Al Tompkins provides best practices & story ideas that you can localize & enterprise.
The California Watch project “On Shaky Ground” was supposed to be a “quick hit” assignment, not a massive 19-month award-winning, state policy-changing investigation that could be honored with a Pulitzer Prize this afternoon.
It was never imagined as a… Read more
Viewers and readers say they want more news about the economy. I suspect most journalists have no idea how much data they could mine that speaks directly to those readers/listeners/viewers. Look at this menu from the Labor Department’s
There comes a time when withholding information is more damaging than releasing it. ABC News faced such a time Wednesday when word leaked out that Brian Ross had what the Drudge Report hinted was an explosive interview with Newt… Read more
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in what could be a pivotal First Amendment case: the FCC v. Fox. What the Court decides will affect what we see on TV and hear on radio for… Read more
WTVF reporter Nick Beres is a veteran reporter who knows how to work fast, but I think one of his best skills is writing to the video. The story that Nick produced Monday required his best work.
This remarkable story… Read more
In more than three decades of hanging around TV stations and studios, I have never seen anything like what happened on NBC Nightly News Tuesday night.
Brian Williams was just introducing the lead story of the newscast about the American… Read more
It is so easy to find examples of local TV stations pulling ratings months stunts that make me wince. From a topless reporter in Cleveland to an Atlanta TV station using voice analysis to try to figure out… Read more
NPR and The Center for Public Integrity have taken partnerships, interactive journalism and database reporting to new heights in their just released investigation, “Poisoned Places.” The project uncovers 464 industrial polluters nationwide that the EPA placed on
Seattle area public schools will allow free speech and free press thanks to an alert journalist who spotted a hidden pending policy change.
This is a story about the value of good old-fashioned beat reporting that included pawing through boring-looking… Read more
On a typical day, KSAX-TV in Alexandria, Minnesota attracts about 10,000 page views. Recently, the station set a record, 250,000 page views in a single day and a million views in four days. The secret weapon: a photograph of a… Read more