The Art of Doing by Camille Sweeney

Author:Camille Sweeney
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2013-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

How to Get the Inside Scoop

Barry Levine

News director of the National Enquirer

When Barry Levine started his journalism career at the Associated Press in 1981 intending to become a sports reporter, he never imagined he’d end up at ground zero of the tabloid universe—the National Enquirer. But when Levine was offered his first tabloid job at Rupert Murdoch–run Star magazine, he was amazed at the size and professionalism of the reporting staff. At Star, he flew around the country on private planes and helicopters, following celebrities into top hotels, chasing down one story after another. “I was exhilarated and fascinated,” says Levine. “It was like a romantic throwback to the wearing-a-press-card-in-your-fedora, Chicago Front Page days.” Now news director at the Enquirer, Levine is proud and unapologetic about the paper’s mission to doggedly investigate and report stories on celebrities and newsmakers of the day. Often maligned as “supermarket sleaze” or “tabloid trash,” the Enquirer is gaining a newfound respect by scooping the mainstream press on high-profile stories like John Edwards’ adultery and love child, Tiger Woods’ mistresses, Michael Jackson’s death, Rush Limbaugh’s drug addiction and Bristol Palin’s pregnancy. In 2010, the tabloid was even considered for the Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on John Edwards.

Takeaway: “We’ll do anything to get the story.”

1. Know your audience. America has a fascination with celebrities and newsmakers, their secrets and romances, their health issues, addictions, alcohol, drugs, sex. The names have changed from Liz and Dick to Lohan and the Kardashians, but the formula’s the same. Showing that Hollywood actors and TV stars don’t have perfect lives helps people accept their own problems. As an old Enquirer editor once said, the big news organizations tell people what they think they should be interested in, whereas we try to give them stories they are interested in.

2. Preparation is the key to success. That was something an experienced news editor at AP told me when I was just out of college working my first job there as an office assistant. It starts in the office. We answer phones on the first ring and we never take any story lightly. If we’re going to interview a celebrity we go through every news clipping. At big events we encounter the unexpected, so if it’s a celebrity’s wedding, we get the names of all the relatives and try to contact them ahead of time to pick up details. Sometimes before a wedding, we’ll rent helicopters to fly over the site to figure out how to photograph on the actual day. We prepare maps and dossiers on the couple. We do everything possible to pick up details to provide the inside story to the readership down to the type of cologne the groom is wearing. They can’t be at the wedding, so we need to give them everything we can. When Liz Taylor got married to Larry Fortensky on Michael Jackson’s ranch it was like the tabloid Super Bowl. It literally took months of preparation.

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