Put the Person back into Personal Finance Stories

By Liz Pulliam Weston

Readers love money makeovers - those profiles of real families that get into the gory details of how much credit card debt they owe and how far behind on retirement savings they are.

Most of the appeal is voyeurism, but the popularity of these profiles illustrates how important a real, live, breathing person is when you're trying to write about personal finance. People who would yawn at a headline about the nation's woeful savings rate will stop and read every word if you're writing about how Jane Minski of Oak Grove can't pass up a sale.

Not every story can be a makeover, of course, but you definitely can boost your readership and better drive home your points if you include more real people in every story.

How to do it? Here are some suggestions from a writer who's been tracking down real people for a couple of decades:

Don't waste your time with financial planners. Early in my career, when I was desperate for sources and my sources were desperate for exposure, I could occasionally pry a quotable client from one of my roster of planners. Today, my best sources are much more successful, and so are their clients. That means the planners are more interested in protecting their clients' privacy than helping me make a deadline - and I really can't blame them.

You may have better luck with an adviser who's still building her practice or who has something to promote, like a new book. But most of the time there are better, faster ways to find good people to quote.

Keep reader mail and e-mails. As soon as you start writing about personal finance, you'll begin receiving reader pleas for advice. Hang on to them - or at least the ones that provide contact information.

Set up folders arranged by topic in your e-mail system and in your filing cabinet. If the IT folks start nagging you about the size of your mailbox, consider transferring e-mails to a free service like Hotmail or Google's Gmail.

People are so hungry for solid, unconflicted personal finance advice that they're often willing to offer themselves as sources just so they can get some answers.

And speaking of money makeovers, consider doing a few. They're a big investment of time and you'll have to vet the planner pretty well, but makeovers tend to generate a lot of reader response. If you have folks fill out applications, you can file the unused ones away to tap for future stories.

Broadcast appeals. When my MSN editor put a line at the end of one of my columns asking for people's bankruptcy stories, I expected a fairly tepid response. After all, we were asking only for people who were willing to let us use their full names and cities - and what bankrupt person would be willing to do that?

About 500 of them - at least that was the count before my e-mail basket overloaded and shut down. Most of these e-mails were long, detailed and heart-wrenching. They not only helped put a human face on the bankruptcy series we published the next year, but they suggested several stories we might not have considered otherwise.

Obviously, a direct appeal isn't a great choice if you're working on a competitive story. But if you have a little lead time and need a ton of responses, it can be the way to go.

Utilize message boards and blogs. Journalists from all over the world found Hurricane Katrina victims by posting at the forums set up by The Times-Picayune in New Orleans at www.nola.com. Web logs are another way journalists can find potential sources.

Mind the culture of the board or blog before you start posting, however. It's generally better to monitor posts and threads over several days than to just jump in with both feet. It's also a courtesy to e-mail the host of a blog or monitored board and get his or her OK before you start soliciting for sources.

Use ProfNet. If you're not already familiar with it, ProfNet is an "online community" of public relations professionals maintained by PR Newswire at www.profnet.com where journalists can post requests for information or sources. The PR pros are ready to leap into action any time there's a possibility of getting exposure for their clients, so be prepared for a firehose-strength response. Some (many, perhaps) of the e-mails or calls will be irrelevant, but you may very well find the exact kind of person you're looking for. Be very specific about what you want and be sure to include a deadline.

Raise your profile. You'll find more sources, and more stories, if you get out more in your community. Volunteer, join a few organizations, and consider giving speeches if you have any public speaking ability at all. People who feel like they know you will be more willing to open up or to refer you to others who might want to talk. Start inviting more potential gatekeepers to lunch: That successful real estate agent knows a ton of recent homebuyers, for example, while the head of your local retirement center can hook you up with articulate Social Security recipients.

Don't be afraid to go back to the well. You can't want to keep quoting the same folks over and over ... eventually, your editor might notice. But you can turn an old source into a scout to help you look for fresh voices.

That college student you quoted about tuition increases at State U knows a lot of other current and former college students - some of whom will be eager to talk about interest rate hikes on student loans or how tough it's been to find a job since graduation.

A tip: Always get cell numbers, since most people hang onto theirs even as they change jobs, apartments and other details of their personal lives.

Put your friends to work. Most journos would agree it's cheesy to use your friends in stories, but your friends can put you in touch with their friends, or acquaintances, or co-workers. If you're really in a bind and need to come up with somebody fast, tap your personal network.

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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism