I had a reporter once who took the assignment to “cover” a village meeting quite literally. The resulting story the next morning was a good 45 inches long, a minute-by-minute, blow-by-blow, motion-by-motion account of what took place at the village hall for a good two hours the night before. And, after reading all 45 inches, it was very easy to conclude that nothing interesting happened at all.

That’s not to say that the minutiae of village business isn’t important; it just doesn’t always make for compelling storytelling. That’s when I gave one of my now-famous reporter lectures: The Public’s Right to Know vs. The Public’s Need to Know.