How protest songs echo — and sometimes lead — the stories of our times

Protest music can be both witness and challenge to political events, in ways similar to activist journalism. The song "Ohio" was one not of peace but rage. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

What happens when a superstar novelist is asked to profile a superstar actress?

Author Ann Patchett approaches a magzine piece about Reese Witherspoon with firm boundaries: No gossip and nothing unkind. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

If no one reads the news, did it happen?

Some reflections on the challenge prsented to journalism and democracy by disinterest in news — and the things that sustain hope. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Fashion reporting as cultural criticism

Pulitzer winner Robin Givhan of the Washington Post draws on keen reporting skills to cover fashion, and fashion to deliver political and cultural commentary. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

“… between broad statistical data and intimate personal disclosure.”

A line or two of authority in a story as an extension of the traditoinal nut graf can add meaning to the current story and make it about more. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

How to become a “five-tool” storyteller

Few journalists excel at all the skills they need to do the best job. Recruiting a team of people with various specialities can elevate everyone's work. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Four questions mine for bottomless wisdom

Writing coach Chip Scanlan brings back "Chip on Your Shoulder," which features personal insights from name writers. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Navigating ethics, culture and safety to immerse in immigration and Covid

Putlizer Prize-winning reporter Hanna Dreier dives into a "quiet" story that presented more challenges than covering collapsed economiies and gang violence. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Rejecting the simplified news narrative

Documentary filmmaker Erin Lee Carr pushes past the easy answers that sometimes follow court cases, and probes for complexity. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

“His conversation is so delightfully sauced …”

A single verb in a nature essay changes the mood and meaning of a passage, and captures the attention of a reader. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

What crisis reporting can teach about better sports reporting

Being drawn into coverage of Hurricane Katrina as a young reporter helped Ben Hochman develop skills and approaches he uses as an award-winning sports columnist. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

“Violence of the light miraculous.”

n a work-related Zoom meeting recently, a colleague referred to Reddit as “lightning in a bottle.” I’m not entirely sure what that meant, despite her best efforts to explain it to my dial-up mind, but it made me want to know more about the Reddit community, and how stories flare … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Reporting the emotionally sensitive story through trauma and physical distance

LA Times reporter Angel Jennings has covered South LA for eight years. She leads with knowledge, listening and humanity to gain trust. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

The route to a Pulitzer in opinion writing: rigorous reporting

When a big-city journalist from the north becomes the editor of a tiny newspaper newspaper in Texas, he brings an ethic of agressive reporting and rhythmic writing | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

The crucial challenge of precision: As descriptors evolve, the press must, too

The tight format of news headlines and stories don't always allow for needed precision — especially with descriptors. A journalist explores the complexity of LGBTQ+ terms. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

“Words are living things. They have personality, point of view, agenda.

One word, and even the change in a different spelling of a word by one letter, can convey emotion and meaning. Serious writers learn to choose carefully. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

“They were tired, so tired and still they returned.”

A short sentence from staff at The Washington Post offers a pause in a fast-paced round-up story, and captures the import of events beyond the moment. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

The challenge of writing a life in two lines

How determining the essence of your own obituary can remind you what you need to report and write about too many others who become part of the news. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

A confluence of hard news that demands uncomfortable considerations

ll news is the stuff of history. But some deserves more than a dusty archive to be stumbled upon by a research scholar. It is an immediate marker that demands be heeded for the ages. We are living in the middle of multiple waves of that kind of news now: political turmoil threate … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

How F. Scott Fitzgerald guided the hand and aspirations of a newspaper journalist

arly in my career, while working in Minnesota as a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, I fell in love with F. Scott Fitzgerald, the city’s most famous native writer. It may have had something to do with the fact that I lived a block away from where he wrote “This Side of Par … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Reading (Stephen King) to learn to write

A summer guide to reading the king of horror is a reminder that good writing lessons can come from many places — and don't need to work for everyone. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

A day-in-the-life profile of a grocery store during the coronavirus shut-down

A reporter gains access to a grocery store to see the coronavirus shutdown through the eyes of esssential workers, and shows the power of a tight narrative frame. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

“… the only true medicine I could provide.”

