Our team continues to grow as well: This month we added reporters in Berlin, in Gaza and in sub-Saharan Africa. We continue to follow the Syrian uprising closely, even as interest has waned slightly from dailies. Still, that has allowed us to focus on enterprise pieces and we are gearing up for daily coverage again.
While the eurocrisis seems near forgotten, there is a lot of interest in the aftermath of the Russian elections and the upcoming French elections (we have written four stories already on that already). We expect that to be closely watched, as well as elections in Egypt, Greece and Serbia.
In April, we'll focus on getting our website into shape, recruiting in a few underserved areas and do more on Syria. We have picked up and are beginning to host the Arabica column, Kristen's weekly round up of what is being said in the Arab world. We are hoping to send a reporter to Bahrain. And if we can, we will do a few pieces updating the situation in Libya.
Check back soon...
Anecdote of the Month (life in ARA land):
ARA tries to work with local reporters, especially in areas where it is difficult to find professional freelance journalists. Trying out a new local reporter in one country recently proved to be an interesting experience. Here, the local reporter is assigned to write an article on the change in a national symbol. Two ARA editors discuss the results.
Editor 1 to editor 2: X has interviewed 18 people for this article.
There are quotes from 18 different people in here.
18!
E2: oh my god
E1: X has probably done a wider survey of public opinion on this than the government.
E2: oh my
E1: what the hell
this is crazy.
E2: :)
that is just too funny
E1: it's terrible
i told her to get a few different points of view.
i meant like 4
i should have said 4
18!
E2: wow
overachiever
E1: i just feel awful that X has done all this for nothing, there's no way i can keep 18 voices in this
E2: maybe recycle for another story?
you can tell X that you couldn't fit them all in - BUT YOU TRIED
E1: how many stories can you sell on the xxx national anthem?
hahahhhaaa
E2: hahaha
E2: this is prob the funniest thread i have ever had on skype
E1: there's at least 3 or four quotes from most of the interviews, so i'd say we could do this story for at least a dozen newspapers if it wasn't for the byline issue
E2: oh god
how long is this transcript?
E1: we could just stop writing on anything else for the next couple of weeks
2,800 words
E2: this is just getting better and better
And you wonder why it was late?
E1: but that's almost entirely transcripts, just a line or two of her own words
E2: oh boy
E1: yeah, now i get it. X was probably panicking she'd only spoken to 10 people
E2: i think maybe you should - gently - explain what we expect
E1: i know, its so hard though
i will lay it all out in an email though
E2: ok
E1: i'll get back to it :)
This month, we have shored up our Eastern Europe team by adding almost a dozen solid reporters from Bulgaria to Latvia. With them, we covered the deadly freeze in the region and the strong resistance to ACTA there. We have also added reporters in New Zealand, Pakistan, Yemen and Egypt, as well as others in Europe. We are continuing to find new ways to cover the conflict in Syria and the eurocrisis (as interest wanes in the latter) and have produced great stories on the anniversaries of the Egyptian and Libyan uprising.
As we completed a project on non-state actors, we realized that while we don't have enough manpower to handle it, we would start an Africa team anyway. We believe it is important to shore up coverage of the sub-Saharan region. As a result, we are starting to look for reporters based there and will do our best to build up coverage of the continent.
In March, we plan to shore up our Middle East coverage, do more on elections in Europe, as well as the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking. Also, as we move to our new website, we will finally be able to add all of our stories in a search able way as well as all of the reporters that belong to the network for the first time.
Stay tuned...
If we were hoping for a break in January to regroup after the insanity of 2011, we were kidding ourselves: There was plenty to report on the anniversaries of the Tunisia and Egyptian revolutions, as well as the new EU treaty intended to solve the eurocrisis. Even so, we have moved to shore up reporters in certain regions such as Central Asia and deepen our coverage of the Syrian uprising. This year, we also plan to write more stories for magazines and plans are in the works to deepen our relationships with those publications.
In February, we will begin working on getting our new website ready for its launch - we are all excited over that. Also, we will begin planning more reporting trips to deepen our coverage of areas where we still can't find reporters, and maybe on those we'll get lucky. In the meantime, we are moving to shore up breaking news so we can respond faster and better to the news of the day.
Til next time...
