Monday, March 23, 2009

A quick way to better interviewing

Wanted to let everyone know that we're working on firming up the schedule for Jacqui Banaszynski's video workshops, and Amy and I are planning our own baggers to complement Jacqui's and take us through most or all aspects of the reporting/writing/editing process during the year. Stay tuned ...

Meanwhile, I was going through the notes I took at Poynter's Newspaper Writing & Editing seminar in 1997, and came across this from Jacqui, who was talking about some functional things to do to make stories better.

She referred to the "Banaszynski beer rule": Take your story idea to someone other than your assigning editor. Ask them, if you could have a beer with the person I'm writing about and could ask them anything, what would you want to know?

A small but good thing to remember as you're interviewing & reporting.

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