Whenever someone asks me about how I’m getting on in the Sunday Business Post, or how my attempts at sparking off some version of a career in general are progressing, I always say something like;
“good. Things are certainly going better than I had hoped they would before I left college. I’m not at the stage I want to be at*, but I’m getting there quicker than I’d expected and hopefully it will all continue to improve. But…”
… there’s always a but, and it’s always in relation to contacts.
Acquiring good contacts is at the cornerstone of being a good journalist. If you can endear yourself to trustworthy and informed people you already have half the battle won when it comes to getting fresh stories.
I’ve never been under any delusions about acquiring contacts; I always knew it was a hard slog that took time, effort and a little bit of luck. You always have to keep in mind that if someone is in a position to hear sensitive and important information, they are putting their neck on the line by passing it on to the media. Just as a journalist needs to be sure of the reliability of their sources, a source needs to be able to count on the journalist to protect their identity in the article and in any event that may arise from that.
I think it’s important to respect that and to respect any sources you do find – to the same degree you should keep your eyes open as to their reasons for passing on information, which may be honest or underhanded depending on the situation (and all the more reason for establishing a two-way bond of trust!).
Of course contacts aren’t everything in journalism – having the best contacts in the world won’t make you an unstoppable force in news. You need to be able to take information and apply it in the right way, put it to the right people and get the adequate response to make it a whole story. Tip offs are equally important, as knowing that something might be going on behind the scenes can often be enough to force an issue into the open.
On the issue of building contacts, one of the best (and many) pieces of advice given to me so far has been to note every phone number and email address you come in contact with, as you’ll always find a need for it down the line – even in the most unexpected way. In my few weeks in a newspaper I’ve already seen that to be true.
For now though I’ll continue to work on building up my contacts, as I always knew I needed to, and I will continue to add the “but” to my answer. To me, contacts can come as a result of many things, with trust always being at the fulcrum. With that assumption, I plan to press on as best I can and see what happens next.
* I’m certainly where I want to be for my age, but not in an overall “career” sense, and what 21 year old would want to be? That’d be awful boring.Â