A mountain doctor volunteers at a New York hospital in the height of the coronavirus, and discovers the power of listening to and telling stories. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

The news joins the rituals of mourning

The New York Times front page naming 1,000 who died from coronavirus is not just information, but ceremony. Roy Peter Clark analyzes what makes it so. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Reverse engineering your story or project

The concept of "beginning with the end" in mind can help you make your way with more efficiency and success. But don't forget to stay flexible. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

“When we came back to Paris it was clear and cold and lovely.”

A parish priest wonders why a single line from Hemingway stirs him so. Writing teacher and scholar Roy Peter Clark offers some answers. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

A displaced writer picks up a camera — and falls back in love with learning

A longtime reporter who was laid off in the news industry contraction developed a passion for photography, which has helped restore his desire to write. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Journalism lives at the check-out counter

How a career journalist survived a layoff working at a national drug store chain, and used her interviewing skills to connect with anxious customers. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

“Execution is as important as vision.”

Grand plans are crucial, especially for leaders who need to ralliy people to a purpose. But those plans have to be backed up by hard work. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

A poet’s distance farewell to his students is an anthem for the times

A poet and teacher of poetry had to wind up his 50th year of teaching with a virtual farewell to his students. His short message is an anthem for our times. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

The path to excellence: Hard thinking, constant worry and “lunch-pail labor”

Award-winning journalist and author Walt Harrington offers a tribute to Ed Lambeth, the journalism ethicist and teacher who set him on the path to stories. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Triple profile: A mountain town, a beloved newspaper, and an unlikely hero

News deserts are spreading across America. Tim Arango of the New York Times profiles a retired widower, turned newspaper owner, who wanted better for his California mountain town. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

A “nut case” buys a mountain town newspaper to save it

What a retired widower and lifelong news junkie, turned newspaper owner, has to say about his first four months at the helm of the Mountain Messenger. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Congratulations to the 2020 Pulitzer Prize winners

With sincere congratulations and gratitude, here is the full list of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize winners: 15 in journalism this year, with the addition of a new category in Audio Reporting, and 14 in letters and arts. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

“How was it I had let all wonder, all curiosity, seep from me?”

When the daily grind wears you down, it is easy to feel you've lost your skills and creative spark. The only way through is to keep working. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Where writers write when they can’t write where they like to write

Coronavirus pandemic shut-downs left freelancers and newsroom staffers without their usual writing spaces. Several shared their make-shift solutions | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Take small steps to tell the big story: Make free writing a daily discipline

Storyboard editor Jacqui Banaszynski urges storytellers to take notice of what's right in front of them, and capture it daily with some version of a free write. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Building writing muscles — a postcard a day

A sports columnist sidelined by the delay of baseball season returns to a passion for postcards — and stretches his writing to be more conversational. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

A Writer’s Survival Guide: Tips for defying distraction

A freelancer and author has learned how to keep writing through life's challenges. She does wheelies with her son, but her survival tips are adaptable. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Writing through chaos? Borrow a cabin, do a snow wheelie, get a kryptonite hug

Much of the world has altered its pace during the coronavirus — but deadlines have not. Author and freelancer Kim Cross takes "desperation measures." | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Can deep reporting answer the ultimate coronavirus question: How will it end?

Award-winning science journalist Ed Yong dares to use reporting to speculate and project the future after coronavirus -- with options based on our choices. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Teaching narrative in the time of coronavirus

A journalism teacher finds that many of the best tools still apply when reporting for narrative under the isolation of coronavirus. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

A religion reporter profiles a charismatic community drawn to a “miracle Bible”

Slate's Ruth Graham leans on her background in religion coverage and evangelical Christianity to paint a non-judgmental portrait of faith, rituals and politics. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

When the narrative becomes the disease

Narrative scholar Roy Peter Clark argues that history is replete with narratives that scapegoat others as carriers or dangers to be feared and shunned. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

John Prine would want us to feel real life today, and write it with feeling every day

John Prine turned a working man's sensibility and a reporter's keen eye into songs for the ages. A writer and fan offers a middle-of-the-night tribute. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

How knowing the full story process informs a writer’s work

When an editor returns to full-time reporting, he takes what he learned through the editing process — including a respect for editors. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

How to wed personal experience and journalistic discipline

Dan Barry of the New York Times reports his family's personal story to bring readers into a shared dilemma: What to do about isolated seniors in the time of coronavirus? | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago

Six core questions to spark fresh ideas

How six core story questions can help journalists find fresh approaches to any story, big or small, with examples from coronavirus coverage. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 4 years ago