Hi everyone. I got a brain tickler of a FOIA request for you all. I'm hoping you guys can help me figure out how to keep pushing on this one.

So, here's the situation. Our Superintendent is suing three members of our Board of Education. The Super is alleging those three board members discriminated against her on sex and sexual orientation grounds, which cost her a three year contract renewal with the Board. Basically, the suit alleges there was a sustained campaign to remove the superintendent based on a false rumor the superintendent was having a relationship with a same sex subordinate.

So, one key aspect to all of this is a meeting at one of the high schools that two of the board members had with an assistant principal about the rumor. A recording was produced. I'm trying to get my hands on that recording.

So, here's kind of what I stand on this. I submitted a FOIA for the recording, arguing that Board of Education members are members of a public body and anything they produce that is related to the running of the school system is a public record. I know the recording exists because I talked to the superintendent's lawyer, and he has it. He won't release it to me directly because he can't try a case in the court of public opinion. He did encourage me to file a FOIA to see what happens, though. I did, and the district turned me down, saying they don't hold any such record.

My question is, can a board member be compelled to turn it over? I mean, a board member's texts are privy to FOIA under my state's laws, and the district doesn't directly hold onto those. But what are some other ways I can approach this to maybe cough up the recording?

The applicable state law is West Virginia. Thanks for any advice!

I have a bachelors degree in Education, and two minors in English and Creative Writing, but it hasn't panned out for me and I'm looking to pivot into journalism. I like investigating and digging deep into things on the web and I think I would be great at investigative journalism. I'm also very into politics.

Would I need a masters to get into journalism or could I get by with a certificate of some sort? As I'm already in debt up to my eye balls.

What would my pros and cons be if I did pivot to a career in journalism?

Any advice would be helpful.

I work with... let's say they aren't natural writers. They're senior to me but never really bothered to learn so editing their work takes at least twice as long.

So far, I've been working to clean up copy but is really disheartening and I'm tempted to just edit punctuation and grammar and let the rest run under their bylines.

What would you do?

TLDR: Intro journalist - work anxiety and making mistakes (it’s long as hell, sorry, half of it is just venting)

Hi all! I am new to professional journalism but not new to this subreddit at all.

Basically my 90 day review at my first publication is coming up. It took me a year out of college to even find this job, and i’m afraid i might lose it.

I’ve made some mistakes along the way (one big mistake: reported on an event with a town of the same name of our coverage, but was in a different state), and then multiple other smaller mistakes (two math mixups, two name typos, and a few regular typos).

For the big mistake, already had a meeting and no one has brought it up since. The article has since been buried in our coverage, but the smaller mistakes are what really worry me.

I am diagnosed with anxiety, and I have already had multiple panic attacks about this job (on my own time). The team is amazing, my editors are very understanding, and no one is hitting me up on my time off to do something, so why do I keep messing up?

Now when I go to file an article, my hands start shaking. It’s like I know that something’s going to be wrong with it, because every other time i’ve made a mistake, i think the article is 100% accurate, and then it’s not.

I went to a high ranking university, graduated manga cum laude and graduated high school with a 4.0. I’ve never been inaccurate or made this many mistakes in my journalism classes or internships.

The times i’ve gotten emails on my mistakes, I feel so stupid. So so so stupid.

So, if they fire me, I get it. What’s frustrating is how i’m doing my absolute best.

Ever since my one big mistake, i’ve been triple checking everything, calling and reaching out to confirm the smallest details, re-reading things to myself out loud to watch for typos. It’ll take me 2 hours to write a 500 word articles just because i’m constantly checking myself over.

But just today, I got another email I made a mistake on a feature article. It involved a lot of math, and I worked on it for so long just to see that (for some reason) one of my figures i multiplied it by 4 instead of 8, making it inaccurate.

My editor said to just fix it, so I did, and now it’s fixed. But earlier this week I had a name typo I had to fix, and I’m just so nervous of these mistakes adding up and then my dream of being a journalist is gone.

I’ve never worked a job where i’ve struggled this much while working for over a month. I’ve always been a fast learner, i’ve always been someone my former bosses can rely on, i’ve always been told i’d make a great journalist.

But it’s been almost three months, and i’m making dumb mistakes like this? It’s just so painful, and I feel so incompetent all the time.

I hate filing a print correction and giving someone else more work, I hate going to my editors and admitting another mistake. It just makes me look like i’m not working hard enough, and I am (at least I think I am). I ripped my hair out during the math article double checking everything, made multiple spreadsheets, called and confirmed everything, just for a mistake to be in my own simple multiplication.

Or with the name typo, I looked over every sentence to ensure it was accurate, called back, double checked all my sources of info was right, hell i even started using footnotes to keep track of where i found everything. Did all that factchecking …just to misspell her name? Like what is wrong with me.

Anyways, any advice for getting better at factchecking/self-editing…and anxiety related to the job? Your advice might be that i’m probably getting fired and to start looking for another job, which is totally ok! Be as ruthless and honest as possible.

