Rachel is the Deputy Managing Editor of political. She said that she be be overseeing coverage of major story like the killing of osama bin laden. Before that you may know her as the managing editor of journalist review. Next to rachel we have our next guest. She has gone over to the mainstream and she is eligible for the panel. So did jim agreed to step in and we really appreciate him being here. He is a White House Reporter for the Huffington Post. Also part of leadership on capitol hill. She has spent 40 years with the legislative and executive branches. Probably a walk in the park for her because she started out with the texas state legislator legislature. Again, we thank you for that. Next to her he is the bureau chief head in washington, he started as a reporters reporter. About how he likes we like to describe. He is a thirdgeneration newsman. Down at the under the table is alex mueller, who gives us a different perspective. He gives us a graphic perspective and he has background in Graphic Design and journalism. Both were rollcall and for the hill. We have experienced much of the industry. Those are our panelists. We are very happy to have all of them here. , i am not going to make any kind of presentation. But we would just like to throw out some questions, to jump and come an analyst at jumping in with each other and we will talk about whatever you want to talk about. I would like to ask the panelist to talk about how you do things differently so how is this effective in communicating politics . I would like to say that we threw out the mold in terms of stories when we created politifact. We thought that the inverted term and was not going to be the way that they had a whole different form of journalism. It was something where the information was communicated both through an individual and fact check article and also through the collectives. You can see that she has been checked 60 sometimes and she has been rated false. And so you learn something about her and it tells something about the original articles. As we set this up, this tracks the president s Campaign Promises and we have decided that we would not be slaves to the old form of journalism. We would create something new. We will go in order. I work for politico which is covering politics and policy and it has expanded a little bit. It continues to expand. We are very much directed at the fast and smart and we do it quicker we are directing it very much as influence makers inside that win out we are explaining things and it has been a real shift to go to the inside perspective this is a way that is punchy and conversational. And this is how we tell our compelling story. The we all know what it is. We know if you have a frontpage website, it is kind of like a screening of all kinds of issues out there together. But for me, covering politics is great for a couple of reasons. One reason because you can take an issue that is in the daily grind of news and we have the ability to run with a wire story to kind of get this. That we can put that up and then separately we can actually go do something related to it. That is probably not necessarily the way that someone else would report on it. One thing we focused on is sequestration. It has lost a lot of its wow factor. It is something that has been really fun for me. And they have focused on this subject. And we will talk to families for instance, like in tennessee who are struggling. Because their kids are out of the program and they dont know how they will get by every day. And this is part of the daily news current topics. Its a different angle. I like to think of it as more of a injected human aspect of some of these broader policy issues that hit you over the head. So i guess for me, that is one of the main things that i feel like makes it a little bit different from a political reporting standpoint. This is obviously aimed at the youth, he canceled a 40 years old, a broad range of people, but it is interesting that we have two things to focus on. The first is that we focus on telling the stories that were in the way that will be viral. This will be part of the front page or facebook. Things that we consider on the front page. That requires us to find ways to explain inside the beltway, kind of stories, congressional stories and your average person may not understand or have any kind of real reason to care. And it has been an interesting challenge, we dont always write stories with commodity news kind of stuff, we really try to find ways to extricate those stories in a different manner. Interesting things that people are saying or doing as a way to tell their stories. You know, i think everyone has seen us as a general news and entertainment site. Im sure we have the opposite way of going to this and you may not know who eric cantor is. And for instance why you should care about the fact that media is a way to broaden peoples understanding with what was going on with politics. At rollcall our breadandbutter will affect the community in general. We have been doing that for a long time and we are broadening our web presence right now. We are hoping to do a pretty great job of that. The people that live and work on capitol hill. How do you kind of bridge that gap so we need to help people that are not inside the beltway understand how this works. Well, for us, we are very conscious on twitter, facebook, websites like that. So we see something top of and we did this this includes communicating things to each other and also to the broader National Audience so this is a particular story or video that someone put on youtube, Something Like that. We definitely use it as a source. But you know, i think all of us are like this. We are trying to have these very traditional notions it is a new sort of tool to find out what people maybe are interested in. We have a more specific audience, politico focuses on these people who are absolutely in the room, making the policy. But we were more likely to also rely on a professor that could tell you about the dynamics or the overview. We wanted to get as close to the action as we could. We look at the original roll call vote. And so we put a heavy emphasis on original reporting. I think unlike some of the other panelists. Our metabolism is not quite as its not quite as feverish. But