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Cultivating sources: A how to guide.

In San Antonio, Texas, I stood at a microphone and prayed I wasn’t about to be laughed-at for the question I was about to ask.

It was 1998 and I’d gotten a free ride to that year’s Radio-Television News Directors Association convention because I would be receiving a college scholarship from this esteemed group.

On the panel in front of me, little did I know at the time, was my future mentor, former CNN political correspondent Brooks Jackson.

Suddenly, the room got quiet. The panel looked at me at the microphone out in the audience. It was time to ask my question.

How do you cultivate sources? I wanted to know, though I doubt I used the word “cultivate” back then.

Nobody laughed. Brooks actually took the question seriously. And he gave me some of the best advice of my career: If you’re naturally interested in what your potential source does for a living (like running a political campaign) the relationship will develop naturally.

Later, as a college intern in CNN’s Washington bureau, I’d be assigned to work with Brooks as his field producer/tape logger/personal assistant/lunch fetcher. I learned a lot from him and saw him put his source cultivating skills into action.

He had one of those phone headsets that made him look like a Time-Life operator. And he’d be on the phone for hours — just chatting — and taking some notes on his computer. These were relaxed, no pressure, on background chats. After so many years in the business, he had a lot of phone numbers he could call. And people were happy to talk to him because he has a reputation for being one of the fairest journalists you’ll ever meet — and a guy with a great sense of humor, I might add, which makes him fun to talk with. But he’d also cold call people. And he’d get them to talk, too.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how TV anchors and reporters can cultivate sources because I think it’s the key to our personal survival in this business and it’s the key to our newsroom’s survival in this great big media universe. If you aren’t creating original content, then you’re irrelevant. And to create original content in a newsroom, you have to be plugged-in to the newsmakers, community leaders, businesspeople and activists of various causes in your market.

We often don’t like to talk with other journalists about how we go about getting sources or how many we have in our back pocket at any one time. I think we have an inferiority complex about it. We don’t know if we’re doing it right and we’re sure that the “star reporter” at the station across the street (or maybe even within our own newsroom) has dozens more sources than we do. Well, I don’t know how many sources your competition has. But I can help you cultivate more sources of your own.

Here are some tips:

1) Invite a potential source to breakfast. If you’re a dayside reporter, you don’t have time to “do lunch” and chances are the people you want to be your sources schedule lunches with a lot more important people than you. It’s when business is done. But they’re more likely to make time for you at breakfast. Yes, it’s a pain meeting them at 7:30 a.m. so you can be sure to be at your morning meeting at 9 a.m. But you don’t have to do this every day, just every once in a while. And here is the most important point: Do NOT ask for this breakfast at a time when the person you’re trying to get on your side is in the midst of a scandal or other huge news story. You want to develop this relationship when things are calm and you both feel free to talk.

2) Keep the Breakfast “On Background.” Let’s say you’re going to have breakfast with the new mayor because you want to develop some trust with her and her staff. Make sure when you call to invite her to breakfast that she knows anything said is fair game to be reported on but you won’t quote her directly. This is called “on background.” (It is embarrassing how many journalists graduate from college and don’t know these terms. Take a look at the glossary of terms, from the Atlantic.com. You will find the list in the middle of the linked article.) She’ll feel much more at ease talking with you this way. Make sure she understands what “on background” means. If she wants it off the record, that’s ok, too. You’re trying to show her here that you’re not going to burn her. Ask her what’s coming up on her agenda that’s really important to her. At the end of the breakfast, give her your card and try to get her mobile phone number if you don’t already have it. Promise not to abuse it. And don’t.

3) Aim Lower. The mayor is great to have as a source. But let’s be realistic. Everything she tells you will be weighted in one way or another to advance whatever agenda she has, be it for a city project or against a political rival. Keep in mind, she is also at the top of a very large bureaucracy and probably has no idea about all of the things the city is doing. So aim lower. Yeah, you need to get to know the city manager, members of the city council, the city attorney and some of the department heads. But you also need to get to know their receptionists at city hall and — most importantly — some of the anonymous bureaucrats who actually carry out the mission of the city council. They will probably never appear on camera for you. But they will give you valuable nuggets of information that you can use to question the leaders of your town who do appear on camera.

4) Cold Call. You work at a television station. Even in 2011, 86 years after its invention, people still think television’s pretty cool. So when you call a defense attorney who’s handling the big death penalty case that’s headed to trial next month, guess what he’s going to tell his wife that night at dinner? “Honey, guess who called me today? Patrick Murphy from News 4!” Note that I said you’re calling him a month before the trial — not the day before jury selection begins. Cold calling can get a chilly reception from average folks who suddenly find themselves in the news, though. They’re intimidated. They never thought Patrick Murphy from News 4 would be interested in what they have to say. So go easy on them. Don’t be pushy. And for goodness sakes, if something horrible has happened in their life, be genuinely compassionate. The Washington Post recently published an excellent article about how the networks’ morning show producers deal with this issue all the time.

