Part 3

The INTERVIEW, as a form of news writing, follows the same lines as the other types of stories already considered, and is similarly organized. The five essentials come in, although be it noticed that the HOW generally entails a physical description of the man or woman being interviewed. The feature is very frequently drawn from this description, or from some noteworthy remark which is quoted directly. The interviewer’s questions are rarely inserted, or if they are, they are quoted indirectly. The body of the story consists very largely of quotation, and the main problem here is generally to gain sufficient variety to hold the interest. Such slight changes as are necessary to put important words first in the sentence are allowable. If a prominent banker says, “I think that labor is being unjustly hindered,” you are perfectly justified in putting it in the more forceful form, “Labor is, I think, being unjustly hindered.” So long as the thought of the speaker is accurately represented, the reporter is within his bounds.

What is commonly called SOCIETY NEWS generally features the names of the people involved. Guests, decorations, clothing, music, chaperons, entertainment, speakers, toasts, etc., are given in the body of the story. Insofar as amateur theatrical performances and local talent concerts also come under the head of society, they will be treated in much the same fashion. The most interesting feature will sometimes lie in the scenery, treatment, subject, etc., which will tend most effectively to distinguish this particular performance from other recent entertainments of the same sort. At the end the program is often simply pasted on the sheet of copy-paper, to be printed entire. In announcing engagements and marriages the reporter must protect himself against the quasi-jokers who sometimes send in fake items of this kind about their acquaintances.

OBITUARIES almost invariably begin with the name of the person who has died. The time and place of the death, with cause, are given in the lead. The time and place of interment are given, as are also the names of the surviving family. Following this commonly comes a detailed account of the life of the deceased, sometimes set off from the foregoing by a dash. In all big papers there are well-organized files of the lives of men and women prominent in the community, state, nation, or internationally, and on this “morgue” the reporter can draw when he must write an obituary.

THE “FOLLOW-UP” STORY

There is another type of story, which differs from those already dealt with, only in the fact that it “follows up” some detail or details of a previous day’s story, and hence is known as a “follow-up” story. If in the case of a robbery, the robber is caught on the second day, that fact will very likely be featured in the story. On the first day all the elements were given concerning the discovery of the robbery, police investigation, amount taken, etc., and hence these will not now be given in such detail. But a brief summary of them will be given in the lead, so that readers who missed the first account will be able to follow intelligently the details given in the present story. Even in the case of a story which has received national attention, and has been running in the papers for weeks, any new development in the affair will be featured, but somewhere will also appear a short account of the original story, even if it is no more than a clause tacked onto one of the more important sentences. Otherwise the follow-up story differs in no degree from other stories in the news-columns.

The art of developing follow-up features, however, is one of the reporter’s most valuable gifts, it may be stated in passing, and nowhere is it so important to have that “nose for news” of which we hear so much talk. The best reporting is sometimes embodied in these further developments which were not given in the original story. Questions of WHO are involved in discovering the culprit of a mysterious crime, just as the WHAT may develop into results and further activities not anticipated at the first. In this same connection one may obtain statements from authorities and prominent people as to the meaning and significance of the occurrence, not generally realized. WHERE may lead to news of the present whereabouts of offender, victim, or loot. WHY or HOW may lead to the discovery of motive or method which were unknown at the time of the first story. Thus, in the first write-up of a fire, the extent of the conflagration would be the feature. In a second story, perhaps the insurance, plans for re-building, and a contemplated investigation would be featured, whereas on the third day perhaps a suspicion of incendiarism would be announced by the authorities, and on the fourth a suspect would be arrested. These would all offer opportunities for follow-up stories, each offering new features, and constituting practically a new story, except for the fact that a brief review of the original facts of the fire would be given in each story.

