Meeting 13

So this week my meeting took place at the usual time which is 4pm at Sparkhouse studios with my editor Daniel Ionescu. This week we decided on one idea for me to work on:

 1. Alternative sports- Since a lot of the local media covers the main football team the Lincoln Imps feature quite prominently we have decided on the idea of looking into other sports which take place around the city like hockey or rugby. This will act as a USP for the site as the Imp's feature prominently in local sports media. I'm already using one of Chris Frosts recommended contacts in the form of a press officer. Currently I'm contact with the city female football team the Lincoln Ladies about arranging some interviews with the players and staff. Unlike the angle for a majority of Lincoln sports coverage which tends to be match reports (http://www.lsjnews.co.uk/2012/02/18/match-report-kidderminster-harriers-1-1-lincoln-city-city/) and doesn't tend to search for a feature angle, this leaves an a gap and a strong unique selling point.

This week my editor has told to keep my eyes open and look for subjects for features which have a focus on people who are somehow deemed 'special'. Or a more academic observation of the these kinds of stories and how to find these subjects comes from Chris Frost. He writes ' Ordinary people include: committee members of local organisations and charities, trade union officials, teachers and health works.. the list is long because you never know who you are going to need as a contact. That why it's so important for a reporter to socialise with as many people as possible.'

This doesn't hark back to the stereotype of journalists spending a lot of time in the pub this is suggesting that journalists should expand their social circles from their usual social diet of going to the cinema or parties with co-workers or friends. This applies to going social networking events to build up industry contacts or even meet people in your field, going to art gallery openings and forming connections with the local art scene like I did at the local gallery called The Collection. It could even mean going to a bar or new social area opening like the Linc did with new bar opening at the Engine shed. In conclusion this means I should expand my social circle as all these events have a story they just simply need to be found.

Critique disclaimer- As you may have noticed I haven't featured this section for a few posts. The reason is that some of the stories I write are 'spiked', which means they tend to be not suitable for publishing. This could be because the story isn't newsworthy and doesn't have an angle. An example of this recently would be the Durkeys story, I discovered the identity of the species which was Muscovy ducks (Follow this link to find out how I identified them http://www.ispot.org.uk/node/247124) though this was a unique find my further research indicated their was nothing overly special about the species and their wasn't much more to write about. Some stories however are in the pipeline like the Lincoln Ladies story which may be incorporated into my alternative sports story, in a way this is similar to my Cathedral story. My editor had decided that the inital story didn't have a strong news angle but managed to use a quote from it for another story (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/11/lincolns-historic-buildings-at-risk/ )