Bird Talk Flyby

News reports, whether on television or in print, always rope me in and keep me tuned to that channel or publication until I know the whole story, or at least what the reporter tells me is the whole story. I'm a news junkie and being a journalist is how I feed my "addiction." Even if the news I read about, see on TV, or report on becomes frustrating, I still want to know more. However, my experience with observing and reporting news has been generalized and mainstream until recently.

At first glance special interest magazines, such as BIRD TALK, don't seem to be the newsie type. I always saw specialized publications as discussing only topics that relate to their hobby or interest with little to no "real news." I know now that the mainstream reporting seen in major newspapers and on 24 hour TV news stations may be generalized for the mass public, but there are particular news stories that hit closer to home for some specialized, niche audiences.

After being assigned two news stories to complete for BIRD TALK's Web site I realized that these topics contained subject matter that would be of interest to the mainstream media to report on as well. However, because the stories dealt with birds and I had the duty of telling the information to bird enthusiasts, my job to report on those stories was different than it would have been if I were writing for a generalized news publication.

While the topic may be of interest to the masses, the niche audience reading BIRD TALK news likely knows and cares more about the subject than would the typical public. Therefore, I had to ensure that I included information in the articles that would answer the questions the BT magazine's audience would want answered and not generalize the information like what might be done in the mainstream media.

Through all this I learned that even in the special interest publications there exists - unlike I first thought - important, hard news. While it is crucial to get the facts straight anytime the news is reported, when writing for special interest publications it seems even more important to not only get the facts correct but also to dive deeper into the subject matter to retrieve additional details and answers that your targeted, niche audience would want to know.

~Ashley