were able to overlook our differences and take advantage of the areas where my words could help you."  and  "You wouldn't have made it this far through the book if you didn't have the confidence in your ability to think things out for yourself."

Personal journalism degree

I'm a fan of the Personal MBA reading list. The author suggests skipping the tuition and lectures of business school and creating your own degree by simply reading the texts. He suggests 99 books, and the subjects range on everything from management, corporate finance and sales to value-creation, negotiation and personal growth. It's a great list, and a lot of popular rot is not on the list -- only truly valuable and helpful titles. Granted, I am still more impressed by a person who has an MBA than someone who might say, "I've read every book on the Personal MBA booklist," but it tells me that the person is serious about improving and increasing his or her value.

So drawing inspiration from the Personal MBA and responding to demand, I here offer my own Personal Journalism Degree booklist. Again, I would still be more impressed by someone who has a degree (full-disclosure/bias alert: I have one) because of the way you grow by creating content and being edited by professors, especially the papers you have to write and defend at the graduate level. Still, this list offers a great understanding of subjects you would encounter in school, and by reading these and Matt Brown's story in my June 15 posting on his rise in the industry, you're likely good to go. And you can get all this knowledge mostly by using your free library card. A few titles may require you to buy a used copy online.

This list is in development and will expand over the coming weeks and months, and it could even have a few titles later shaved off. The Personal MBA updates its list each year and maintains no more or less than 99 books. Not yet sure how big this list will grow or if a cap will be set. Let me know of any suggestions you might have.

The Bible

The Associated Press Stylebook

Writing/Reporting

An introduction to News Reporting by Jan Yopp and Beth Haller
or
Elements of News Writing, 3rd edition by James W. Kershner

The Journalist's Craft: a guide to writing better news stories by Jackson and Sweeney
The Investigative Reporter's Handbook by Brant Houston
Online Journalism by James C. Foust

Passion for the craft

On Writing Well by William K. Zinsser
The Book of Writing by Paula LaRocque
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Details

The Concise Guide to Copy Editing by Paul LaRocque

Questions

The Craft of Interviewing by John Brady

Broadcast 

Broadcast News Handbook, 4th edition by Tuggle, Carr and Huffman
We Interrupt This Newscast by Rosenstiel

Understanding government

Field Guide to Covering Local News by Fred Bayles
Parliament of Whores by P. J. O'Rourke

Boundaries

The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication by Trager, Russoman and Ross
or
Mass Media Law by Don Pember and Clay Calbert

Don't be a hack

Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity by John Stossel
Breaking the News by James Fallows
Left Turn by Tim Groseclose
The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig

The other side

Making the News (revised & updated) by Jason Salzman
Keeping Cool on the Hot Seat, 5th edition (2011) by Judy Hoffman
The Practice of Public Relations, 11th edition by Fraser P Seitel

Origins

American Media History by Anthony Fellow

Theory

A First Look at Communication Theory, eighth revised edition by Em Griffin

Intercultural communication

Intercultural Communication in Contexts, 6th edition by Judith Martin & Thomas Nakayama
Dave Barry Does Japan by Dave Barry

Photography

Photojournalism, sixth edition: The Professionals' Approach by Kenneth Kobre

Charts

The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics by Dona M. Wong

Management

Media Management in the Age of Giants, second edition by Dennis F. Herrick

Documentary to watch

Page One: Inside the New York Times


Books for fun and inspiration

The Good Times by Russell Baker
Newspaper Man by Warren Phillips
All The President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

Movies for fun and inspiration

Spotlight
The Paper
Absence of Malice
All the President's Men
The Year of Living Dangerously
The Quiet American
Broadcast News

Final reminder

This is the last 'real' posting on journalism tips for beginning religion journalists, and it's my top tip on this blog.  This plea addresses an uninformed method of reporting. Not to criticize anyone -- I used to do it, too, before someone set me on a better path.

Remember to focus on the top results of a meeting -- what administrators will do, what their goals are, what challenges they will address, what was voted, etc.  Don't just lead with headline, "[type of people] meet/gather for meeting" and show a group photo.

That's the tip.  You may even wish to re-read the previous paragraph.  For more on this subject, please see my August 30 and March 7 postings.

Measure yourself against the industry standard of excellence

An unfortunate occurrence I see too often in some non-profit organizations are people working in the Public Relations department who wouldn’t be able to get their equivalent job outside of their present organization.  They just don’t have the skills or experience to make it in the real world of the news media or corporate PR.

Make sure you don’t fall into the trap of only comparing yourself to others within your same organization.  Measure yourself against the industry standard of excellence. 

Two organizations have good annual conventions that are worth attending—the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).  PRSA even has an Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) that is worth attaining.

Become valuable as a professional to any organization, not just the one you presently work for.  Doing so will make you even more valuable in your present position, help you become a sought-after industry expert and teacher, and offer you more career options…should you wish.

Go back to the beginning halfway through the feature

I was disappointed to see a religious magazine a few months ago publish a poorly written feature. Once I slogged through the story I could tell the writer had stumbled on something special, but it was written so poorly that I doubt many readers made it to the end.

The main problem is that it was written chronologically. It started with the main character’s childhood, and only at the end does the reader discover the great outcome.

A feature doesn’t necessarily need to follow the traditional inverted pyramid style of writing, but it does need to early on reveal some of what’s to come.

Do this by writing most of the story up front and then, halfway through, going back to the beginning of the person’s life or the trend.

