Data-driven enterprise off your beat How do you fit enterprise stories around the many other demands you face as a beat reporter to write dailies, file Web updates, tweet and shoot video? One way is to take advantage of the plethora of local data available online to spot and develop unique stories for your news outlet. All you need is either you or someone else in your newsroom who can download and sort databases in a spreadsheet program, such as Excel. Learn how to find and analyze data, enabling you to spot the enterprise stories in the numbers, whether your beat is sports, health, business, education, local government or cops and courts. Bring your laptop for the exercises. (Instructor: Tawnell D. Hobbs)

1. DATA-DRIVEN ENTERPRISE
OFF YOUR BEAT
Mayborn School of Journalism
University of North Texas
Denton, Texas
Sept. 22, 2018
Tawnell D. Hobbs
The Wall Street Journal
Tawnell.hobbs@wsj.com
Twi8er: @tawnell

2. Why use data?
• Allows you to look for paIerns,
trends and make comparisons
• Makes you less reliant on
government officials; gives you
more authority

3. My data journey…

4. Car s6pends guzzling cash
Exclusive: Some in DISD geGng large allowances but traveling
liKle
TAWNELL D. HOBBS and KENT FISCHER
PublicaPon Date: November 13, 2005
Working on the Dallas school district's help desk typically doesn't involve travel; technicians answer the
phone and solve computer problems.
But the five help desk workers each get $1,185 a year in car allowances. The money automaPcally comes as
part of their pay.
All told, more than 2,300 DISD employees are geYng car sPpends this year, at a cost of nearly $3.7 million,
according to a Dallas Morning News review of district records. In a year when DISD cut some elementary
school counselors and gave teachers small raises while trying to close a $28 million budget deficit, the
$3,684,798 for car allowances has escaped the ax.
The allowances, mostly ranging from $694 to $4,051 a year, are meant to reimburse employees who use
their cars for official business within the district. Yet the district requires no proof of how much these
employees - including administraPve assistants, accountants, supervisors and top managers - travel for their
jobs.

5. What you’ll learn…
• Where to get data
• How to analyze it
• How to produce stories using
data
• How to use data for breaking
news
• Basic Excel formulas

6. Have you ever…
• Conducted an analysis using a
spreadsheet?
• SubmiIed a FOIA for data?
• Created your own spreadsheet/
database?
• WriIen a story using computer-
assisted reporPng skills?

7. Where to get the data
• Data.gov

10. Where to get the data
• Data.gov
• FOIA
• Google.com advanced search
• Government website (state,
county, federal)
• Create your own

12. What We Know About School Shootings
By Tawnell D. Hobbs and Kara Dapena
Feb. 15, 2018 6:00 p.m. ET

13. Using data to follow the
money…
• Purchase orders
• Check logs
• Credit card informaPon
• Paycheck informaPon (salary
database w/sPpends)
• Grant informaPon
• Detailed budgets (not the
Powerpoint)

14. Case scenario
Dallas ISD had been cuYng its budget for
several years to deal with reduced state
funding. Teaching posiPons were eliminated
and class sizes increased.
We wondered if the school district was cuYng
the right things. Were there other cuts that
could be made that had no direct impact on
student learning. Where was the hidden fat?

16. Dallas ISD spent millions on extras, analysis
of check register shows
By TAWNELL D. HOBBS and MATTHEW HAAG
Staff Writers
Published: 18 June 2011 11:39 PM
Restaurant food and catered meals: $2.2 million.
Hotel stays and room rentals: $2.3 million.
aPon fees and travel costs: $3.8 million.
Consultants and other outside help: $44 million.
And there’s more.
The Dallas Independent School District spent at least $57 million over four years —
or one year’s average base pay for 1,086 teachers — on purchases such as pricey
meals, costly trips, lucraPve consulPng contracts and overnight stays at hotels in the
Dallas area and beyond.
The Dallas Morning News analyzed the check register from the district’s main fund
starPng with purchases from August 2006, the month amer DISD ended an om
abused employee credit card program, to December 2010.
The review of more than 775,000 lines of purchases, receipts and documents
provides a look at funds that are loosely tracked and spent with liIle oversight.

