Use honey, not vinegar, with bureaucrats, says NPR reporter
Photo by Flickr user BotheredByBees
Earlier this week, I talked about Vanessa Romo’s segment on debt collectors using Facebook for NPR’s All Things Considered. She was vacationing in a wireless unfriendly destination, so I’m updating with her comments.
Her idea for the segment came as an anecdote from a friend of a friend, she says. “Sometimes I feel like I need to find a BIG story that seems important or legitimate in some way, but more often than not, I’m finding some of my best stories come to me through casual conversation with people I already know,” she says in a e-mail. “They heard something interesting or know someone interesting, and that’s why they’re now telling me.”
She says once you have the idea, the reporting can be tough. It took two days for her to find the debt collector cited in her story. The last step – contacting the Federal Trade Commission – took even longer, she says.
Today’s Tip: When dealing with large bureaucracies, use a ‘lot of honey, a little vinegar,’ she says.
Vanessa says to zero in on one person at these agencies and be friendly.
“It took about five days of e-mailing and chumming up to one contact in their press office,” she says. “I also stressed that the piece would be on NPR’s All Things Considered and heard by millions of people, so if they didn’t provide me with any info or give me their ‘official’ stance I’d have to say so in the piece, which would look really bad.”
