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Sample Issue
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April 3 Issue
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Use Association Web Sites to Research Journalists
A while ago, I wrote about pitching to individual staff and
freelance writers in order to increase your odds of story
placements. I had given you a few good places to start your
writer search, but Sree Sreenivasan's March 25 "Web Tips"
column just provided one more resource.
Just to give some background: Sreenivasan is a professor
at Columbia University's graduate school of journalism &
Poynter's Visiting New Media Professor. He contributes to
the weekly column "Web Tips" which identifies online resources
for journalists.
Sreenivasan recommended that journalists have personal Web
sites and provided suggestions for creating one. What caught
my attention was his statement that some journalists have their
Web sites hosted or linked to by their associations. That seemed
a great way to hunt for journalists.
Sreenivasan mentioned both the South Asian Journalist Association
(SAJA) Web site and Authors Guild.com hosted Web sites. The guild
includes published writers of all sorts, but only provides linked
names with no description. However, the SAJA's profiles include
title and publication (if applicable) as well as links.
I did my own investigating and found quite a few other
associations online. Some, like the National Press Club, require
authorization for accessing member information. Others, like
the guild, have no up-front information on whether a member
is a book author or journalist and what topics they cover.
So here's a sampling of association Web sites that provide easy
focused access to member information:
American Society of Journalists and Authors
(referral services, member directory and links to member sites
under "Find American Best Writers")
Florida Sports Writers at (list of member papers
with editors' emails under "FSWA Members")
International, Food, Wine, and Travel Writers Association
(links to member Web sites)
National Association of Science Writers (NASW)
(hosts and links to member Web sites)
National Writers Association (member
database under "search engine")
Periodical Writers Association of Canada's "Find a Professional
Writer" database
South Asian Journalist Association (click on
"Profiles" link at the top of the Web page)
To recap tips from my earlier article, you can also launch your
research on writers using bylines or the short "about the writer"
blurbs usually at the end of articles. Scan back issues of
targeted print/online publications to find regular contributors.
Also, try a Web search for the writer's name to see what other
articles and information you find.
Until next week, happy writing!
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Links of Interest
Believe it or not, I still have links for this section!
Sreetips.com - Journalists Sites
http://www.sree.net/tips/journosites.html
Sree Sreenivasan lists journalist Web sites as well as links
to journalist listings at Yahoo! and Cyberjournalist.
Poynter.org
http://www.poynter.org
In case you want to sign up for "Web Tips" or any of the
other columns published by Poynter.
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