April 9, 2004

THIS ISSUE: NEWS FROM APME

Time-Out for Diversity:

- Participants get "A Moment With Maynard"

- Papers roll out their plans

- Limited number of 2003 Time-Out videos available

- Orlando Sentinel offers free training videos on civil rights era

- More than 60 papers participating -- Is yours?

Readership: Newsday reader "Crew" reviews gadgets, music, TV, more

Dear APME: Helping reporter see the "bigger" story

IMPORTANT CONTEST NOTICE: The Associated Press Managing Editors has revised its 2004 contest cycle. These will be key dates for the Freedom of Information, Public Service, Online Convergence and International Perspective Awards: May 31 - Contest period ends June 1 - Postal deadline for sending entries June 7 - Entries must be received at APME offices in New York This action is due to AP's scheduled headquarters move in July. APME's offices are part of that move. We regret any inconvenience.

TIME-OUT PARTICIPANTS GET "A MOMENT WITH MAYNARD"
The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education once again is partnering with APME and ASNE on the Time-Out for Diversity. This year, Dori Maynard, the institute's president and CEO, has graciously agreed to make herself available as a resource in May for any Time-Out editor interested in discussing any aspect of diversity. It's an opportunity to discuss your particular situation -- whether it's coverage, hiring or another challenge -- with one of the country's authorities on diversity in journalism. We've told Dori this could become a considerable commitment, but she welcomes the chance to talk diversity with the nation's editors. Watch for details as we get closer to May.

PAPERS ROLL OUT PLANS
The Journal Times in Racine, Wis., will focus on readers ages 20 to 40, "a group we found through an audit that rarely appears in our newspaper," said assistant city editor Dustin Block. "We've been working in recent months to improve our appeal to the 'target audience.' In May, we'd like to conduct a follow-up audit of the newspaper to see if we've been successful and draft recommendations for ways we can better appeal to young adults."

Reporters at the Potomac News and the Manassas Journal Messenger in Virginia will do a series of stories that reflect the growing ethnic diversity of the area, near Washington, D.C. The police beat reporter suggested a story on the need for multilingual police officers, said Executive Editor Susan Jessup Svihlik.

The Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City is backing its diversity commitment with cold, hard cash. The paper is sponsoring a contest that gets journalists out of their comfort zones. The idea is for journalists to put themselves in an unfamiliar situation, with unfamiliar people, and write about the experience. The winning 250-word entry gets $100. Editors say they borrowed the idea from The Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise, which did this in a previous Time-Out. Click here for other ideas from Time-Outs past.

LIMITED NUMBER OF 2003 TIME-OUT VIDEOS AVAILABLE
Last year's Time-Out featured a 20-minute video intended to help get your newsroom's diversity conversations started. The tape features Keith Woods of the Poynter Institute discussing "Doing Diversity" and former ASNE President Diane McFarlin discussing hiring and retention. The tape could be especially helpful to first-time Time-Out participants. To request a copy send an e-mail to Rich Ramirez at the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News.

ORLANDO SENTINEL OFFERS TRAINING TAPE
A generous offer from the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel: a one-hour videotape from the Sentinel will be available without charge in late April to any newspaper interested in building some of its Time-Out for Diversity and Accuracy discussions around how the press has covered civil rights and race relations during the 50 years since the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. In March, a group of distinguished journalists gathered at the University of Central Florida in Orlando to explore the role of the press in covering and shaping opinion on civil rights and race relations. The program, "The Press and Civil Rights: Covering the Movement, Then and Now," was presented by the Sentinel in cooperation with the university, which is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the May 17, 1954, decision with a variety of lectures and other activities. The discussion features Eugene Patterson, former editor of The Atlanta-Journal Constitution and of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, whose editorials supporting civil rights won the 1967 Pulitzer Prize; Clarence Page, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune columnist who has covered civil rights and urban affairs issues since the 1960s; and Moses Newson, a journalist who covered desegregation throughout the South and later served as executive editor of the Afro-American newspapers in Baltimore. The discussion is moderated by Keith Woods, Reporting, Writing and Editing Group Leader at the Poynter Institute and an expert on news coverage of race relations. To request the tape, send an e-mail with your name, title and mailing address to Greg Gammonley, editorial administrator at the Sentinel. For more information about the program itself, call or e-mail Dana Eagles at 1-407-420-5427.

