Once I overheard a fellow reporter say, “there are no hugs in journalism.” This gave me pause. During my career I’ve written about more topics than I can recall but they tend to fall in four basic categories: business, technology, health and people. Business and technology interviews are always hug-free and most of the other interviews are as well, especially telephone interviews. Those never have hugs. But some of the stories are much more personal than what company made the latest, greatest widget – the woman who was switched at birth in the hospital, the baby who received a bone marrow transplant, the recovering drug addict, the abused girlfriend, the survivor whose family was murdered, the mom who couldn’t afford Christmas presents. These stories go beyond the what, where, when and how to dive into the who and the why. The who and the why are what interest me most/Jill Barville, SR/3Rs. More here.

Question: Have you ever hugged a journalist?