THE “RE-WRITE” STORY

Of a different type is the “re-write” story, of which the reporter generally has many to do in the course of his writing. In its commonest form, a clipping from another paper is re-written for “our” sheet, and the attempt then is so to change its form without altering its facts, that it may pass for an original account. This generally entails the finding of a new feature in the facts of the story, and for this purpose a firm grasp of the fundamental human interests, as already outlined, is essential. In most stories there are more than one possible feature, and it is the business of the re-write man to pick out some other one of these than the one used by the first man, and work it up into a story. Thus if in a clipping from another paper it was announced that hereafter all dances in town charging admission must pay a privilege tax of $2.50, the re-write man might feature the fact that the tax must be paid in advance for each dance given. Sometimes a clipping concerning a police-court trial will contain an indirect statement as to motive or cause. This can be turned into a direct statement and featured in the re-write. The re-write is generally shorter than the story from which it is taken. It is used only because, for some reason or other, the paper failed to cover the story in question. This may have been because a rival paper got a “scoop,” or because the story appeared in a morning paper, while “our” paper appears in the afternoon. In the latter case it is possible that our readers have already seen the story in the morning paper, but we want to protect those of our readers who did not see it there, and offer them at least some sort of an account of the story. Hence the re-write, which, while not considered the highest form of the reporter’s art, is still looked upon as legitimate.

PREPARING COPY

In the preparation of copy, it is the invariable rule nowadays that the typewriter be used. In the rush of the modern newspaper office time is too precious to be wasted over handwritten manuscript. But on the other hand, the copy can be as marked up and changed as is necessary, so long as it is easily legible to the linotype operator when it comes into his hands to be set into type for printing. The whole standard of neatness and legibility in newspaper copy is set by that fact.

Thus, copy is always written double-spaced, with good wide white spaces between the lines. Paragraphs are indented an inch or an inch and a half, so as to be easily recognized as such by the operator. If a comma is changed to a period, or contrariwise, that fact is made perfectly evident on the copy, with no doubt about it. A small cross or a ring with a dot in it is frequently used for a period. If a small letter is to be capitalized, three short horizontal lines are drawn beneath it, and if a capital letter is to be changed into a small letter, an oblique line is to be drawn through it. A word to be struck out altogether is not erased. Reporters haven’t time to traffic with rubber erasers. The work is obliterated with a soft black pencil, however, so there is no doubt in the mind of the operator if it is to go in or not. If a numeral, 9, for instance, is to be written out in words, “nine,” a ring is drawn around it, and the linotype operator will understand. The same is true of abbreviations.

Only one side of the paper is used, and at the top of the first sheet, wide space is left for the headline to be written in. If there is more than one sheet, they are generally all pasted together in one long string, so as not to get separated, although when a reporter has to write his story at different times this is impossible and he then writes at the bottom of his story “MORE” and at the top of the next sheet “ADD 2 ELECTION RETURNS.” At the end of his story he generally puts some symbol to indicate the close. It is very frequently a “30” with a ring around it, which is simply the sign of “the end” in the telegraph code.

ON GETTING NEWS

A few hints on the gathering of news may not be amiss. It must be understood from the beginning that the reporter is not actually present when all of the things happen about which he must write. A newspaper could hardly keep large enough a staff to be actually on hand when every accident and every fire took place. There are many happenings which take place according to SCHEDULE, and which reporters can consequently “cover” by being present on time and witnessing the event. Such are games, trials, ceremonies, social functions, interviews, parades, etc. But there are also hosts of occurrences which happen unexpectedly, and of which the newspaper office can perforce know nothing in advance. Such are crimes, fires, accidents, etc. The problem, then, limits itself to finding out in advance the schedule of pre-arranged events, and the quick discovery of happenings which come off without warning.

As to games, trials, parades, and most ceremonies, it is easy enough to keep track of them, for their occurrence is so much a matter of public interest that they are in some form or other advertised to the people ahead of time. The same is true of marriages, for which a license must be obtained from a public official and recorded in a book open to the reporter. Deeds, mortgages, wills, and other legal transactions have the same advantage in the eyes of the newspaper. Social functions are a little harder, sometimes, to keep track of. Hotels and restaurants will be glad to furnish the papers discreetly with lists of coming events in their quarters, however, as it makes for good publicity. Caterers and fancy bakers are generally not averse to giving out the names and dates of coming events for which they have orders. Many women call up and let the newspaper know of their affairs in advance. In this connection it is well to state that all newspapers like to have names in their columns, in abundance. Get names. Names make for circulation. Names make for popularity with a paper. There is not a human being that does not like to see his name in print. Sometimes a person will call up the paper or see the editor on the street and request that his or her name be kept out of the paper in the future. But there is one thing that a person objects to, more than seeing his name in the paper too much--and that, of course, is not to see it in there at all. Wherever you can garner up a name, grab it and use it in your news-writing. Write large in the tablets of your memory, “GET NAMES.” There is only one thing more important in this respect, and that is to get the names correctly. I said a moment ago that only one thing was worse than not seeing your name in the paper at all, but I believe I must almost take that back. If anything can be worse than never appearing in the paper, it is to appear there, with one’s name misspelled. Such a state of affairs, if habitually indulged in, can ruin the public’s good feeling for a paper, and then it might as well shut up shop.

