Comments on: How do local papers find out about local news, sports, and business without getting a news tip?

By: wdx2bb

wdx2bb — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:28:25 +0000

It’s actually easier than you’d think. Start with the fact that a great deal of news happens on a regular schedule. The City Council meets on Monday. The local baseball team plays on certain days. The election will be on Nov. 6. A study on crime will be issued in two months. And so on.

There is also a public relations machine out there to alert the media when something happens. Company has record earnings? Gotta tell the business section. And so on.

So we start with that. Then, it’s a matter of manpower. Just having a body at events often leads to news — he or she will hear about something, ask some questions, and a story results. Tips do happen every once in a while, and readers come up with ideas that are useful, but mostly the reporters do the thinking for themselves.

By: paigespirate

paigespirate — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:09:10 +0000

They are contacted by the newsmakers, typically. They have well developed contacts w/ police, so they get reports from them on daily crime, they get in free to events and are actually envited to them by promoters who also advertise in the event …
Of course they have people listening to scanners and such for instant crime reporting, they go to city council meetings, grand openings …
long story short, they are established within the community they serve and the community makes sure they know when things are going on so it can be covered in the news and they combine these daily occurances w/ reporters timely coverage of crime or reporting indepth on what has tipped them off.