Best Practices

BBC, ICIJ: asbestos industry ‘exporting an epidemic’ to developing world

By Rosland Gammon on Jul 30, 2010 in Best Practices, Energy | Utilities | Mining, Featured, Health care, Investigation, Story ideas

The BBC and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) investigated how a global network of lobbyists has spent nearly $100 million since the mid-1980s to preserve the market for asbestos, especially in the developing world where use of the cheap — but carcinogenic – building material is growing.
Among the key findings of their investigation:
“Despite waves of asbestos-related disease in [...]

NPR proves even a new playground can be a business story

By Rosland Gammon on Jul 29, 2010 in Best Practices, Featured, Real estate | Econ development, Story ideas

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Proving that you can find a business angle in almost any story, NPR headed to a new $7 million playground in New York for a piece on how “Imagination Playground” fits into economic development. The segment by Robert Smith says:
“Manhattan is undergoing a baby boom. And Adrian Benepe, New York’s parks commissioner, says building fancy, innovative [...]

Unleash your inner geek with free tech training

By Linda Austin on Jul 28, 2010 in Basics, Best Practices, Career tips, Investigation

A couple of free training opportunities are coming up for journalists interested in polishing their tech skills.
Tech guru Amy Webb’s training site for journalists, Knowledgewebb.net, is offering a free Webinar called, “10 Steps to a Tech-Savvy You,” from 2-3 p.m. EDT on Aug. 5.
“Think of it as a digital media makeover,” Webb writes in an e-mail. [...]

ESPN checks eatery inspections at stadiums to find mold, slime

By Rosland Gammon on Jul 28, 2010 in Best Practices, Featured, Health care, Retail | Lifestyle, Sports, Story ideas

Take me out to the ballgame, but check the food-safety inspections first. Paula Lavigne of ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” finds some vendors at sports stadiums aren’t passing food inspections. She writes:
“ESPN’s ‘Outside the Lines’ reviewed health department inspection reports for food and beverage outlets at all 107 North American arenas and stadiums that were home [...]

Need help investigating stimulus or lenders? Check these training videos

By Reynolds Staff on Jul 27, 2010 in Best Practices, Economy, IRE 2010 Blog, IRE CAR 2010, Investigation, Investing | Banking, Story ideas

We’ve posted two training videos that may be helpful if you’re investigating the stimulus or tracking mortgage lenders. They are graciously provided to us by Investigative Reporters and Editors from sessions at its Computer Assisted Reporting (CAR) Conference in Phoenix in March.
In the video on the federal economic stimulus, reporters Tom Grabell of ProPublica.org and Ben Poston of the [...]

The power of the folo leads LAT to high-flying city salaries

By Rosland Gammon on Jul 27, 2010 in Best Practices, Featured, Investigation, Story ideas

Just like KISS (keep it simple, stupid), this reporting tip never gets old: Follow up.
That doesn’t always mean an update. Following up can also mean checking up on new characters or following a component of a story, as the Los Angeles Times did in this story about salaries for city officials who earn two to three times [...]

Goldman Sachs explainer proves that business videos are hard to do

By Robin J Phillips on Jul 26, 2010 in Best Practices, Media | Advertising, Tools

How the government says Goldman Sachs defrauded investors

USA Today proves that business videos are hard to do… to do well.
This ambitious video combines graphics and animation to try to explain what happened with Goldman Sachs. Did they succeed? You be the judge.
This really is a big project and no doubt took several writers, [...]

NYT ‘nationalizes’ local story on outsourcing of Calif. city’s services

By Rosland Gammon on Jul 26, 2010 in Best Practices, Economy, Featured, Story ideas

David Streitfeld of The New York Times takes readers to Maywood, Calif., where the city fired all of its workers and rehired them as contractors to save money and deal with lawsuits against its police department. David writes:
“At first, people in this poor, long-troubled and heavily Hispanic city southeast of Los Angeles braced for anarchy.
Senior [...]

Award winner says no compromise of principles in trade pubs

By Rosland Gammon on Jul 23, 2010 in Best Practices, Career tips, Entrepreneurs, Featured, Health care

Freelancer Jan Greene won a second-place award from the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) for a story looking at options for small hospitals to survive. The article ran in Trustee magazine, a trade publication targeted at boards of directors for hospitals.

The story relays how solutions such as partnerships and mergers worked for other hospitals.
“In [...]