In a time of budget cuts and declining resources, step forward and lead, the Washington Post’s Emilio Garcia-Ruiz told an audience Thursday during an APSE panel devoted to storytelling in print and online. That means making choices – on stories, the people that tell them and the platforms on which they appear.
"Be a leader, not just a manager," Garcia-Ruiz said. "In times of crisis, it is easier to manage as it has been than it is to make the bold decisions that the industry needs."
Garcia-Ruiz recently was promoted from sports editor to local editor at The Post. The Post sports section was an APSE triple crown winner in 2008.
Garcia-Ruiz dispensed with the notion of doing more with less and suggested departmental leaders need to lead by making choices, but also by encouraging and insisting that writing and editing staff members open their minds about storytelling.
"The sports editor has to make it a priority or it won’t happen," Garcia-Ruiz said. "Pick the times you want to be special and make it happen."
Give up the run-of-the-mill advance on an NFL or college football game and use the reporter’s time for enterprise, he suggested.
Set aside time for a well-run, efficient meeting to discuss which stories should be attempted. Has it been done before? Can we do it differently or better or in a local way? Discuss the online component at the beginning. "A bad story idea almost always results in a bad story," Garcia-Ruiz said.
Not every writer can handle every story, so choose wisely. Talk with the reporter throughout the reporting process. Then discuss what’s in the notebook, what’s missing and what structure will work best, before the writing begins.
The trick, Garcia-Ruiz said, is striking the proper balance between finding a new way without it being the wrong way to tell a story and that applies to reporting and writing (beat coverage and enterprise), and any online component.
"We have created formula monsters," Garcia-Ruiz said in encouraging beat writers to look beyond the norm. But he also warned about too much freedom. "No crummy multi-media. Everybody has somebody on staff who thinks he’s Fellini."
The key to great storytelling remains great reporting because it allows the writer to show and not tell, to recount scenes and dialogue that put the reader in the world of the characters in the story. Garcia-Ruiz pointed to ESPN The Magazine’s Wright Thompson and the Philadelphia Daily News’ Mark Kram as writers worth reading for this purpose.
New technology and new media are part of storytelling and old-fashioned reporting, Garcia-Ruiz said. Take charge of new media and get training for people. Technology has gotten simpler and cheaper. Webinars are now more common and reasonably inexpensive.
Garcia-Ruiz mentioned coveritlive.com is one web site that makes it easier to upload video and photos and do live blogs.
Facebook and Twitter are part of the our world. Set the agenda and don’t simply react. Properly used, they can be tools for disseminating information and collecting information.
"They are not replacements for reporting," Garcia-Ruiz said. "All it is is a tip – a device to possibly help you gather information. But you have to set the standard."
