Put yourself in the readers' place

Several news outlets have taken on bank fees for debit cards in the past few weeks as outrage over the fees rises. Ron Lieber and Andrew Martin of The New York Times tackled the issue with a series called The Card Game. Their first story looks at how much banks earn when consumers overspend.

According to the F.D.I.C. study, a $27 overdraft fee that a customer repays in two weeks on a $20 debit purchase would incur an annual percentage rate of 3,520 percent. By contrast, penalty interest rates on credit cards generally run about 30 percent.

The series, a tag-team effort with PBS’s "Frontline," offers videos, charts and primers for consumers to avoid fees.

Today’s Tip: Don’t forget the tips for consumers.

A majority of readers probably identified with the anecdotes cited in the story. Instead of leaving them in the amen corner, the package offers practical information for readers to avoid the fees and other resources – something many news articles omit.

As former business copy desk chief Jim Moffatt used to remind us at The Philadelphia Inquirer, PYIRP, or Put Yourself in the Readers’ Place.

Boxers + briefs = boom?

As Ylan Q. Mui, staff writer for The Washington Post, mined apparel data from a market-research company, she came across the men’s underwear index, supposedly an economic indicator. That data turned into a story that starts:

For one answer to the nation's most pressing economic question – when will the recession end? – just take a peek inside the American man's underwear drawer.
There may be some new pairs there, judging by recent reports from retailers and analysts, and that could mean better days ahead for everyone.

Today’s Tip: Look for telling pieces of data. Economic indicator and sales reports abound. Search for new, even offbeat, data that tell the story.

An informal index – the shopping-bag index – was employed by former Ernst & Young analyst Brian Ford, who traveled the malls in the Philadelphia area each Black Friday, counting the number of bags carried by shoppers. Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Jane Von Bergen tagged along with him for a memorable report on holiday shopping one year.

“In business writing,” Ylan says, “we are constantly assaulted with numbers, and it can be tough to dig for the interesting ones. I knew that any story that involved underwear would definitely be a reader!”

Ylan says she searched for other firms that tracked men’s underwear sales and checked with retailers. “This was a light-hearted and quirky story, but I still wanted it to be grounded in some economic theory and hard data,” Ylan says.

While getting sales information from retailers posed a challenge, gathering the courage to interview men about their underwear was an even bigger one, she says. “There were more than a few awkward conversations.”

"Start Thinking Like a Playwright"

Anne Ryman of The Arizona Republic heard about a war room at Arizona State University during her beat coverage of higher education. She started reporting for her story and then decided to use lessons learned from some recent training in narrative writing. The result is a story that begins:

Six people cluster around an oval table in a conference room at Arizona State University.

Behind them, large pieces of paper cover one wall. Printed on each is the name of a federal agency and how much economic-stimulus money is available from them.

NASA: $1 billion. National Science Foundation: $3 billion. Department of Energy: $30.7 billion.

Another chart tracks the share ASU has won so far: $26 million.

ASU's war room, in the fight for stimulus money, is in high gear. Three or four times a week, officials gather here for meetings and plot strategies for grabbing as much stimulus money as possible. They file weekly reports to ASU President Michael Crow.

Today’s Tip: Take the camera into the room. Recreate scenes so readers feel like they are in the room. If you weren’t in the room during the action, learn to ask detailed questions – who was where, who wore what, etc. – so you can write about it. Don Drake, a former Philadelphia Inquirer editor, was a huge proponent of writing like a playwright. Notes from one workshop he offered can be found here.

Anne says after her initial interview, she asked if she could return during a meeting in the war room. She sat along the sidelines with an audio recorder to capture the details of what was being said.

“I tried to in my notes put down as much as I could of what was happening,” she says. She marked details from the “scene” with arrows in her notebook margins – a technique she learned in her training. She called people after the meeting to clarify acronyms and terminology with which she wasn’t familiar.

Ever wonder...?

This week, Robert Smith of National Public Radio answered the question: “How do you launder money?” Using the recent money-laundering story involving New Jersey mayors and rabbis as a news peg, his entertaining and informative segment walks listeners through the steps.


Today’s Tip: If you’re wondering about something, chances are your audience is, too. Start by asking the obvious question, and see where it leads you.

Asking those sorts of questions has led to Pulitzer Prizes for at least two reporters:

• Gilbert M. Gaul, then a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer, asked what happens to donated blood. The resulting investigative series won for public service in 1990.

• Richard Read of The (Portland) Oregonian tracked 20 tons of potatoes from an Oregon farm to a McDonald’s in Indonesia. That led to a series looking at the impact of the Asian financial crisis on the Pacific Northwest’s economy and a Pulitzer Prize in 1999.

More recent examples include stories asking what happens to recycled computer parts. The answer: some have led to water contamination in Asia.

Not every obvious question will lead to a Pulitzer, but like Smith, you could have some fun while you search for the answer.