17. The check register… over 775,000 rows,
dozens of FOIAs for receipts

18. Four-star hotels, convenPons among
Dallas ISD travel expenses
By MATTHEW HAAG
Staff Writer
Published: 18 June 2011 11:21 PM
From four-star hotel rooms high above Times Square to luxurious suites overlooking San
Diego Bay, Dallas ISD employees have racked up large bills on trips to conferences,
convenPons and visits to other school districts.
And in some cases, district records show no receipts.
The Dallas school district spent at least $4.7 million on costs related to employee travel,
Including money to cover expenses, airfare and hotel rooms, from August 2006 to December
2010. The bills range from a $2,495 registraPon fee for a DISD principal to aIend a four-day
conference at Harvard University to $500 airfares to Southern California.

19. (Used MicrosoF ACCESS to group business purchases)
Some of the district's purchases include:
• More than $300,000 spent at Atlanta Bread Co. and
about $86,000 at Chick-fil-A.
• PromoPonal items, such as mugs, wristbands, T-
shirts and hats, that cost at least $1.7 million.
• RenPng meePng space and catering meals from
Aramark Events and Catering at Infomart, cosPng at
least $488,000.

21. Trustees to crack down on extras
Board members vow to tackle expenses from legal services, pricey meals, room
rentals
TAWNELL D. HOBBS and MATTHEW HAAG
PublicaPon Date: June 21, 2011 Page: A01 SecPon: NEWS Zone: STATE EdiPon: 1
Dallas school trustees, facing major budget cuts for the upcoming school year, vowed Monday to
find ways to reduce excessive spending.
Trustees, responding to a Dallas Morning News report on Sunday that detailed quesPonable
expenditures, said they plan to crack down on costs for legal services, pricey meals and room
rentals.
New board President Lew Blackburn said he's willing to go so far as to require staffers to raise
money for their own food purchases.
"I'm OK with not feeding the staff," he said.
Blackburn said he plans to lay out his thoughts on spending during a speech on board prioriPes at
Thursday's board meePng. He predicted new procedures would be in place by January.

22. Data: Zoo association inventory database
Findings: Some of what are considered the best zoos
regularly dump animals with hunting ranches and dealers

23. San Jose Mercury News
Linda Goldstein
America’s zoos have a little secret: They breed
animals with no intention of keeping them.
Every year, animals once admired at dozens of
the country’s major zoos are sold or given away to
dealers, contributing to a multibillion-dollar-a-year
exotic species marketplace where they can be resold,
auctioned off to the highest bidder or advertised to the
public in specialty magazines.

24. Data: Home health workers and criminal conviction data
Findings: Many home health workers had criminal
backgrounds

25. The Record
By THOMAS ZAMBITO and MARY JO LAYTON
For decades, Alvest O'Neill Williams has cared for the
sick and elderly -- bathing them, feeding them, and
performing work so intimate that in another time it would have
been entrusted only to family.
As a home health aide, he has been treated more as a
friend than as hired help.
But that was just his day job.
At night, to feed a relentless addiction to heroin and
cocaine, Williams slipped his wiry frame through the windows
of people's homes while they slept, snatching money and
jewelry. He has been convicted 11 times since 1962.

26. Data: Guns auctioned by police and guns used in crimes
Findings: Guns that once were police weapons were later
used in crimes

27. Stanley Williams was barely alive when police found him
on a St. Louis street, propped against a brick wall, half
conscious and leaking blood into a dark pool on the asphalt.
"Puncture wound to the right leg," the detective noted ...
Five tunnels carved in flesh by a .38-caliber revolver.
What the detective did not record--did not know--was
that the bullets were fired from a gun that once served as a
District of Columbia police weapon. The Smith & Wesson
Model 10, serial number D286307, had taken five years to
wend its way from a police holster in Washington to the
hands of a killer in St. Louis...