As to the UNEXPECTED happenings of the day, which the reporter is supposed to catch and depict for the readers, the case is not so altogether different as the uninitiated would suppose. In the first place, most of these happenings are reported to the police, and the record of them is thus quickly made available to the press. If a man is run over, the police are among the first to know of it, and instantly the reporter is on the trail of the accident. Newspapers keep in constant contact with the police for this very purpose. And no better advice could be given to a young reporter than “to stand in well with the police.” Policemen know their communities in certain respects better than anyone else, and sometimes a tactful approach to a big blue-coat will do more to put a cub-reporter on the trail of a story than a couple of hours of other attempts. Fire-stations and ambulance-stations are also good positions from which to keep in contact with the news. Hospitals, undertakers, the coroner’s office, ministers, prominent club-people, are all sources of news, which, although they are organized for other purposes, offer admirable places for the registration of facts which the public wants to know about as news. Hotels, railways, markets, stock exchanges, wharves and schools all furnish good sources of information. Doctors are rarely good sources of news, and hospitals sometimes give trouble in this matter. But on the whole, all the localities thus far mentioned are such regular gatherers and storers-up of news for the papers, that editors put them on what is known as a “run” or a “beat” to be visited periodically and the news gathered from them. To the layman it comes as a shock to find how little we do in this world that is not docketed somewhere, more or less officially. But it is a godsend to the reporter, who thus can perform the seemingly impossible task of being everywhere at the same time, seeing everything in all parts of the city.

Much of the reporter’s time is spent in gaining information from people by the general means of question and answer, and it is here that he can use every ounce of tact and the knowledge of human nature that he possesses. INTERVIEWING is the general name that can be given to this part of his work, even though the word is generally reserved for the more formal tasks of this nature. But there are some principles that are useful in this matter, whether it be a washerwoman or a bank president that is being questioned, and they can be set down here. In the first place, it is almost universally a waste of time to ask anybody “Have you any news?” Unless one has had technical or practical training, a person usually does not know what constitutes news. Just as he must aim at being specific in his writing, so also must the reporter be prepared to ask specific questions of the people from whom he hopes to gain information. “Who did so and so?” or “What did so and so do?” or “When did so and so happen?” “Do you know where so and so is?” are the type of definite questions that must be asked. Especially before tackling a busy executive must the reporter have well in mind the exact points which he wishes to clear up; but the same thing holds true in all cases. The reporter organizes his questions, as it were, before he begins to talk, knows what he wants to find out, and then goes for it. Otherwise he will only too often find himself at last outside an office door with no real advance made, no material gained for his story, or he will find that some loquacious woman has led him far astray into fields that have nothing to do with the story in point. Before beginning to talk over the telephone, the reporter should have his questions particularly well in mind, as he will be forced to carry on a running fire of question and comment and at the same time be jotting down notes. In face-to-face interviewing the reporter frequently has difficulty in the matter of taking notes, as many people will take fright when they see that their words are being taken down, and they will then shut up like a clam. On the whole, it is perhaps better not to produce a note-book in the presence of the person being interviewed, but to jot down the notations immediately upon leaving. Over the telephone it is always best, also, immediately to state that “this is such-and-such a paper speaking.”

GENERAL HINTS

If the authorities still do not know the identity of a culprit, or a corpse, etc., do not state that “an unknown man” is in question. The proper expression is “an unidentified man.”

Similarly, do not state that a person has died “of heart failure,”--for after all, that is what everybody eventually does. What is meant is “heart trouble” or “heart disease.”

