Monthly Archives: March 2012

Mar 31

Inside Tip on How To Contact Sources Via LinkedIn

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Barbara Fought

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

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Barbara Fought

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

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Barbara Fought

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

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Barbara Fought

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

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Barbara Fought

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

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Barbara Fought

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 →

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Mar 07

Check that AP style: here’s help for politics

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Barbara Fought

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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