Story Idea: Neighborhood Focus

I heard something that I thought might work in some of your markets. NPR had a reporter who was from Richmond, CA, the town where a teenage girl was gang raped at her high school. This reporter has access and insight that others might not have.

Is there an incident in your town that has left everyone scratching their heads? Maybe there's someone in the newsroom who's from that neighborhood who can do the reporting. Maybe it's an anchor who doesn't get to get out much. Maybe it's a photographer. I worked with a guy in Philly who was from one of the worst neighborhoods there. He would go back to schools to encourage kids. I wish I would have thought to suggest to our news managers that he do a piece on his old neighborhood. It would have been compelling and really added a layer of complexity at a time when young people were killing each other in the neighborhood with frightening ease and regularity.

One note of caution-- be very careful with reporter involvement. There's a thin line between "adding something to the story" and... "I am the story."