Shannon McEnerney | Jan. 28, 2010
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| Photo by Heather Brogden |
| In this file photo from 2008, Indianapolis Star sportswriter Terry Hutchens talked to students about beat reporting. He also visited last week. |
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Wednesday, Hutchens visited adjunct lecturer Irene Bushaw’s class, offering beat writing and interviewing tips to the students.
For Peek, the highlight of his visit was listening to tales of reporting adventures.
“It’s always fun to hear people’s stories,” she said.
Hutchens, who is The Star’s IU football and basketball beat reporter, recounted many of his past experiences, tying all of his stories back to lessons he’s learned as a beat writer and interviewer.
Hutchens began writing for The Star in 1991 when he became the Colts beat reporter. For the past 12 years, he has covered IU football and basketball.
“What does it mean to be a beat reporter?” Hutchens asked the class. “It’s your assignment. A beat writer has one thing that he or she covers.”
One thing that Hutchens quickly learned is that no matter what, when a reporter has a beat, he or she is expected to cover it.
Hutchens said he received his IU football and basketball beat on a Thursday. That Friday, he and his family had plans to travel to King’s Island. On that day, he received a call from his editor who told him that former IU basketball coach Bob Knight was involved in a hunting accident and Hutchens needed to write a story. That was one trip, Hutchens said, that got canceled.
But succeeding or failing as a beat writer comes down to one thing: your sources, Hutchens said.
Hutchens said he has 12 years worth of sources, and he was able to acquire all those sources from working hard and building upon the connections and relationships he has with people.
“As a journalist, whoever has the best sources wins,” Hutchens said. “It’s really what sets you apart.”
He said it is about trust and about having those sources know that, as a reporter, you will be fair and accurately quote them.
But Hutchens said that source access varies, and in his years of reporting on IU basketball, he has encountered various levels of how much access he has to his sources. It’s about knowing how to communicate with sources, and if “you have an open line of communication, it makes you able to do your job better,” Hutchens said. “It’s about having good relationships with sources.”
What Hutchens likes most about beat writing is that it makes him an expert on a certain area. For now, he is an expert on all that is IU football and basketball.
“I always say 70 percent of what I know can never make the paper,” Hutchens said.
For the job itself – it’s rewarding, satisfying. For Hutchens, there is nothing else he’d rather do.
While Hutchens said there are many parts to the writing process, there is nothing bigger than the interview itself.
“It’s about asking the right questions and asking the right people,” Hutchens said.
Hutchens advised students to do research to prepare for the interview and to write out all the questions before hand. He said that his biggest rule is to always write five more questions than the set number of questions he initially writes down.
“You never want to be in that interview where you run out of questions,” Hutchens said. “Craft the questions so people can’t answer ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ and always be prepared to ask people to elaborate.”
Among other things, Hutchens said to use a tape recorder when interviewing, but to take notes in case the equipment malfunctions and fails to record.
Hutchens shared stories of his experiences interviewing with Knight and other former basketball coaches, telling students of his experiences with tight and late night deadline reporting. He’s been a reporter for more than 30 years now, and if it is one thing Hutchens knows, it’s that the industry is always changing. He said journalism is facing greater competition now than it did before, with more and more people seeking jobs.
Students asked him questions about the shift from print to online media, along with what it’s been like to cover IU sports through the years and seasons.
Peek said that she liked hearing Hutchens advice on what he’s done in the past and how that’s shaped what he would recommend to do in the future.
“When you do anything for a long period of time, it has to be entertainment for you or you’d do something else,” Hutchens said. “I love what I do.”
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