Ross Markman: A Great Experience in Journalism

By Jeremy St. Clair

Ross Markman is one of only three reporters on the Havre Daily News in Montana. He covers matters related to county government, city government and local schools.   Because he’s part of a small paper Ross feels it gives him great experience since he often has to write 10 or more articles each week on a strict deadline. This allows him to bring out news copy quickly.

One topic at a state meeting he covered was how town government deals with a downtown business district parking issue. Markman wrote the story in 30 minutes after attending the council meeting. He says in order to do this “a reporter has to do his homework before the meeting even starts.”  Markman sometimes writes a background copy so when meeting is over he can simply top the background copy with whatever new information he finds out. He also uses this technique for how to begin a story.

 If there are several issues being discussed he has to determine what is newsworthy. He does this by thinking how news will affect people, since governmental meetings effect a lot of people. Markman’s experience shows another interesting part of the job of a reporter, which is to work in any part of the country or world. He ended up learning a lot because of his reporting job in Montana, which he got after an internship at a newspaper near his college. One of his stories was about the Havre City Council meeting about the Havre business district parking. All of this shows the approach and guidelines a reporter uses and what he does when he has a job at a local newspaper.