In an age of immediate access and media saturation, it’s tough for
hard-working journalists out there to have a scoop that 10 other
journalists don’t have.
Under every journalist’s pillow is the dream of landing that story no one has. It’s the desire of having journalist, newspaper following their leads and sourcing them in stories and earning co-workers’ envy and getting the much deserved newsroom bootycall. They don’t happen often but when they do, they are just sweet. They can take a journalist from the mundane daily reporting to the head of the pack and that is why journalists like exclusives.
But with budget cuts and newspapers skimming down to two reporters in the newsroom - one to listen to the scanner for blood and gut and the other to cover the the city hall, school board, county supervisors, ag board and the tri-county chili cook off, there is little time for journalists to dig for scoops.
Be it an interview with an adulterous presidential candidate, famous adulterous husband or learning there are pharmaceuticals in public drinking water, journalists are willing to sacrifice limbs, relationships and soul to land a scoop. In landing an exclusive, a journalist can expect to see his or her byline not in the back of the B section, next to advertisement for gold coins, but on A1 above the fold baby - the promised land.
At least until the next exclusive.
