ISSUE

Winter 2010

The Beat Goes On - Its Rhythm Changes

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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Articles

Journalist’s Trade

It’s Scary Out There in Reporting Land

‘Beats are fundamental to journalism, but our foundation is crumbling.’
David Cay Johnston
January 10, 2011
Journalist’s Trade

It’s Expertise That Matters

‘The next wave of journalistic progress will channel its power from the underlying principle of the reporter’s beat …’
Michael Riley
January 10, 2011
Opinion

Measuring Progress: Women as Journalists

In ‘The Edge of Change’ the perspective is forward-looking, even if many of the challenging issues of the past endure for female reporters and editors.
Kay Mills
January 10, 2011
Features

Modern-Day Slavery: A Necessary Beat—With Different Challenges

The nonprofit Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism is dedicating a gift of funding to support a reporter’s effort to gather and tell these stories.
E. Benjamin Skinner
January 10, 2011
Nieman Notes

Returning Home to Sri Lanka to Face Difficult And Delicate Questions in Perilous Times

‘In the capital’s cafés and elegant drawing rooms open criticism of the state was soundly rejected on the funny logic that war must be won at all costs.’
Suvendrini Kakuchi
January 10, 2011
Visual Stories of Human Trafficking’s Victims
Visual Journalism

Visual Stories of Human Trafficking’s Victims

An Essay in Words and Photographs
Melanie Hamman
December 15, 2010
Local News

Community Host: An Emerging Newsroom ‘Beat’ Without a Guide

TBD’s community engagement team listens—and responds—in a city where everyone is talking: Washington, D.C.
TBD’s Community Engagement Team
December 15, 2010
Local News

Uncovering an Uncovered Story in Bell, California

Bell’s public officials went from having no coverage to an onslaught of media attention after the Los Angeles Times uncovered officials’ outsized pay. Here, reporters interview the only City Council…
Jonathan Seitz
December 15, 2010
Features

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

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…
Dave Kindred
December 15, 2010
Journalist’s Trade

Winter 2010: Introduction

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…
Melissa Ludtke
December 15, 2010
Covering Women's Sports Journalist’s Trade

A Shrinking Sports Beat: Women’s Teams, Athletes

As newsroom staffs shrink and eyeballs measure interest, women’s sports coverage is losing ground it once seemed to be gaining.
Marie Hardin
December 15, 2010
Opinion

From Journalism to Self-Publishing Books

‘Our experience with print-on-demand books offers promising and challenging news.’
Fons Tuinstra
December 15, 2010
Opinion

Figuring Out What a 21st Century Book Can Be

When an author’s insistence on publishing under a Creative Commons license met resistance from book publishers, he decided to self-publish his book with Lulu.
Dan Gillmor
December 15, 2010
Opinion

Creating a Navigational Guide to New Media

Two veteran journalists illuminate the convergent paths ahead—for those who consume news and those who report it.
Bill Kovach
December 15, 2010
Argo Network: NPR’s New Group of Beat-Driven Blogs
Journalist’s Trade

Argo Network: NPR’s New Group of Beat-Driven Blogs

CommonHealth, produced by WBUR in Boston and part of the Argo Network, focuses on health care reform and other topics related to personal health and medicine.RELATED ARTICLE“Statehouse Beat Woes Portend…
Jonathan Seitz
December 15, 2010
Opinion

Frank Deford: Sports Writing in the Internet Age

Nearly a century later Twitter is the telegraph in the press box. Reporters watch the New York Giants play the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1913 World Series. Image from the…
Frank Deford
December 15, 2010
Features

Gay Talese: On What Endures in Sports Writing Amid Change

Early in October Gay Talese came to the Boston Athenaeum to celebrate publication of “The Silent Season of a Hero: The Sports Writing of Gay Talese.” In this collection of…
December 15, 2010
Local News

Geographic Fortunes—and Misfortunes—Define This New Midwest Beat

‘Although the challenges facing this Midwest region are primarily economic, Changing Gears’ mandate is more than to just tell business stories.’
Micheline Maynard
December 15, 2010
Journalist’s Trade

It’s a Brand-New Ballgame—For Sports Reporters

‘This is why the advice is simple: Don’t look down from that tightrope; your safety net is gone, likely forever.’
Malcolm Moran
December 15, 2010
Books

Red Smith: He Made Words Dance

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…
Jonathan Seitz
December 15, 2010
Politics

Statehouse Beat Woes Portend Bad News for Good Government

‘There’s an analogy between statehouse beat reporters—well, beat reporters in general—and cops on the beat who know the neighborhood and everyone in it.’
Gene Gibbons
December 15, 2010
Opinion

The Sports Tweet: New Routines on an Old Beat

‘As much as possible, I adhere to the same reporting rules with social media when it comes to breaking news. Do I have a reliable source? Is this information on…
Lindsay Jones
December 15, 2010
Opinion

