Stay Organized to Spin Stories Forward

Meg James, who covers the business of TV for the Los Angeles Times, took years of data and reporting knowledge to transform a piece about Univision’s refinancing of its debt into a more comprehensive article.

Meg says she’s covered the Spanish-language broadcaster since 2002. When the company refinanced its debt and secured contracts with various cable companies, Meg says she decided to sweep those recent events into one story.

In less than three days, she talked to debt analysts and debt-rating agencies, called various banks that owned the debt and pulled together the story for a Monday business section.

How was she able to turn it around so quickly?
• She has covered the company for years.
• Her computer files are organized by topic, such as Spanish media and financial reports.

Today’s Tip: Keep your files organized so that you have handy the context to spin a story forward.

Meg says her organizational habit started early in her reporting career after she saw the stories that The Miami Herald Sunday magazine was able to do. Her “smaller paper did Polaroid snapshots. At The Miami Herald magazine, they pulled it all together and made it all make sense to me,” she says. “…The bulk of readers haven’t been following (a story) from day to day.”

And she says, “If you’re going to do a bigger picture story, you really have to spin it forward to give the story the context it needs to survive in the 24-hour news cycle. …You owe readers your analytical mind to be able to say what will happen down the road.”