FOCUS... I said Focus and Read This...

Those dang story ideas. I love features, profiles… But sadly, that is not all you can do in a newscast. And often are not the best things to include because there is so much other news that fill the limited time we have on air.

I am notorious for being bad at finding story ideas. Luckily, we get thousands of press releases at KOMU each day that my lack of stories always balances out. My problem is not the ideas themselves but how to truly implement them.

The other day, I wanted to a story about the first frost of the season that was early for Missouri. But you wouldn’t just do a story about the frost…  You would need focus.

What is focus? Well you could say it is a setting on a camera. And yes, your right. And we need focus of the camera too… But not the point.

Focus is what I like to call the main element, story, or theme behind your story that helps capture the information in a meaningful way. Sounds easy right? Well if it was, we would have people winning awards for journalism left and right.

Focus is hard because there are so many angles you can position a story. First, your angle must always remain unbiased and fair. And second, it’s got to be catchy.

For example, the frost story could have been boring. The anchor could read.: Missouri had its first frost today. The end. But you can spice that up. How does the first frost affect Missouri? Well you could choose to do it about local farmers and crops, school children waiting for school, homeless people… And they all have their benefits and disadvantages. I also like to go with the unique angle people will understand. School children is interesting and relevant but it does not have the unique feature that doing a story about how the freeze affects local wineries may have. Most people think about the children but will learn how their Friday night fun may be affected. And it’s a whole new meaningful angle.

And this is not enough focus yet. If you can, narrow your focus even further. Find a winery and use that winery to tell it. How is this winery being affected? What does it mean for business? Now what? Really bring the story together in understanding this winery.

Focus makes it or breaks it. If you can tell the story with focus, you are already becoming better than most journalists. Make sure when you go to editors, have your focus in mind because your story will seem much more newsworthy than just a first frost story.