Small town news = big-time skills, and other tips for young reporters

Sharing a two-bedroom apartment with five other people. Taking a six-hour bus ride home for the holidays because you can’t afford a car (or a parking space, for that matter.) Typing up crime briefs and local swimming pool schedules.

Is this why you endured four years of journalism school?

If you’re a recent college grad who just wants to get a little experience, you might be in the wrong place. Sure, New York City and Washington, DC sound like dream locales for those of us who grew up reading about New York’s newspaper wars and watching “All the President’s Men,” but prime beats in those cities are hard to come by.

Don’t overlook smaller news organizations, says Mike Kilian, managing editor of the Observer-Dispatch newspaper in Utica, NY.

“Smaller newspapers are where you’re going to meet the cops and argue with the mayor who barely finished high school,” Mike says. “It’s where you’ll be bored to tears at some lunch function yet you’ll come back to the office with some great tips for future stories. And it’s where you can learn to sharpen your questions and your writing and win awards and get a heck of a lot of satisfaction.”

Utica is a small city in New York State’s heartland. It was once a luxe getaway destination for New York City’s mob bosses (the paper won a Pulitzer in 1959 for its mafia coverage) and has evolved to become home to thousands of refugees and immigrants from around the world. The city struggles with poverty and crime, but is also home to people who know how to transform abandoned blocks into warm neighborhoods.

There might not be much nightlife in Utica, but there are more stories than an eager reporter could dream of tackling. Mike has hired more than his share of new grads – they make up about half of all the reporters he’s hired, he says. He looks for young journalists who have a handle on time management  and accuracy. Most of all, Mike says he looks for grads who can “see” a story.

“Far too often, a young journalist is pressing up against a deadline with a notebook full of quotes, but with little understanding of what the point of the story really is,” Mike says.

Whether you’re working for a tiny daily in Alaska or the New York Times, young journalists should determine one or two questions a story should answer BEFORE reporting and writing the story.

“If a county were hiring a new public health director, such a key question could be, ‘How will this person address the most pressing needs in the county?’” Mike says. “And that will force the reporter to both keep the story real by focusing on specific healthcare issues, and to keep the interview with the new person focused so that you don’t wind up with ‘I’m happy to be here’ lame quotes.”

Critical thinking is the real key to solid journalism, Mike says.

“Journalists are not stenographers, passively taking down details of what’s occurring,” he says. “Instead, they’re asking the ‘Why’ questions and trying to put events into a useful context for readers.”

When job-hunting, look for news organizations that value basic journalism skills. Find editors who, like Mike, encourage new reporters to focus most on reporting and writing. Social media is critical to the news industry, but real reporting and interviewing skills are the bedrock of journalism.

“Information is more critical to our society than ever, particularly because it moves rapidly through the world, nation or a single community,” Mike says. “Yet 10,000 Tweets don’t necessarily add up to accuracy. The people who do know how to conduct interviews, read documents and follow story leads will likely be more valuable than ever.”

Even in a fast-paced, social media world, Mike says, “there’s always enough time to get the story right, so don’t cut corners in your reporting.”