Feb. 12, 2019

At this morning’s Forum, three veteran news reporters offered a short primer on getting stories out.

There was talk of media segmentation: Some outlets focus on hard news, others on entertainment, etc. What you want to publicize may suggest who to make contact with.

There was talk about reaching out to a real person: A press release may be ignored while a direct contact with a news reporter might not be.

And then there was Dedrick Russell’s explanation of why the Charlotte Area Association of Black Journalists’ work in developing the next generation of African-American reporters is so important: “We can’t depend on other people to tell our story correctly.”

Retired broadcaster Ken Koontz joined the panel from the Forum audience where he is a regular presence.

Projector problems prevented the group from showing two short presentations: A PowerPoint supporting Lemon’s discussion of the association’s work, and a short video from Russell promoting a National Association of Black Journalsts meeting scheduled for April.

In the video below, the presentations begin at minute 11:20. The Q&A begins at minute 45:35.