Ordinary People

Intensely local, people-oriented stories have the highest potential to increase readership, including obituaries, community announcements and stories about ordinary people. This gallery focuses on ordinary people.

Doing a better job covering ordinary people is two-fold. It means writing more stories about ordinary people engaging in ordinary, real-life activities and respecting the concerns of everyday life. In other words, writing about “people like me.” It also means telling other stories, especially institutional and government stories, in a way that is relevant to ordinary readers. This means explaining stories in an everyday context, incorporating the voices of ordinary people, and clearly articulating “what it means to me.”

This gallery includes easy ideas for getting ordinary people into the newspapers pages, techniques for delivering the “what it means to me” factor, and scores of story ideas editors can replicate at their own papers. The examples come from big newspapers like the Chicago Tribune and small newspapers like 11,000 circulation The Gleaner of Henderson, Ky., as well as a couple of prototypes from Ball State University students.

Many of the examples were graciously shared with us by the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors from the “Show and Tell” section of their last two annual conventions. Hands down, AASFE runs the best annual convention in the industry, delivering scores of practical, actionable, reader-oriented ideas editors can execute at home. It also sends its members a monthly e-mail of reader-oriented story ideas and maintains an idea-packed Web site. If your newspaper doesn’t belong, it should.

We’ve arranged this gallery in five themed sections for ease of navigation. The sections are Easy Ideas, which offers some down-and-dirty ways newspapers get ordinary people into their pages; Concerns of Daily Life, showing examples of stories that address everyday issues, incorporate ordinary readers’ voices in bigger stories, or find a way to explain “what it means to me”; Everyday Heroes, examples of ordinary people doing ordinary, but heroic acts; Ask Readers, a collection of reader-solicitation examples; and Keep Your Eyes Open, which shows the work of reporters and editors who saw story possibilities in very ordinary situations.

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There are two ways to view this gallery. The first is to click here to begin viewing the Ordinary People Best Practices Gallery, which will take you through all five galleries in order. Each page features a brief description and a full-size version of a best practices example of ordinary people stories. All full size images are in the lowest resolution possible while still being readable. Please be aware that these images may load slowly depending on your connection.

When you are finished examining a page, you can go to the next (or previous) example by clicking the navigation arrows at the bottom of the page. You can also return to this page by clicking the Main Page icon.

The second way to use this gallery allows you to choose a theme to view. Scroll down and click on the theme you are interested in. You will be taken to an index page containing thumbnails in that theme. You can then choose to view individual thumbnails or to view the entire theme.

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Easy Ideas
	Getting ordinary people into the newspaper doesn't have to be difficult, sophisticated or fancy. Here are some easy approaches and tips from big newspapers and small.
Concerns of Daily Life
	Readers want to see the newspaper stories about their everyday concerns, government and institutional stories told through the eyes of ordinary people, and stories that explain what decisions, actions and events mean to them. Here are some approaches and examples of newspapers doing these things.
Everyday Heroes
	A number of newspapers have found good ordinary people stories by looking for small but heroic acts. Here are some examples.
Ask Readers
	The easiest way to get ordinary people into the newspaper is to ask readers for help. Here are examples of fascinating stories from newspapers who asked their readers to participate.
Keep Your Eyes Open
	When things are viewed as “ordinary,” we don’t think they are “news.” Here are examples where reporters and editors saw story possibilities in everything from T-shirts to haircuts to shoe-shine guys to ordinary kids doing ordinary things.

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