By Chip Scanlan very beat has its own allure. The dramatic stories of crime, criminals and their victims draw reporters to the cops beat. The best science journalists revel in data, discoveries, evidence and the challenges of determining their veracity. For more than a decade as … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski bit of awe and wonder came my way last week from a riff on awe and wonder from the Los Angeles Times morning newsletter. I subscribe to the L.A. Times, which I have followed since I first moved to the Pacific Northwest early in my career. It, like most news … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski here is a standard play in ice hockey known as a “deke.” I don’t usually link to Wikipedia as a primary source, but in this case it will service just fine. According to the summary: In ice hockey, a deke is a type of feint or fake technique whereby a player … | Continue reading
By Trevor Pyle he world of online influencers — especially those who trade in sexual content — is an economic behemoth that’s often-murky and often-mocked. But Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell used his remarkable story on a pair of OnlyFans content producers to treat the sub … | Continue reading
By Katia Savchuk avid Grann believes that scouting an idea for a book or magazine article should be more than an intellectual exercise. The right story, he says, “gets its hooks into you.” The tales that grip Grann, a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker and the bestselling au … | Continue reading
By Katia Savchuk even years ago, David Grann found himself staring at a faded journal in a digital archive. It belonged to John Byron, grandfather of the poet Lord Byron, and documented his journey as a midshipman on The Wager, a British warship that set sail in 1740 on a secret … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski ost of my holiday cards to people as 2023 ended came to a close were signed with this wish: Here’s to a hopeful 2024. Five days in, that hopefulness was been mightily challenged. A shooting at a public school in a small town in Iowa left a sixth-grader dead … | Continue reading
By Carly Stern magine that you’ve reached your long-held journalism dreams. You worked your way to the staff of a big masthead newspaper. Then you moved beyond the breakneck pace and tight word-count limits of that world to the relative luxury of long-form magazine narratives. Th … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski ne of my writing workshop wisdoms is bogarted from former colleague and longtime friend Katherine Lanpher. It first came to me when I was struggling to cobble together a last-minute keynote for some narrative conference, and reached out to some friends for h … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski n a companion piece, the bots channeled you, the Storyboard readers, to identify the top posts, by pageview, in 2023. It’s a strong list, and offers stories you can learn from again and again. Now I claim the editor’s prerogative with my own highlights from … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski y vexations with the bots are many. They read my mind when I enter the first few words — or letters — of a Google search. They track my phone to the dentist’s office and then send endless ads for tooth bleach. I am convinced they cheat when I play Cribbage o … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski am a Christmas person, without apology. I long ago left behind institutional religious practice. I no longer go big on decorations. But upbringing, culture and, mostly, the deep quite of solstice-time make it a feeling I embrace. For whatever reason, it make … | Continue reading
By Fern Reiss ’ve been both accepted and rejected by Nature Magazine. For the same submission. It all started when I met a bumblebee veterinarian at the UPOD Writer’s Conference this past January. Some people keep a bucket list. I keep a publishing bucket list. Nature had been o … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski s I indulged in my morning obsession of scanning news headlines one day last week, I paused on something called “napkin stories.” The tease I got included a reference to actor Chris Pine — a favorite of mine — so I surrendered my click. It led to an Esquire … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski lot of journalists dream of having their byline on work that wins one of the top industry awards. Many long to see their name on the spine of a book. Some might even fantasy about their name on a building at their alma mater before they remember that 1) they … | Continue reading
By Kim Cross s a writer of meticulously reported narratives, I geek out about process. A big part of my writing process is an evolving organizational “system” that supports the repetitive tasks that complicated writing projects entail. These tasks can feel tedious and grunty, so … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski toryboard does not indulge in easy click bait. But I would be foolish to ignore a legitimate opportunity to tap the drawing power of Taylor Swift. There’s this week’s news that she was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. You can read all about how Time … | Continue reading
By Tom Warhover here’s a war on words and images out there. Book banning in schools is trending these days, supercharged with the twin engines of social media and political extremism. Banning has reached historic highs. Book challenges are local, school district by school distric … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski he gratitude essay I wrote recentlyhas given back in multiples — which is how gratitude is supposed to work. I’ve received several lovely notes in response, including one from a non-writer who said “Hey, a list of words. I can do that!” I shouldn’t say this … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski he primary New York Times obit of Henry Kissinger listed it as a “38 MIN READ.” I checked the clock, my to-do list and my energy level. Then I bookmarked the obit for a later read. I came into journalism just as President Richard Nixon was facing the heat of … | Continue reading
By Carly Stern s a journalist who has covered disability issues, I’ve long been interested in nuanced and in-depth narratives surrounding the vast range of experiences with disability. That includes the lived experiences of people with disabilities as well as those of the people … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski ratitude is hot. Researchers study its benefits on health, happiness and longevity. Therapists teach it as a grounding activity that puts anxiety in perspective. Philosophers write all manner of homages to its value throughout human history. And in recent ye … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski On Wednesday last week, I had a plan for the newsletter: All manner of tidbits were collecting in a file and it was time to use the best of them in an “items” column. On Thursday morning, I read the Poynter.org morning report, by Tom Jones, featuring his int … | Continue reading
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of two posts featuring Kim Cross on the successful pitch-and-proposal process that led to her new book, ‘In Light of All Darkness.’ In this post, Cross annotates the proposal that landed her a contract after previous pitches fell short. In a companion p … | Continue reading