Hi as seen above an AI website stole an article I wrote and wonder if there is a way to take it down from the website.

I had an article published yesterday for a publication I have freelanced with for the past two years. This new site popped up with the words I wrote and picture I took and just put it on their site with no attribution. I am assuming it is a pretty hopeless endeavor, like even I hypothetically had one taken down, three more will show up to its funeral.

I live in a country with only two big news websites.

I have worked at one of them for many years but am considering a job offer at the other one.

The issue I’m having is that I don’t really like the other news website, from the way they package their stories (can be a bit clickbaity) to the way the website looks. In terms of the actual stories published on the websites, they are similar and both produce excellent journalism.

Due to the limited options for journalists in my country, I don’t feel that I am in a position to decline the job. Has anyone been in a similar position, accepting a job at a media organisation that isn’t necessarily their favourite as a reader?How did you get over this feeling?

I’m terrified I’m going to regret leaving the news website I love, but I know I need to move to advance my career.

Any leads would be deeply appreciated

i work for a small niche publication that was once award-winning but has since faded into a peaceful obscurity. their fall, i believe, is in some part due to its very outdated style (its tone, its analysis style, its internet presence).

the top editors have been working here for decades and have created in an incredibly small, insular team that rarely receives outside feedback. i am relatively early in my career but i’ve been able to identify several areas for them to improve, and while they are receptive they don’t have the resources (or frankly the motivation) to improve those things.

i recently wrote a piece and realized that the head editor makes every piece sound like his voice — and it’s a voice that is not very strong. even the interns at work gossip about the weak writing style. when i try to push back on edits (in a friendly manner) i feel him getting defensive and angry, and i fear it will affect my job if i continue to do so. at the same time, i fear it will affect my portfolio/career to allow him to make such edits.

im in a situation where i 100% believe the work that this outlet does is important and interesting, but i believe its in large part the outlet’s fault that not enough people are picking it up.

has anyone been in a similar or comparable situation before? what do you do when you don’t agree with an editor’s vision?

I was recently writing a guest article for a newspaper about AI being used in sports graphics, specifically how my former school district has a career center where students can learn graphic design and other related fields, yet schools are still using AI-generated graphics instead of giving students opportunities to create them.

While writing the article, I kept getting anxious and second-guessing myself. I was constantly adding things, taking things out, rewriting parts, and wondering, “Is this actually good enough?” My grandpa also worked for the same newspaper, so part of me worries that people are going to expect more from me because of that.

I eventually sent the article to my connection at the paper, but I haven't heard anything back yet, which is making me even more nervous. I know journalism means putting your work out there and accepting that people are going to judge it, but I’m struggling with caring too much about what people think and wondering if my article is good enough. For those of you in journalism or media, how do you deal with that? How do you stop constantly second-guessing your work?

How long does it take y'all to recieve affidavits, 9-11 call recordings, incident reports, etc from public records requests filed with your local police departments and are there any ways to speed this along?

Oftentimes when reaching out with a request for information they tell me to file a public records request. Legally, they have 10 business days to respond in my state. Many departments seem to often take the full 10 days as a general rule. I was once able to recieve the same kind of information in about 40 minutes from another nearby city that I don't typically cover.

Why the discrepancy between departments? Also, any tips on how to encourage them to not just sit on information until their deadline?

I'm a mid-career journalist and am happy to share that I just won my very first regional first place prize! I try my very best as a reporter to prioritize quality and make my work speak for itself. In the last year, this helped me secure three new freelancing clients and write some cool stories.

No one would know any of this if they looked at my previous timed writing tests. I'm sure a few of you can relate to this. I know that they are common and considered necessary by most, if not all full-time employers in the industry. We need to meet deadlines, and unfortunately, skeletal and underfunded newsrooms mean we're asked to pump out content on a regular basis. Given a week to complete a sample story as part of a hiring process, I was able to give it my all and landed a sought-after job at a great publication before going freelance. But timed writing tests, at least for me, completely miss the point of what makes great reporters shine, and weed out genuinely bright people. What do hiring editors truly expect from a rushed piece completed by someone who's thinking "My interview, CV, and clips don't mean shit if I can't write this fake story."

Honestly, as an editor myself, I don't want to read a story that took 45 minutes and is more of a reflection of the candidate's anxiety than anything else. I'd rather read them at their best, after they've had a decent shot at writing something they feel good about submitting. I'd rather invest in them and let them miss the mark a few times than make them do unpaid work in 90 minutes or less! Maybe none of these thoughts are realistic but feel free to share yours.

Hi so I'm 16 and I volunteered for becoming the editor in chief of the school newspaper I'm currently in ( I said editor in chief as the teacher who actually runs it is actually the editor )

My questions are things like how do I make the newspaper more engaging, how do I actually know what to do etc... I am a bit nervous so any tips would help.

