Using humor to humanize

Diane Cardwell of The New York Times wrote a commercial real estate story that offers another look at people benefiting during the recession: artists getting free or cheap space as landlords seek to avoid empty spaces. The story says:

These “pop-up galleries,” as they are known in Britain, where the phenomenon is already well established, are increasingly taking hold in New York as development advocates and landlords struggle to keep up appearances where commerce and construction have stalled.

The demand among landlords is so high that Chashama, a group that has been working for almost 15 years to find vacant real estate for visual and performing artists, no longer has to go looking. Its founder, Anita Durst, said she gets calls every day from landlords asking her to find art projects for them. Some even offer to cover basic expenses like electricity.

The story offers a variety of voices, which makes it more interesting. For example, Diane provides an exchange between two barbers who work near one of the art exhibits:

His co-worker, James Tucker, said it was, “different, cultural-wise,” saying that he liked some of the artwork on display but that he found Mr. Chang’s road-kill project “really creepy.”

Junior added, laughing, “He should do a Halloween thing with that.”


Today’s Tip: Don’t be afraid to add humor and voices from non-stakeholders to your stories.

As the Barlett and Steele Award winners noted recently, stories need people. Quotes like the ones noted above bring life – and humor – to stories.

Combining trends and tips

Stephanie Rosenbloom of The New York Times offers a strong trend story on coupon clipping.

Thanks to the miserable economy, coupons — like board games and family dinners around the kitchen table — have made a comeback. The recession has even made coupon clippers out of some groups that once avoided them, including well-to-do and young shoppers.

The story offers examples of the hard-working coupon clippers who pay pennies on the dollars for their groceries while also offering consumer tips and a wealth of data on who’s clipping these days.

Today’s Tip: Integrate consumer stories and trend pieces to create interesting and useful reads.

Readers want tips, and they want to be in the know. By integrating the two concepts, as Stephanie has done, you can offer an appealing story that includes a “you can do it, too” element.

Take data to the ground level

Jonathan Karl of ABC News and Thomas Frank of USA Today tracked how the federal government has spent money on small airports that see few passengers.

Jonathan’s segment looks at stimulus funding used for commercial airports that provide fewer than five flights a day. His story singles out the Ouzinkie Airport in Alaska, which he says “hit the stimulus jackpot with $15 million. That’s $100,000 for each of the town’s 150 residents -- even though there’s another airport just 30 minutes away.”

Thomas’ article focuses on the Airport Improvement Program, which offers federal funding to general aviation airports that serve only private planes. He notes in his story that the money used on the commercial airports comes from taxes on all airplane-ticket sales.

The taxes can add up to 15% to the cost of a flight — or about $29 to a $200 round-trip ticket.
Federal lawmakers have used some of the money to build and maintain the world's most expansive and expensive network of airports — 2,834 of them nationwide — with no scheduled passenger flights. Known as general-aviation airports, they operate separately from the 139 well-known commercial airports that handle almost all passenger flights.
In the first full accounting of the 28-year-old Airport Improvement Program, USA TODAY found that Congress has directed $15 billion to general-aviation airports, which typically are tucked on country roads and industrial byways.

Today’s Tip: Take data to the ground level.

By gathering details and seeing the airports in action, the reporters were able to put together stories showing how the money was misspent.

The USAToday story includes an interactive map that allows viewers to click on symbols for each individual U.S. airport and see how much air traffic and federal money it has received.

If you’d like to look at stimulus funding in your area, check out this piece from W.J. Hennigan to help you track stimulus spending. You can also review the archived live blog of the Reynolds Center’s Sept. 21 workshop in Dallas with New York Times reporter Ron Nixon on the topic. Nixon will also be teaching how to track stimulus funds at a free Reynolds Center workshop in New Orleans on Nov. 9. For more information or to register, please click here. To participate in the live blog of that workshop, go to www.BusinessJournalism.org on Nov. 9.

Put yourself in the readers' place

Several news outlets have taken on bank fees for debit cards in the past few weeks as outrage over the fees rises. Ron Lieber and Andrew Martin of The New York Times tackled the issue with a series called The Card Game. Their first story looks at how much banks earn when consumers overspend.

