Content for slow summers

Community journalists sweat it out during the summer in more ways than one, and back-to-school brings relief to more than just parents. Community newspapers have a tougher time keeping the flow of interesting news and features during the summer months as compared to their counterparts in large markets who have more people, more events and more news to report.

Community newspapers rely a lot on schools for content. However, other factors slow the flow of news because businesses have fewer promotions during the summer, and there are fewer outdoor activities.

Here is way to increase your content: Invent anniversaries.

1. Make a list of major events that changed your community in past years, such as a new business area, school campus, annual community event that started or major construction that effected an area.
2. Look back in your archives at the past stories and devise a before/after angle to report on. How is the community different since the highway was expanded? How large has a community event grown? How has a new administrator improved operations? What has a charity organization done to improve the community?

3. 

   Severe storm damage is an excellent story to revisit.

   To save time, use much of the content and photos from your archive and follow up with a quick interview and maybe a new photo.

Here is another idea if you are approaching or have arrived at back-to-school time; arrange to speak with a few teachers or administrators and ask them what is the earliest first day of school they remember and what was their feelings, edit each response into a paragraph and list them on a page with a small headshot of each person. If you may already have headshots of teachers and administrators on file and can do the whole thing by phone. Do the same with sports.

Instant content to ease your hot summer will cool you off better than a snow cone in the shade!

Christopher: amosnews@yahoo.com

The wonder of blunders

Plans underway to get Americans sick with ebola

That was the online headline from the Associated Press August 1 which was quickly changed to “Plans underway to retrieve Americans sick with ebola.”

We find a lot of humor in goof headlines, be they by oversight, typo or not checking closely what your spell checker suggests.

Rather than sharing a bunch of headlines you can find simply online, I want to share with you my fantastic blunder.

But first, a grand blunder done in the text of a story by an under qualified chief editor I once had the misfortune to work under at a daily paper. The story was about public cleanup day, where residents are encouraged to get their junk out of their yards and garages and take it to the county facility for free disposal. The editor misspelled “Public” and instead wrote “Pubic,”  and to make matters more horrible he ended his story on Pubic Cleanup Day encouraging people to see if their elderly neighbors need help.

My big goof was in the cutline under a front page picture, which was a wonderful photo I took of scores of people releasing purple balloons into the air. The story was Children’s Advocacy Week, and supporters gathered at county courthouses across Texas to hear speeches and released balloons into the air. The cutline read:

“Supporters yesterday joined children advocacy groups around the state in releasing 10,000 baboons at courthouses across Texas”

 

Ahhhh! The baboons are attacking!

I hate auto spell check.

Are you brave enough to share YOUR blunder? Email it here.

A diamond in the abyss

I teach you need to be a good conversationalist to be a great photojournalist. You need to be a outgoing and creative to break the ice with subjects or approach complete strangers. I just completed a grueling photography task I do each year photographing dozens of subjects in two days, often finding strangers to be my subjects.

This is easy if you are at an event – such as an art show, park or fair – but the task is photography for the annual Parker County Texas Visitors Guide. I must get interesting photographs – preferably human – from 16 towns big and tiny and I have been doing this assignment for about 10 years. It is grueling but challenging and satisfying.

I need to drive the entire county and I don't want to take days going out and back. To make things harder, doing it in two day means I cannot schedule to be at popular public events or make arrangements to meet people at particular times.

The bigger towns have senior centers, parks and farmers’ markets to find subjects doing interesting things, while the small towns have nothing almost nobody, at least on a day I randomly drop in.

I was dreading the small town of Peaster because it is a bleak pinpoint on the map and a woman at the school district was snooty on the phone and would not let me photograph on their campus this year Basically, Peaster is a nice high school and neighborhoods. When I arrived I took a picture of the small post office, and it wasn't even open on this weekday afternoon.

I drove around the few neighborhoods and saw a woman in her shaded back yard, hair pulled back, head down and intently painting something on a table. I was thinking “Please, oh please, oh please” as I walked up to her wood gate, introduced myself and explained what I was doing. 

I asked if I may photograph her while she painted, and she said “No, I don’t take good pictures,” I enthusiastically countered with my favorite comeback, “Well, I take great pictures, so that evens things out!” Artist Ariel Menchaca laughed and agreed. 

Jackpot! Not only did she agree to be photographed, she was doing something of interest. She was paining folk art on mirror frames for a taqueria her family was opening. For those not familiar with Texas, a taqueria is small Mexican café specializing in yummy authentic soft tacos.

It took imagination, inspiration and a little bravery to get this good picture in a tough situation. It was my best photo of the job. I drove to my next stop singing   ♫  “Everything's Coming Our Way” by Carlos Santana.

