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March 23, 2006
Learning to listen
Recording interviews is a good idea for a journalist. Listening to the recordings is a bad one.
Two reasons. One, it is time-consuming. And it shouldn't be necessary. Your shorthand notes, reviewed & clarified quickly afterwards, should get what you need for the piece.
Secondly, you discover what a lousy interviewer you are. I often end up cursing my clodhopping stupidity. Why on earth didn't I let her finish then? What a crass time to change subjects. Most scary is when I hear something significant on the recording that I failed to register at all first time round.
In truth, it is not just my uselessness. Interviewing is a hard and multi-element job - keeping the questions coming, getting good notes, responding to new information, keeping the interviewee happy.
So I'm going back to college to improve. Just signed up for a course called "Lousy Listeners: How to Avoid Being One" at the News University run by the Poynter Institute. It's an extraordinary offer - lots of free modules offering on-line training for journalists. Loads of other topics - news sense, cleaning copy, typography and design. They reckon they have 10,000 registered users, so someone must rate it.
Les
February 27, 2006
Insolvency info
When a company goes bust, it can be handy to find out who is owed what. One route is to turn up at a creditors' meeting. That gives you the chance to scoot round asking whoever will talk to you.
What if you miss that? There is another way.
All insolvency information filed with the Registrar of Companies is in the public domain. Ask and it shall be given unto you.
With a creditors voluntary liquidation - which is the technical term when a company goes bust because they cannot meet their bills - you need a copy of the Form 4.20, titled Statement of Company's Affairs. This should have a 4.19 attachment which lists the affairs of the company at the date the liquidation commenced. It includes the creditors' details.
Just phone Companies House call centre on 0870 333 3636. I used this last year and was emailed a pdf of exactly what I wanted: names, addresses and amounts owed. All for less than the price of a bus journey.
Les