The Time Saving Phoner

This is one of my best time saving tips and will help you get a handle on deadlines. You may find this tip useful for news gathering, public relations, producing office or church newsletters, or any vocation that requires working with people and gathering information.

When I went from a weekly paper to a daily I learned like never before how precious time was and how fierce deadlines can be. Each reporter at this daily were required to turn in two “packages” a day, which were two stories, completed, edited and ready to go on the page with photographs and cut lines, filed before 4 p.m. every day. Also, because I had sports writing and shooting experience I had to turn in at least one completed sports package a day to the sports editor. Completing three packages a day required working ahead on several stories at a time and tracking progress on each to establish a consistent flow of making contacts, conducting interviewing, taking pictures, processing pictures (picking three great pictures and adjusting them to print), writing, editing, proofing and turning in. I also had multiple stories in various stages of completion so that when a story collapsed that I was counting on for that day, I had another to grab and finish before deadline. It was hard and I dug the challenge.

I did a phoner before meeting with a high

school art student for a story about a 9-11

memorial at the school. The phoner helped

the interview go smoothly and allowed

more time for pictures.

When I went to a group of weekly papers in Johnson County a couple years later I continued that discipline and was able to more easily meet deadlines than my fellow reporters and editors in my office.

A valuable tool is the phoner, which is a phone interview. I did a phoner with a digital recorder and a note pad for every story even though I was going to interview the subject face-to-face.  The phoner saves a tremendous amount of time because you collect much of the basic information before you meet and interviews go faster over the phone than in person. The phoner also improves the in-person interview because when you do meet the subject you have already established a relationship, and the face-to-face goes smoother and faster.

When I was at the desk setting up an interview with a subject I would ask, “Do you have time to answer a few quick questions right now?” If not, I would ask if I could call back at another time. Later when we met I would get a deeper feel for the story, gather a little more information, take pictures and then head back to the office to write my story.

Phoners not only helped me meet deadlines, they improved my writing because gathering much of the basic information ahead of time allowed me to be more casual with a subject in-person and not just grill them with questions. It also allowed me to concentrate on the emotions, mannerisms and surroundings of the subject to include with the story. Including little bits of that candy into the story to help put the reader right there with the subject.