According to the F.D.I.C. study, a $27 overdraft fee that a customer repays in two weeks on a $20 debit purchase would incur an annual percentage rate of 3,520 percent. By contrast, penalty interest rates on credit cards generally run about 30 percent.

The series, a tag-team effort with PBS’s "Frontline," offers videos, charts and primers for consumers to avoid fees.

Today’s Tip: Don’t forget the tips for consumers.

A majority of readers probably identified with the anecdotes cited in the story. Instead of leaving them in the amen corner, the package offers practical information for readers to avoid the fees and other resources – something many news articles omit.

As former business copy desk chief Jim Moffatt used to remind us at The Philadelphia Inquirer, PYIRP, or Put Yourself in the Readers’ Place.

Relate, create, innovate: New ways to tell a story

David Kempa, a reporter for News21, a summer reporting project where writers set out to define innovation, traveled to the Mexican border and into southern Mexico and produced a three-part piece that looks closely at economic conditions in the area.

As you scroll through the project, the graphic elements at the top of the page help drive the users' navigation through the story.

Today’s Tip: Redefine storytelling. The Internet provides ample space for photos, videos, words and graphics. Take advantage of the opportunity to engage your audience and help them connect to your stories even more.

As reporters, look for ways to integrate multimedia elements into your stories. For instance, Joe Drape, the horse-racing reporter for The New York Times, provided a video looking at the fates of older racehorses.

Called “Where Do Racehorses Go?” it lasts 7 minutes and 14 seconds and helps the audience connect emotionally to the story.

For tips on how to augment stories with multimedia, check out the Innovation Roundup from the News21 group.

Look behind the curtain

Jack Healy of The New York Times wrote a story about property tax lien holders foreclosing on properties in Toledo, Ohio. As foreclosures rise, the article offers another answer to what’s behind the increase.

Today’s Tip: Think like Dorothy and look behind the curtain.

Many news outlets have written about increasing foreclosures, but few have cited unpaid property taxes as a possible cause.

When you’re trying to determine why something happened, don’t stop at one answer. Talk with varied and multiple sources to get a full picture.

Don't shortchange Web updates

Stephanie Rosenbloom of The New York Times gave readers a real-time story about Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s earnings that non-investors could understand.

The article omits the jargon that plagues many earnings stories – especially earlier versions that hit the Web – and it clearly explains what the numbers mean. Stories on other Web sites tossed in analysts’ expectations or several earnings figures to create long first sentences.

Today’s Tip: Real-time Web updates need the same level of clarity and detail that printed stories do. Once you get the required “competitive-edge” stories up, step back and write a reader-friendly piece.

Stephanie’s Web piece started:
Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer and one of the best-performing chains during the recession, reported a profit on Thursday that was essentially the same as last year.

She translated that from a Wal-Mart press release that started:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) today reported diluted earnings per share from continuing operations for the second quarter of fiscal year 2010 of $0.88, at the top of the company’s guidance of $0.83 to $0.88. The effect of currency exchange rates reduced earnings by approximately $0.04 per share. Walmart earned $0.86 per share from continuing operations in the second quarter last year.

Don’t Forget to Ask Why

Motoko Rich, a reporter for The New York Times, found that Target customers are tossing more in their carts besides cleaning supplies and toiletries. They’re also buying books.

In her story about how the retailer has helped boost sales of relatively unknown authors and books, she cites an example of one book that sold only 2,000 copies when first published two years ago. After hitting Target’s Bookmarked Book Club, the book hit The New York Times' trade paperback fiction best-seller list.

Today’s Tip: Ask “Why?”

“It seems that a lot of interesting marketing stories come from simply asking the basic "why" question,” Motoko said in an email. “Sometimes the answer is not that interesting, but in this case it really was striking.”

Motoko said the story started when she noted increased sales of "Sarah's Key" and called the publisher to ask why. She found that Target has become a leading seller on some titles.

“I thought our readers, who were accustomed to reading stories about Barnes & Noble or Amazon or independent bookstores, would be surprised to learn that Target is such a large outlet for books, and not just of big names like Nora Roberts or James Patterson,” she said.