Community Journalism at Newsday has two primary elements, hyperlocal and real-time. The hyperlocal element keeps me in my car most of the day (one weekend, for example, I had to cover a story in Northport and Albertson (travelling ~30 miles within 60 minutes of one another) and real-time means I need to file quickly.
One of the key ways I accomplish this is by heavily researching my stories before I cover them, and then I write as much as I can before I ask a single question. This is a great use of my time since I often am calling sources who need to get back to me. Instead of delaying my story because I am waiting for an official voice, I can start to write, leaving holes where I need questions answered. It also helps me reduce my interview times because I know exactly what my story needs before I am working with a source. I can get in and out of my interviews rather quickly. I also make sure to mark details in my prewrite that need to be confirmed by sources to ensure that my information is verified before it goes to print.
In the end, even if a source has me waiting two hours for a response, I am only filling in blanks and making tweaks as opposed to just sitting down to write. Additionally, since I spend most of my day in the car, I prefer simply filling in sentences on my iPhone/iPad as opposed to writing the entire story.
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