A great way to see this is in The Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Interview stories. These are longer features based on an interview with a prominent figure. Read several of them. Nearly all of them go back to the person’s origins halfway through the interview – sometimes one-third or two-thirds the way through. This is very similar to an obit formula. Sometimes the Weekend Interview features go back to where the person was born, while other times the writer only goes back to when they started becoming successful.

The Washington Post Magazine had a great feature on broadcasters for the Washington Nationals baseball team. Sure enough, about one-third of the way through, the reporter went back to a broadcaster’s humble beginnings as a kid and how he got involved in the business. Then, near the end of the story – probably about two-thirds of the way through the entire piece – the writer went all the way back to the start of baseball broadcast history. Later, the reporter told the exciting part – the broadcaster's colorful rise through minor-league broadcasting.

This is similar to the classic Reader’s Digest formula of short tales. A family doesn’t start by sitting at home and then the house catches fire and they all escape safely. Nor do they start with the family having gotten out of the house safe and then reminiscing about how they did it. The formula usually started with the house on fire...then the writer goes back to the beginning, and later the narrative ends the with the family's successful escape.

This is also well articulated in the excellent book “Pitch Anything” by Oren Klaff. The formula goes like this: 1. Put man in jungle 2. Have beasts attack him 3. He gets out of jungle safely. But as Klaff notes, keep the reader in a bit of suspense by keeping the man on the edge of the jungle for a while.

Now you can re-read good feature stories and watch for some of these patterns. You can learn to use similar foreshadowing and pacing.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not advocating formula writing. But there is a case to be made for formula structure. That case is seen in the numerous patterns routinely found throughout journalism. This blog wouldn’t exist without them.

Hopefully that religious magazine — which reviews a particular religious denomination — will see the need for writers who know these methods of better keeping the attention of readers. Doing so would not only make their own publication better, it would also honor the people they write about.

The difference between a rookie and a veteran

Q: What’s the difference between a veteran reporter and a rookie?

A: The veteran is used to being edited.

Now and then I hear complaints from rookies about how an editor changed their story or that their original version was nearly unrecognizable when it was published.

My advice: Instead of complaining, make yourself better so you don’t have to be edited.

I remember the first time I got published in the college newspaper.  A very reasonable editor changed a few things in my story and I got upset.  I had no reason to do so.

Later, as a veteran, I appreciated my editor making changes to my submissions. When I first covered city council for a newspaper, I would literally look over her shoulder as she edited my story, hearing her say things such as, “I’m just going to punch up this lead, check this out,” or “I’m gonna switch the order of these two ideas, watch.”

As the weeks and months went by she edited my stuff less and less.

I once heard Ken Wells, former Page One editor of The Wall Street Journal, say in a speech that everyone needs an editor.  He's absolutely right.

If you find that your stuff is getting edited heavily, instead of blaming the editor, work hard to make yourself better.  Find an editor who will work with you to improve.  Earlier exercises on this blog will also teach you how to improve.

How to write great press releases

Frequent readers of this blog my be able to guess where this post is going. Yep — in order to know how to write great press releases, study great press releases.

Visit the website of some Fortune 500 companies or top global companies and review their press releases. Look at the headlines and subheads of each of them. Study lots of different industries — tech, finance, automotive, energy, hospitality, materials, healthcare, etc. Really study the cream of the crop: Apple, Cisco, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Barclays, Lexus, Acura, Rolls-Royce, Chevron, Shell, Ritz-Carlton, Pebble Beach, Rio Tinto, Tenet Healthcare, etc.  Study the releases of your competitors in your industry, too.

You'll notice that most of the press releases fall into one of the following categories:

—New product
—New executive or board member
—New partnership with another company or charity
—An executive will speak at an upcoming conference
—Releasing a statement on an issue or legislative action
—Marking an emphasis month or day

Quote a source, then ditch ‘em

When reporting a complicated story with numerous sources, try to quote your sources—either one or two or three times—but by themselves. Once you have moved on to quote another source, don’t come back to quote a previous source. 

This may require you to think a bit more, but it will usually make your story flow more smoothly. 

It will force you, the reporter, to explain the story more clearly and only use your sources’ quotes as examples for what has already been stated, not to introduce new information. 

Otherwise, your story can come to look like a list of quotes with readers trying to remember who each source is when you keep coming back to quote them at various points in the story.

Yes there are exceptions, and about the only exception I like is to come back to one source at the end of a long story….if needed. And if you do, remind the readers of who that person is. No need to give the formal title again, but give a generic reminder of who they are. Example…..the first time a source is named in a story is Ting Wu, assistant professor for genetics at Harvard Medical School. If she is repeated at the end of the story, write something like: “For Wu, the Harvard geneticist, the issue remains…”  

Here is a story that took me weeks to report and probably two weeks to write (among my other duties at the time). Notice I never come back to a source. This was a hard feat to accomplish in explaining this complicated issue, but it was worth the effort. I received many compliments on how well the story flowed and for such smooth transitions.

https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/2014-06-19/a-division-territorys-self-evaluation-comes-amid-other-changes/

(sorry about the “comprised of”…it should have been “composed of”)

How to get a job in journalism

 

In 2005, Matt Brown wasn’t a journalist, but that didn’t stop him from calling up the big three news agencies—Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse—and telling them he was.

“Yup, fake it ‘til you make it,” he says, summing up how he was able to land freelance assignments, which propelled him on to a dream career in journalism, including a stint as a foreign correspondent for a major daily.

