Reporting Across Platforms

Req 2a2 — Touring a News Operation

2.a.2.

Visit the office of a newspaper, magazine, or internet news site. Ask for a tour of the various divisions (editorial, business, and printing). During your tour, talk to an executive from the business side about management’s relations with reporters, editors, and photographers and what makes a “good” newspaper, magazine, or internet news site. Note: If there are no opportunities for in-person visits in your community, a virtual visit is acceptable with the news site of your choice, provided your counselor approves this option in advance. (You can request a virtual visit with Scout Life magazine)

This requirement helps you see that journalism is both a public service and an organization that has to operate every day. Reporters gather information, but editors shape coverage, business teams keep the operation running, and production staff make sure the final product reaches readers.

What to Notice on the Tour

Editorial

This is the news side. Reporters, editors, photographers, copy editors, and digital producers work here. Their job is to decide what to cover, verify facts, improve stories, and publish them clearly.

Business

Business staff handle budgets, subscriptions, advertising, sponsorships, staffing, and long-term planning. They think about how to keep the organization financially healthy.

Printing or Production

For a print publication, this includes layout, design, deadlines, and the physical process of printing and delivery. For an online publication, it may include website publishing systems, newsletters, audience analytics, and social distribution.

Why Management Relationships Matter

One of the most important things to ask is how the business side and the editorial side work together without letting money control the truth. News organizations need revenue, but good journalism also needs independence. If advertisers or executives could kill stories just because they were inconvenient, public trust would disappear.

Diagram showing how editorial, business, and production departments connect inside a news organization

Ask your executive questions like these:

How do you support reporters without telling them what conclusion to reach?
What happens when a story involves an advertiser or important community partner?
What makes readers trust a publication?
How do you decide what success looks like besides clicks or page views?

Scout Life magazine Request a virtual visit to learn how Scout Life plans, edits, and publishes journalism for Scouting audiences.

If your tour is virtual, treat it like a professional interview. Show up on time, test your device, prepare questions, and ask permission before recording or taking screenshots.

In Req 5, you will explore journalism careers. This visit is a good chance to notice jobs beyond reporter, including editor, producer, photographer, designer, audience manager, and publisher.

Now that you have explored written and digital journalism, you can compare that world with broadcast news on the next branch.