Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Interview with Dan MacAlpine


Dan MacAlpine, Editor of The Ipswich Chronicle


Dan MacAlpine is basically a one-man-show at The Ipswich Chronicle. He has been in journalism for twenty-five years—most of which was community journalism. Before that he wrote for small, “how-to” business publications.


Describe your typical day on the job:

I have to write three to six news stories a week. We only have freelance writers. Basically stuff that breaks during the week is my responsibility. I have to write articles and editorials, although I typically don’t write editorials on issues I write articles about.


How do you stay true to the fundamental elements and ethics of journalism when there is so much easily accessible, yet often unverified information on the Internet?

I tend to be more conservative. If you’re going to put something ‘out there’ that hasn’t been verified, at the very least you say that it is an unverified report and that you’re working to verify it.


Do you think the new wave of immediate information is a positive or negative for journalism?

Ultimately I think it is positive. It is easier for people to access journalism. This is not the end of journalism—it is the end of journalism as we knew it. The new form of journalism is more open, there is a better relationship with the reader.


How do you verify facts? Do you have a kind of check-list that you go through? How is your editor involved? Do they have certain requirements when you verify facts?

I take the information I get and go straight to the responsible party to try and verify as quickly as possible. Be upfront with your stories and say that your waiting and trying to get some verification.

Desperately try and verify as quickly as possible—that’s what separates us as professional journalists. Anyone can get out there and talk about rumors.

At smaller publications there are limited resources. We can’t take a reporter's time to chase down a rabbit hole—if I had time to track down all the stories I come across, I’d have five Pulitzer prizes sitting on my desk.


How does one stay competitive and ethical on the job?

People don’t separate out the blog from hard news—you have that responsibility. At some point someone needs to separate the wheat from the chaff. That is a journalist’s job.

Be honest with the reader, do your best, work your hardest to verify—work to verify first. The 'do what we can' attitude is a positive of the Web.

We have gotten far more lax with the web from when I started. It is important to acknowledge when things are unverified and then work to verify. Update your work as much as possible and allow the reader to know that this is the best you can do at the current time.


Where do you see journalism going in the future? What other forms of media do you see merging with journalism? Do you think journalism could possibly “die out” in the future?

For the average citizen it is too vital and too much work to find out what the real story is when it comes to news. That’s where a journalist comes in. A journalist provides that information to the public so that they don’t have to go out and find it on their own.

I see some kind of hybrid of print, web and television journalism emerging. There are always fads that will be replaced by other things. There will always be a need for accurate information because people need to know what’s going on in order to be able to make informed decisions. This will never change—the format will change—but there will always be a need for that information, which is good for journalists.


What is the one most important piece of advice you would give to an aspiring journalist/editor?

People need to trust the information they're getting from journalists. If your reporting isn’t accurate you’re not going to get very far in this field.

Accuracy, brevity and clarity. Follow those three tenents and you won’t go wrong.

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