Sandy Rowe: Lessons from a life in news

One of the luxuries of working for Mizzou is getting to attend interesting campus lectures, including the Missouri Honor Medal master classes on Oct. 28. Below, I've posted my notes from the presentation given by Sandy Rowe, retired Oregonian editor and currently a Knight fellow at Harvard.

Rowe said her perfect newspaper would only have three types of stories:

1. Kick-ass, original exclusives/investigative stories
   
2. Stories on humanity built on character and details, the stories that make you want to laugh or cry
3. Useful stories of high interest, such as explanatory pieces or news you can use

Her presentation focused on the first type, the most at danger in today's economy. She described these accountability stories as complex, high-risk, high-impact and original reporting. They're rarely about one thing; the best stories are at the intersection of topics and touch on what we value as a society/community. They require layered reporting. Of course, this is costly to newsrooms.

She said it's foolish to think that more money will come into media outlets to fund investigative reporting, and most bloggers don't have the resources or a wide distribution. So, what could keep investigative stories going? Rowe suggests that media have to stop serving their newsrooms rather than their communities first and form partnerships with nonjournalistic organizations, universities, public radio stations and nonjournalistic experts. Northeastern has an investigative seminar in which student stories are funneled to the Boston Globe. So far 16 student-reported stories have appeared on Page 1. Another newspaper formed a partnership with a librarian and three retired lawyers who were willing to do research. Even Facebook could help newsrooms find experts in their communities whom they could network with.

As an editor, she employed "prosecutorial editing" when her staff worked on high-risk stories that made the reporters feel both thrills and pure fear. In editing, she asked herself and the reporter:

• Could the opposite of what we're writing be true?
• Is there another explanation for this?
• What don't I know that might change things?

She argued that investigative stories don't have to be five-part series. They can appear in several formats, including:

• Breaking news: In "Confusion hampered search for Kims," which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news, a team of Oregonian reporters pieced together details that not only provided a harrowing narrative of a family of four stranded and freezing in the Oregon woods but also evidence that rescue agencies failed terribly:

"In the end, the family was found by a volunteer pilot, one of several key breakthroughs achieved by people not connected to the official search. The confirmation that the family was south of Roseburg came from a citizen tipster; and the cell phone evidence narrowing the search was provided by amateur detectives at an Oregon wireless carrier.

Many of the key missteps came in Josephine County. The search-and-rescue coordinator now acknowledges she was overwhelmed by the demands of the search. She failed to call for help from the National Guard, which meant that heat-detecting helicopters stayed on the ground in the crucial two nights James Kim slept in the forest.

Her direct supervisor, an undersheriff in his last week on the job, said he ignored a late-night call from her about the case because he was watching an Oregon State football game on television."

• Profiles: Oregon's governor and several members of Congress called for the resignation of David Beebe, district director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, after complaints of high numbers of Asians being rejected at the airport. The next day, Julie Sullivan convinced Beebe that there was more to his story than what had been reported, and she wrote "I have to be who I am," explaining Beebe's character and motivations.

"Last year, 94,000 "customers" approached the counter of the Portland INS. The line of immigrants, refugees, adoptive parents and newlyweds forms outside the stained stone walls of the unmarked federal building on Northwest Broadway as early as 7 a.m.

But Beebe is always there first.

Neighbors can set their watches by the 55-year-old civil servant: up at 3:45 a.m. for calisthenics, out the garage door by 6 a.m., in the office 14 minutes later in a dark suit and silk tie. Beebe is 6-foot-2, 170 pounds of self-discipline who controls high blood pressure through habit. He takes the stairs, never elevators. He takes walks, not lunch. He never has more than a single glass of wine. He trims his lawn Tuesdays and Thursdays, like clockwork."

• Editorials: "All the lonely people" won the 2006 Pultizer Prize for editorial writing. It uncovered the shortcomings of Oregon State Hospital, including a room with 5,000 unclaimed remains, and called for the legislature to fund improvements to mental health care services.

