FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17

2 to 3:15 pm
Lessons Learned From a Pulitzer-Winning Investigation
Nigel Jaquiss of Willamette Week was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for his story exposing a former governor’s long concealed sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old girl. Jaquiss and his editor, Mark Zusman, will discuss the barriers they faced in getting the story, and the investigative tools they used to surmount them.
Moderator: Patricia Calhoun, Westword
Panelists: Mark Zusman and Nigel Jaquiss, Willamette Week

3:45 to 5 pm
Breaking A Monopoly: The Newsday Circulation Scandal
When a handful of advertisers and a former distributor filed suit in February 2004 alleging circulation fraud at Newsday, the Long Island Press stepped up to investigate. Knowledgeable sources weren't keen to anger the Island’s only daily paper, but they said enough in the first 24 hours to indicate that there was indeed a fire behind the smoke. After the initial report, investigative reporter Christopher Twarowski detailed in a series of stories not only the mounting evidence of Newsday’s business fraud, but also how the paper’s longtime monopoly status influenced its editorial side. The scandal inspired a crisis of confidence in circulation practices nationwide, sparking reforms throughout the publishing industry. Twarowski and deputy editor Edith Updike will discuss their reporting techniques -- which were largely of the old-fashioned shoe-leather variety: stakeouts, stings, persistent working of reluctant sources, and a lot of dumpster diving, as well as number-crunching and editorial analysis -- and the challenges of taking on Goliath.
Moderator: Lee Gardner, Baltimore City Paper
Presenters: Edith Updike and Christopher Twarowski, Long Island Press

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18

9 am to 12 noon (NEWS)
Better Watchdog Workshop: Getting Better Stories on the Beat With Documents, Data, and Sources
This half-day session, organized by Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), will cover the basics of using investigative-journalism techniques for everyday reporting. The sessions will cover practical methods for producing meaningful stories and offer valuable instruction and tips for effective searches on the Internet, cultivation of sources and interviewing, getting the most out of open records laws, and quickly providing context and depth with easily accessible databases. You will leave the session with dozens of ideas and new approaches.
Presenter: Ron Nixon, New York Times

9 to 10:15 am (ARTS)
Spectacular Arts Writing
What distinguishes great arts writing from the merely pedestrian? Writing technique? In-depth reporting? Story structure? Impeccable taste? Bill Wyman will lead an open-discussion looking at potent examples of arts writing from the alternative press, and we'll isolate the factors that lift them out of the realm of the ordinary. In the course of this discussion, we'll also address the many ways to turbocharge an arts section.
Presenter: Bill Wyman, National Public Radio

10:45 am to 12 noon (ARTS)
The Lowdown on High Concept in Arts Coverage
How many times can you write the same story on so-and-so band or this or that movie? With so much information out there on the Internet for free, the basics of arts coverage can often seem uninspired. And with all the constraints on paper size these days, the long wind-up is about as welcome as Judy Miller at a Maureen Dowd book release party. To stay alive, it helps to conceptualize. Graphs, charts, themes and assorted other sharp ways to connect the dots help make the most of space and offer your readers what they can't get elsewhere. We'll look at some of the best high concept pieces to run in magazines and AAN papers. We'll discuss working with your art department to come up pieces that use graphics to their best advantage. We'll take general story ideas and go through the brainstorming process of coming up with a high concept approach for each. You will go home to your papers with a bulging back pocket of concepts to turn loose on your readers.
Presenter: Caryn Brooks, asap

2 to 3:15 pm
20 Nuts-and-Bolts Reporting Tips
Willy Stern has a knack for uncovering information that others would rather keep buried. In this session, he will share some of the rough-and-tumble tactics that have helped him consistently produce award-winning work. Designed to fill the reporter’s tool box to the brim.
Presenter: Willy Stern

3:45 to 5 pm
The Essential Ingredients of a Great Story
If you analyze great news stories, you will find that they all share many of the same ingredients, including killer quotes, killer stats, heat, meat, angle, context and discomfort. In this open discussion, we'll run through a list--with examples--of the ingredients that all great stories have and we'll put our heads together to figure out where to find them and how to incorporate them into your writing and reporting process.
Moderator: Mark Zusman, Willamette Week