5) Be interested in your source’s work. I learned it from my mentor Brooks Jackson and it’s true. When I show genuine interest in what a campaign consultant, psychologist, doctor, city leader — or anyone else — has invested their life’s work in, I can see their face soften, their eyes light-up, and hear their speech become more excited. You’re showing them that you value them as people and the expertise they’ve acquired. They will honestly enjoy talking to you. They’ll remember the conversation and your name. And when you call them on a breaking story, they’ll be much less likely to let it go to voice mail.

For more ways to cultivate sources when you don’t get much time on the job, check out “How to generate story ideas when you are swamped.” Got other tips for cultivating sources? We hope you’ll share them with us.

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Matthew Nordin is a morning anchor/investigative reporter at WMBF News, Raycom Media’s NBC affiliate in Myrtle Beach, SC. You can follow him on Twitter @MatthewNordin.

Make or Break. Why you must cultivate sources and exclusives.

I just finished watching the amazing documentary “Page One: Inside the New York Times,” which tells the story of how America’s great newspaper is trying to survive in an era when many of us first learn about news events from Twitter and Yahoo! News. The filmmaker tries to make his case that the Times is still needed because its reporters actually hit the streets and work the phones to gather news, as opposed to just copying and pasting and putting up links to others’ work, as critics of Gawker and the Huffington Post accuse those media outlets of doing.

In the end, it’s the story of how Times media reporter David Carr breaks a major story about the debauchery that was going on inside the executive suites at the Tribune Company. It is a triumph for the “Old Gray Lady” and all of us who consider ourselves journalists in the traditional sense of the word.

How many stories have you personally broken at your station in 2011?

If the answer is zero, I predict you’ll someday be like the people in “Page One” who make a secret editors’ list of who can be laid-off when the budget’s cut because, in this Darwinian media environment we now find ourselves working in, the editors can still produce a great paper without them.

And yes, anchors, I’m talking to you, too. I know you don’t just sit at a desk and read a teleprompter. I get frustrated with that perception, too, because I know all of the hard work that goes into helping produce a great newscast, doing the homework required to really know the stories you’ll be talking about on-air, and summoning the creative energy at ungodly hours to put in a really good television performance. I get it. But dozens of other anchors can perform as well or almost as well as you, too. So what is that extra ingredient you’re going to offer your station?

In their well-researched new book That Used to Be Us, Tom Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum argue that even creative professionals like journalists will have to offer their employers something extra if they want to stay employed. You can’t just come to work, put on your makeup, and read the 11 o’clock news anymore. Even anchors with great ratings are being laid-off long before they’re ready to retire because their bosses believe they make too much money at a time when media companies are trying to figure out how to keep making profits.

I’m not suggesting anchors and reporters who’ve been laid-off in the Great Recession and afterward deserved it. I’m sure most of them worked hard and were valuable members of their newsrooms. But I am suggesting that your chances of being on the secret list of expendable employees in your newsroom rise greatly if you’re viewed as a run-of-the-mill journalist who doesn’t break stories.

Think about it. Why are so many TV newsrooms reviving their investigative units? Because investigative reporters dig-up original stories that keep viewers’ attention, are easily promotable by the marketing department, and differentiate your station from the three or four others in the market who also do news.

You want to be on that team.

You don’t literally have to be on that team. But as an anchor or reporter, you’d better have contacts in the community that are helping your newsroom advance the big stories of the week. For anchors, this doesn’t mean you have to turn a package on something new you learn. An e-mail to the newsroom with what you’ve found out and a phone call to the reporter on the story will show everyone that you’re truly a newsroom leader.

But do tweet about what you’ve learned and let your audience know that your reporter will have more on it in the next newscast. (You may want to hold this tweet until right before airtime so the competition doesn’t “share” your scoop. I will sometimes do this by scheduling a tweet to run at a specific time using TweetDeck.)

You might also consider writing a short story on your station’s website about the new angle to the story you’ve discovered. Viewers want anchors who are part of the fabric of their community. With your byline on the story, you’ll reinforce your value to the audience as someone who is plugged-in to the newsmakers and community leaders in your market.

If you’re the reporter on the story and you’ve learned this information yourself, don’t be afraid to let the audience know that you’ve been working the phones and the information they’re hearing is exclusive information. Also, well before the newscast, work with your producer to come up with ways to showcase this information, which may include a banner that touts the fact that it’s exclusive.

The anchor, reporter, and/or producer should also send an e-mail to the news director and marketing department after the newscast letting them know about the scoop. They may want to produce a “proof of performance” promo based on it. And, remember, these days you’ve got to market yourself within your news organization, too. You need the executives to know that you were the person responsible for that exclusive.

