WHAT IS NEWS?

There are three parameters I consider when looking for a story.

According to a text I had in college, a young reporter went up to a crusty old editor and asked, Sir, what's news? The crusty editor said, when a dog bites a man, that's not news. When a man bites a dog, that's news. A man biting the dog is the out of the ordinary, the unusual, the unexpected. For instance, at college graduation ceremonies the media aren't looking for 21-22 year olds, they're looking for that 62 year old grandmother or 58 year old father: the out of the ordinary.

Number 2: A story must have wide appeal. Both Bill Gates and a truck driver should want to read, listen to or watch the story.

Number 3: And there's no getting around this. News is whatever a journalist says it is. Every day, it seems, I'll pitch an idea to one journalist who will pass on it, then have it accepted by another journalist. It's the same story, but one said yes, the other no. This is why it's important to get to know media types to learn what stories they like to cover.