Picture yourself as a new freelancer, fresh out of college, or covering a beat you’ve never written about before – where do you go to find experts to interview for a story?
You could use Twitter or LinkedIn to crowd source. Or you could use a service like Help a Reporter Out or ProfNet that matches reporters looking for sources with companies, organizations or individuals looking for publicity.
But the recent dust up involving HARO, where the author of a book on media manipulation used the service to lie about himself in order to be included as a source in stories, is making some writers question the value of those services.
The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University is attempting to help rectify the situation for some reporters by compiling a database of business journalism expert sources.
Building a Database of Business Experts
Cale Ottens, an ASU student and intern at the center, helped get the database rolling after coming up with the idea last spring. “I’ve been working on a story and didn’t know a generic expert who could speak on an issue,” he told me in an interview this week. “So I thought I’d help create something that would make it easier for a journalist like myself.”
Ottens wasn’t familiar with author Ryan Holiday’s successful attempt to punk HARO. But he’s familiar enough with services like HARO and ProfNet to know that using them can result in a flood of pitches from sources, many of them with little or no tie to the subject of the query.
For the database project, Reynolds Center is starting small, initially building a pool of experts in three subjects: real estate, banking and the economy. Three weeks after putting out the first call for sources, Ottens says he’s received about 30 names, all of which he or his colleagues will vet before adding to the database.
Depending on how quickly sources come in, the database should be up and running in a couple months, Ottens says.
Given how competitive reporters can be, Ottens doesn’t expect people to share contact information for special sources, the ones that may have taken months or years to cultivate, or who they talk to on background. “What we’re looking for are generic experts, like an economist,” he says. “We’re looking for someone who can speak on a subject with knowledge. So on banking, the CEO of a particular bank, someone (a reporter) interviewed and had success getting information from and learning about the beat.”
In addition to economists and CEOs, Ottens wants reporters to share information on sources who are academics, heads of industry associations or consumer groups and senior level advisors for brokerage or financial firms. He’s especially interested in experts who can discuss how national issues affect specific states or regions. “I’d like to see more niche experts, like an expert who knows about the housing market in North Carolina,” he says.
How You Can Help
Business reporters can us this form on the Reynolds Center website to add sources to the database; be prepared to share the expert’s name, area of expertise and contact information, as well as your own name, publication and beat.
When you started writing about a new beat, how did you find expert sources?
This is a great move by ASU. Thanks for the post!