So how do you cultivate sources so you can be your station’s most valuable player? I’ll take a look at that next week.

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Matthew Nordin is a morning anchor/investigative reporter at WMBF News, Raycom Media’s NBC affiliate in Myrtle Beach, SC. You can follow him on Twitter @MatthewNordin.

Join With Your Anchor: The true make or break of your newscast.

Truth be told, one of the single most important relationships in a newsroom is that between anchor and producer. If you don’t click, chances are your newscast won’t click and someone or all of you will be shown the door. You don’t have to like each other. But you do have to work well together.

These two jobs are so intertwined, it can be very hard to form an alliance. This is because the people doing the two jobs don’t always understand the intricacies of the other side. In many cases, anchors are seen as self-important divas who lord it over everyone else. Anchors can seem detached and uninterested in all it takes to put a newscast together by taking long lunch or dinner breaks and seeming to have endless personal conversations on the phone. I knew a couple of news anchors that watched baseball and football games while people all around them were slamming to make air. Producers resent this type of behavior immensely. But let’s look at it more closely. What we producers don’t often see is the constant pressure anchors feel to perform, against the odds. Also some of the phone calls can be radio interviews, networking calls to connect with community leaders and calls to help management vet out a potential new employee. Nowadays anchors are being asked to blog and tweet and write articles for hyperlocal magazines and internet sites. The push is always on to increase their exposure. Then, after all that, they have to be refreshed and full of energy to “perform” on air. In fairness, many anchors are dealing with producers that are undertrained (see Throw me a lifeline) and defensive about it.

Now, a look at behind the scenes as a producer. We spell a lot of the pressures out in “Hey she got more time,” but in summary, there are constant unrelenting deadlines and if anything goes wrong in the newscast, including anchors stumbling or seemingly having a low energy day, producers get called to the carpet by management. Frustrations can then come with this relentless pressure and it can cause producers to lash out. The number one thing a producer has to learn, no matter what, is to not yell at the anchors. Remember, anchors are not only the face of the station, they are the only way anyone “sees” a producer’s hard work. When you ask viewers about newscasts they do not say: “I love channel “X” because they have really interesting tag elements and natural sound that makes me want to keep watching. Oh, and I also love their teases, they really hook me in.” They say: “Oh so and so is on that channel. I like (or don’t like) him/her.” The viewer’s opinion of that anchor is also the producer’s responsibility. You help the anchors connect with the viewers.

Producers must deliver strong content and the anchor must be able to sell it convincingly and authoritatively. This requires getting to know each other and trying to downplay each other’s weaknesses. Read that again, and notice the word “downplay.” There are a lot of producers who relish seeing their “lazy” anchor sweat on set if, say, the anchor is weak at adlibbing breaking news, or stinks at chat. The person who loses the most from putting an anchor in an extremely uncomfortable position is the producer. Yes, the anchor gets embarrassed on television and if this happens repeatedly can stiffen up on air and have trouble with job performance. I still contend putting anchors in bad positions is worse for the producer because you showcase to the whole staff that you are petty and untrustworthy. You are not professional. When you get assigned to another newscast, those anchors will be on the defensive and unwilling to give up some of those dinner breaks or make phone calls to help you. Remember this is a small business and news managers are not the only ones vetting potential new hires. Anchors are paid to be in the know too. Again, so we are crystal clear, some of those phone calls you see may not be to the family at home or a friend the anchor gossips with. In fact, many times the anchor is networking. That means if you want to get out of the business and stay in town, your anchor is potentially your greatest asset to help with references. Let’s say you want to move out of town to another station, your anchor may be your best asset to help you get to the market where you want to go.

We producers do not always give our anchors enough credit for what they do leading up to the newscast. Even if the anchor really is lazy and spends most of the shift leading up to air on the phone “fooling around,” we are paid to protect the anchor on the air and not put him/her in uncomfortable positions. You are paid to make your anchor look good, even if that person, in your opinion, doesn’t deserve it.

Producers, often you are the one who have to start the smart alliance. You need to sit your anchors down and establish expectations for both sides, in a respectful way. Believe it or not, because so many shops are producer driven, anchors wait for you to take the lead in the relationship. They recognize that many times your job is the one that’s harder to fill. They realize they are the face of the station, but in today’s economy no one is safe in the newsroom, and anchor pay is often cut to make up for budget shortfalls. The anchor may not want to start pushing because of fear of a backlash from the producer. Anchors get that you help them keep their jobs. As the show manager, the producer can break the ice and help you both be more comfortable with your mutual objectives. We have delved into some how to’s for this in “Anchor’s away. How to handle a difficult anchor,“and “Your Producing Voice.” We won’t stop there. This smart alliance needs a lot of nurturing so you can both excel. But for now, keep this in mind: You don’t walk in the other’s shoes. You can respect that at times those shoes are a tight squeeze, and the other person sometimes needs help with the pressure of that tight fit.

