NewsroomTracking Tools
Guide by Cory McCoy
How can these tools empower my newsroom?
Here’s what these free* tools can do for your organization:
*Note: There may be costs associated with Airtable
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
CREATE YOUR COPY
This section will walk you through creating a table set
RECORDS REQUESTS
A tool to help track record requests, return dates and more.
CONTENT MANAGEMENT
From series management to follow ups, this table can track them all.
MANAGE AWARDS SUBMISSIONS
Empower reporters to prepare award submissions
CONTACT TABLES
Manage contacts with ease. Customize by beat, election cycles and more.
CREATE REMINDERS
Set reminders for yourself or create automations.
CREATE YOUR COPY
Once you have access to the Airtable template, you’ll want to create your own copy. We’ll walk you through that process in a video in the next slide.
Copying the template
You’ll own this set of tables!
RECORDS REQUEST
Now that you have a working set of tables, let’s learn how to use them.
We’ll start with Records Requests.
Record Request Fields
An easy way to identify what the request is for
Date Fields
Date request sent and date response is due by
Story Slug
Requester
Who is the newsroom contact on this story?
Sort by: Done, In Progress or To Do
Status
Agency the request was sent to and follow up info
Attachment
You can attach a copy of your request here
Agency Contacts
Reminder
This will send the requester field an email reminder
A space for notes about what you requested
Description
—Your editor, probably
“Wait, which court case was this?”
Content Management
Need to follow up on a records heavy story?
Doing a year-end roundup?�
Has a reporter left?
Content Management Tables
These tables can be duplicated to meet many needs
Date Field
What was the date of the initial story?
Versatile Tables
Author
Who is the newsroom contact on this story?
How can this story be found in your CMS?
Story Slug
Agency the request was sent to and follow up info
Links
A space to link the initial story and relevant follow ups
Status
Reminder
A reminder for follow ups, goes out a week prior
A space for notes about the story/series
Description
Awards Submissions
You can’t win if you don’t enter.
This table makes it easy for reporters to add submissions throughout the year
MAJOR REQUIREMENTS
This table can do everything but clip newspaper for you
Complete Entries
Store
Upload your PDF’s, add links and even write explainers for judging
Suggest
Let your editor know what categories to put you in
Sort
Narrow submissions down by contest
Reminders
Set a date to remind yourself a week before entries are due
Contact Tables
Create rolodexes for any purpose
Business contacts
A general purpose table for sharing contacts.
Police and PIOs
Create a table that lets you sort by need and agency.
Election Resources
Sort by party affiliation, election cycle and more.
Customize to fit your needs
CREATE
REMINDERS
General reminders
And a guide for creating
custom reminders
General Reminders
This tool just sends you a reminder at a specified date
Creating Reminders
Airtable automations can be a powerful tool
For Access and Help
Contact the author
Cory McCoy
Table tutorials
Walkthrough of all the premade tables