Steve Buttry, Writing Coach at the Omaha World-Herald, gives advice on how to develop and cultivate sources. Questions? Call Steve at (402)444-1345. Back to Reporting Archive Developing and Cultivating Sources Be available. Let people on your beat know you're interested in hearing tips, suggestions, complaints, whatever. Make sure they have your phone number and e-mail. If it's appropriate, give them home, cell and pager numbers, too. Make rounds frequently in person and by telephone. Be honest. Never mislead a source. Be honest about the direction a story is taking. If it's going to be a "negative" story, don't bill it as something else. If you're not going to write a story about a tip, don't indicate that you will. This doesn't mean you have to offend sources needlessly. If a source is worried about a negative story, assure him you intend to make the story fair and accurate and that you want to hear his side of the story. Be annoyingly insistent on accuracy. If someone gives you figures off the top of her head, ask where she got those figures, then check the original source. Call back sources to confirm spellings, figures, chronologies, etc. Ask for reports, documents, business cards, personnel directories, calendars that can confirm spellings, numbers and other facts. This not only ensures the accuracy of your stories, it wins respect with sources (and good will that you'll need if an error does slip through). Find new "suspects." Seek out sources who aren't the "usual suspects" on your beat. If you always find yourself talking to white men, find some women and minorities who might bring a different perspective to your stories and steer you toward different ideas. If you find yourself always talking to the professionals and bosses, spend some time talking to the folks in the trenches. If you spend most of your time talking to liberals, seek out some conservatives. If you spend most of your time talking to people your age, seek out some younger or older sources. These people with different perspectives will point you to different stories. Look around the agency you cover for the people or offices who attract the least attention. Spend some time there to see if you'll hear some different tips. Ask yourself each week whether you made meaningful contact with a new source. If you didn't, could you have? Talk to consumers. If you are assigned to a government or commercial entity, make sure that your circle of sources is wider than the officials of that entity. Talk to citizens who deal with that agency or business and use its services or products. If some of these consumers are organized, you should deal regularly with leaders of those organizations. You also may need to deal with some self-appointed crusaders and gadflies. Make a point of dealing with some average, unaffiliated consumers. Learn where records are. Familiarize yourself with the paper and electronic record-keeping practices of the offices you cover. Learn which records are clearly public, which are legally confidential and which might present access disagreements. Learn who has access to the confidential records (not just in the office, but clients or members of the public who might have them). Learn what information is available on the Internet (and thus, after hours and on weekends and without asking anyone). Tell sources of your interests. Tell good sources about stories you're working on, even the ones that may not involve them directly. You may know that a source isn't directly involved with an issue, but if you tell him about the stories you're working on, he may steer you toward other sources who might be helpful, or he may tell you something helpful that he's heard around the office. Become an expert. The more you learn about the complicated issues, technology and economics of your beat, the more your sources will respect you, the harder it will be for them to BS you, and the easier it will be for you to spot good stories. Read books, articles, reports. Research on the Internet. Ask lots of questions. Admit you're not an expert. If you don't know or understand something, ask. Sources will respect your honesty, and you will learn. Also, if you fake understanding, they will catch on quickly and you will lose credibility. Repeat your understanding back to the source, for confirmation that you understand. Find experts. Learn what academic institutions, think tanks or non-profit groups might study or monitor activities in your beat. Develop them as sources, so they will notify you of reports and they will know who you are when you call for their analysis of issues and events. Learn what attachments, if any, your experts have. Biases don't render an expert's research useless, but you must know them and note them. Develop national sources. Contact national associations, academic experts and federal agencies to develop sources with expertise in the subject you cover. They may provide valuable perspective for a local story. Or they may know something happening locally. They may alert you to a national trend. Show interest. Sources may want to bend your ear about a matter other than what you want to talk about. Listen. You may get a good news tip. Even if the source thinks it's a story and you don't, show interest. However boring or annoying a source may be, however uninteresting you find this alleged tip, you don't know when a little bit of knowledge might be helpful. Even if the information is completely useless, the source will appreciate your interest and may someday tell you something that is important or interesting. Face the music. When you write a story that might make someone mad, show up at her office the day the story runs, or call, either to ask directly about the story, to follow up or on some other pretense. Give the person a chance to sound off. If you made mistakes, admit them. If you didn't, hold your ground but listen respectfully. Many sources (politicians, lawyers, coaches, athletes) are used to respectful adversary relationships and they will respect you and keep working well with you if you show the respect and courage to face the music when you've nailed them. This also is a good time for getting news tips. If someone is upset about a negative story, ask about more positive news happening in his territory. If he says the situation in his office isn't nearly as bad as in another office, ask for details about the other