When the subject won't talk

Ruth Madoff, the wife of the imprisoned Ponzi-scheme operator Bernard Madoff, became the focus of a Vanity Fair article by Mark Seal after she broke her silence by issuing a press release.

Seal uses that statement to provide a voice from Mrs. Madoff. The remainder of the story comes from the approximately 100 people Mark interviewed about her.

Today’s Tip: Sometimes what other people say about the subject of a profile makes a better story.

Mark tracked Ruth Madoff’s life back to age 14 and even found a high school classmate. Start at the person’s LinkedIn page and work your way to the high school yearbook. Good resources on backgrounding a person are the tipsheets available from Investigative Reporters and Editors for its members; it costs $60 a year to join.