ABSTRACT
Contacts are the holy grail for any journalist. It might be that one knows someone working inside the White House who is prepared to give him/her things off the record. It might be that there's a government policy wonk in Whitehall who leaks material or even a boot man at Manchester United who does not like the new manager all that much. The Pulitzer Prize committee describes feature writing as "non-hard-news stories distinguished by quality of writing. Stories should be memorable for reporting, crafting and creativity". Anniversaries are a bonanza for entertainment feature story ideas. Another think piece, this time about a genre that seemed to be huge in the 1980s and 1990s, basically before the Internet and broadband meant that audiences could get access to sex any time they wanted on their laptops. Being up to date with the entertainment diary is fundamental to one's success in this line of work.