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of two posts featuring Kim Cross on the successful pitch-and-proposal process that led to her new book, ‘In Light of All Darkness.’ In a companion post, Cross annotates the proposal that landed the book contract. By Carly Stern book project is no pursui … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski ccording to the adage, people don’t regret the things they did in life — only those they didn’t. I don’t buy it — anymore than I buy the assurance that if we do what we love, we’ll never work a day in our lives. I’ve loved my career in journalism and teachin … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski o future for narrative? No support for longer pieces? No value in for print? The folks at The Guardian bravely beg to differ — and bully to them for that. As our sister publication, Nieman Lab, reported this week, the U.K.-based “newspaper” is taking its pop … | Continue reading
By Mallary Tenore Tarpley p until I started writing my first book, I wasn’t a big outliner. I spent the earlier part of my career writing news and feature stories about the media industry, then transitioned into writing personal essays. Outlining struck me as another tedious and … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski lichés are to good writing as fill in your preferred cliché here. A student of mine once challenged that notion. She insisted that clichés are a good thing: They are a universal shorthand — a way to make stories shorter and more understandable. Yow! Rather t … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski henever someone asks if they could tap me as an editor to help them with a project, I start with a direct question: What do you mean by “editor?” Many seem baffled by that question. No doubt they are clear about their understanding of what an editor does — a … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski [T]he question has confronted me more frequently, its challenge heated by the contraction of newsrooms, rise of mis- and disinformation, indifference to facts, intransigence of opinion and a depressing distrust of the legitimate press. That question, at hear … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski et lag clawed at me for days after getting home from writing workshops in Romania. My return flights involved cancellations, delays, the demand to check a bag I have always carried on and a broken seat on the long haul overseas. The seat wasn’t broken badly … | Continue reading
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is how Cristian Lupsa captured the key reporting/writing lessons from a workshop I led in the mountains of Romania the week of October 15, 2023. Lupsa (Nieman Fellow 2014) founded and ran a groundbreaking magazine in Romania for 10 years, was the visionary beh … | Continue reading
By Dale Keiger have known the writer Ann Finkbeiner for around 30 years now. She writes mostly about science, especially astronomy and cosmology, and possesses a deep and warm intelligence as well as formidable dexterity with the English language and a love of story. “Warm intell … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski have a tendency to notice odd juxtapositions in the news. Many baffle me to the point of annoyance, as when a major news site tells me, on the same day, that public school enrollments have fallen dramatically and, in a separate piece, that children will be s … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski have been weary with heartache, confusion and a deep sense of “should” since Hamas waged a vicious, surprise attack on Israel Oct. 7. The heartache and confusion need no explanation. The “should?” As a journalist hosting a community of other journalists, the … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski y fandom of American TV police/crime procedurals goes back to sharing Agatha Christie mysteries with my mother, then watching “Perry Mason” on a not-very-sharp black-and-white TV. I loved trying to ID the bad guy (spoiler: on TV, it’s always the most famous … | Continue reading
By Christian Wihtol ight years ago, the Oregon newspaper where I then worked hired a new publisher. One of his first acts was to start calling our journalism “content.” At news meetings he made declarations along the lines of: “We need to produce more content for our audiences,” … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski ast week brought the sad news of the deaths of more fine journalists I’ve been graced to know. One was Jim Caple, who was one of those sports reporters who saw sports through a wider and more creative lens. We overlapped for a time at the St. Paul Pioneer Pr … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski That phrase has stayed with me for years, since I read John Steinbeck’s last novel, which was cited when the iconic 20th century author was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is, according to publisher Penguin Random House, “a tale of degeneratio … | Continue reading
By Trevor Pyle he may not have faced dragons, but to tell the story of how Dungeons & Dragons has come to serve as an emotional release for death-row prisoners, Keri Blakinger embarked on another kind of epic journey. “When Wizards and Orcs Came to Death Row,” which was jointly p … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski t’s that season again — and I don’t mean the season of the pumpkin spice latte, which I consider a bad idea on several levels. I mean the season to watch for journalism contest entry due dates. Early alerts have been popping up in my inbox, notably for the T … | Continue reading
By AniaHull nless he’s at the keyboard, writing or editing his work, this is what Luke Mogelson takes with him to work: an old desert-camouflage bullet-proof vest, a Kevlar helmet, a GoPro clipped to the front of his vest, his iPhone and two medical pouches that he keeps permanen … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski he fall equinox takes the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere into official autumn tonight. There’s already been a dusting of snow in the high Cascades that rise just west of my cabin; the furnace, turned low during summer, kicks on overnight. Yet the sport of baseb … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski message popped up on my Facebook message box that captured, in short form, a not-infrequent lament I hear from reporters who long to stretch into deeper, more engaging stories but must write about specialty or technical subjects for niche publications, and/o … | Continue reading
By Herbert Lowe n my favorite moment of the 25-minute documentary, “Reporting From the U.S. Civil Rights Trail,” one of my students is descending church steps in Alabama to do a TV standup: All eyes were on Birmingham, here at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church 60 years ago, whe … | Continue reading
By Trevor Pyle reader’s comment, a trove of first-hand documentation and a patient, collaborative approach. Those were three elements among many that helped Washington Post reporter Peter Jamison report and write a powerful profile of a family that turned away from their communit … | Continue reading
By Jacqui Banaszynski n the mood for an enduring romance? Mine came this week through the obituary of Marilyn Lovell, wife of Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell. The couple were portrayed by Kathleen Quinlan and Tom Hanks in Ron Howard’s 1995 film, “Apollo 13,” which retold the story of … | Continue reading