In the matter of capital letters, newspapers can be grouped under two great heads, those that incline to fewer capitals, and those leaning toward more capitals. They are then known respectively as “down” or “up” sheets, and a moment’s inspection of a paper will generally suffice to show in which group it belongs. Some papers even print White House with lower case initials. When writing for a paper, the reporter should immediately find out whether it is “up” or “down.” The tendency today seems to be toward fewer capitals. Many papers do not capitalize “Street” or “Avenue.” Often such titles as “President” or “Secretary” are capitalized if they stand before a name, and not, if they stand after it. In the same way, many papers do not capitalize “College” or “University” if they stand last. Thus, such papers would say “University of Wisconsin,” but “Oberlin college.”

Such matters are generally established in a newspaper office by what is known as the “style-sheet,” and the reporter should quickly familiarize himself with the style-sheet of his paper. Newspapers vary, for instance, in their printing of numbers. In some sheets, all numerals under one hundred are written out, and all above it are given in figures. In other offices the rule is that all numbers above ten are given in numerals. Also there are on nearly every paper certain expressions or words which must not under any circumstances be used. One editor will not permit “over” in the sense of “more than,” whereas another editor will not tolerate the word “admirable” in his columns. These matters are entirely a question of the personal opinion of those in authority, and must therefore simply in each case be memorized and complied with.

General rules of grammar must also, of course, be followed, and need not be dwelt upon here. Attention may perhaps be drawn to the danger of the “hanging participle,” however, as it is sometimes met with in otherwise carefully written sheets. “Throwing on his brakes too quickly, the car skidded before Jones could dodge the child, etc.,” shows the error referred to. “Throwing” is the participle, and inasmuch as it refers to Jones, his name should then have been made the subject of the sentence. Another error frequently met with consists in joining a plural subject and a singular verb or contrariwise. “Each of the culverts are to be investigated” announced one of this morning’s metropolitan papers. Of course “each” is a singular pronoun and should have been followed by “is.” Any good handbook of rhetoric, such as Wooley’s, will point out a host of such stumbling blocks.

In the matter of titles, it may be remarked that “Mr. and Mrs. Thomas D. Jones” is considered better than “Mr. Thomas D. Jones and his wife.” The abbreviation “Rev.” must not be used unless the given names are used. Thus “The Rev. Thompson” is incorrect. Either “The Reverend Mr. Thompson” or “The Rev. Henry B. Thompson” must be used. So also, “Mr.” is generally omitted before a name if the given name is used. “Walter F. Brown” and “Mr. Brown” are the proper forms.

Fight shy of trite expressions. Keep on the constant look-out in your writing for any tendency to slip into hackneyed phrases whose edges have become blunted. “Elegant,” “charming,” “well-known” ought in general to be left as much alone as “the conventional black” or “doing as well as could be expected.” A real interest in your work, a true realization of the infinite variety and richness of the life going on about you, and a desire to state in as vivid a form as possible all the things you have to say will go far in saving you from this trouble. Don’t fall into the way of doing “rubber-stamp” writing.

And now, as the very last hint of all comes perhaps the most important statement:

ACCURACY FIRST

Let that motto be branded in your memory the deepest of all. Interest was the key to all news-writing, we found at the beginning, and certainly its importance cannot be over-stated. But in the name of interest the matter of ACCURACY FIRST should never be lost sight of. A reporter whose work cannot be trusted in this matter will lose out sooner or later, just as a newspaper itself which cannot be trusted will lose caste. It may seem innocent enough here and there to touch up a story just a little bit to enhance its interest. Some editors, even, may insist upon your injecting a little of this venial spice. But the feeling is growing more and more strong that a reporter should be exactly what his name implies, one that reports. After all, the people are trusting him as the basis on which will be built that thing most important to a democracy, public opinion. If public information is polluted here at its very source, there is danger of contagion and disease throughout the nation. The finest newspaper men of this and other lands are striving to make imperative throughout their sheets the motto

_ACCURACY FIRST_.

Transcriber’s Note:

Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like this_. Obsolete spelling was not changed. Obvious printing errors, such as missing letters or letters printed in the wrong order, were corrected. Final stops missing at the end of sentences were added.