General assignment reporters and national correspondents across the nation have one thing in common: the unpredictability of their daily coverage. One assignment could involve breaking news, while another leads to an unfamiliar community, industry or subject they’ve never experienced before. Even seasoned reporters with the most robust experience covering one area may be called upon to use their knowledge for something completely unrelated.
The unpredictability makes journalism both challenging and rewarding work. Being a general assignment reporter is the perfect way to develop your own style, increasing knowledge of different topics and getting to cover just about everything under the sun.
From covering matters of national importance and civilian interest, to F1 races and bodega cat robberies, these three journalists share what it takes to cover any story.
Stay Curious & Flexible
On Sept. 14, Watson started his week covering breaking news about violence outside of a Bronx school. When that story didn’t come together in time, he and his team quickly pivoted.
“We immediately got another call about a white, yellow-eyed bodega cat that had been taken from the store in Park Slope, and the owner was desperate to get him back,” Watson said. The cat was a replacement for another that had just passed three months earlier and was loved by the community.
Watson continued, “A part of the job is having to cover two completely different things on the spectrum of life and its circumstances. You must have the mindset to be flexible and ready to pivot“.
Identify The Need, Fill in The Gap
Senior national political reporter Sahil Kapur began covering Capitol Hill in Washington in 2012, but he’s always had a keen interest in F1 racing from a young age.
Kapur had never covered F1, but in 2021 saw a gap in coverage that he could fill, and a growing demand from the audience. First, he had to establish a need for it to be covered.
He pitched ideas for F1 coverage for about a year until he made the case to editors that “there was a combination of events that are leading to an explosion of interest and viewership for F1 races, which slowly created the need for an F1 reporter,” Kapur said.
“Naturally there is always going to be resistance towards covering a brand-new topic that a network has never done before, but I just kept making the case,” he added. “Eventually, on one sleepy holiday weekend in 2022, something interesting in the F1 world happened and I told the network I could get them a story within the hour. They finally said yes, I did it and they liked it. From there we just built the beat out.”
Do The Work & Be Humble
Curiosity at its core is bound by humility.
“You can’t come in with assumptions of what a topic may be — you need to be humble and understanding that you’re in a constant game of catch up until the story is told,” he said.
Brewster continued, “it allows the people I talk to give a fuller explanation and perspective so that there’s a space to have nuance. Be humble enough to submit to the fact you may not know it all”.
He credits his early work in journalism at Howard University, where he wore the hats of producer, editor and reporter, for shaping his versatile mindset. “The best advice I could give for college journalists is to do it all — get some insight into topics outside of what you naturally like to cover. If you’re a college reporter in politics and business, try to get to cover a sports game or a local event, and vice versa.”
As a journalist, versatility is less about knowing everything, and more about being willing to learn, adapt, and follow a story wherever it may travel. Regardless, the foundations of adaptability and readiness to report will always remain the same, no matter the reporter covering the assignment.
