Monthly Archives: March 2012

Mar 31

Inside Tip on How To Contact Sources Via LinkedIn

Have you ever found a good source on @LinkedIn but weren’t connected to him or her so you had to go through someone else to contact the person?  This tip is just so good I knew when I learned it that … Read More

Posted in Finding Sources | Leave a comment
Mar 26

Get Background on Supreme Court Cases

With Supreme Court hearing the case on the new health care law this week,you might want some tips on finding material about the Court and cases. For background on cases my favorite is SCOTUSblog.com (it stands for Supreme Court of … Read More

Posted in Backgrounding for News Stories | Leave a comment
Mar 20

Calendars Help You Find Stories

Finding stories is one of the hardest things about reporting — at least for me.  So I like to gather online calendars that I can check for story leads of upcoming events. Here’s a list I use for Syracuse, N.Y: … Read More

Posted in Finding Stories | Leave a comment
Mar 16

Online Resources for Stories on Gas Prices

I just drove by a station that was selling gas for $3.95 in Central New York.  And then I saw a story in the LA Times noting, “[t]he consumer price index jumped 0.4% last month from January, mostly because of … Read More

Posted in Databases | Leave a comment
Mar 12

How to find twitter accounts of media

You are working on a story that tracks to another market.  You’d like to know what the media in that location are reporting, so you can stay on top of the story.  A quick way to do that is to … Read More

Posted in Continuing Coverage, Finding Stories | Leave a comment
Mar 09

Quick way to dash off a FOI request

Need the goods tucked in some government document? Or wonder if there is something in someone’s file cabinet or computer archive that will explain what’s going on? Busy reporters have little time to draft and produce freedom of information requests … Read More

Posted in Backgrounding for News Stories, Finding Stories | Leave a comment
Mar 07

Check that AP style: here’s help for politics

You’re writing stories today about Super Tuesday.  And is it Super PAC or super PAC?  AP style calls for the latter. Well, it’s been, hm, how many years since I had my last AP style quiz in college. Okay, I … Read More

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