How to Run an Editorial Meeting
Come Prepared
Everyone in the editorial meeting needs to arrive with story pitches ready. Before the meeting, everyone should be thinking about:
- What should we be covering? Today, or this week.
- What are you curious about today?
- What do people really need to know about?
To break from the pack, look beyond the newspaper and AP wire. Story ideas and pitches should come from what your reporters and producers see around them every day. That means taking the pulse of your community from a broad range of people; beat sources, friends, baristas, cab drivers.
Research on Sense of Place; The Value and Values of Localism identified a series of power questions to shape and vet story ideas:
- What special/unique meaning does this story/topic have in our community?
- How does it interconnect our community with our nation, our world?
- Has it happened here before?
- Has it happened elsewhere?
- Is it part of a pattern?
- What is the cause?
- What is the effect/impact?
Asking and answering these questions will add the depth and context listeners want and expect from public radio.
A handy tool your reporters can use to develop pitches is the Editorial Planning Grid developed as part of the PRNDI/PRPD News/Talk Core Values Toolkit.
Story pitches make editorial meetings come alive and build teamwork. The more collaboration and contribution around story pitches, the more collective ownership your news department will feel for the stories they produce.
