You Don’t Have to Reinvent the Wheel

Stories about shoppers turning to resale and thrift shops to find bargains have popped up across the country in recent weeks. Andrea K. Walker of The Baltimore Sun wrote about increasing sales at such stores in her area and offered sales data from a publicly traded company to support her article. She also made the story more tangible by including consumer voices.

Today’s Tip: Sometimes you don’t need to reinvent the wheel; just change the hubcap.

Watch coverage in other markets to find story ideas that will work for your audience. Here’s a great article by tech guru Amy Webb on ways to use social media to track news trends. Add your own spin and fresh reporting to localize the story. For instance, you could expand the bargain-shopping idea to online as well. Are clothing bids up on eBay? Are people trying to sell more items on their own instead of donating them? You could also use social media to find three local bargain hunters to see how they’re saving money.