Organization is everything to investigative reporter Ted Oberg of KTRK-TV in Houston. “You win or lose on Day One,” he says. “You can’t catch up or recreate notes or contacts you get on the first day and only save on a scrap of paper.”
Investigative producer Jennifer Cobb of KHOU-TV in Houston agrees. And if you’re not naturally good at organizing, she says you can learn to be. “The key is finding a system that works for you.”
For Ruby Guzman, investigative reporter at KTMD-TV in Houston, even the smallest detail is worth saving because it might turn out to be critically important to the story.
Oberg, Cobb and Guzman know what they’re talking about. They’ve spent months tracking everything from federal payouts after Hurricane Harvey to clergy abuse and immigration cases. At a recent Texas Association of Broadcasters conference, they shared their best tips for staying organized.
- Keep everything in one accessible place. Oberg creates a cloud-based folder for every story. He scans documents into it, and adds emails, reports and other information relevant to the story so he can access it from anywhere. Cobb uses a shared drive that anyone on the investigative team can access. “If you don’t have a shared drive, Google Drive also does the trick,” she says. Video and interview transcripts are saved in the story folder, too.
- Track all open records requests. Texas law requires agencies to respond to records requests within 10 days. Both Cobb and Oberg use calendars to note when a response is due. “It’s searchable, and a good reminder to check in if something is delayed.”
- Capture contacts. Don’t leave names and numbers in your notebook. Put them in your contacts file and add keywords so you can find them later. “The keyword is searchable a year from now when you remember you had a good immigration expert but can’t remember his name,” Cobb says.
- Follow up. Guzman says she makes calls at least once a week to see if anything new has happened on a story. If she can’t reach a source, she’ll call every day until she does.
- Set alerts. No journalist ever wants to be scooped. When you’re tracking a long-term story, Cobb advises you to set up Google or Nexis alerts to see what other media outlets are reporting about the topic.
Oberg uses an online transcription service, Temi, to log interviews. It’s automated and costs 10 cents a minute; Oberg pays out of pocket and his station reimburses him. Temi works with uploaded video or audio files and provides a downloadable transcript. Trint is a similar service with a base rate of $15 per hour of uploaded content.
What tips do you have for staying organized? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.
