Beat Reporter With A Sneaking Suspicion... (2019)

Some stories start out small, but turn out to be much, much bigger.

Have you ever asked the question: “...is my short news spot better suited to become a multi-part podcast series!?”

Jason Moon, reporter with New Hampshire Public Radio, discovered the answer was yes with the story that became Bear Brook, a podcast about murder in a small New Hampshire town and the invention of forensic genetic genealogy. Along the way, he learned a few things: like how writing for longform podcasts is different than writing for short news spots, how inserting yourself into a story can sometimes be a good thing, and how spending precious minutes developing characters in your story isn’t a pointless detour after all.

In his 2019 Third Coast Conference session, Jason Moon shared what learned along his journey from public radio beat reporter to longform podcast producer.

Note: Sessions are presented twice at the Third Coast Conference (once on Friday, once on Saturday). In this episode, you will hear the Q&A from both presentations of the session. Want to keep the conversation going? Follow Jason Moon on Twitter @jasonmoonNHPR.

Images / slides referenced in this session (click here to view full folder):

• 5:29 - Seven minute story script
• 10:50 - Structuring for longform A / Structuring for longform B
• 15:37 - News feature writing example script
• 16:20 - Longform writing example script
• 23:30 - Character description from 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' by John le Carre
• 47:30 - Bear Brook edit process A
• 48:00 - NHPR group edit
• 49:20 - Bear Brook edit process B

The 2019 Third Coast Pocket Conference season was co-produced by Neroli Price and Isabel Vázquez.

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