The Sportswriter as Fan: Me and My Blog

‘Our blog made no bones about its utter subjectivity, but we were seen as more objective than those for whom objectivity was a commandment.’
Jason Fry
December 15, 2010
Nieman Notes

Unforgettable Characters Encountered in Covering the Civil Rights Movement

‘Looking back on these people who are larger than life, I wonder: In fiction, who would believe them?’
Wayne Greenhaw
December 15, 2010
Local News Politics

When Local Eyes Were Watching Their Lawmakers

‘As beat writers know, it’s in doing these routine stories that they sniff out situations worthy of deeper digging.’
George E. Condon Jr.
December 15, 2010
Politics

A Changing of the Guard in Washington, D.C. News Bureaus

It was on a hunch that Marcus Stern, a reporter in the Washington, D.C. bureau of the Copley News Service, launched the investigation that brought down California Congressman Randy “Duke”…
Jan Gardner
December 15, 2010
Books

Investigative Reporting About Secrecy

‘… it would be a terrific investment of reportorial resources, not to mention a valuable public service, to dedicate an entire beat to secrecy.’
Ted Gup
December 15, 2010
Journalist’s Trade

There’s Something to Be Said for Longevity

‘… the hardest part of my job often isn’t getting people to talk. It’s sifting through the streaming fire hose of news to figure out which stories truly warrant more…
Craig Welch
December 15, 2010
Features

The Science Beat: Riding a Wave, Going Somewhere

‘While I can’t figure out who is paying a lot of these science reporters, the quantity of what they produce does not seem to have fallen off nearly as much…
Charles Petit
December 15, 2010
Journalist’s Trade

The Guardian Brings Scientists as Bloggers Into the Mix

RELATED ARTICLES“The Science Beat: Riding a Wave, Going Somewhere”– Charles Petit“Guardian Blogger Spoofs Science Journalism– Jonathan SeitzEarly this fall The Guardian took an innovative approach to expanding its coverage of…
Jonathan Seitz
December 15, 2010
Journalist’s Trade

Guardian Blogger Spoofs Science Journalism

RELATED ARTICLES“The Science Beat: Riding a Wave, Going Somewhere”– Charles Petit“The Guardian Brings Scientists as Journalists Into the Mix”– Jonathan SeitzPrompted by dismay at the dearth…
Jonathan Seitz
December 15, 2010
Journalist’s Trade

Eclectic, Entertaining and Educational—The 21st Century Science Beat

‘While the science beat is old—dating back to even before Sputnik—the approach we take is new. ’
Paul Rogers
December 15, 2010
Journalist’s Trade

Family Beat: Stories We Tell Around the Kitchen Table

‘If we tell them well, it won’t matter what medium we use. They can be our saving grace.’
Beth Macy
December 15, 2010
Journalist’s Trade

Advice About Beats

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…
Diana K. Sugg
December 15, 2010
Nieman Notes

Winter 2010: Class Notes

Investigative Reporter Craig R. McCoy Honored With I.F. Stone Medal Craig R. McCoy, who has exposed injustice and corruption during almost three decades as a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer;…
Jan Gardner
December 13, 2010
Journalist’s Trade

The Capriciousness of Beats

‘Sometimes the overlooked topics may be more important than the ones that dominate the headlines.’
Kate Galbraith
December 13, 2010
Opinion

VietNamNet: Responses to a Fall 2010 Nieman Reports Article

After Nieman Reports published “An American Observes a Vietnamese Approach to Newsgathering” in our Fall 2010 issue, we received several letters raising concern about the context and content of the…
December 10, 2010
From the Curator

Expanding the Vision of the Nieman Foundation

‘Ten years later, as I prepare to retire in June, the foundation has a respected voice in the vibrant conversations about the future of journalism.’
Bob Giles
December 10, 2010
Journalist’s Trade

The Blog as Beat

‘… the Internet changes the concept of the beat: A blog such as ours becomes a valued partner of political reporters offering them additional sources and fresh angles for stories.”
Juanita León
December 9, 2010
Journalist’s Trade

From Newsroom to Nursery—The Beat Goes On

‘That is when I had the epiphany: These early years of motherhood were like being a rookie reporter on the beat.’
Diana K. Sugg
December 9, 2010
Books

Books From the Beat: A More Complicated Equation

Judy Pasternak, a former reporter at the Los Angeles Times, drew on expertise she developed covering the environment, science and other beats to write her first book. “Yellow Dirt: An…
Jan Gardner
December 9, 2010
Opinion

A Journalistic Vanishing Act

‘As a refugee from daily newspapering, I’m one of thousands of arts journalists who in the past couple of years have found themselves footloose.’
Elizabeth Maupin
December 9, 2010