office. Admit your mistakes. If you make an error (or the newspaper makes an error on your turf), admit the mistake, correct it and apologize personally to those affected. People understand that mistakes happen and they respect people who take responsibility. If you weren't mistaken or it's not clear whether you're mistaken (such as a disagreement over emphasis, rather than a factual error), listen sincerely to the complaint. Even if you disagree, give the source her say and discuss why you told the story the way you did. Consider whether a follow-up story is warranted. If not, suggest a letter to the editor or op-ed offering. Whatever niceties you engage in to establish rapport, the source should understand that your interest in the relationship is receiving information and understanding. Share control. Even if a source spends a lot of time with reporters, he probably doesn't feel completely comfortable facing you and your notebook. Occasionally in an interview, give him some control. Sure, you're asking the questions, but answer his questions if he asks any. Listen politely as he wanders off the subject occasionally. The source will feel more comfortable answering your questions if the relationship doesn't feel one-sided. Take control. Ask your questions directly. If the source ducks a question, ask again. Whatever niceties you engage in to establish rapport, the source should understand that your interest in the relationship is receiving information and understanding. Track your sources. Use a spreadsheet to keep track of information about your sources. Get their office phone, direct office phone, cell phone, home phone, vacation home phone and pager numbers. Get their e-mail addresses. Record names of secretaries, spouses, children, hometowns, former jobs, alma maters, anything you learn that might later be handy to know. Regard your sources as characters. You're not going to profile everyone on your beat. But you might profile anyone on your beat. So regard them all as characters you must develop fully. Learn about their families, hobbies, background, favorite sports teams, watering holes. Note their mannerisms. Even if you never write that profile, learning these things will bring some tips your way, as the character will tell you about something she heard from her husband or an interesting thing happening in a social group to which she belongs. Stay on the record. As much as possible, keep your interactions on the record, especially when you're talking about information your sources know first-hand. Your sources should always understand that this is a business relationship and your business is gathering and reporting information. When you have to go off the record, make sure it is for a good reason. For instance, if a source is telling you something he doesn't know first-hand, you wouldn't quote him about that anyway, but the tip may lead you to first-hand sources. If you go off the record, make sure both of you understand the terms: Is the information for publication or not for attribution? If so, try to get agreement on a description of the source that's as precise as possible. Is the discussion not for publication (if so, make sure the source knows you will try to get it in the paper using other sources)? Before you go off the record in any fashion, tell the source you might try to get her on the record later if she says anything you want to use. And if she does, go back later with just the information or quotes you want to use, and try to get her on the record. Ask for documentation. Always ask for documentation of what your sources tell you. You don't have to do this in a challenging way (unless you're challenging). Present it as part of your quest for accuracy. Or if the source was uneasy about discussing something for the record, say you can attribute something to a document rather than to him. Documents provide verification. They may provide details that your source can't recall or did not know. They may lead you to other sources. In addition, they provide precedent. If a source gives you a document when it's in her interest, it may be difficult for her to claim later that the same sort of document is not a public record. Establish a connection. Don't be afraid to show your human side. If you have children the same age as the source, commiserate about car seats or car pools or car insurance, whatever stage the children are. If he hates your favorite sports team, engage in some good-natured trash talk. If she has an illness in the family, show genuine compassion. Don't fake a connection or stretch for one, but be alert for genuine ways to make a connection. If you have little in common with the person, connect by showing genuine interest in the character beyond the narrow focus of today's story. Beware of getting too close. If your relationship with a source moves beyond friendly to friendship, you may need to adjust the relationship. You might need to ask some tough questions that remind him of the nature of your job. You can't and shouldn't withdraw from community life. But if you encounter sources at church and in children's sports and the like, you may need to establish some boundaries. If you're unsure whether a relationship is getting too cozy, discuss it with an editor. Maybe you should discuss it with a source, too. The source might feel a little uncomfortable, too, and might appreciate hearing that you can cheer together at your kids' baseball game Tuesday and still argue Wednesday over news coverage or access to records. Go prospecting. Take time to go "prospecting" for sources and stories. That means to take a trip or set up an interview with no particular story in mind. You're visiting a source you haven't seen for a while or a community or agency you haven't covered for a while. You go just to familiarize yourself, to take someone to lunch or chat in the office or home a while. Maybe you'll come back with a terrific story you never would have known enough to pursue. Maybe you'll come back without a particular story, but with some tips to pursue. Maybe you'll just come back with a valuable source to contact in future stories. At the least, you'll gain a greater understanding of your community and your beat. Prospecting almost always yields stories and is always time well spent. You just can't tell the editor in advance what it's going to produce. Back to Reporting Archive