Assignment: Beat Memo
Reporting and News Writing, Georgetown School of Continuing Studies

A beat memo is akin to a road map or a blueprint covering a beat. It is also a living document, meaning that it should be added to throughout the semester as you get more familiar with your beat and get to know more people and sources on it.
At the beginning, the beat memo will lay out the basics of your chosen turf: how many people live there, the community’s boundaries and demographics, crime statistics, the number and type of schools, political and community leaders, key businesses, and recent news stories that mention the area.
These people and entities are what you will be keeping tabs on throughout the semester and checking in with routinely for story ideas and updates.
Sometimes this early information can give you clues to potential stories. For example, a neighborhood with married couples is different than one populated by singles. Demographics that change over time can expose gentrification. Identifying a key business owner can lead to stories about political influence. The sources identified in this exercise will also likely help you with your first story ideas. They will know events on the horizon, what people are talking about — until you get a little more familiar with the area you have chosen to cover.
At minimum, the beat memo should include the following, but you are encouraged to expand on it. You need to plan ahead in this class, so it may be wise to organize the beat memo to correspond to the various topics that you have to write about this semester: business, crime, education, government, profile, feature, etc.
You should include the email address and direct phone number for every person identified in the beat memo. That includes community leaders, PTA presidents, principals, etc. The more local the sourcing, the better. You may want to include the phone number to public affairs for the entire police department (which you may need to call this semester), but you also want to include the precincts in your area. So be broad, but also be specific.
Required information:
- Demographics and population of your neighborhood Description of neighborhood’s boundaries
- Crime statistics, police precincts and police chief in area
- Schools, principals, PTA presidents and school statistics to show how schools compare to others in city on test scores, drop out rates, etc.
- ANC board members, city council member representing neighborhood or other government figures with stake in community
- Schedule of local neighborhood group meetings and city council meetings that you may want to attend
- Community groups (such as conservation, gay rights, arts groups) and their leaders
- Largest employers by company or sector, key businesses
- Summary of latest news stories from your beat
- Identify biggest issues/themes in your neighborhood (examples would include transportation/traffic, development, parks, etc.)
- Your competition — blogs, Twitter handles, radio personalities and reporters that cover your beat
Due date: Sept. 19. No rewrite.
“Write without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers pay within three years, the candidate may look upon this circumstance with the most implicit confidence as the sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for. If he has any wisdom at all, then, he will retire with dignity and assume his heaven-appointed vocation.”
