Nieman Reports

Winter 2010

The Beat Goes On - Its Rhythm Changes

Cover for Winter 2010

Beats form the backbone of a newsroom, so what happens when resources shrink, new voices emerge and platforms multiply? Which topics stick around? What new beats emerge? As Twitter cranks up the demand for constant interaction, how do beat reporters handle the daily grind? How do journalists connect with news consumers in a time of information overload? As e-book reading surges, is self-publishing the way to go? Dig in to these stories—and listen to Gabrielle Goodman perform our cover’s song that she wrote.

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The Beat Goes On - Its Rhythm Changes

Winter 2010: Introduction

By Journalist’s Trade December 15, 2010

Beats form the backbone of a newsroom, so what happens when resources shrink, new voices emerge and platforms multiply? Which topics stick around? What new beats emerge? As Twitter cranks up the demand for constant interaction, how do beat reporters handle the daily grind? How do journalists connect with news consumers in a time of information overload? As e-book reading surges, is self-publishing the way to go? Dig in to these stories—and listen to Gabrielle Goodman perform our cover’s song that she wrote.   Read more

The Beat: The Building Block

Advice About Beats

By Journalist’s Trade December 15, 2010

After Diana K. Sugg had been The (Baltimore) Sun’s medical reporter for six years, she wrote an enduring article about beat reporting for the Poynter Institute. In “Turn the Beat Around,” Sugg brought her experiences at the Sun and … Read more

The Beat: The Watchful Eye

The Beat: The Science Angle

The Beat: The Topic as Target

The Beat: The Sports Reporter

The Sports Beat: A Digital Reporting Mix—With Exhaustion Built In

By Features December 15, 2010

Wanted: sports reporters. Requirements: Boundless energy, fast fingers, a thick skin, and no need for sleep. To do the job today means tracking innumerable team-related blogs and Twitter feeds, tweeting constantly, writing blogs, live-blogging games and then filing words, sometimes video, and updating news at a pace unimagined even a few years ago. Mixed in with on-the-ground anecdotes and insights about this experience are remembrances of sportswriters—Frank Deford, Red Smith and Gay Talese—whose enduring stories about games and athletes appeared in newspapers and magazines. Read more

Red Smith: He Made Words Dance

By Books December 15, 2010

Of the many memorable phrases sportswriter Red Smith bestowed on the English language, the most enduring may be his description to a group of New York Herald Tribune advertising salesmen of the pleasure he … Read more

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