Brown, 33 years old and a former Peace Corps worker in Guinea, has been published in major news outlets worldwide, including The New York Times, Time magazine and the BBC. He’s seen gunfire, dead bodies and burned villages while covering wars. He’s reported on negotiations between dictators, documented court appearances by celebrities and covered speeches delivered by two sitting U.S. presidents. He even once lobbied a news bureau to follow his source, which led a Time editor to shell out for a helicopter rental to fly a reporter into a hurricane-swept area of rural Mexico.

His résumé is impressive, though, oddly, he’s never really needed one. His clips, confidence and a key recommendation by a mentor have each served as stepping stones during his career, which he recounts one recent Sunday evening over Thai food in a restaurant near his apartment in Washington, D.C.

It’s a journey that started with editors denying him journalism jobs, which led him to simply start telling editors that he was a journalist in order to obtain freelance assignments. That move, along with his lobbying, propelled him to cover a war zone in Africa while researching a graduate school project. Then a job back in a small California town covering city council prepared him to go back to Africa as a top foreign correspondent for three years.

Now working in public relations, Brown has just come back from Sudan, where he served as a guide for George Clooney, the third such trip he has arranged and led for the Oscar-winning actor for the Enough Project. The non-profit organization promotes human rights in Africa and uses celebrities to promote their messages.

How does one start?

Brown majored in English at USIU in San Diego but couldn’t get a job in journalism, despite having served as the editor of the university’s student newspaper and getting a few clips published in online travel magazines. “How does one start?” he thought. He decided the lack of a master’s degree was standing in his way.

It was in his second semester at grad school at San José State University that a text about news agencies prompted him to research nearby bureaus. He learned the big three had bureaus north in San Francisco, but not in the South Bay—the Silicon Valley and, in many ways, the technology capital of the world. Time magazine only had one correspondent on the west coast, in Los Angeles, he says.

Brown called up each of them, saying, “‘I’m a journalist, I’m based in San José and I want to get on your stringer roster so that if you need any coverage in San José or Silicon Valley, just call me and I’ll get it done.’”

“I wasn’t a journalist,” he recalls. But he believed he could be.

Assignments trickle in

Within a month, he had callbacks from AFP, Reuters and Time magazine. His first assignment was for AFP, who asked him to cover the launch of the latest iPhone, the first one featuring video. Knowing nothing about technology, he said, “Sure, yea, I follow Apple. I’ll do it.”

He researched Apple and Steve Jobs and interviewed several analysts. By the time he went to the event, he was an expert and had most of the story written, only needing to plug in quotes and color from Jobs’ presentation.

One snag though: He only took his notebook and recorder. In the press pool he noticed other journalists typing and filing their stories right there. “I hadn’t realized how timely it had to be,” he said. Reuters and AP had already posted stories by the time he got back to his desk. Still, that first assignment established him as a writer.

A few weeks later, Reuters called and asked him to cover the unveiling of the statue of the two 1968 Olympic athletes who raised their black-gloved fists in the now iconic Black Power salute on the podium in Mexico City. Both athletes were former San José State students, and the statue's unveiling was on campus. Brown, however, was more than 100 miles away, having spent the weekend at his parents’ home.

“’Yea, sure, I can do it,’” he recalls telling the editor casually over the phone, as if he would only need to stroll across the quad later that morning. 

“You never want to say ‘no’ to these things. You want to seem reliable,” he says.

Brown’s car flew down Highway 101 back to campus so he could quickly do some research in the library, only having a vague memory of once seeing a picture of the event. He arrived on time and even got to interview the participants following the ceremony. He had to miss class that night to file the story. He emailed his accommodating professor: “I can come to class and learn about journalism or I can go be a journalist. Which do you think is more important?"

It snowballed from there.

Time magazine called a month later and wanted an example of an immigrant who sent money back home to his family in Mexico, the practice being known as a “remittance.” His landlord helped him find the perfect profile. When the man’s family was cut off from a local Time correspondent in Mexico by destroyed roads from a recent hurricane, Brown lobbied his editor to do what it took to follow the story. A rented helicopter ride later for their correspondent and Time had the story from both sides.

Time later called up and asked him if he covered tech. “‘Yea, I do tech,’” he recalls saying, as if a deep-voiced, fifth-grade math student was confirming he could cover the stock market. “‘I’ve covered Apple,’” he told them. Luckily he didn’t have to figure out the intricacies of virus-blocking software built by a company but only profile the owner of the business. It gave him his first solo byline in Time.

“Then I just started building up clips. The more you do the more clips you have to sell yourself to the next level editor. I could say, ‘I’ve been in Time magazine, here’s my clip.’”

Not all jobs were glamorous. AP once hired Brown to sit all day in front of the Federal Courthouse in San Francisco just to see if Giants slugger Barry Bonds would show up. Another time, Dow Jones hired him to attend a speech and simply hold his cell phone up to the public address speaker for a reporter back in New York.

Still, he was on his way, becoming more widely known as a reliable stringer in the South Bay.

Africa’s pull

With the deadline for his graduate school project looming, Brown’s experience as a Peace Corps worker drew him back to Africa for an exposé on gem mining in Tanzania. One stipulation by San José State was that he had to get the project or a portion of it published. He used his contacts with AFP in Los Angeles to put him in touch with the AFP bureau in East Africa—Nairobi, Kenya.

He pitched his idea to the Nairobi bureau. They accepted. And off he went. He was in Africa for a month reporting and writing the story. Having a few days to kill after finishing his project, he kept hanging around the AFP bureau offering to help. After three days, the editor who published his story asked if he would go to Juba.

“Sure,” he recalls saying. “What’s Juba?”

