The power of writing business stories packed with emotion
Screenshot from Mandy Locke's story on the feud between WakeMed and Rex Hospitals for the News & Observer.
Mandy Locke at The News & Observer gives readers a glimpse into the battle between WakeMed and Rex Healthcare, the area’s largest hospitals. She starts the story with a casual office meeting between golf buddies. After providing some market details about hospitals having to decide “whether they’d be predator or prey,” she returns to the office:
“After some friendly chat over lunch at his office about golf and vacations, Jenkins asked a potent question: ‘What if, one day, WakeMed were a part of the UNC system?’
Oxholm was startled. He told Jenkins that they should put the question aside unless ‘you want to talk about WakeMed buying Rex.’
That exchange hung in the air for a moment. It has lingered since, and it set the stage for the battles to come between Rex and WakeMed. Over the last year and a half, the fight has featured ambitious heart doctors and CEOs with major aspirations, well-connected lobbyists and public relations specialists trying to shape the public’s perception, and legislators questioning government ownership of a hospital.”
The series notes that Mandy spent about two months interviewing sources, and reviewing notes, letters between key players, financial documents and personal calendars to re-create events.
“I approached this as a story about people who said and heard things that led them to make some pretty drastic decisions,” Mandy says.
Today’s Tip: Ask about emotions as well as details.
Mandy says she started the project by creating a timeline of critical and semi-critical moments to see what had happened. For the critical moments, she compiled a list of the parties involved, she says.
“Some of these subjects weren’t so keen on talking about their emotions in these meetings, mostly because no one had ever asked them before. The more I asked, the more the information just flowed,” she says.
“I then compared memories, stripped it down to the events on which everyone could agree and started to build on that.”
Part two of the series walks readers through relationships with cardiologists that continued the battle.
