Lining up experts
Linda and I were talking shop on the phone tonight, and our conversation turned to flaky sources. Over the past several weeks, Linda’s had her share of AWOL sources who’ve left her high-and-dry on D-day. And I mentioned that it was a good thing I didn’t have a firm deadline for a women’s magazine short, because the book-writing celeb I’m to interview is more wily than a coyote.
I’ve become mercenary about sourcing. Maybe a year ago, after a string of frantic, last-minute pleas to sources who’d promised to get back to me with phone calls and quotes, I decided, This bites. I’m in here, gnawing on my nails for dinner, while my poor kid is eating microwaved leftovers in front of Dragon Tales.
I took a cold, hard look at my loyalties. My first loyalty is to my editor; she’s the person who controls whether or not I’ll write for her magazine again. I want to make her job easier, not more difficult; having to call her the day before a piece is due to say, “Wah, my source won’t get back to me!” falls into the category of making her job more difficult. I want to be known as a writer who’s dependable, who can make things happen, who has a backup plan, and who doesn’t bother her with details of how I do my job.
My second loyalty is to the reader. I put the reader second because, after all, if my editor isn’t pleased with my work, who’s going to read it? Hey, if you read the Renegade Writer, I can’t even depend on my mother to read my musings.
With my priorities in order, this made the whole sourcing issue much more clearcut for me. Experience shows that if I need to speak to one pediatrician about baby acne, I must contact at least three major universities with my source request, usually five. Depending on one media relations department to come through for me guarantees a short-term bout of hypertension. I’ll usually get two interviews set up. Sometimes I strike it lucky, like I did last week with a pediatrician from Tufts (his contact info went into my Rolodex!). No need to go to source #2. Most of the time, though, if I have two interviews, one stands out more than the other and I get the luxury of having more than enough info.
Sounds like more work, right? It is, on one hand. But if you’ve got all your eggs in one source’s basket, and that source is about to drop said basket, my way suddenly looks more appealing. Think of it as an insurance plan. Sure, you may have to do a couple more interviews than necessary, but the peace of mind is worth it. Plus, you can pick and choose from quotes, and develop a broader understanding of the subject.
Nervous about following my mercenary sourcing rules? Some tips:
- Promises are for editors, not sources. When I interview experts, I tell them right up front that there’s no guarantee they’ll appear in the final piece. That’s really up to my editor. Sort of. Let’s face it — some people just don’t give good quote, and I’m sorry — I’m not in the business of giving my sources good spin. And neither are you. So if the interview is going nowhere fast, cut it short (nicely!), and move on to source #2.
- Give yourself plenty of time to land the right interviews. If your story is due on the 30th, it’s crazy to tell sources, “I need to talk by 5:00 p.m. on the 29th.” Tell sources you absolutely must have your interview completed by the 21st in order to meet your deadline.
- The early bird gets the worm. That’s why it’s okay to put your request for an interview out to a lot of experts. Say you’re doing a piece on weatherproofing your pets and you’ve contacted ten vet sources. You set up five interviews. If by the third interview you have what you need, cancel the other two and explain that other sources got to you first and you’re all set. You’ll put their name in your Rolodex for the future.
- Mercenary does not mean rude. Of course I respect my sources and value their time, so I’m always honest with them and express my gratitude for their willingness to be interviewed. Moreover, I don’t call PR people and say things like, “My editor called me today and wants this tomorrow” when the truth is I have several weeks to write the story. Play that card for when it really happens because that’s when karma will bite you in the ass.
- If you have trouble shifting your loyalties i.e. you worry a source is going to get “mad” at you for “wasting time,” tell me: isn’t your time worth something? I find that writers who worry excessively about this don’t value their time/talent as much as they should. Something to think about.
What are your ideas about finding experts for your stories? How do you handle sourcing? [db]
If you liked that post, you might also like:
- Why You Shouldn’t Do E-Mail Interviews Unless You Really, Really Have To
- Bust My Excuse: I Don’t Know How to Find Experts – Or Make Them Talk
- Are you a phone-phobic freelancer?