TIME-OUT PARTICIPANTS
Journalists at 61 newspapers are formulating their plans for May. But we still need to hear from papers in 18 states to make this a truly national event.

REACHING READERS: NEWSDAY'S "REVIEW CREW"
Newsday in New York is reaching out to readers in their 20s with a new interactive feature called "Review Crew." The feature, launched Feb. 23 and carried five days a week in print and online, includes short reviews from a diverse group of 86 everyday men and women in their 20s. Beth DeCarbo, Newsday's editor-at-large, said the concept is for the reviewers "to take people, places and things that target people in their 20s and review them in their own voice, with their own sensibilities." "Review Crew" has a different theme for each weekday: Gear and gadgets, TV shows, movies, bars and clubs, and new music.

Ideas for coverage are generated mostly by the reviewers. Each installment features reviews from five members. Drawing from 86 reviewers ensures members are only writing stories once every two to three weeks. "Review Crew" members are not paid for their stories but are given freebie movie passes, CDs and access to clubs, as well as the ability to test gear and gadgets. A Newsday staffer who coordinates the program helps secure the items for coverage as well as edits the reviews, which are submitted through an online form.

In seeking participation, Newsday published just two in-paper promotions but received 800 applications. DeCarbo said it's too early to say whether "Review Crew" is "moving the needle" on readership in print but that page views for the online site, which features reviews and multimedia bios of the reviewers, are up to 160,000 per week. And that's with promotion just getting started. DeCarbo said "Review Crew" takes a lot of work but is well worth the effort. "I can see a lot of papers doing things like this," she said. "It's more than an experiment. It's going in the right direction. We don't want to turn over the presses to the masses in that sense, but why not get readers' voices directly in the paper and cover things that are not traditional? I'm excited by it." You can read reviews and multimedia member bios by visiting www.newsday.com/impulse/ and clicking on the "Review Crew" links. For more info on Newsday's "Review Crew," e-mail DeCarbo or call 1-631-843-4657.

To share your newspaper's cool ideas for broadening readership, contact Logan Molen and we'll consider them for a future APME Update.

DEAR APME: WHAT TO DO WITH A REPORTER WHO MISSES BIGGER TREND STORIES?
Dear APME: I have a pretty good reporter who can't seem to step back and see the bigger picture stories on his beat. Aside from having an editor debrief him and frame these stories, how can I get the reporter to step off the treadmill? --Curious at the Courier

Dear Curious: Helping a reporter see the bigger picture on his/her beat is a challenge most editors face daily. One could try an exorcism, but a less extreme approach might be helping them learn how to ask questions of themselves. What will you tell your friends happened of interest in the meeting, event or story you are covering? No, not just what happened, but what about the meeting or event sticks out in your mind as something to discuss. Or what bothered you a bit because it didn't get discussed? What didn't seem quite right? Or maybe what question keeps coming up, or being avoided?

Does anything seem a bit strange? Out of the ordinary? Do the numbers make sense? Is there a theme that one can see? What questions, comments or concerns are others voicing? Is something similar to this happening elsewhere? What kind of stories or questions are being raised by newspapers covering that issue elsewhere? What are some of those close to the issue willing to share as far as concerns or possible storylines?

Have the reporter look into trends on the beat. Don't avoid big questions: What does it really mean to the reader? To the public? To the entity being covered?

Good reporters seem to be able to look at beats or continuing stories in many ways. In doing so, they find many stories as they turn the issue around by studying its different facets. Sometimes it might help to partner an inexperienced reporter with a more seasoned, higher performing one who could mentor and help their partner find the issues to look into and to ask the questions that need asking. Lots of encouragement and positive feedback when the reporter starts moving in the right direction can help the progress continue. When they get the story you want, heap praise on them and showcase the story as it deserves.

Today's answer is from Steve Begnoche, managing editor of the Daily News, Ludington, Mich. Dear APME is a project of the Leadership and Management Committee. It answers questions monthly in Update and in the magazine APME News. Send questions to Ken Tuck of The Dothan (Ala.) Eagle.

Today's issue was written by Rich Ramirez of the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News (Time-Out for Diversity) and Logan Molen at The Bakersfield (Calif.) Californian (readership).

To receive APME Update by e-mail, notify APME@ap.org

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