Following is a Q&A with Daniel Thigpen, reporter for The (Stockton) Record:
By Greg Shemitz
Q: What’s your background as a journalist? What are your responsibilities at The Record?
A: I graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill journalism school in 2004 and spent a year covering nearly every news beat at The News Tribune in Washington for about a year. After that I moved to California and covered, again, pretty much everything at the Appeal-Democrat, a small daily north of Sacramento, for a year.
I am new at The Record, and I primarily cover local government and urban growth in a few south San Joaquin County cities.
Q: What types of stories are most likely to pique your interest? What kind of material should public relations people be on the lookout for?
A: If it has to do with urban growth trends, particularly in California’s Central Valley, then I’m interested. But if you know of larger, national trends or related topics, send them my way; what’s happening elsewhere most likely is happening in a microcosm here. If you know of any (local, San Joaquin County) everyday people that illustrate a particular trend or topic, that’s even better.
Q: What recent projects have given you the most satisfaction or are most reflective of your work?
A: At the Appeal-Democrat, I wrote a story about how a developer who likely would control the most important redevelopment project in town was an alleged slumlord in Los Angeles. More recently, I have looked into how the cooling housing market might affect local governments that are banking on the money growth brings in.
Q: What publications, Web sites and services do you refer to?
A: Los Angeles Times, numerous local and regional newspapers in California, Poynter Online. Too many others to list.
Q: What do you like/dislike about dealing with PR people? Any tips you’d like to give them?
A: I appreciate PR people who appreciate deadlines. I don’t like PR people who want stories about new products, inventions or books.
Q: How and when do you prefer to be contacted?
A: Drop me an e-mail anytime.
Q: What’s the best way to send news releases to you? Mail, e-mail or fax?
A: E-mail.
Q: Do you accept photos/graphics/artwork? If so, how do you want to receive them? Any specific formatting requirements?
A: We’ll certainly accept anything you have in high-resolution jpegs. You can e-mail those, but give me a heads up before you send a huge file. Keep in mind we can never guarantee we’ll run something.
Daniel Thigpen
Reporter
The (Stockton) Record
168 N. Maple Ave.
Manteca, CA 95336
E-mail: dthigpen@recordnet.com
Web site: www.recordnet.com