our goal is to do a thorough fact check. Sometimes that takes a day and to be as thorough as we can. To take it back and check on them. To rely on secondhand sources. So this is Something Like walking up to someone like marco rubio come you can talk about how he is supporting them immigration reform. But its also making other people and their party happy. I can talk to him directly. There is a huge rally outside and a Big Tea Party was happening. You can finally imagine what the responses were. But those were separate issues from a different perspective. From a sourcing standpoint, some of my favorite stories are talking to people who came to the capital, those who live in town. That are struggling with kinds of policies. Youre talking to people who are not in a bubble. You can get some great stories. I think huffington is sourcing to people. So why not talk to them. Lets talk about what is happening this week at the Washington Post. Another is speculation that this could change. Im kind of interested in your thoughts. Jeffrey bezos was able to sort of see the future and build amazon before people knew that they wanted to order things online. And i think that that is what has been needed in journalism. Anything that they said was Pitch Perfect in terms of the balance between his commitment to the great journalism post that he is already done and also plenty of clues therefore the future who wanted to see what they were going to do. So i think its a very positive thing. The Washington Post has always been incredible at covering regions. And it is he just kind of have to wonder how they are going to evolve without new mindset. Im a little apprehensive they are onto the paper fulltime now and they are concerning. Im concerned that that move towards a more focus perspective with a younger demographic be helped or hurt by that. Especially when their mind is not about local it off and this includes coverage in washington in general and even sports in washington. Especially when it comes to reading about a sports team that you like, like the redskins or the nationals. This may not be answered for months or years. On the same and come i do think that the post has been struggling a little bit. And having somebody who said once that such a created online commerce could really create a new renaissance for the post and for all of the old newspapers, which i think is very important. I dont think that they should die. I think that they play a very Important Role in our society. They are institutions. So i think that that will be a new digital environment and it will be great. I think that some things never change. I grew up around here as well. And i have high hopes. Some people are kind of excited. I think something had to give and we will see what happens. I think it is hard to overstate how seismic this is. Their names are synonymous with watergate and what the pentagon papers and the kind of journalism that inspires a generation. So it really feels like a dramatic turn in the industry and built around what a publications and i think there is a sign that there is no more traditional journalism in the sense that we are used to thinking about we think of this in a different age and we have a different period. Related to people in way that they can absorb it and get excited about it and the way that they wanted. For big metropolitan papers like the Washington Post and the boston globe and so many others that have been in the news, facing the circulation decline and pressures of on profitability, they have to find a way to thrive if they are going to remain viable at the same time there is a need to transform and succeed in the new world. I think sometimes as an innovator it is easier to take an existing institution and entrenched bureaucracy and figure out how to make that into a new state. That will be an interesting and successful process for them. Yes, honestly they are coming from different places. And this is a very good point. This is something that you have all mentioned going along the lines here. Which is getting the people outside the belly to prepare and see how this matters to them and to see how it is important. Im wondering if we could go over that. The committee is offering some examples that have worked really well in engaging the audience. Howd he do that and what do you do with that feedback. You know, this is like the stories that youre in a newsroom. It has to be done in october before an election. And hardly anyone reads it because its not appealing to people. So we came up with this idea. So we go out and do the research. And then get together and have a methodology for this. It is very effective at doing this because it drives people crazy. They go just bonkers about the ratings. They are having discussions about policy. Which i guarantee is not happening one of the problems is weve made the transition into the digital age is the expectation we have this in the way it works. And i dont think that they will. I think that is a terrific point. You can write this and that happens today, this kind of story or that kind of story and expect anyone to care about it. We do look at it in this way we do use that and it is a Committee Hearing and as the president has mentioned, the publication. The measures that we look at on top of this. And this will be a delay for employers and obamacare is a mandate as well. We will do that for the best way to coordinate them with politico as well. I would say that we have very engaging contact for most of the storage. One of the things was when the senate voted down a background checks bill. There was outcry and people that can believe it. You know, why cant we have this. If you have a story coming personal story about it being accepted, heres a phone number and leave a message. You know, here we go, heres her name and number and we will call you back. We got hundreds of people who call. All of these stories are personal. One of my colleagues went through and we figured out a dozen other stories and we reach out to the 12 people all over the country. They submitted photos. It was like 10 images on the front of the page. And it was just people. It is people that have been affected by gun violence. When you hover the cursor over one of their faces, it would take you directly there