Juba, it turned out, was the capital of Southern Sudan, before the country split and became South Sudan. It was 2006 and the Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony (whose notoriety increased recently with the most viral video ever) was to soon have peace talks with the Ugandan government, the first time in 20 years they were sitting down at the table. Kony was supposed to be coming out of the bush and negotiating.

AFP gave Brown a plane ticket and some spending money, and he arrived in a podunk town that had been ravaged by 20 years of war. He lived out of an NGO tent and made his way around the city, talking with the delegation of LRA, meeting with Sudanese government officials and filing a few small stories.

He then learned that the vice president of South Sudan was going to be heading out into the bush to meet the wanted war criminal Kony.

“I thought, wow, if I could get on this trip that would be such a coup,” Brown recalls. He told the veep, “Look, you’re going to want the world media to know about this. I’m one of the only journalists here, so you’re going to want me on the plane, right?”

He indeed talked his way on board the VP’s plane and camped with the delegation on the ground for six days. Kony never came, but he sent his deputy, who was also wanted by the International Criminal Court. Brown was the only person there with a camera, and his pictures of the meeting between Southern Sudan’s VP and Kony’s deputy hit the newswires. Millions of readers worldwide saw his news and pictures in top media outlets.

“It was just being at the right place at the right time, really,” he recalls.

That’s when it occurred to him: “Now I’m a journalist.”

Out of Africa, for now

On journalismjobs.com, Brown found an open position at the Lodi News-Sentinal in California. AFP clips from a war zone helped land him the job. The only problem was convincing his editor that he wasn’t above the position and wouldn’t take off after a few months.

It occurred to Brown that editors were now courting him—less than a year after he couldn't get a job in journalism.

He stayed in Lodi nearly a year and a half covering the city beat and life in the Central Valley. His first coverage of a sitting U.S. president was George W. Bush’s visit to the area.

“Anyone who wants a job in journalism should put in a year or two in a small town paper covering city hall,” Brown now advises. “Go somewhere you have to cover local government. That’s a great school—a great lesson in how to report, really. If you can cover city council, you can cover anything.”

Adventure beckons again

After once having a taste of being a foreign correspondent, Brown decided he wanted more. Networking with contacts yielded little until he got a call from a mentor he had met in Juba. Peter Eichstaedt, a longtime journalist, had traveled on the vice president’s plane with him to work on his book about Kony. Eichstaedt had been offered a job but decided against it. He recommended the organization hire Brown.

It turns out that the sheik of the Middle Eastern U.A.E. state of Abu Dhabi wanted to build the best possible newspaper. He offered big money and recruited top journalists from around the world for the new venture, called The National. For example, the business editor ended up being the former Middle East bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal.

The National’s foreign editor called Brown saying the job was his because of Eichstaedt’s recommendation. Brown accepted the position as the East Africa correspondent, moved to Kenya and worked out of his house in Nairobi filing two stories a week. And they paid him well.

He joined the East Africa Foreign Correspondent Association, which then had about 100 members from the Americas, Europe and Asia. All the biggies where there—The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Associated Press, National Public Radio, The Wall Street Journal, McClatchy, The Guardian and Times of London. Some nights he would play poker with other foreign correspondents.

For three years he served in the position for The National, covering everything he always wanted to—Somalia, Congo, Sudan, and even a speech by visiting President Barack Obama.

“I saw everything. I was a war correspondent,” he says. “Everything I always wanted to do. Check that box. Done. Did my dream job.”

For personal reasons he’s now back in the United States. His experience in Africa as a reporter for a top market newspaper helped land him the job at the Enough Project.

“It’s been an interesting journey,” he says.

~ ~ ~      ~ ~ ~      ~ ~ ~

How to start your own journey:

–Do what it takes to get clips published. They are worth more than money. If you’re good, the money will come later.

–Tell people you’re a journalist. Live up to it. Be able to prove it. Market yourself as good. Believe you can do it (but be self-aware enough to know your skills and areas of needed improvement).

–Learn how to learn quickly. Journalism is as much about writing as it is instantly becoming an expert on something.

–Get out there and apply. No assignment is too small, but be sure to go for the big players, too. You’ll win them over with persistence and by offering to do stories with a servant’s attitude. Demonstrate your humble and strong confidence.

–www.journalismjobs.com

–Go where it’s less saturated with reporters so you can get more experience—either a small, rural town or an out-of-the-way country.

–Treat everyone well and give every assignment your best. You never know when someone—maybe years later—will recommend you for a much higher position. If you demonstrate that you always give 100 percent—even in a small job—you could be given more responsibility.

–Find and use mentors.

–Or go the traditional route: get your master’s degree in journalism, get hired at a small paper and apply for a bigger paper every couple of years. A few years working in the news media can open up all kinds of career opportunities in the future.

Bonus tip: While published clips likely help more than anything, still take the time to get your résumé looking great. Examine articles about résumés and make an appointment with your local community college career-counseling center to ask for a résumé expert. If you pay taxes in a county, you’re eligible to use the community college's services.

Break up a long story with subtitles

Your landmark exposé on an important issue goes long and appears as a huge block of text, both on the front page and on the jump. You can make the layout more appealing to readers by breaking up the text with catchy and well-placed subtitles.

These appear every 7 to 12 paragraphs in a long story. They are just a few words typed in bold and describe what’s going to happen in the next section.

Lots of newspapers use subtitles effectively. One of my favorites is the Arizona Republic. I always make sure to buy a copy when flying through Phoenix. Their front-page Sunday editions usually carry a great front-page package on, say, an immigrant’s story or water rights in the surrounding desert region.