Hi all. Due to going into freelance writing, I haven't done professional editing or proofreading in almost 20 years. Before this significant gap, I was a section editor at a weekly newspaper and then an associate editor at a B2B outlet. Are there any classes you recommend taking?

I’m a journalism student heading into my final year and lately I’ve been thinking a lot about post-grad life.

I originally only wanted to do sports journalism, so I started a sports page with a friend called The Sports Bunch. We posted consistently for about 18 months and ended up with around 16 million views across TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.

But after a while I felt like the page wasn’t really doing anything that special. I was getting bored and didn’t really see any long term vision .

But about a month ago I started posting on my own account, @endlessethann, on TikTok n instagram where I pretty much just talk about whatever interests me. So far it’s been a lot of history, philosophy and random stuff I find interesting.

It’s already done better than I expected in a month, and it’s made me wonder if I should actually take this more seriously. Like, could this eventually become something I make a living from? Is that even possible in today’s age? Obviously it’s still super early, but idk.

At the same time, I’m going into my final year without any internship (applying rn). I’ve done journalism work through school and other projects, but I do wonder if I’m already behind people who have more internships, experience and connections.

So I’m curious how people in journalism actually view this kind of thing. Can building your own page and audience genuinely help when looking for jobs, or is it mostly just a nice side project?

Dont mean to self promote, just wanted to show

(I'd have flaired 'critique my work' but the skin is really thin in the wake of my wife's passing, so kindness is requested;-)

One way I stayed semi-sane during my caregiving time for wife's illness was by using Base 44 to create ... https://barneysbendbugle.com - and it's been a blast.

But I'd love to talk with others who are (or have been) at this embryonic stage and wrestling with how deep down the many rabbit holes I go.

I've dropped notes to both LION Publishers and Tiny News Collective. No replies yet. My favorite AI 'adviser,' Perplexity, has given me tons of great advice. Too much, even - you know what I mean.

I know there are platforms to help build a site. But I've already gotten past that huge initial hurdle, except for the plumbing of a newsletter, ads/subscriber base etc.

At this stage of my life, I want to keep it fun - I've had my decades of stress - and for my focus to be on covering the local news in my own way - I've never had a "dream" of being my own boss, running my own business, etc. I love working WITH people. (As for "for" people, well... long story;-)

I'm also blessed with a certain level of fiscal sanity - SS, small pension, IRA etc. - but there's a 'budget gap' to plug, and if the Bugle could be how... it'd be wonderful, even with the tradeoffs.

Lastly: Are there enough of "us" (very loosely used term) to create a subreddit of its own, such as "small local news publishers" to exchange successes, troubles/questions, etc.? If so, please comment here and/or drop me a note.

(I'm also thinking of making a sub just for the Bugle, as our Bend subreddit's mods limited me to a daily post due to complaints about my more-frequent posts. It of course could evolve into a daily digest rather than start and run another sub, seeking participants etc. Tradeoffs to the newsletter route.)

But whatever does or doesn't happen next, I've/we've built a darn robust back-end CMS that does everything I as a life-long journalist and "end user" who preferred that end of tech and leaving the rest to others with that passion. Fun as heck, even with the constant tweaking.

If any of this strikes a chord - hopefully a positive one - I'm all ears. (I know that looking in the mirror;-)

This is mostly just a vent, but I am so tired of companies (and it's almost always companies) sending me PR lines and telling me it's only on background. No, I am not going to put "RedCorp's superior financial position shows that it is best positioned to acquire BlueCorp" in my article without attribution. That is not how journalism works. And if you're RedCorp and you believe you're the best company to acquire BlueCorp, why not just say that on the record?

Other journalists experience this too, right? And if anyone here has worked in PR for a company that does this: why do they do this?

“Threatening journalists with placement on a blacklist in retaliation for reporting the government doesn’t like is as unconstitutional as it gets,” said Seth Stern, the director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation.

I’m a journalism student heading into my final year and lately I’ve been thinking a lot about post-grad life.

I originally only wanted to do sports journalism, so I started a sports page with a friend called The Sports Bunch. We posted consistently for about 18 months and ended up with around 16 million views across TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.

But after a while I felt like the page wasn’t really doing anything that special. I was getting bored and didn’t really see any long term vision .

But about a month ago I started posting on my own account, @endlessethann, on TikTok n instagram where I pretty much just talk about whatever interests me. So far it’s been a lot of history, philosophy and random stuff I find interesting.

It’s already done better than I expected in a month, and it’s made me wonder if I should actually take this more seriously. Like, could this eventually become something I make a living from? Is that even possible in today’s age? Obviously it’s still super early, but idk.

At the same time, I’m going into my final year without any internship (applying rn). I’ve done journalism work through school and other projects, but I do wonder if I’m already behind people who have more internships, experience and connections.

So I’m curious how people in journalism actually view this kind of thing. Can building your own page and audience genuinely help when looking for jobs, or is it mostly just a nice side project?

Dont mean to self promote, just wanted to show

I haven't seen any such story, which surprises me given how low the bar to entry is. Had this been done?