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Connie Schultz, a columnist for Cleveland's Plain Dealer, knows she's got it pretty good.

Most people with a blue-collar upbringing like hers aren't paid to express their opinions like she does, whether it's about a company that keeps the coat-check tips or the intersection of politics and family privacy (or lack thereof) that arose when Sarah Palin announced that her teenage daughter was pregnant.

"Most Americans have to punch a clock, have to answer to innumerous bosses all day," Schultz told Tom Huang, Poynter's Ethics and Diversity Fellow, in an interview this week. "They have jobs that they would not say are rewarding on a daily basis. It's what they do to make the rest of their lives possible."

So she writes for them.

Schultz is one of many award-winning writers (her list includes a 2005 Pulitzer Prize) featured in this year's "Best Newspaper Writing," a collection of winners and finalists for the American Society of Newspapers Editors writing contest. (The book will be published later this month.) She was at Poynter this week to participate in a panel discussion about issues in the 2008 election, and Huang caught up with her beforehand. (A local public radio station reported Schultz's and Juan Williams' predictions during the discussion of who will win the presidency.)

In Schultz's interview with Huang, one of the book's co-editors, she discussed how she finds her stories, how she approaches her subjects and the influence of her upbringing on her work. You can listen to the full interview by using the links to the right or listen to excerpts about particular topics by clicking the "play" button or the "listen" link at the end of each paragraph below.

• To find great stories, Schultz said, journalists must fight the cynicism that grows after years in the business -- the sense that one has seen and heard it all. (She writes about this in her essay in "Best Newspaper Writing.") In daily life, that means she simply slows down and talks to people. That's how she got her column about the coat-check clerks who couldn't keep their own tips. (listen)

• Schultz is clearly from the "comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable" tradition of journalism. Here she discusses how her background has influenced her work as a journalist. (listen)
  

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  		"Best Newspaper Writing 2008-2009" contains two columns and an essay by Connie Schultz. The book will be published this month and can be ordered from the Poynter Store.

  One of the columns in Schultz's ASNE entry is a good example of this type of work. The column, called "Losing Cookie Was Everyone's Loss," is about a 12-year-old girl who was killed by gunfire in her neighborhood. Here she talks about how that column came about. (listen)

• Schultz said there are two elements to her successful columns. (listen)

• Instead of avoiding emotional involvement with her subjects, Schultz draws on those connections. Another column that was part of Schultz's ASNE entry is about a woman who died of mesothelioma, a lung disease. Something about the woman's obituary reminded Schultz of her own mother's death. (listen)

• At the urging of a colleague, Schultz has begun to do occasional video commentaries. Listen to her talk about how she is adapting her work for video. (listen)

• Like many other writers in "Best Newspaper Writing," Schultz praised her editor, Stuart Warner, who she said is a mentor (sometimes a surreptitious mentor) to reporters at The Plain Dealer. "I really encourage writers to find those editors -- even if you don't report to them, work with them, because they also tend to be the ones who really want to help writers get better."

• And though mindful of the difficulties in the news industry, Schultz offers this positive advice to young journalists. (listen)