-----
Loose the Hounds
by Christine Stanley
Backroom deal makers and government shysters, beware. They're training bigger and better hounds around here.
Forty-eight people attended the two-day Better Watchdog Workshop in May put on by Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Star-Telegram and Fort Worth SPJ and hosted by the TCU Schieffer School of Journalism. David Donald of IRE and NICAR led the information-packed workshop, which drew professional and student journalists from as far away as Corpus Christi, Albuquerque and Oklahoma.
The May 21 program featured sessions by Pat Stith of the Raleigh News & Observer on cultivating sources and interviewing, and a session, with help from Star-Telegram government editor Dianna Hunt, on juggling a beat and investigative work. Donald and the Star-T's David Wethe presented ways to follow paper and database trails.
IRE trainer Jodi Upton provided excellent tips on using the internet to find information, then led a session on dissecting businesses. Jennifer LaFleur of The Dallas Morning News and Marshall Searcy of Fort Worth's Kelly, Hart & Hallman law firm explored the latest developments on open records and open meetings. Paula Lavigne of the News showed how to pull stories out of census data. Two training sessions May 22 in computer-assisted reporting gave participants a taste of the power of database analysis in investigative journalism.
Next year, the whole watchdog kennel hits Cowtown. IRE's national conference is scheduled for June 15-18 at the Renaissance Worthington Hotel downtown.
===================================================
PEOPLE & PLACES
"I thought I'd read all the stories," former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw said in announcing one of this year's three winners of the Livingston Award, "but Reese took us to other places." UTA Shorthorn ex and six-year Dallas Morning News writer Reese Dunklin is the 2004 winner of the Livingston Award for national reporting. Accompanied by his wife, Mary, who's also a Morning News writer and editor (they met in the UTA newsroom), Dunklin accepted the award and accompanying $10,000 token of esteem at a ceremony June 14 at the Yale Club in New York. "This series posed significant reporting challenges," noted Morning News VP/managing editor George Rodrigue, "but Reese did a superb job and brought our readers some of the most significant and original reporting done on this subject." The Livingston Awards are the largest all-media, general-reporting prizes in the country and are unusual in judging print, broadcast and online entries against one another. The awards are limited to journalists under 35; Dunklin is 31. From 500 entries, around 60 finalists emerged. Dunklin was the first Morning News writer to win a Livingston, and he did so on his first try. The stories he submitted, part of the DMN's "Runaway Priests: Hiding in Plain Sight" series, are here and here and here. Brokaw, who with Ken Auletta of The New Yorker and Ellen Goodman of The Boston Globe judged the contest, said Dunklin's efforts exposed a previously uncovered dimension of the Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis. He particularly praised Dunklin's work in Rome, where the reporter found several abusers sheltered near the Vatican. ...
The Fort Worth Zoo earned a PRSA Bronze Anvil for its "By the Numbers" annual report. Designed by Madhouse Ideas, the report employs a format that communicates with, well, numbers. Little-known zoo facts, such as number of birds hatched (31), fill the piece, as do illustrations of zoo animals that were designed using numbers. The zoo is home to more than 400 animal species and supports more than 20 conservation projects worldwide. ...
InterStar Marketing & Public Relations has been selected by New York-based Lifestyle Media to provide public and media relations for ZestFest 2005. InterStar will coordinate media relations, provide community relations support and identify sponsorship opportunities. ... UTA Shorthorn photographers Mark Roberts and Brandon Wade are finalists in the SPJ Mark of Excellence awards to be announced at the SPJ National Convention, Oct. 16-18 in Las Vegas. UTA's Renegade magazine is one of three national finalists for best magazine.
===================================================
GET A JOB
The Fort Worth Transportation Authority seeks a communications manager. Must have a bachelor's degree in marketing, PR, journalism, business or related field and four years of progressively responsible work in media relations, writing, editing and reporting; experience promoting a nonprofit or public agency is preferred. Starting salary $46,556-$58,195. E- résumé to adevaull@the-t.com. ... MPR Source in Dallas needs a marketing consultant who can help a couple of clients develop and implement marketing strategies. Contact Veronica Thomison, (972) 396-5111, ext. 111, or info@mprsource.com. ...
Blog from your bedroom for bucks. MSN is hiring freelancers to generate blogs on music, TV, technology, sports and fashion/food/style. Contributors will work approximately 15 hours per week and produce up to 10 daily posts, drawing material from user submissions, MSN itself and the internet. Send five sample posts, reflecting a variety of sources, written over a single day; a résumé, list of favorite sites and a paragraph explaining your vision for the project to filtered@microsoft.com. State in the subject heading which blog you're applying for. The blogs will not be targeted to Beijing, so using words like "democracy" and "freedom" will be allowed. ...
The Arlington YMCA seeks a development VP. Bachelor's degree required, along with at least five years in fund-raising and a track record in campaign design, strategy and success. Full benefits package and paid 12 percent retirement. Résumés accepted through July 15. Contact human resources director Jennifer Kelly, YMCA of Arlington, 1148 W. Pioneer Parkway, Suite H, Arlington 76013; (817) 299-9629, ext. 14. ...
Owner Jennifer Henderson needs a part-time graphic artist at JODesign. Extensive experience not required. E- jodesign@sbcglobal.net. ...
A Dallas top 25 publicly held company seeks a corporate communications VP. Must have at least five years senior-level experience with a publicly held company, 15 years minimum PR work and a bachelor's degree in communications, journalism or related. Call (972) 931-7576, ext. 21, to discuss the company confidentially before submitting a résumé. Send résumé and salary history to executive recruiter, resumes@pharrpr.com. ...
IA Interior Architects' Dallas office seeks a marketing coordinator. Requirements include a B.A. in marketing, at least two years experience and a familiarity with graphic design, production and design software. Send résumé to Jennifer Hatton, j.hatton@interiorarchitects.com. ... Two from Mantra Brand Consulting: a freelance account executive and a Hispanic marketing expert, needed by a retail health care company. Send résumé to jrice@mantrabrand.com.
===================================================
NEW MEMBERS
SPJ ... Melissa Winn, WBAP and The Shorthorn, UTA
===================================================
COMINGS & GOINGS
Promotions ... at the S-T: Mark Rogers to assistant managing editor for photo
Additions ... at the S-T: intern Christina Lane, a Sherman native and student at TCU, where she works on the yearbook staff and has written for the Daily Skiff ... UTA assistant j-prof Ivana Segvic, doing a six-week fellowship through the ASNE Institute for Journalism Excellence
Exits ... at the S-T: raconteur/cartographer John Forsyth, an S-T paperboy in the late '60s, then reporter and copy editor from 1972-76 and for the past two years director of enhanced coverage in the suburbs south and southwest of Fort Worth, to The New York Times copy desk; one of his dream jobs would be to edit maps for the Times, and this move sets him on course for that ... award-winning (Headliner Award, Texas APME first place and sweepstakes) photographer Alison Woodworth, after seven years at the paper, returning to SMU to pursue an M.B.A. ... Rice U. grad Cynthia Garza, going home to the Houston Chronicle after covering education and the Fort Worth school district for the past year
===================================================