- Will Your Article Idea Fly? Here’s How to Find Out
- My Dirty Little Secret — And 5 Ways to Beat Your Fear of Interviewing Sources
Nov 16, 2006 Ass, Observations, Sources
Great suggestions, Diana! On a couple of occasions, I’ve had the problem of sources flaking out on a career-related story right before my deadline. As in, we DID the interview, and when I called a week or two later to verify something, they suddenly were uncomfortable with their “real name” being used in the story. (Since most of my editors don’t go for sources with pseudonyms, this is a problem.) Or they decided to clear the fact that they talked to me with their boss or company’s HR department and now it’s a no-go. Once the story in question was a CAREER PROFILE of the source and I had to spend a weekend lining up a replacement. Plus, I had already written the story to the original source’s interview. Very aggravating.
Now I have two rules that remedy this:
1. Before I begin any interview, I ask if (a) it’s OK to use their full name and other identifying characteristics (age, city, etc.), and (b) they need to clear talking to me with their company (if so, we don’t do the interview until they can confirm this clearance). Then I let them know that everything we’re about to discuss will be on the record and once they say it, there’s no taking it back later. I simply don’t have the time. If they don’t want something publicly known, they should hold their tongue when talking to me (or preface the statement in question with “this is off the record”).
2. I don’t call sources to fact check, unless absolutely necessary (as in, I can’t make heads or tails of my interview transcript). If they say in the interview they’re going to want me to clear quotes with them, I read key quotes I may use in the story back to them before I get off the phone. That’s the only quote check they get. Too often people want to change their quotes after the fact if I’ve called back to do a quote check later.
One other thing I also learned the hard way: Some sources will completely flake out and not “show up” to their interview — whether we’re “meeting” by phone or in person. Unless I absolutely need to meet the source in person, I always interview by phone or email. On the few occasions I set up “in person” meetings, I was surprised — not to mention pissed — at the number of sources who completely forgot to show up, or had a childcare emergency and couldn’t even call to let me know they needed to reschedule. Despite their collective track record, I’m surprised at the number of sources who are shocked, even peeved, that I won’t meet them in person.
Diana, if you have any suggestions on how I can further refine my herding of sources, I’m all ears.
Just spent all day trying to nail down two, yes two, brief phone interviews. (With flacks!) What a relief to know that other journalists go through it too.
Your point about persistence is really important: keep going until you get something. And let the numbers work in your favor, call enough people and you’ll get an answer. Today, the head of the press office wasn’t returning my calls so I emailed everyone else in the department. One of them called back with the mobile number of a key person in the company to interview…
And as aggravating as all this is, courtesy is key. Normally I wouldn’t bother, but I called back the first secretary and told her I didn’t need the interview just to avoid further phone tag. She seemed really surprised and grateful…
On the issue of *finding* experts (and story ideas), PRweb (www.prweb.com) and PRNewsWire (www.prnewswire.com) can be your friend. And, if you don’t already know how, learn to use an RSS reader (like http://www.feedreader.com) — you can get notification of press releases on a wide variety of topics from both sites via RSS. It takes me about 20 minutes each morning to cruise my FeedReader inbox, and I usually find 2 or 3 press releases that lead to or inspire article ideas.
I ran into an interesting problem with a source recently, who gave me all sorts of good information for a story, none of which I could use. The reason? He provided me the information in the form of a series of article clips from a publication that competed with the one I was writing with.
Could I have gotten away with quoting that information? Maybe, but the idea failed my IJDSR (“It Just Don’t Smell Right”) test, so I thanked him for his contribution and e-mailed my editor to explain why I couldn’t use it. She helped me find another source, and thanked me for making the right ethical call. And then she assigned me two more stories. Had I gone against my instinct and quoted from those clippings, I probably would have lost a steady $500/month client that I’ve been working with for nearly two years.
The moral of the tale? Ethics pays, and just because your source is bending the boundaries doesn’t mean you should.