Former National Press Foundation fellow Fatima Hussein started a new job in January covering the U.S. Treasury Department for the Associated Press. In February, Russia invaded Ukraine and the agency was tasked with finding fresh ways to sanction Russia. “I’m having to cover this thing. Everybody else in the world is covering it. I just started, so I have zero sources. Nobody trusts me because I’m brand new. So what can I do that other people can’t? I can find documents before other people can,” Hussein told NPF’s Paul Miller fellows on March 7.

Simone Weichselbaum has the opposite experience, having covered law enforcement for nearly 20 years. “I have the expertise of covering cops, going to crime scenes, seeing dead people on the street and stuff like that, to the more academic type work I do now, which is using FOIA and data,” she told Widening the Pipeline fellows March 21. “It’s our job to take all this information and figure out what is a story and, in my case, what’s a good investigative project. How to move this forward.”

Here are their tips on starting a beat:

1) Get background on any topic from the Congressional Research Service.

Going to the  CRS website was “the very first thing” Hussein did.  From there, she discovered the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Specially Designated Nationals List to find sanctioned individuals. It provides background and historical perspective you’ll need.

2) “Google is your best friend.” And LinkedIn.

Hussein Googled the author of the CRS report she found on U.S.-Russian sanctions. CRS staff won’t always speak with reporters, but they are excellent sources on U.S. strategy and policy. If they won’t talk, Hussein finds them on LinkedIn and starts looking at their connections and classmates with similar expertise. She also looks up people who do (or did) work for OFAC.

3) Use the Federal Register.

Every agency head is appointed by the president, every priority goes through the Office of Management and Budget, and every rule goes through the Federal Register, Hussein explained. “If you cover an agency, I would very highly suggest going to the Federal Register and subscribing to every single sub-agency and getting every single update you possibly can.

“As you master a topic, you can start to unsubscribe,” Hussein said. “I’d rather know it and it not be useful, than to not know it and be asked, ‘Why didn’t you cover this?’”

In addition to signing up for alerts and newsletters, Hussein recommends you “listen to every interview that a very important person in this agency [does].”

4) Don’t be afraid of the phone.

“There are a lot of times where I sit by my phone and I’m like, ‘I don’t want to call anybody today. Why am I a journalist?’” But just make the call. “I just try to be super friendly and say, ‘I’m trying to learn more about this. If you prefer to talk on background, we can talk on background and then we can get quotes later.’ That usually helps a lot when I cold-call people.” Sometimes starting with someone who’s not the biggest expert can also help. “I wouldn’t necessarily be afraid of or dismiss somebody just because they’re not really high up somewhere or have a degree that specifically speaks to that issue,” Hussein said, citing cryptocurrency traders, not policy experts, who have given her good story ideas. “Who are the lawmakers who are on committees that can effectuate some sort of change? Talk to them and talk to their press people. I always talk to their press people first.”

Hussein also recommends finding economist sources through the National Bureau of Economic Research and speaking with non-fiction authors on the topic.

Weischelbaum created a list of where to find sources on your beat, including:

• Government agencies: “Don’t rely on the people currently in charge. They’re obviously not going to give you information unless they want the information out in the media for a reason. And if they do, you always have to ask yourself why. … I love to find people who are retired. My go-to person … left their government job for academia.”
• Activists: “I always want to push to young reporters … don’t treat them like the gospel. Activists have an agenda too, so always fact-check what they say.”
• Lobbying organizations: “Don’t think lobbyists in terms of just who’s here in Washington. You also have lobbying organizations who are like management.” They may be more obscure but still plugged in to what leadership is thinking.

5) Be persistent. “Keep asking questions,” Weichselbaum said. “Just keep calling them. You can be annoying. Whatever. Who cares? We’re just doing our job. I don’t get offended. I have colleagues of mine who get really mad … if someone argues with them. I always say it’s like, ‘They’re not arguing with us. They’re arguing with our press badge.'”

6) Use your co-workers and competitors, but don’t be a jerk.

“Read your competitors’ work, and then call their sources. Embrace social media, read your competitors’ tweets and see who they’re tweeting at, see who’s tweeting at them, and then reach out to those people, too. The last thing is rely on your co-workers in other departments. I could not do this without the individuals that cover Homeland Security, and national security, the crypto reporter, banking, business,” she said. “You want to show utmost respect to your colleagues who have the expertise, and then crafting out or carving out an area that you know you can offer that only bolsters the reporting … it’s a lot of sharing your work and sharing your skills, and not necessarily feeling like you have to be the best at everything all the time.”

Weischelbaum recommends pairing up with legal experts and “data nerds” to identify new story ideas.

7) Attain expertise. Weichselbaum earned a graduate degree in criminology. “I personally don’t understand why people get master’s degrees in journalism,” she said. “I do think it matters more to get [new] expertise. Because I think when you speak to sources who are highly specialized” it helps.

8) Or use your fresh perspective to your advantage.

“Every single interview I ask, ‘What am I missing?’ and I would say maybe 50% of the time, no matter who I’m talking to, they always give me something I hadn’t really thought of.” “As a lady, sometimes people will underestimate you,” Hussein said. “You shouldn’t have zero basis of knowledge of what you’re talking about … But I have found when I ask ‘stupid’ questions … I always get really, really, really good quotes.”

9) Go deeper. Once you’ve got a handle on the news of the beat, start working on enterprise and investigative pieces. In addition to going to former officials or lower level sources within agencies, Weischelbaum also says every beat reporter should regularly file FOIAs to get records agencies won’t volunteer. Because FOIA requests need to be specific, “ask your sources, ask lawyers who cover that topic: what’s the name of this document?” Weischelbaum said. Because investigations take months to put together, “you really have to think of things that no one can scoop you on, and the only way to do that is with sources,” Weischelbaum said. “It’s very important, I think, to build trust not just with the communities you’re dealing with, but also the government entity or the so-called bad guy … I feel a good journalist, we are impartial. We’re able to see all the players.” She said her best stories come not from activists but from whistleblowers, people within the systems who are fed up. She is able to reach them because she’s earned trust through the way she works and reports.

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Speakers:

Fatima Hussein, U.S. Treasury Department Reporter, The Associated Press

Simone Weichselbaum, Investigative Reporter, NBC News