Life of a Newspaper Writer

You may or may not know that I have been writing for my school newspaper for almost 2 years. I am not going into journalism, but it is a part of my PR curriculum. We have to take at least 4 semesters of Newspaper Workshop during our college career. This is not exactly my favorite class, although sometimes I get lucky enough to land a really interesting story and get great facts about it. I've also made the front page 3 times, which to me, is a pretty good! But there are definitely cons to this class/job (although I don't get paid for it). Sometimes you get a really boring story that you know nobody will read because you wouldn't read about it either. One time I had to write a feature story about taxes...that's right, taxes. It was awful! It can also be difficult when you contact people to interview for the story and they either do not want to be interviewed or they don't have 5 minutes of their time for you (that's literally how long an average interview takes). Not difficult in my opinion. Let me give you some tips on what to do and what not to do if you are ever asked to be interviewed by a journalist (most are do-nots):

• Do not give 'yes' or 'no' answers...explain them (it gives the write more words)
• Please know something about the topic before the interview, if you don't know anything just tell us right after we ask so we have time to find someone else.
• Do not ask for an email interview because you're too busy for a real one and then either not get back to us at all or wait until the day after we've turned in the story to reply.
• Do not bail on us the day of your interview unless it is days before the story is due.
• Speak up so all your words can be heard on the recorder.