Rowe also suggested reversing the journalistic lens. Instead of localizing national stories, start with a local story. Follow it through; keep reporting on it. Chances are that the story touches onit an issue that will have larger implications and might turn into a regional or national story.

Andrew Astleford wins first place in Hearst Journalism Awards

Congrats to our dear friend, Andrew Astleford, who won first place last week in the Sports Writing category of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation's Journalism Awards Program. His story, "Detour to Destiny: Arena of Dreams," was published in the Columbia Missourian and produced during an Intermediate Writing course at the Missouri School of Journalism, taught by Jacqui Banaszynski.

Astleford's story shows the human side of dreams not-yet dropped, and how a player's success is more meaningful to him than just the momentary glory of the 100-yard stage.

After graduating in December, Astleford moved to New Orleans, La., and now freelances for publications such as ESPN.com and New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Highlights from this Sunday's Times (7/12/09)

Lloyd Gaines. (Associated Press)

- David Stout on Lloyd Gaines' contribution to the civil rights movement — opening the way for blacks to be admitted to the University of Missouri School of Law
- Andrea Elliott, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, on some Somali-Americans who have been lured to participate in jihad
- Charles Siebert on human-whale interaction

Shout-out to Andrew Astleford

News of this year's UWIRE 100 best college journalists went over Romenesko yesterday. Two of the 100 were Mizzou students. One of the two, Andrew Astleford, occasionally contributes sports stories to the Missourian that I love to read. I'm confident he'll be the kind of person the MU j-school will brag about churning out for years to come.

This is actually the second consecutive year Andrew made the cut for the UWIRE 100.

Andrew covered the MU Tiger football team last year and in 2007 with an understanding of what the real story was. He is what I might call a reliable narrator. When I read his stories, I don't look for quotes. I like to sit tight and listen to his narration.

Examples:

- When the Tigers lost the 2008 Big 12 conference game to Oklahoma.

- When the '07 Tigers were so good, they called to mind the '69 Tigers.

- When hype surrounded Columbia, Mo., as the 2008 season began in the shadow of an amazing one in 2007.

UPDATE: Andrew has won this year's Atwater Writing Contest, which the MU j-school administers. On behalf of the contest committee, Columbia Missourian editor Liz Brixey writes:

With pleasure, we announce that Andrew Astleford has won this year's Atwater Writing Contest.

Submissions were exceptionally strong this year and made for some terrific reading, and we thank everyone who entered.

Andrew wins for three stories: "Seeking Relief, McHale's Life Took a Fatal Turn," about the late Tampa Bay Buccaneer Tom McHale, published in The Washington Post; "A Pitcher's Dual Dreams of Delivering at Sea, on Hill," about Atlanta Braves pitcher Mitch Harris, also in the Post; and "Daniel stayed true to his Tigers commitment," about the quarterback's loyalty to MU even when Texas came calling, in the Columbia Missourian.

The stories showed wonderful descriptive writing based on detailed reporting as well as strong use of dialogue. "He gets me in the beginning and takes me all the way to the end of every story," one judge said.

Andrew, who comes from Dodge City, Kan., is in the magazine sequence and plans to graduate in December. His summer schedule includes the Poynter Fellowship for College Journalists in St. Petersburg, Fla., and the Midwest Writers Workshop at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.

Andrew spent two semesters at the Columbia Missourian under sports editor Greg Bowers and interned at the Orlando Sentinel and The Washington Post. Andrew placed 12th in 2008 and third in 2009 for sports writing in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program and third in 2008 for explanatory writing for the Associated Press Sports Editors. For the past two years, he has been named among the top 100 college journalists in America by uwire.com.

Andrew is now in Jacqui Banaszynski's intermediate writing class, and here is a link to a story from that class that appeared last week in the Missourian about former football Tigers Pig Brown, Darnell Terrell and Xzavie Jackson:

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2009/04/24/river-city/

Andrew receives $600 and a copy of Eudora Welty's memoir "One Writer's Beginnings," which was a favorite of the late Jim Atwater, former dean and faculty member of the Missouri School of Journalism. This annual prize is given in memory of his love of writing, this J school and its students.

Please join us in congratulating Andrew.