One technique is to write the subtitle about something that appears in the following graf. What I like about the AZ Republic is that they write the subtitle about something that appears in the second graf after the subtitle. I’ve even experienced myself reading farther into a story when this method is employed because the subtitle grabs me, but when I don’t see it in the next graf I keep reading and discover it in the following graf. So already I’ve read one graf father into the story than I would have otherwise. Then a few grafs later, when I’m thinking of giving up, whadaya know, there is another subtitle teasing the next bit of text.

One thing: I like a good formula (this blog wouldn’t exist without them), but make sure your subtitles don’t become too clichéd. Usually when I see a feature about an individual I end up seeing a version of about the same four or five subtitles that appear something like the following:

Humble beginnings

Overcoming obstacles

A star is born

New horizons

Then again, if this formula works, why not use it. Your readers likely won’t notice the formula … only that the story flows well.

Allow the other side to respond

If you call someone out, or if a source calls out someone else, allow that person/organization a chance to respond.

For example, if a candidate criticizes their opponent, allow their opponent to respond to the criticism. If there is news about an organization, allow them a chance to share their point of view.

You should report your attempt in one of four ways as appropriate. I’ll use an example of Acme Company’s stock price having the sharpest fall on the Zendorf Stock Exchange in one day:

1.    “A spokesperson for Acme was not immediately available to comment.” (Report this way when you had a fast approaching deadline and your phone call or email weren't returned within an hour or two.)

2.    “A spokesperson for Acme did not respond to repeated requests for comment.” (Report this way when your phone call and email weren’t returned after several hours or a day—depending on your publication cycle)

3.    “A spokesperson for Acme declined to comment.” (Pretty much speaks for itself)

4.    Acme spokesman Winston Smith said the company is "continually reviewing operations in order to best serve shareholders and customers." He added, “We’re excited about the new products our R&D team has ready for launch next quarter.” (Or whatever their response might be.)

Here are some stories that show great examples of this:

Company to lay off many workers and sell properties:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-illinois-layoffs-20131212,0,4666988.story

Incident in parking lot after football game. After quoting police extensively, reporter gives chance for both stadium authority and team to respond:
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_24715325/stabbings-fights-after-broncos-game-at-mile-high-denver

A spokesman for a city being sued is given the chance to respond:
http://news.adventist.org/all-news/news/go/2013-09-19/adventist-church-files-lawsuit-against-us-city-for-blatant-religious-liberty-violation/

Which camera to buy

I get asked this question all the time…"What kind of camera should I buy?"  My answer: One you know how to use.

I don’t say that to evade the question. A good photographer can get great photos with a simple camera, but a rookie won’t be helped much with a fancier camera.

What’s more important is to know the elements of a good photograph and how a camera works. To learn, take a class, or teach yourself by doing an online search for “photography tips” or study books at the library. A great one to start is the “National Geographic Photography Field Guide.”

Another way I answer the question of which camera to buy is to tell the story of National Geographic photographer Sam Abell. Many of the world’s top photographers have lots of cameras and lenses for different situations. Sam Abell used a simple camera with a 28 mm prime lens. No zoom. When he teaches workshops, he hardly mentions equipment. He instead talks about light, or emotions and anticipation. Check out his great book, “Stay This Moment.”

OK, having said all that, if you want a recommendation, a great little camera is the Nikon CoolPix S9300 or the Canon Powershot SX260. Both are small-point-and-shoot cameras, but they have a decent size lens.

If you have a larger budget and want a single lens reflex camera, try the Nikon d90 or the Canon 60d.

Even nicer cameras are the Nikon d7000 or the Canon 7d.

Big budget? The Nikon d800 with f/2.8 lenses. But don't buy this if you don't understand what "full frame" or "aperture" is. You're not ready, and I don't want you to overspend.

Then again, you might already have a good enough camera in your pocket: your smartphone. Some of my published photos were shot with a smartphone.

Remember, the talent you develop matters more than the type of camera you have. 

I wish you great success behind the lens.  Happy shooting.

On photography: understand and pinpoint the news first; then show the issue, not the meeting

This is posting is similar to the first real posting on this blog, back on August 30. Be sure to read that post.

In the same manner, photography should highlight the news, not the meeting. Focus on the issue, not the gathering of people.

Instead of photographing a wide shot of a full Yankee Stadium, show a close-up shot of David Ortiz smacking the 9^th-inning home run that won the game for the Red Sox. That’s the news – that the Red Sox beat the Yankees. The news isn’t that the two teams played.

In the August 30 post I pointed out how many rookies cover a meeting and think that’s news. Sure, news can be found at a meeting, but the meeting itself usually isn’t news. You need to answer the question of WHY the meeting was held.

I was served a great lesson about this as a young reporter. I once worked for a small newspaper that was in a suburb of a larger city with a good daily paper. I went to a press conference that was highlighting how the interstate was going to be widened to accommodate all the traffic in the growing suburb. The larger newspaper's story on the same event was better than mine, and I'll tell you why.

I had a decent story that began with the first speaker of the press conference, then the second speaker of the press conference and then finished with the third speaker at the conference. All in all, it was a decent use of the inverted pyramid. But looking back it was a rookie story. 

The picture I ran was a shot of the first speaker of the conference – a decent news conference shot.

But the major market daily served me a lesson the next day.

After the press conference the major market newspaper sent their photographer, Carl Costas, on the interstate overpass in the evening to get a shot of all the headlights bunched together coming out the city at dusk.

