The Story's the Thing!

When it comes to reporting, "the story's the thing!"
That may not sound as catchy as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "the game's afoot" but it is more important.
What separates us from everyone else?
Time and packaging.
When you get right down to it, all the information we report is available to anyone else who bothers to go looking for it.
I am reminded of a few people I have known over the years who did research and then wrote letters to the editor using their research to back up their point of view.
Granted, they were not always as fair minded (they had an ax to grind) as I would have liked but they did their homework, what we call "reporting" the story.
Packaging is where we really excel. Telling the story.
Why do most people not care about small town politics and government? It's because we are lousy at telling stories about them.
It's easy to throw a bunch of statistics and numbers at the reader. Information that we are spoon fed by the politicians and government employees.
When was the last time you were excited by a numbers story concerning government that you did?
If you were glad to get it over with, what makes you think your readers/viewers will bother at all?
You are competing with "CSI" on TV and the plethora of novels and websites your audience finds more compelling than what you offer.
Sorry, but you know it's true.
What is the answer?
Look to Humphrey Bogart. In"Deadline USA" he plays a newspaper editor.At one point in the movie he tells a reporter, "Break it down. I want to know how much this tax will cost the average family!"
That's not an exact quote but it's the general idea.
Good reporters are story tellers.
If you want to be a good writer/reporter, go to the story tellers that capture the imaginations of millions of people.
To use another analogy, this one from a TV commercial: The gal sees the guy and the announcer says, "He may be the greatest father and husband but first you have to get him to say hello!"
What you write is probably very important but first you have to get people to read you/listen to you.
So do yourself a favor - go to one of the most popular modern story tellers -- Stephen King. Read his book, "On Writing." In fact, I think I will pick it up and read it again!