Scoops Vs. Analysis

What every writer wants is a good scoop. I spend several minutes every day searching for Jimmy Hoffa’s body. As fun as it is to try and get a scoop, it also puts a lot of pressure on a writer. Once one has a lead there is a rush of adrenaline and a flurry of phone calls, all in the hopes that you are the first person to reveal the news story to the world.

Then there is the analysis piece. Magazines, for example, can’t really break news. Even Vanity Fair couldn’t keep a lid on their Deepthroat scoop earlier this year. The story was all over the web a week before the mag hit newsstands. Nonetheless, a good magazine piece (and the Deepthroat piece was one) isn’t written to get a scoop. Instead magazines get readers by adding valuable insight into an ongoing discussion. As a freelancer you always have to keep in mind who you are writing for and what they want: A scoop or in-depth analysis.

Then there is what I hate, and what this post is really about, the “re-hash.” Unfortunately a lot of blogs suffer from this.

Here is an example. Cool Hunting, normally an excellent blog, had a post on Brinco sneakers. It’s a good post too. The only problem is that it bores me.

(These
shoes are designed to help Mexicans cross the border, they work like a
Swiss army shoe, filled with small helpful gadgets).

I heard about these sneakers over a month ago on the San Diego
Tribune. The scoop has been broken and blogs like Cool Hunting tend not
to add analysis. The only way I would re-hash this story is if I found
a new angle. Off the top of my head, lets say I queried who made the
shoes and in a twist of irony it turned out to be sweat shop labor.

Without the new angle (like a politician calling for their
destruction) this is just a re-hash and an old re-hash at that. Once
something has been out there over a month, I consider it old news. I’ve
come across the story in several places, which means its done, unless
you are doing analysis or find a new angle.

Maybe I’m being a little elitist. There is a good chance I read more
news outlets than the average Joe, but nonetheless, a re-hash is a
re-hash is a re-hash. And this particular example is an old one.

The next great issue a freelancer has to deal with is the “evergreen,”
a story that never gets old. Let me meditate on this for a bit and see
what I want to post.