I sacrificed a story

Sometimes – not often, but perhaps a couple time a career – it is best to walk away from a good story.

It is 15 years since this happened and I have never shared this story because someone might think I am not a good journalist. Now I am going to share it because I believe it shows I am a good journalist.

I built an excellent relationship with a police department to the point the chief and lieutenant called me with scoops and breaking stories, sometimes having me jump out of bed in middle of the night to rush to a drug bust or burglary arrest. The police department liked the exposure in the news because it made them more visible to the public and fortified their $$ figures with the city council come budget time. I liked it because it allowed me rock star photos and stories other papers in my area could only wish for.

I covered a routine house fire in a nice neighborhood one morning and that afternoon the chief called me to the police station for a meeting. The neighbor who called 911 to report the fire told investigators that just before seeing smoke coming from the house he saw a man run out the back door and pour something onto the grass near a fence. Detectives checked and discovered a soup of chemicals liken to methamphetamine poured along the fence line. The chief told me he was starting an investigation to determine if a meth lab caught fire and he wanted me ready for the scoop.

Needless to say, my story angle took a drastic turn.

The following morning the chief phoned me with an odd request.
“I need a favor, Chris.”
Sure, chief. You know me.
“I would like for you not to report anything I told you yesterday afternoon.”
You mean about the neighbor seeing a guy poring meth on the grass?
“Yep.”
I took a long 5 seconds to gather my thoughts and asked the chief if he could tell me why he wanted me to kill the story.
“Sorry, I can't tell you. I just need you to not print the story.”

His voice was not strict or demanding but somewhat exasperated and disappointed. During the next pause it felt as though we were reading each other’s thoughts. I had the right to report the story no matter what the chief said, and it would be a great story that I had the exclusive on.

I said, “You have my word,” and the chief said thanks and hung up.

I printed a routine report about the house fire in the newspaper, including a basic statement from the fire marshal and a photograph of firefighters in action, and that’s all.

For a while I imagined what scenario made the chief want to kill the story, but in time I just let it go. I still had an excellent relationship with the police department, I still had unique access to great stories and I still got calls in the middle of the night for drug busts and burglary arrests, all because I did not sacrifice that relationship for one good story.

Send me comments amosnews@yahoo.com

The hero speaks

I was pleased to have John Daniel Garcia respond on the blog post I wrote about him. What a cool guy and a great reporter. If you have not read the story, the blog post is here.

"Hello Christopher. Thanks for the kind words. The whole debacle was strange and I had begun to ready myself for jail. Luckily we have a good lawyer and another great reporter, Alberto Tomas Halpern, who wrote a first amendment story following the subpoena. Thanks for keeping an eye on journalists' rights."

Another cool picture from John's Facebook page.

Reporter’s rights, a hero and odd art

I have a new hero. His name is John Daniel Garcia.

John Garcia is a reporter for the Big Bend Sentinel here in Texas. After finding, corresponding with and reporting on an allusive, anonymous artist who graffitied a strange shack in the wilderness called Marfa Prada, Garcia was subpoenaed to turn over his notes under threat of jail. The authorities could not find the identity of the culprit and wanted the information from John.

The story received no coverage in my area (Texas is a big place, folks) but the story was topic #1 on my journalism feeds and I began following it online.

John and his fine newspaper stood up against the badges and he did not go to jail for it.

One of John's cool Facebook pics

But before I give you a brief on the details, I want all reporters and journalists to raise a favorite beverage and toast John Garcia. Not only did he stand up for the rights of reporters, salute him for being a kickass reporter. I believe it must have been a worrisome time for him. So John, we salute you!

OK, here is the brief. There are many international readers of Ninja Journalism, so you locals bear with me on some of the explanations.

Outside the East Texas town of Marfa, a county seat with a population a little over 20,000, a group of artists built an empty store-like building in 2005 on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. They called it Prada Marfa and they called it “art,” and the tourists loved it.

This year, someone known only as 9271977 graffitied the building. While authorities were scratching their heads, Garcia used his reporter brain and discovered the identity of the doer and corresponded with him for a fantastic story.

The Authorities came down on John for his notes to obtain the person's phone number, claiming they were not violating any aspect of the First Article of the U.S. Constitution. John and his newspaper did not give in, and in time authorities discovered the deed-doer (even a blind dog can find a bone) to be artist Joe Magnano. Magnano’s day in court has yet to come but I guess he might get fined for putting art on art, or something.

The end.

I now toast John Garcia with a Shiner Black Lager.

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Prada Marfa