11 Commandments of Beat Coverage

1. Know Your Readers

Know who your readers are. Know where they live, work and play. Learn what forces affect them. Know the demographics, know the history, know the traditions.
Learn -- and never forget -- what your readers want from your coverage.
To avoid the trap of writing for your sources, remember your readers' N-I-C. That stands for Needs, Interests and Curiosity.
Need deals with essential information. Readers may need information to act, such as how to order concert tickets, how to file for tax relief, how to avoid a jammed highway.
Interest deals with the information the reader wants. Readers' special interests may demand thorough coverage on the news, including background and strategies. Interests vary in scope and intensity. Compare the limited range of people interested in historic houses to the much larger range of the sports fans.
Curiosity deals with story elements that no appeal across the board. Human drama, winners-losers, courage, love, danger, and, above all, suspense. If you can put a human face on an issue, if you can show the clash of forces and the human element, you will pull readers into supposedly boring public policy stories.
Know what your readers know. If few people in your area know anything about lacrosse, your story must do some explaining. Always remember the reader.

Six questions you must ask of every story:

1. What is the news?
2. What is new about it?
3. Why is it news?
4. Who is it news to?
5. Will they know it is news?
6. What will it take to get them to read it?

2. Know Your Calendar

Know the official-announced calendar: meetings, contract lengths, holidays. Know the unofficial-unannounced calendar: budget seasons, training trips, reports, reviews.

3. Keep a Tickler File

One file for next year, one file for each month of the year, one set of files numbered 1 through 31 for daily stories, one file for folo ideas. Keep clips, notes, questions, ideas. Feed and review the files every day.

4. Get Four-Deep Files

Gather names, work and home phone numbers, titles, e-mails, addresses of the top people and second-level, third-level, fourth-level people. Know the lines of authority: who reports to whom. Get to know secretaries, assistants, service people. They are the gatekeepers. They can give or deny you access. Above all, treat them as real human beings. They will respond in kind.

5. Understand the Laws, Limits and Powers

Know how the law empowers and limits the boards, businesses and organizations on your beat. If it's a zoning board, know how far the board can go and where it can't go. If it raises taxes, know what constraints the board deals with. If it spends money, know where that money comes from and when.

6. Know the Constituencies

Know the constituency your subjects serve. Make sure you know the difference between the official and unofficial constituency. For example, state boards serve all of the people. But the agricultural department listens more closely to the big-time grower of a vegetable crop than the consumer. A sewer authority may seem to have independence, but in reality all of the members may be indebted to a political boss.
A good way to find out who is being served is to follow the money. The major employer in town may get special privileges because its pays a lot of taxes. Or a corporation may have easy access because it and its employees contribute heavily to candidates.
Know who makes up the "permanent government." Elected officials may come and go, especially on the local level. School board members, in most communities, hold full-time jobs outside of the school district. No matter how diligent the member is, she won't wield as much immediate influence on a low-level school official as the superintendent will. In those cases, the power may seem to be in the power of the elected officials, but teachers answer to their principal and the principal answers to the superintendent. Understand that power relationship.

7. Find the Wise Men and Women

They exist on every beat. These are the "go to" people who command respect, wield power and dispense advice. Sometimes they hold a title of power, sometimes they don't. For example, a union official or a businessman may be calling the shots for the local party. Know the ones your sources go to. Develop your own wise men inside, outside and alongside the beat.

8. Understand the Dollars, Problems and Jargon

Boards, authorities and other official and semi-official entities operate amid budget limits, industry-wide forces and technical language. Know them. Translate the jargon ahead of time. Learn how to give readers clear examples. For instance, know how a tax increase will affect the typical home owner. Work this out in advance if you can.

9. Question Every Government Story

1. What is the service being offered or being taken away?
2. Who gets it? Who loses it?
3. What do residents have to pay?
4. How will it affect people? At what point in the process will they feel the effect? When?
5. How can we judge it a success or a failure?
6. When can we judge it a success or failure?

10. Know How Meetings Work

• Where are the meeting notices posted?
• How much in advance is the agenda available?
• Where does the board advertise its bids and other legal notices?
• When do they run?
• Is there a press packet or a board member packet that you could get regularly?
• Who is the best person to give a more useful description of the agenda if it lacks detail?
• Does the board hold briefings, background or workshop sessions to hear reports and technical discussions? When and where are they held?
• What are the procedures for a board to go into executive session and under what conditions may they meet in private?
• How do you get the minutes of an executive session?
• If a majority of a board is gathered in the same room, do the members have a quorum that is subject to all FOI laws? What constitutes a quorum of your boards?
• Does the FOI law extend to board committees?
• What board decisions require a simple majority to pass? Which ones require a super majority?
• When is the public comment period in the board meeting schedule?

11. Follow, Follow, Follow

Use your calendar, use your tickler file, use your contacts. Spin the story forward. Ask what happens next, then get that story in your planning book. Look beyond the daily stories. Look for trends. Start keeping two notebooks. Use one for filing daily stories. Use the other for feature and long-range ideas. Save string, as the saying goes. Save the odd bit of information about a subject. Save the good quotes and the ideas. Every now and then tie the strings together.

Copyright 2001 News Journal