Many “Journalists” may be focused on working diligently and creatively, just to keep their dreams alive. Dreams of someday becoming a “Columnist”… Or is that dream perhaps more of a nightmare, if and when it becomes real?

More on that later, what’s critical now is getting into the “BEAT”.  Mixing it up with the “HERD” and staying ahead of the “PACK”.

Should any or all of those words excite you, if you’ve already figured out the storyline for this piece, then get ready because being a BEAT REPORTER MUST be in your blood!!!!

And such is the case for Paul Schwartz, who’s brilliant journalistic offerings are delivered to the world through his role as the BEAT reporter covering the #NYG (New York Football Giants) for the NY Post for over a decade!!!

So, lets pick up the BEAT and share with you how and why Paul flawlessly delivers to his readers, coverage that’s unique, that is other than what the pack journalistic herd is publishing…

Paul shared with us the following when asked what the secret was, enthusiastically he proffered –

“You look at the crowded media pool in a feeding frenzy surrounding the ‘story’ And you wait…you try to think of something that YOU feel is interesting, something that maybe nobody else is thinking about.  You wait and see if you can bring a different angle to the coverage. Ask around the crowd and get a feel. THEN do something related, yet different and new.”  WARNING: that waiting strategy is only effective when it’s timing is as carefully honed as Paul has it, all crafted through his years of experience!

If your going to cover something, yours better be the best of the coverage coming from the crowd OR what you’ve “covered” best be from such a different,  yet related angle, that the reader’s silent thoughts are “WOW – he’s good! What a take on that storyline!!!”

In the immortal words of the GoGo’s    “We Got The Beat” NOTE (The GoGo’s a 1980’s legendary all girl band who wrote their own songs, as did the Bangles and The Dixie Chicks) This 80’s anthem, “We Got The Beat” may be a perfectly bridged metaphor for us at Ferro to use to bring you a different angle on how to COVER a story, henceforth putting the genius of Paul’s sage wisdom into practice on the fly!

Here it goes… See if the BEAT reporter in you stands up and salutes after you soak in the following section !!!!

This song was written by guitarist Charlotte Caffey, of the GoGo’s. She drew inspiration from some Motown BEATS.  Charlotte then took the angle a couple of degrees further, she specifically searched for ones that mentioned the name of her band. In an interview she did with www.songfacts.com – here is what she said: “I thought it would be very clever to do ‘Going To A Go-Go.’ I thought, well, let’s try working this out as a cover song. Which is really funny when I think about it. I was listening to it a lot one day, and later that night, the song came to me within 5 minutes. I don’t even know if it has anything to do with listening to that song, but this whole idea came to me. It was one of those things that just went right through me and came out my hand; I wrote it down, recorded it a little bit, and then brought it into rehearsal a few days later.”

SEE… SEE… ya see what we did there? HaHaHa – Ha

Just like Paul, Charlotte and all successful writers, be it in music, sports, movies or television MUST MASTER the art of story from a different and inspired angle.

There’s a tool kit of sorts that every word class BEAT reporter relies on to get the job done.  Here is a priceless list of wisdom Paul knows just how to do and herewith shares with you:

• How to identify key issues and sources on his beat
• How to get background information that will give his stories context
• How to develop resources to focus his coverage
• The value and inner workings of social media, liveblogging and crowdsourcing as reporting tools

So full circle we go. Back to the top and to close out the “more on that later” teaser.

If your goal is to work your way into an office, alone and write a COLUMN that shares your opinions with the world, then becoming COLUMNIST is a dream come true.

If you enjoy the rush of being in the field, both figuratively and literally for Paul with the NY Giants, then being a beat reporter having the a need to know everything you can about your beat, is more your game. To be talking to the people in and on the field and doing lots of reading, then its fair to say that you, like Paul, thrive in the especially challenging universe of covering a complex beat like say, The New York Giants.