Anchor an Alliance: Stroke the hand that feeds you.

When anchors get together to talk and trade stories, silly positions they are put in while on the air is a hot topic. Usually complaining about awful things producers wrote, or uncomfortable transitions producers created, leads to many laughs and personal jokes. Then there are the war stories about the “screamers” in your ear. It is true: Producers can put you in really bad positions at times. Yet, your producer can make or break you at a particular station. So how do you form an alliance to make sure you’re on the good side of that equation?

Here’s what many producers would love to see from you, so you can stroke the hand that feeds you on air. Often the producer will not directly ask for these things because they feel it isn’t their place to do so. If you can provide them these simple things, you will get a loyal ally.

Let the producer know you have his/her back. Most producers naturally assume that the anchor is on the defensive, and will put blame on the producer for any mistake the anchor makes on air. Frankly, this is because most producers get called in when an anchor is “not performing” to management’s standards and are told they are to blame. This makes producers want to keep a safe distance from their anchors.

So how do you bring this defensive wall down? Take responsibility for some of the mistakes on air in front of the producer and in front of management. Whoa, you say: “This could make me vulnerable! “ Not necessarily. Do it during discrep meetings. Other staffers will see , so will an EP or the AND, but most importantly the producer will see it in a public setting. Things like, “I didn’t get a chance to rework a paragraph in story such and such and stumbled today, sorry guys.” or “I forgot to get an interesting fact from so and so meteorologist for the pitch so it would flow, so I apologize if I rambled.” or “I forgot we were switching to two shots at the top of the c-block, I’ll remember now.” Here’s what usually happens when you head home, the producer and associate producer or the producer and director stays late and looks for ways to help you (a) not have to rewrite a paragraph, (b) make it easier for you to find a factoid to pitch to weather next time (c) sit down with the TD or camera crew to remind them to remind you about the new two shot. If you come across as humble and trying to help, you will win a huge ally that will bend over backwards for you every day. No, the producer won’t always get it right. But chances are you will get more apologies and more mea culpas from the producer as well. You might even get to weigh in on news copy and formatting changes more often before air.

Producers also want you helping out leading up to the newscast. No, you do not need to write the entire show. If the producer is worth a bean, he/she thrives on taking ownership and writing most of the show. Still, having an anchor “check in” once or twice leading up to a newscast offering to help write is seen as a huge sign of respect. Some producers will assign you a story, some will use this as an opportunity for a gut check on something they are worried about. Some will tell you to hop in and write whatever you want. All will respect you for helping to build the newscast, not just wanting to read it on TV.

Many times when anchors compliment producers, they talk about producers designing segments with the anchor’s voice in mind. (See Producer Voice ) This can be hard for the producer to do, if they don’t know much about you. We will dedicate an article on techniques to help producers write in your voice more in depth later, but for now let’s talk basics so you can help producers. The producer needs an idea of who you are as a person, and what kind of stories you really like. I had an anchor once that was very interested in travel and airlines. So I would purposely put pacers in about the airlines because his energy level would boost every time he read one. Frankly, some of the stories were boring and I questioned viewer benefit. But his energy would pop so much, it was worth giving up 15 seconds. Another anchor loved political news so most of the time he would get the interview segments about campaign issues. He was well read and thought of much better questions than I could. Another anchor of mine had an incredible mind for health issues. She knew all the latest trends and could really tell if a news release was a PR stunt or true medical breakthrough for the area. I would call her when she came in and was settled for the day and ask what she thought of various stories to put in the newscast. I knew these things because the anchors would chat me up about them when we waited for the editorial meetings to start. These anchors didn’t sit me down for huge philosophical discussions, they just clued me into their interests at an opportune time in my day when I could actually listen.

If you see a mistake, bring it to the producer’s attention in a respectful way. We delve more into this in our article, “Throw me a lifeline” but this is a crucial reminder. If you want a loyal ally, do not make fun of news copy or uncomfortable transition lines on the set during the show with the other anchor. Chances are the producer heard the bad writing or bad transition and is beating him/herself up about it already. To hear you poke fun just puts salt in the wound especially because you are doing so in front of people the producer has to help manage during the newscasts. Basically, it feels like you cut the producer off at the knees. The production crew may laugh with you, but they don’t respect you for it either. Remember, you also aren’t perfect. They see you stumble, and occasionally make dumb comments. If you want those moments to pass, don’t bring up other people’s mistakes publicly.

Finally, remember that compliments are powerful. Producers do not get to go out in public and be told how great the newscast is. In many shops it’s a rare thing for management to throw a compliment the producer’s way. To hear from you occasionally, about a segment you liked or something nice a viewer told you, really means a lot. The producer feels like you respect him/her as a part of your success as well. It helps you “anchor” an alliance that really can boost your career.