Filling Column Inches

People go into journalism to cover exciting stories, but unfortunately as a local journalist it is impossible to be working on big stories all the time.

Often you will have to come up with picture stories and leads that have little value other than that they fill space. Like nibs, you should try to spend as little time as possible on these so you can concentrate on the good ones.

But all too often, these space-fillers can be difficult to find.

Phoning Contacts

If you need to find a lead at short notice, phone around some friendly local councillors and ask them what they have been up to recently. Often councillors have their ears to the ground of the local community. 

For example, I once did this with a councillor in a local village and she had recently attended the launch of the local history society's new book. Within half an hour, I had interviewed someone from the society and arranged for a photograph to be taken of him posing with the book. It was never going to be a great article, but it filled space for me when I needed it.

Localising National Stories

Finding local angles for national stories does not often lead to front page news, but it can be an easy way of filling space.

For example, if the Government were to increase taxes on alcohol then you could call some local pubs and off-licences and ask them for their reaction. Without much effort, you could have a story about local businesses reacting angrily to the increase and get a picture of a landlord behind his bar with a worried look on his face.

Sometimes, localising a national story can actually lead to a good local story and a fall in UK property prices is an example of this. All you would have to do is call some estate agents and get some anecdotal evidence about how property prices are doing in your area. Whether they are doing better than other areas, worse than other areas or about the same, you would have something that could make the front page.

As well as phoning around for a local reaction, another way of localising national news is to do a vox pop. They are not much fun to do and are generally foisted on hapless people on work experience, but they can be a good way of filling space. The story about Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg saying he had slept with "no more than" 30 women would have been a good subject.

The intro would have been along the lines of: "This week Nick Clegg said he had slept with no more than 30 women. But do the people of Salisbury (or wherever) think it is acceptable to be asked this question in modern Britain? We went to find out..."

Stories About New Businesses

For some reason, many local papers seem to shy away from writing about new businesses, perhaps out of fear of being seen to endorse them.

Remember, though, that the definition of news is something that people find interesting and people are always interested to know about new businesses in their area.

Whether it is a department store or a takeaway, you can write about almost every new business that opens its doors and this should provide you with a slow but steady stream of news.

The best way of finding out about new businesses is just by noticing them as you go around the local area, but council licensing committees are also worth watching out for. New businesses will often have to apply to the committee if they are changing the use of the building. If you are ever at one of these meetings, give the owner your card and tell them to call you once they open.