In this episode, hosted by Megan Calcote, Glenn Hall, Executive Editor at the Washington Post shares his tips for creating winning business investigations. In addition to discussing the importance of waving data into your story, Hall shares the other key elements that make a business investigation story stand out for readers. He originally shared these tips at Reynolds Week 2016.
Transcript
[Intro music]
Megan Calcote: How to Cover Money: Building winning business investigations.
Glenn Hall: Don’t ever doubt that data exists to help you tell the story, and don’t ever tell the story until you found the data.
Calcote: Hello and welcome to the Reynolds Center podcast. We are coming to you from the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism based at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. I’m Megan Calcote, host of the How to Cover Money podcast. Today you’ll hear tips for creating award-winning business investigations from Glenn Hall, executive editor at the Washington Post. Hall spoke to our fellows at Reynolds Week 2016 earlier this year.
Hall: I find that the most impact in journalism is done by business journalists, in particular, those of you who are out there looking where others don’t look. I guess I’ll start with a couple of points about what I think are the key elements of business investigations. And in my mind, it starts with and must have data. And, look we’re business journalists. There are data sets everywhere for us, but there is no good reason not to have the facts behind the story, the proof of what you’re trying to find, and the data will lead you there. In order to have impact, there need to be people. Many of the Pulitzer Prizes, the Loeb Awards and the SABEW Best in Business Awards, all have that characteristic. That there’s a real person, and that person can be and a victim. Somebody who has suffered or has been harmed, or in some way, the data will show a path of pain for some person or persons, but you need to represent what is the problem and where is the pain? And then there often is a perpetrator, a villain, if you will. There’s a bad guy, there’s somebody, or someone or something that’s causing the harm. And we have to figure out who that is, what that is. Sometimes it’s a corporation. Sometimes it’s a regulation. We have to see where the pain is being caught, where it’s originating. And then there may be a hero. There may be somebody who’s championing the cause, trying to solve the problem, but again, a face that will cause people to really feel connected to the story that you’re trying to tell.
Calcote: Hall believes that any good business investigation should consist of at least three of these four elements. You could even have all four, but a story without data will not hold up to scrutiny, as you’re about to hear. There is always data to support your story.
Hall: Don’t ever doubt that data exists to help you tell the story, and don’t ever tell the story until you found the data.
Calcote: Once you’ve found your data, don’t be afraid to share it. You never know how it could impact the reporting of your colleagues or the general public.
Hall: We sort of open-sourced it. We made the data 100% available to everyone I know. A number of other news organizations used our open database to run their own stories and localize. And we wanted to empower our audiences to use the data themselves to tell stories or to answer questions that we weren’t able to answer. I think that’s an important part. We cannot hoard data. We have to share it.
Calcote: If you need good story ideas, Hall recommends sticking to the basics.
Hall: One of the great sources of business investigations that I’ve used over the years, you know, you gotta answer the phone, right? And you gotta talk to the crazy people, and because somewhere along the line, there’s someone who’s got a legitimate story in there, and not somebody who’s just got a single ax to grind or some single problem.
Calcote: So find your story lead and start digging for the data. As long as you pull together the right pieces, you’ve got a chance at building a great story.
Hall: The three things it’s got to have. If you have a victim and no data, you’ve got no story. If you’ve got a hero and no data, you’ve got no story. But if you’ve got a victim and a hero or villain and a hero and the data, then you’ve got a great business investigation.
Calcote: Thank you, Glenn Hall for speaking to our fellows during Reynolds Week 2016. We’ll have more tips for structuring business investigations in a future episode of the podcast. And thank you listeners for tuning in to another installment of the How to Cover Money podcast. Since we’re talking about business investigations, the Reynolds Center is now accepting submissions for the 2016 Barlett and Steele Awards for investigative business journalism, named for two of the most illustrious investigative business journalists in history. The annual Barlett and Steele Awards for investigative business journalism honor the best investigative journalism covering money each year. The awards feature a Gold Award of $5,000, a Silver prize of $2,000, and a Bronze Award of $1,000. So if you’ve written a great piece of investigative business journalism, submit your work today by visiting businessjournalism.org and clicking Awards and Fellowship at the top of the page. Applications must be received by August 1, 2016 and submission is free if you’ll be at IRE 2016 come to our workshop featuring Steve Doig on databases, you can mine for business stories. Visit businessjournalism.org, and click on training to find more information on the session. If you’re in need of more business journalism training, the Reynolds Center can help. Visit businessjournalism.org to find articles and self-guided training, download our free eBook: Guide to Business Beat Basics, sign up for our brand new email course on Covering Financials, or sign up for our weekly newsletter. The newsletter will help keep you up to date on training opportunities from the Reynolds Center year round. If you enjoy the How to Cover Money podcast, make sure to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud, and while you’re there, leave us a rating or review to let us know what you thought of this episode. Support for the How to Cover Money podcast comes from the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. Join us on the next episode of the How to Cover Money podcast for an interview with the 2015, Barlett and Steele Awards bronze winner. Pat Beall from the Palm Beach Post.
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