5.2: Spreadsheets and Storing data

If you are a reporter and you don’t think you’re quite ready for blogging, RSS feeds, audio and video, you should apply the power of technology to your current endeavors. In short, you can become a better, more efficient reporter or editor simply by trading some of the paper-based information storage systems you’re currently using and going digital.

Stop using paper: If you are still using a Rolodex with little white cards to keep your contact list — STOP! This antiquated method is robbing you of precious time whenever you need to access a contact and is preventing you from storing more pertinent data on each of your contacts. Learn to use the contacts function in your e-mail program (Outlook or Entourage, for example) or, better yet, a spreadsheet program like Excel or Google’s free program (http://docs.google.com/).

Fielded data is a beautiful thing: When you set up a spreadsheet to compile lists (such as contacts), always try to include as many fields as possible. Fielded data is the key to sorting efficiently and being able to group items.

Mike Sando, the National Football League reporter at The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., uses fielded data as well as anyone. He tracks every stat of every game he covers in Excel and then sorts the data to answer virtually any question, and posts the results on his blog. For example, below is an analysis of the Seattle Seahawks’ performance on third down at one point during the 2006 season.

Sando sits with dozens of football writers each week who cover the same games he does. While they use pen and paper and elaborate grids to track the game’s proceedings (or worse, rely on the teams’ media handouts), Sando builds spreadsheets (on his laptop computer) with important data as each play occurs. His colleagues, meanwhile, are creating a temporary resource that will help them write a game story but will be of little use as the season progresses.

More examples: For other kinds of sample data files that might be useful in news reporting, go to http://powerreporting.com/files/index.html.

Here’s how another example of data collection, sorted into a fielded spreadsheet, becomes a powerful display of information. This one charts grocery prices in Chicago suburbs.

Location	Chain	Bananas 1 Lb	Plum Tomatoes 1 Lb	Dole Blends Italian mix, 10 oz. bag	Heinz Tomato Ketchup, 24 oz.	Skippy creamy peanut butter, 40 oz. jar	Kraft Mac and Cheese, ABCs 5.5-oz.
Evanston	Jewel	0.69	1.69	2.99	1.59	4.99	1.09
Evanston	Dominick	0.25	1.79	2.99	1.59	5.19	1.09
Glenview	Jewel	0.69	1.99	2.99	1.59	4.49	1.09
Glenview	Dominick	0.69	1.79	2.99	1.69	5.19	1.13
Niles	Jewel	0.59	1.49	2.99	2.29	4.69	0.99
Niles	Dominick	0.69	1.69	2.99	2.59	4.79	1.05
DesPlaines	Jewel	0.69	1.69	2.99	1.49	4.69	0.99
DesPlaines	Dominick	0.69	1.69	2.99	1.49	4.79	0.99
Buffalo Grove	Jewel	0.59	1.69	2.99	1.29	4.29	0.89
Buffalo Grove	Dominick	0.69	1.79	2.99	1.49	4.59	1.05
Arlington Hgts	Jewel	0.59	1.69	2.99	1.49	4.69	0.99
Arlington Hgts	Dominick	0.69	1.79	2.99	1.49	4.89	1.02
Schaumburg	Jewel	0.69	1.89	2.99	1.69	4.89	1.05
Schaumburg	Dominick	0.59	1.79	2.99	1.79	4.79	0.99

Where data can thrive: Some newspapers are making their Web sites “data destinations,” and well they should. Computer-assisted reporting has been around for decades but, restricted to the newspaper format, it can’t realize its full potential. On the Web it can sing, with depth, customization, searchability and a long shelflife. USA Today realized this years ago when it began loading the salaries of professional baseball, football, basketball and hockey players into searchable databases (www.usatoday.com/sports/salaries/index.htm). Other newspapers, such as the Louisville Courier-Journal, collect their databases in one area on their Web sites (www.courierjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=data).