and you could hear the audio. And then the people that were not in this bubble tell the story that resonates more broadly and this is getting people to tell stories that they have to read about. The kind of connects the two fields in it way. One is in middecember, over the fiscal cliff fight. I originally did a story about how members were not feeling much pressure from the public. And i have compared this with the point in the fight with the debt ceiling fight in 2011. Despite the fact that they had just gone through the grueling election. No one likes to talk about this. Especially at christmas. It is indicative of a shift that is going on. So the fights are kind of these fights that are lifeanddeath. And we want to keep people engaged with what is going on. One of the things that we tried to do that helps with that what i do to illustrate this is one who is working on the contractor and he is divorced and has kids. And he took this job in washington dc. It can be 20 of your pay in some cases. That is what was going to be for him. That reality forced him to reenlist in the military. Because they get sort of a year without having to pay taxes. The average american is being forced into these terrible decisions. And this includes the chief justice with the fisa court. He is one of the highestranking judges about growing up, about what that meant for him as a justice and how he views this. How he views the legal system. I think that this sort of put a human face on this and what happened is a nice way to sort of show that. I agree with john when he mentioned that people seem to be more plugged into politics now than they have ever been before. This is important. And this could provide an independent viewpoint or look at what is going on in washington. That is simplifying this. Nuanced enough. The were not boiling it down to something where they are not getting anything out of it. I was talking about lawmaker wealth on capitol hill. You know, especially when you talk about this and you can see easily just how this works. Again, you can look and see a lot of the people have been on capitol hill. Of course, we are talking about this and we are talking about this resource come in this fantastic resource for those to work with her state lawmakers. It affects the decisionmaking words purely just a resource to learn information about it. And that is the sort of resource that we pride ourselves on. He made like 200 lester on his butt. [laughter] each of you has worked summerhouse so we are talking about how that is different for you personally. This includes how can we help students prepare for this kind of environment. This includes the organizations that you work with. I think they need to learn how to code. I am struck by determinist opportunities for students so we want to take this curiosity of a journalist on the web and mobile devices. Pushing back on a little bit, i want to say that i dont care if they know how to code. I want to find students who are smart and curious. I was telling them this is the most important factor. I want to see the wheels turning at all times. Silences awkward, into menopause, someone asks a question. This includes bag of tricks that we have hasnt changed. We saw to ask for smart questions. We have to be able to write a story that is interesting. One that is interesting and calls people in. I could send a direct message and say no, im ready to get out of here and leave the office and i dont want to keep going to have coffee and looking in their eyes. You know, there are so many great new tricks of the trade. I have given my spiel and i dont feel like it would include silence. So is it really worth it to try to get into journalism. And its like, you know, there are a lot of hits that the industry has taken. Some people think im terrible or tell you that they are terrible. But all in all its a great job. Are you interested or curious . Bethink the this is fair . This is what needs to be told. Because thats what works. And it is the only job in the world where did your job is to tell the truth. That resonates with me because thats a job at the end of the day. When it is a good story, it is the best feeling in the world. You know, there are jobs in the industry and whatnot. But it is that essential excitement of seeing things are wrong in telling people about it. I mean come about is their job. So you know, that is what i think we do is we look for people that are not necessarily Ivy League Grads who want to look at us. We look for people who are creative and who have different ideas about things that they are interested in because they are curious. I actually agree with all of you. You are learning how to do that. I think that it should still be able to, we should have those core set of values. As an editor, if you could teach them how to lead, that will be awesome. A neck rub would be awesome as well. You read this stuff and everyone talks about how you have these soft leaves and its always effective. Eno commits to something that i cant stand it coming from a traditional sort of hardened his background. And that is sort of a broad thing and that is going to be an awesome way to go about things. But that was also something that we sort advocated. We didnt really understand this boring stuff we sort of wanted to jump down to the very end. Now it seems like this is everyone comes into that person makes billions of dollars. And its a weird thing. Maybe youre not explaining it to the world correctly. This includes notions about what was going to have and happen when you have to learn on the job. At the same time they have this energy that because of the 24 hour news cycle, because of twitter, because of facebook and the ability to push stuff out, they have an energy that i dont know that we had when i was 22 or 23 are sold and one at work all day long. I think that is a credit to them. I think that it is important for young journalists to always be looking for ways to evolve their storytelling. This includes people creating the stories. I dont think Everyone Needs to know how to code, but i think that maybe you should have an idea of what it is, what coding is, so that you can create a package that really shines in this could be the most important story. You know, right now it is important to look at way