Advice from Our Mentors, Part Two
ACN members lean into wise words from their learning years.
By Bill Spiegel, ACN President
This is a continuation of Bill’s advice he gathered from ACN members. Catch up on the first two pieces of advice here. If you have advice you want to share too, email me at: [email protected]. Here are two more pieces of advice!
Everyone’s story
We’ve all heard it – and perhaps we’ve all said it, but it’s true: everyone has a story to tell. It’s something journalists should not take lightly, says Betsy Freese, founding editor of Living the Country Life and retired executive editor at Successful Farming.
“In my first journalism class at Iowa State we were assigned to interview one person of our choice for a paper due the next day. My classmates quickly left to find a researcher who could speak on important projects. I had to work a long shift in food service at the Towers dormitory that evening (to pay for my room and board), so I didn’t have time to stay on campus.
“While making trays of jello that evening, I interviewed the older woman who was in charge of the salads section, a local from Ames. She was pleased to tell me about her difficult life and various challenges she had overcome, including some colorful stories about ex-husbands.
“I wrote up the story after my shift was over and turned it in the next day. I got an A+ and the professor showed it to the class, saying, ‘Everyone has a story. Your job is to find that story.'”
Let’s face it. In this business, writers sometimes wind up covering the same topics – or people – more than once.
Jamie Cole, creative director of Red Barn Media Group, received advice from longtime Progressive Farmer editor Jack Odle.
“He said early in his career it seemed like we were always telling the same stories, always writing about the same things year after year. He added a question to his reportage: ‘What do you do differently than your neighbor, or anybody else you know?’ The source differentiated themselves, and would often provide a hook for the story,” Cole says. “As a content marketer, this has helped me IMMENSELY in doing customer profiles for brands we serve!”
Parting Words
Angus Media’s Miranda Reiman says she still hears the words of Jack Getz, one of her professors at South Dakota State University:
“Don’t have ‘Willby Syndrome.’ The meeting will be at 8 p.m., the president will be there tomorrow, etc.,” she says. “He wanted us to use strong active verbs.”
Reiman worked with Steve Suther at Certified Angus Beef for several years. Suther, now retired to his Angus Ranch in northeastern Kansas, was known for his cowboy logic.
“He shared so many nuggets my first year on the job. Here is one: ‘never use a quarter word when a nickel one will do,’ meaning there’s no need for fancy language when you’re trying to write for clarity.”
Reiman continues with some thoughts that I wish I had written, and the legacy that mentors leave behind.
“I really do hear different people in my head when I self-edit and I kind of love that,” she says. “The power of all the people in my past that add up to (hopefully) better writing all along.”
Part 3 of this story will come out in next week’s ByLine.