Associated Reporters Abroad (ARA) - Professional freelance journalists reporting for media outlets worldwide

March was a whirlwind month. Trying to get all of our colleagues onto the website and getting it ready for launch while doing our regular work has been difficult. But finally, we are there. While it will take a while for us to get all our previous stories from the past two years in the system, our current work is there. And the new website is a dream - finally a site that grows with us.

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