The maddening daily traffic jam was the real issue. Not the press conference.

In fact, the story in the major daily hardly even mentioned the press conference.  They focused on:

- the issue
- what was going to be done about it
- what leaders said about it

There was only one brief mention of the press conference – to mention where a city officials made their comments (and it didn't appear until the fifth paragraph).

Keep this concept in mind whenever you write news or take a news photo – the most important part of journalism isn’t writing or photography, it’s first understanding what the news (issue) is. Once you identify the issue, then you can report the story and show pictures illustrating actual news beyond the event.
 

So instead of showing a wide shot of a boring meeting, get a close-up shot of the speaker who said the most newsworthy thing, made an announcement or called out somebody else.

Or even better, show a file photo of the issue that’s being voted. If the board voted to build a new school, show a picture of the property where it will be built.

If you’re at a boring meeting, don’t make readers have to suffer through it, too. Think really hard: “What’s the real issue here?”

Forget the meeting. Show us the news.

Sit at Tom Hallman Jr.'s feet

Tom Hallman writes a column on narrative writing for Quill, the magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists. Read them all. Seriously. He doesn't often have standout pieces because they're ALL standout.

Hallman's column this month was over-the-top great. It highlights at least two rookie mistakes I was saving for a future post but I'll say now:

    1. Just because it's a feature doesn't mean it's OK to ramble. Tight, clear storytelling is needed in
        both news and news features.

    2. Telling a feature chronologically doesn't make the story more thorough, just more boring for
        readers.

Read his excellent column here: https://www.spj.org/quill_issue.asp?ref=1873

book recommendations

"The difference between where you are today and where you'll be five years from now will be found in the quality of books you've read."   --Jim Rohn

The Personal MBA book list has been updated for 2012: http://personalmba.com/best-business-books/

This is one of the all-time best reading lists for success.  Even though I would rather have an MBA, I like his point -- you don't necessarily need a degree, you need the knowledge. You can get much of that through just the reading material.

I'm glad to see some of the popular but lame books aren't included on the list -- Rich Dad Poor Dad, Lee Iaccoca, etc.

Someday I may compile a Personal J-School book list.  But with journalism you still need good mentors/editors looking over your stuff to help you improve your storytelling craft.  Still, I'll think about it.  Let me know if you think it would be useful.

For now, check out the Personal MBA book list.  It's great.

The obituary photo

Show a picture of the person in their prime. That’s who they were and what their life represented.

Don’t show a picture of the person as they appeared a few days before their death. That’s not who they were.

It's fine when a family sends you a headshot picture of their loved one, but be sure to ask for some pictures of them in their prime doing what they loved and were known for. Ask for several, then you'll have more to choose from.

Remember, an obituary focuses on their life, not their death.

Great examples:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/gary-carter-hall-of-fame-baseball-catcher-dies-at-57/2012/01/25/gIQAJFpTIR_story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/betty-skelton-fastest-woman-on-earth-dies-at-85/2011/09/03/gIQAyv83zJ_story.html

http://news.adventist.org/en/archive/articles/2012/02/14/remembrance-persuasive-bookseller-ramirez-93-was-first-hispanic-gc-director

For more on the subject of obits, see my three postings from September.

Organizations need to commit to content creation as much as delivery systems

It was a brilliant moment in the 2011 documentary Page One. A new-media proponent was taking the New York Times to task about how old and irrelevant they are. Times media columnist David Carr holds up a poster of that man’s news-aggregate site and demonstrates that all but just a few of his numerous postings merely shared traditional news stories.

Like I said in a previous post, you can pass around all the content through social media you want to, but someone created that content (story), and you’ll stand out if you can create good stuff.

People 80 years ago said newspapers were dying with the growing popularity of radio. Yet there is still a need for great content to go through the radio, or television, or, now, the Web. What has changed is simply the delivery systems.

Unfortunately, too often organizations make content an afterthought after a delivery system has been set up.

Like former Disney CEO Michael Eisner said (and I quoted in a previous post), there are lots of people who are good at technology and can set up information architecture, but the content creators are even more rare.  We need people who can write good, engaging stories. Eisner said we need to focus on people who can write a good narrative that keeps people’s attention, not just creating the delivery system.

People with social media and video cameras only have tools. They still need to be good story-tellers.

It doesn’t matter if you’re publishing or broadcasting on a social network, a blog, a radio station, a TV network, writing on a piece of paper, or chiseling on a clay tablet, it’s the message that is key.

The content creators who write engaging stories and keep a reader's/viewer's attention need support as much as the talented people who set up and maintain delivery systems.

Organizations need qualified people in public relations positions

The work has often suffered much by putting persons forward to do that which they were not capable of doing.

—Adventist Church co-founder Ellen G. White

3SP 265

Suppose you need life-saving surgery and you’re rushed to a hospital. But instead of the hospital hiring one of the many qualified surgeons in the world, you are now in the operating room with someone holding a scalpel who is not a doctor, has never been to medical school or even taken a college biology class. “Don’t worry,” you’re told. “We’re giving him on-the-job training.”

Ridiculous, huh?

Unfortunately that’s the way some organizations approach corporate communication in much of the world.

People who can’t write news copy well enough for even a small-market daily are put into jobs where they have no idea what to do. Granted, journalism and PR aren’t brain surgery, but it still takes time to learn how to do them well.

Not hiring qualified professionals may not kill patients, but that organization loses opportunities to put its message and mission into the news media (which one organization's co-founders, James and Ellen White, called for) and connect membership with each other worldwide. Continuing to behave this way means that the organization ignores members and loses the battle for public attention.

