Always get the name of the dog • Better to get it right than get it first • Trust is our most important asset • Endure the awkward silences in interviews • Avoid cliches like the plague • Pick up the damn phone • And get out of the damn office • Only quote when paraphrasing doesn’t do a better job • With multimedia: complement, don’t repeat • Know your equipment before you hit the field • Give credit and thanks for user submissions • Follow the money • Ask open-ended questions • Keep asking yourself: What is the story REALLY about? • Get good natural sound • Experiment and take risks • Capture more b-roll than you think you need • When the eye and the ear compete, the eye wins • Better to coach writers than fix broken stories • Reports are about information; stories are about experience • Get to interviews early and stay late • Don’t let the powerful answer in the passive voice: “Mistakes were made” • @here for the journalism 40 time-tested tips that never go out of style The best quote often comes after the reporter closes the notebook • Journalism is a discipline of verification, not assertion • Good writing is not magic, it’s a process • Great journalism comes at the intersection of craft and opportunity • Take responsibility for what readers know and understand • Each reader brings an autobiography with them to a story • In a nut graph, it’s not the graph that’s important, but the nut • Place the emphatic word in a sentence at the end • The antidote to procrastination is rehearsal • Show AND tell • Get a good quote high in the story • Express your most important idea in the shortest sentence • The most powerful form of punctuation is white space • Write early to learn what you still need to know • Tell the audience what you know — and how you know it • Don’t just interview the boss, talk to the mechanic • To find stories, take a different route home • If your mother says she loves you, check it out