Give a New Twist to the Same Annual Story Dance

Every year, some dreaded annual article on high temperatures or the summer festival would send me escaping to the restroom every time the metro editor rounded the corner, hunting for any victim with a pen and notebook to write them.

In those times, the business desk seemed nothing short of a sanctuary. Until I got there.

There, I found the same sorts of annual sigh-inducers in the form of Black Friday, turkey sales and holiday price-slashing stories. This time of year, especially, it's tough to feel like the veteran reporter when you're doing the intern story.

We can't escape the yearly revisit to these Assignments of Banality no matter what desk employs us. But we need not surrender to that banality each time. We can find a fresh angle that takes the same-old story down a different turn.

That takes, in part, creativity and curiosity, and new ways of framing a story to give color to that old piece of work.

Sometimes that takes a fresh pair of eyes. These stories are often handed to interns with sound reason. Good interns, and sometimes out-of-towners, can switch on a new light for these stories, stumbling over a new angle that longtime reporters may unthinkingly sidestep.

By asking themselves the question, "Why is…" -- why is the event held this way, or this particular person involved, or this one store doing better than others in sales -- they're tracking down answers and stories that old-hand reporters may have taken for granted, but never really told to readers. Remember the cardinal rule of reporting: What makes you wonder will often make your readers wonder.

On the other hand, sometimes this takes decades-old experience. Somebody who's been there, done that enough times to know not to do it again.

A 22-year veteran of The Record in Bergen County, N.J., retail reporter Joan Verdon has seen 22 versions of the holiday shopping story over the years, from readers grading mall Santas, to asking cops for precious traffic-avoidance tips, to residents choosing the best of three Macy's department stores in as many miles.

And yet, in the back of her mind, she still packs away new story ideas for future Black Fridays, virtually a holy day in Bergen County, where Verdon says an uncommonly high mall population delivers more of the country's retail than can Madison Avenue or even Sin City's strip on high-roller days. In the old days, covering Black Friday -- when retail revenue rises from red to black after borderline-fanatical shopping starting the dawn after Thanksgiving -- would require a half-dozen reporters and months of preparation.

"It's a big story for The Bergen Record," she says. Still, "when you feel you've done every possible angle, it's time to get a new beat. We push ourselves."

After years of mall-hopping shifts beginning at the preposterous hour of 4 a.m., Verdon and fellow reporters inserted a blurb in the paper asking to follow a family of staunch shoppers, documenting their routes and purchases for the entire day. That's, as Verdon likes to describe it, the "microcosm" approach to the big-picture story -- telling a personal yarn that unravels the larger trend.

And her mind brims with more stories: Forget the Goliath-size chain department stores, how are smaller, nichey retailers handling Black Fridays? What about anti-Black-Friday protesters who actively shun shopping and salute "Buy Nothing Day." And is the day even as sacred to shoppers as it once was, what with mouse-clicking replacing card-swiping in newly built Internet malls?

Plus, what surprises Verdon this year could be the baseline for a new angle next year.

"Think about what you've done the last couple of years, and do the opposite," Verdon says. "Think small if you've always done the big-picture story. Then do the opposite of that. Don't just automatically do the same thing."

The same stories, year after year, bore reporters even more than they bore readers. But reach for that new angle, and perhaps that race to the restroom is no longer necessary.

And the most important part: How to find that new angle:

• Read up on what's been done. Roam from newsroom archives through the Internet to ensure you know what the "same-old story" is (though, the latter can give you ideas of good stories done at other papers). An online search pulled up recent Black Friday stories that pointed out the rise of Internet shopping -- and glitches that arrest it, its hiking of credit card debt, and the effects of the Iraq war, interest rate cuts and the presidential election.
• Go back to the beginning, the big picture. Take a step back and tell the full story. How did this event/trend first begin? What is its larger impact? As an intern, I once had to cover an annual discount shopping spree that overtook the local convention center. But that was my story: how it grew from a few stalls to a mass (and yet, cultish) tourist attraction.
• Focus in, on one person, one detail. Find one person or entity that tells -- and ultimately humanizes -- your larger story. This is what Verdon & Co. are doing with their family, but maybe for you, it's following an employee on a crazed shopping day, or a mergers and acquisitions attorney through negotiating a final deal. You can also home in on a single detail or process that hasn't been illustrated before -- perhaps one hot- or slow-selling item, or how inventory follows sales. The Los Angeles Times did this best in its Pulitzer Prize-winning series this year on Wal-Mart, covering the global retail behemoth by following the journey of Polo shirts.
• As always, follow the money. Determine who are the players and parties affected by an event, a transaction. There are folks with hands in the profits and losses that we're probably never thinking about.
• Look at the past, head into the future. Maybe the story is to compare this year with previous years, or the past decade. You may see a new trend emerging or an old trend dying. Or think about the future -- what's in store? What's the next step? What can readers expect from this same event in years to come?
• Leave your comfort community. Sometimes the best story angles lay waiting in places you've never ventured. Drive through neighborhoods and business parks you don't know. Visit stores you don't shop in. Make sure you're covering how a story affects everybody, not just readers who think, shop and deal like you.
• Stay connected. Read your reader e-mails. Many of them may be telling you something they confront everyday, but you've never imagined. Some of the best story tips come at our fingertips. Also check out blogs. Don't treat them like primary sources, but get a sense of new things folks are talking about this year.