Strength in Storytelling

By Dick Weiss
July 2, 2008

I once had an editor who asked me if I could take a story and “write it onto page one.” I was flattered that he thought I could do such a thing. But frequently I was helpless unless I had at least a little time to dig up some facts. In this edition of Dick’s Picks, we look at three fact-laden stories that were indeed written onto page one with effective storytelling techniques.

In the first, we’ll see how Rick Rothacker of The Charlotte Observer employs a basic chronology and a matter-of-fact style to keep readers engaged with his story on the downfall of a hometown bank executive. In the next, Becky Kramer of The Spokane Spokesman-Review enriches her story on lead mining by transporting readers to different countries and different eras. And in the best of the bunch, Michael Grabell of The Dallas Morning News does some world-class investigative work. But he also uses the literary technique of juxtaposition to make his story about environmental hazards more meaningful.

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Note: Each headline contains a link so you can read the stories online. Some sites will require you to register first. It's worth taking the time.

3 The Swift Fall of Ken Thompson
Rick Rothacker of The Charlotte Observer
This is one of those “Oh, how-the-mighty-have-fallen stories.” But in this instance, Wachovia CEO Ken Thompson’s downfall was neither greed nor hubris – just lousy business judgment and poor timing.  Rothacker chronicles Thompson’s sudden fall in classic fashion: He tells the story chronologically, making the story easy to follow. In spare and matter-of-fact fashion, he recounts Thompson's missteps in recent years and how they accelerated this spring, leading inevitably to his firing.

2 Soaring lead demand tests Silverton's metal
Becky Kramer of The Spokane Spokesman-Review
Kramer tells us of an unexpected surge in demand for lead, so much so that it's providing a nice boost to the revenues of a silver mine in Idaho. In telling the story, Kramer reveals that despite the hazards it poses in such uses as paint, lead has its positive uses in the "green" revolution. This story has sweep – it takes you from Idaho to China; from the 19th century to the 21st. And yet, it’s not all that long. In fact, it leaves you wanting to know more.

1 Dallas County Industrial Sites Pose Hidden Risks
Michael Grabell of The Dallas Morning News
Last summer, an acetylene gas plant near downtown Dallas exploded in spectacular fashion. A year later, Grabell reports that suburban sprawl and urban gentrification have unwittingly put many Dallas area residents close to hazardous chemicals where they live or work. He spent three months looking at government records, all of them open to the public and some even on the Internet. Yet, as the editor's note to his three-part series notes, the information is often unknown to the people who are most at risk -- those living near the facilities. Grabell is at his most effective when he juxtaposes the everyday lives of the residents and descriptions of their modest homes with what’s happening on the other side of the chain link fences. The link here is to the second part of his series. All three parts are on the paper's Web site.

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