Fortunately there is a solution. In each of an organization’s world divisions, there are members who work in the news media and in public relations.

Hire these people.

They won’t need much on-the-job training and they’ll know what to do – create effective messages and images.

Bringing on qualified people will improve sagging subscription rates of magazines, land more copy on PR newswires and inspire members to replicate ministries they have seen in well-written news and feature stories.

At the Society of Adventist Communicators meeting in 2010, Hollywood producer and theologian Phil Cooke was asked what the church needed to do with its communication. He essentially said to stop the “safe” hiring and instead hiring the professionals – the artists, the writers, etc.  They’ll know what to do.

At General Conference Session in 2010, Paul Kim (the excellent producer of the president’s film) contacted me saying: “Ansel, who is this Edwin Garcia guy??!! Every one of his stories was STAND-OUT.”

Thanks Paul. Indeed, Edwin is a veteran journalist, having written for the Chicago Tribune, the Portland Oregonian, and 17 years for the San Jose Mercury News. I used to read his front-page features when I was in grad school (and probably the only student who still got a paper delivered to his front door each day). I still can’t believe he agreed to give up vacation time to come volunteer at Session. We also had Arin Gencer, of the Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun fame, who wrote great features for us. I even had a friend from long ago contact me and say she enjoyed the photography from Session.

See, good content stands out.

Ruben Gelhorn, public relations director at River Platte University in Argentina, once told me that the church should produce communication graduates that understand communication and public relations theory. Technology and delivery systems can be learned later. “Running a television camera isn’t communication,” he said.

This is similar to what former Disney CEO Michael Eisner told The Wall Street Journal Magazine in a 2010 interview. Eisner said, “The creation of content has never been more important.” He went on to say, “A lot of people can learn to write computer code and understand the inner workings of the technological revolution we’re going through, but if you’re going to be in content, I would rather you understand what makes a good narrative. To find people who can make you laugh or cry or smile or get upset or learn something about yourself. Those people are rare. They are rarer, frankly, than the others.”

With an organization’s many delivery systems – publications in print, online, TV and radio – I wish as much thought was put into the content and hiring people who create that content.

Still, in many parts of the world the challenge is getting people to understand the basics of the industry. It’s also a challenge to help executives learn that corporate communication isn’t something you can just put an unqualified person into and expect good results. One person in a communication department somewhere in the world once made it clear that they didn’t know it wasn’t OK to take a story from the local daily paper and pass it off as their own. Slap your forehead, right? And last week, my buddy Stals Kinborg received an email from the Communication director in his region. That person was essentially absolving himself from having to do anything, saying that all local communication departments should send their content directly to headquarters. How sad. People in that need to be connected and inspired with their own news service, too.

I asked Stals to email him back saying: “It’s not other people’s job to do your job.” We’ll see what the response is.

This is a song I’ve been singing for almost five years. Having more people hear it will help if it makes a change. I’ve had people offer all kinds of great suggestions of how to get around it, but those all fail. It simply comes down to whether an organization’s executives want to commit to doing communication well or not. Jamaican PR guru Nigel Coke said, “Communication either needs to be loved or it needs to be dropped.”

Hiring qualified people who are both passionate and talented in public relations would fill the void left silent by organizations not communicating. If executives commit to it, they’re less likely to keep losing opportunities and the trust of their members.

On grad school

A master’s degree in journalism can help propel your career, but the degree itself won’t necessarily make you a good reporter. It should motivate you to want to become good, as well as communicate to people – potential employers – that you are serious about doing so.

A master’s degree teaches you theory behind journalism, which can include how to create better stories, but not necessarily just how to write them. To do that, use techniques found in previous posts and find a good mentor/editor to spiff up your stories. Grad school is discussions, case studies, research papers, and you end up reading about a book a week per class.

One of my favorite writers, Michael Lewis, rails against the usefulness of a J-school degree. And he is right . . . because he's Michael Lewis. On the other hand, another person who is right is Matt Brown, who said he couldn’t get a job in journalism until he had the master’s degree. After J-school he worked his way up and went on to become a foreign correspondent for a top-tier news agency (more on him in a future post).

An advanced degree is valuable to immerse yourself in the journalism-learning environment. If you majored in journalism as an undergrad and had a good class on media law, you may already have enough training. But I found at least three classes are helpful, and in this order:

1. Media law. You need to know your boundaries, and it’s comforting to know that you know your boundaries. You’ll also learn just how amazing the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is and how Supreme Court rulings over the years set prescient to protect people like you and me as well as allow the National Enquirer can get away with what it does. Discussions on Federal Communication Commission may seem out of left field or irrelevant when you're just trying to learn about reporting, but it’s helpful to know about the regulation of a nation’s airwave spectrum. Also, delivery systems (paper, web, chisel on clay tablet) change but the rules on publishing and libel still apply. When I was in grad school, blogging was the new thing and some students said our school should offer a major in the subject. Can you imagine how silly that would be today? It’s still just journalism and writing but with a different delivery system. Social media is the new delivery system today, but the same old media laws still apply. One other rant: people can talk about social media all they want, but much of it points back to content, and that is often a well-written news story. Others can pass around all the media they want too, but you’ll stand out if you are a good content creator.

2. Communication Theory. It may be kinda boring, but you’ll come across all kinds of scenarios from recent and long-past history that still apply today, even though some delivery systems are now different. Years later you may be surprised how some of these will apply to on-the-job scenarios.

