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Being in the news business people often ask how do you know about what’s going on. Where does “news” come from.
Well, there are a lot of answers to that question.
There are assignment desk people that listen to police scanners. We get press releases from all kinds of people such as businesses, schools, politicians, police offices and more. And of course there are the all important news tips.
First off, I just took a look at the front page of our website and noticed it’s kind of hard to find where to send a news tip email. Go to the MORE button and you’ll find a contact form. Why they don’t label it “News tips” or “Contacts” I’m not sure. But that’s where it is. You can also text us at 57500.
Next I would like to thank and advise those who already send us the occasional tip. Often time a tip comes in saying something like this. Hey, I just saw police pull a body out of a house. Why aren’t you reporting on it?
Ok, If we don’t catch something on police scanners…because sometimes they do things quietly over the air…we need people to be our eyes and ears. And in the case of the example I just gave I hope you can see the obvious problems the news room is now facing.
There is no reference to the street, or even the city where the event is happening. Also a contact number from the tipster who is witnessing the event is also a huge plus.
So please keep those tips coming…and please include details.
Just the other day I heard a news tip that really gave me a chuckle. A person called a reporter to say they had just passed a local high school and there was something big going on. In the tipsters words, “It’s either a fight or a cross country race.”
I’ve never pictured those two things to be similar…but oh well. At least they gave the name of the school so it could quickly be determined that the school had let out early and it was just students hanging out on the school lawn.
