My guest today is someone I met during an appearance on the Washington Business Report. Josh Boak is an economics reporter for the Associated Press. Previously he worked on staff at the Fiscal Times, Politico, The Chicago Tribune and the Toledo Blade. He’s been educated at Princeton and Columbia and is a Livingston Award winner and Pulitzer finalist. Additionally Josh has worked as a researcher and reporter on Bob Woodward’s book Obama’s Wars and spent time freezing in the Afghan desert for the Washington Post. Perhaps the most intriguing thing about Josh is that when you meet him backstage he wears glasses and comes across as quiet and mild mannered like Clark Kent. Then as soon he goes on the air he takes off his glasses and becomes this super animated, opinionated super guest. For today’s broadcast I asked him to take his glasses off.
Don’t Deny, Justify: Josh learned this rule back when he did improv comedy and applies it to his journalism career now. Make active rather than passive decisions. Don’t say no. You want to keep the conversation going which often means you say “Yes, and…”
History of the Associated Press: The associated press started in the middle of the 19th century during the Mexican American War. The newspapers in New York didn’t know how to cover the war in an affordable way so they teamed up and created their own version of the Pony Express. In this way they were able to relay news from where the fighting was to the offices in New York City.
How a wire service works
· AP gets the news in some cases a little bit early on an embargoed basis. This means it can’t be released to the public yet.
· Josh or another reporter will write a short story of about 150 words. This gives the news in a breaking sense.
· The story suddenly appears on computer screens at newspapers as well as on websites all over the country. If you’re listening to the radio often the announcer will read it from a printed page.
· Five to ten minutes after the first story launches they will have another 450 words going into more detail about what the report is.
· They will flesh that out with quotes from interviews and additional details from other reports and bring it together in one last version.
Josh’s definition of economics: It’s fundamentally about how you make choices. The choices you make influence your life. You might pack your lunch or decide to buy it from a food truck. If you packed your lunch that’s money you’re trying to save so that you can spend it elsewhere. That is economics. If you buy your lunch from the food truck that’s also economics because you’re saying I get more satisfaction from eating this food.
Advice for pitching a story: What matters is someone doing something unique or interesting. Don’t assume that just because it matters to you it will matter to the reader. In so many cases it doesn’t because it’s a form of self promotion. No one wants self promotion unless they’re a Kardashian. It also hinges on your ability to tell a story, why your story matters and how it relates to something that others would care about. They have to be able to tie the story to something larger that is much more than you or it’s not going to work.
· Josh’s advice for getting out of the baby pool and into the ocean: Don’t be afraid to be edited. Edit yourself and look for the edits of others. The goal is always to make a better story. What’s cool about it is other people can help you get better but in the world of journalism you still get the credit.
· You can contact Josh on twitter at @joshboak
· Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack [http://babygotbooked.com/headlines]
· Geeta is putting together a Q&A episode. Submit your media related questions on the contact form at [https://geetanadkarni.com] and she will answer your questions on the show.