3. Journalism/communication history. It’s helpful to know how this profession evolved along with advances in technology and human understanding. I wrote a paper on the history of black newspapers in the United States. One of the things I learned from this is that 150 years ago all newspapers were launched by a cause. There was no notion of objectivity. Each special interest group reported news that was of interest to them and they were not ashamed to say so – the women’s paper, the Negro paper, the Democrat, the Republican, etc… It’s an important lesson for today. And each of my classmates who did a different paper in this class came away with their own historical lessons that can teach us something today. My favorite part was presenting my paper and having classmates offer feedback, some even suggesting lessons from my own material that I hadn’t thought of. 

Of course you might learn all this stuff just by reading books on journalism – I like the personalmba.com, which is a great reading list of subjects you'd encounter in business school.  Still, I would rather tell someone I had an MBA than say, "I've read the 99 books on the personalmba reading list." 

Yes you might have to sit through some boring discussions or hear professors whine about how much better the glory days were. I remember one professor lamenting that there was too much information out there now and it was better when we all had political discussions based on the same information as reported in the local daily newspaper and the big three network news broadcasts (yea right, as if they were reporting everything that was really out there). Overall, though, most professors at a decently rated J-school are helpful.

If you are considering applying, check out the ratings of different schools and weigh them with the cost to attend each. FYI, there are no Adventist universities that offer a master’s degree in journalism. If one claims to, please contact me first and I’ll offer you my perspective.

I don’t recommend going to grad school directly from undergrad. You need to take some work experience to grad school. It’s different than undergrad, when you’re still doing more learning of what’s out there.

If you go to school, save all your papers both electronically and in print. You may not look at them often, but you’ll be an expert in a certain area of journalism and you don’t want to forget the material years later.

List of schools here: http://journalismjobs.com/journalism_schools.cfm

Writer’s block? Two tips on getting started, two more on keeping it going

If you’re having trouble getting a story started, try a “feature-y” lede and start with either the word “When” or “For.” If you’re stuck halfway through a story, try using the first word of your next paragraph with either “Indeed” or “Still.”

I see these patterns constantly and they’re often well used. Just don’t use them too much or you might end up on the November 9 posting about clichés (I once saw that the front of The Wall Street Journal’s Marketplace section had no less than three stories that began with the word “When.”)

To start: “For” and “When”

For

One of my favorite simple openers was last year in the Journal’s Money & Investing section. It was a fun story on the late-night negotiations of the auctioning of Blockbuster Inc.’s assets. The story chronicled the bankruptcy court shouting matches, competing bids and accusations of stolen pizzas as each side took the first pie that was delivered to their deliberating room, regardless of which party had ordered it. The lede was simply:

For Wall Street lawyers and bankers, it was a Blockbuster night.

Here’s one from the Associated Press as printed in the Jacksonville Times-Union:

For Northeastern farmers long used to coping with all sorts of cold-weather problems, this winter presents a new one: snow and ice that’s bringing down out-buildings, requiring costly repairs, killing livestock and destroying supplies.

Here’s one from the Journal’s A-head feature on the bottom of their front page (these are always great):

For New Jersey’s legion of tax accountants, boom times come once a year. But local taxidermists can wait for years at a stretch for their biggest money-maker: bear-hunting season.

When

From The Washington Post’s Style section in December:

When Gary Clark Jr.’s right hand hits the strings of his electric guitar, it’s almost always a downstroke – as if he wants gravity on his side.

Here’s one from the Post’s front page:

When Elaine Cioni found out that her married boyfriend had other girlfriends, she became obsessed, federal prosecutors say.

You can even imply “when” by starting with a comparison timeline (from the Journal in December):

Three years after Siemens AG reached a record foreign-bribery settlement with U.S. authorities, the German industrial conglomerate is capitalizing on business from an unexpected place – the U.S. government.

Come to think about it, the first story I ever had published in a newspaper began with the word "When." It was a feature about poetry. "When" a local librarian had hosted a poetry reading for teens, only a handful of people showed up. But when he turned it into a competition – a la American Idol – kids showed up in droves with mini-vans full of accompanying family members.

To continue: “Indeed” and “Still”

“Indeed”

This word actually shows up in another blog's listing of clichéd words in journalism, but I don’t care. If used well and sparingly, it’s effective. I picked examples where it appears within the first five grafs, but it works well when it appears later.

From the AP, as printed in the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/romneys-florida-victory-aside-gop-nomination-fight-expected-to-for-a-while/2012/02/01/gIQAbetfiQ_story.html

Indeed, some 46 states have yet to vote and only 6 percent of the delegates have been won.

From USA Today: http://yourlife.usatoday.com/mind-soul/doing-good/kindness/post/2011/10/itzhak-perlman-says-we-are-this-close-to-ending-polio-for-good/141014/1

Indeed, since taking polio on in 1985, Rotary has helped to immunize 2 billion children in 122 countries, slashing polio rates by 99%.

Still

The word “still” helps you show more than just one side of the story. It also serves as going back to an original premise that was later challenged in the story. Here are a couple of examples, first from the Los Angeles Times:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-economy-20120201,0,381501.story

Still, the construction industry remains weak. Spending on all building projects in 2011 was just $787.4 billion. That's 2 percent lower than the previous year and roughly half the level economists consider healthy.

And from the Miami Herald, this intellectually stimulating story of the 80s rock band Foreigner:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/31/2615723/rock-of-ages-band-foreigner-insists.html#storylink=misearch

Still, much of Foreigner’s recent recorded output has been to cut new versions of old hits.