An Indispensible Tool

Click here for excerpts from the Handbook

The Weekly Writer’s Handbook covers all the essentials for a reporter without formal training. Garrett Ray of “Publishers’ Auxiliary” called it a no-nonsense “cookbook” for young reporters and interns.  According to “Black Ink: The Book” author Ken Blum, it’s “a classic. Every weekly ought to have one.”

 Contains 230 pages in seven sections:

 1. The Role of Weeklies
• The Purpose of Newspapers
• Developing Story Ideas
• The Newsroom Attitude 

2. News Writing
• Basics
• Thinking Through Your Writing
• Basic Story Types
• Complex Stories
• Writing Features 

3. Reporting
• Interviewing
• Covering a Beat
• Covering Meetings
• Covering Police and Courts
• Covering Education
• Writing Budget and Finance Stories
• Covering Local Sports
• Reporting Trends and Change

 4. Editing and Headlines:
• Copy Editing and Headlines
• Editorial Pages
• Coaching Writers
• Surveys, Polls and Samples
• Working With Public Relations

 5. Law and Ethics
• Understanding the Law of the Press
• Free Press Versus Fair Trial
• Reporting About Your Friends
• Sensitivity to Minorities
• Serving on Boards

 6. The Total Newspaper
• The Reporter and Advertising
• Basics of Photography
• Some Thoughts on Graphics

 7. Improving Your Newspaper
• Formal Listening to Your Readers
• Call-In Opinion Columns
• The Lighter Touch
• Reaching for the Next Level
• Writing for the Web