30. The findings:
…A Wall Street Journal analysis of the data suggests vouchers worked best when enrollment from
voucher students was kept low. As the percentage of voucher students rises, the returns diminish unPl
the point when there is liIle difference between the performance of public and private insPtuPons.
The vast majority of private schools parPcipaPng in the program today have high percentages of
publicly funded students.
The city’s nearly 29,000 voucher students, on average, have performed about the same as their peers
in public schools on state exams, the analysis shows. The successful voucher students, who omen
performed beIer than their public-school peers, were mainly found at private schools that worked to
balance numbers of voucher students and paying ones.
By Tawnell D. Hobbs

31. By Tawnell D. Hobbs
Dec. 29, 2017 9:23 a.m. ET139 COMMENTS
Private schools are lowering tuition, ramping up marketing and targeting traditionally
underrepresented communities to reverse a national enrollment decline.

32. How I did it…
I used data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of
educaPon.

33. By Tawnell D. Hobbs
Feb. 9, 2018 10:50 a.m. ET
Amer years of steady growth, virtual schools are experiencing a blip as some states aIempt to claw back
public funds, ciPng student inacPvity online, or force schools to close due to habitual poor
performance.
… a review of more than 400 full-Pme virtual schools in 34 states and the District of Columbia shows
they deliver relaPvely poor performance and low graduaPon rates compared with public schools
overall.

34. Data: DISD
employees,
criminal
conviction data
Findings:
Employees with
serious criminal
backgrounds
were hired by
DISD
Joining files in Microso^ Access…

35. The salary database…

37. More Dallas ISD employees making six-figure salaries
By TAWNELL D. HOBBS
Staff Writer
Published: 25 November 2012 11:12 PM
Budget cuts in Dallas ISD have resulted in the eliminaPon of hundreds of posiPons across most salary
levels. But those in the six-figure salary range have grown and are at a high this school year.
Salaries in the district have been a source of contenPon for some community members who believe
Superintendent Mike Miles is seYng pay too high, mainly for people in his Cabinet, where salaries
range from $180,000 to $220,000. Miles’ base salary is $300,000.
A Dallas Morning News analysis found that DISD has 129 employees, not including pending hires, who
make $100,000 or more. That’s up from 111 last school year and 121 the year prior.
Salaries for those 129 workers add up to more than $16 million annually.
Those figures are a big jump from 2008-09, when 79 employees had six-figure salaries. The steady
increase came as the naPon struggled through a stubborn recession and high unemployment.
Meanwhile, DISD was rebounding from a financial debacle that resulted in hundreds of layoffs.

39. SPpends

40. District curbs travel allowances
Employees had received millions in annual s6pends
TAWNELL D. HOBBS
PublicaLon Date: December 16, 2005
Dallas Superintendent Michael Hinojosa's proposal to cut car allowances for hundreds of employees, including his
own, was approved by school trustees Thursday.
The proposal came amer The Dallas Morning News reported last month that the district spent nearly $3.7 million
annually on car sPpends for more than 2,300 employees, many of whom rarely travel on district business.
Trustees approved reducing the number of employees receiving the sPpends to 52 top execuPves at an annual
cost of about $212,000.
They also approved eliminaPng Dr. Hinojosa's $1,000 monthly car allowance, at the superintendent's
recommendaPon.
The change in Dr. Hinojosa's contract takes effect Jan. 1; the other changes begin Sept. 1.
Employees who don't receive a car sPpend, including Dr. Hinojosa, will receive the state comptroller's
reimbursement rate for miles driven, now 48.5 cents a mile.

44. Make thorough checks
! Know the source of the information
! Know how many records you should have
! Use a spreadsheet to check your math
! Check dirty data
! Beware of the "Wow!"
! Use multiple sources of data when possible
! Get historical over your data -- check past patterns
! Go back to the agency and ask them about it
! Use the buddy system
! Do footwork spot checks

45. Think: Rows and columns

46. Remember, behind every paper
report…is a database

47. Exercises
• Basic Excel formulas
• Sort
• Filter
• Per capita formula

48. Remember…
The Stories are in the Data
Ques6ons?

49. Thank you!
Tawnell D. Hobbs
The Wall Street Journal
Tawnell.hobbs@wsj.com
TwiIer: @tawnell