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Story Ideas

Fed up Ed, 1/8/2003, 1:40:00 PM

I am editor of a community college paper and there is very little activity. The writers for the paper are not very enthused about finding story topics and I feel I have exhausted most of my resources for interesting news (besides the small amount of hard news that occurs at the college). Does anyone have any tips and tricks for getting interesting and creative story ideas?

Responses

April Wooster, 1/14/2003, 9:02:36 PM
Finding story ideas
1) Brainstorm on a current issue...take one topic and extrapolate it
2) Go to a bookstore to find ideas, read other magazines, almanacs
3) Databases...check them for new statistical information or studies, check out other newspapers online
4) Read other community newspapers, magazine, listen to local news
5) Find out what your paper reported on a year or two ago at the same time
6) Assume another point of view
(become another race, class, gender, age, position, culture etc.)
See life from another viewpoint
7) Read classified ads for stories/
classifieds reveal people's needs
8) Localize national news/how does it affect your community college?
9) Seek profiles
10) Track programs and events and come up with different angles
11) Turn press releases into a story
12) Follow issues and trends, what people are interested in right now, look at entertainment field
13) Surf the Internet...follow the links...we need to know what's happening in the world
14) Schedule some appointments just to talk with campus leaders about what's going on

In the future, start a tickler file: a compilation of articles or tips that will tickle your mind about things coming up

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