Reporter looking for sources: Have you installed a pool recently?

Hello,

I'm a reporter for SmartMoney, the personal finance magazine of the Wall Street Journal. I'm working on a story about new pools and some of the deals purchasers have been able to get, and I'm hoping some people on this forum might be willing to speak with me about their experiences. I read a post by Mark "swimlane" about some of the discounts he was able to get on his new pool and I'd like to respond to his post, which can be found here:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...ool-is-ordered!

I'd like to ask Mark to please send me a message or email me at jennifer.wieczner@dowjones.com with his contact info if he might be willing to speak with me. Anyone else who is interested in speaking with me can please do the same! Can the moderator please help me to post this request? If you have any advice about reaching out to your members, I would really appreciate it!

Thanks so much,
Jen

Did a mod happen to vet this request?

If you mean, is "Jen" who she claims to be, I think so. The registration IP is a Dow Jones network ip, and the email address used to register is also a dowjones.com address. I haven't spoken to her yet -- I spent the day trying to complete a rebuild of a 15HP Marlow pump and didn't spend much time here. But I think it's highly probable that this request is on the level.

That said, reporters are reporters, and their goal (in my experience) is to tell the story they have in mind, and not necessarily the one you have to tell.

Also, I've never spoken to a MSM reporter who had a clue what pH was . . . for all the writing that has gone on about "acid rain" and more recently "global warming". This means that technical details tend to be incomprehensible to them, and are modified in unpredictable -- but usually PC -- ways. It would appear that journalism degrees, even from elite schools, don't even include a college level "physical science" requirement.

Another point to keep in mind is that it's late to be 'researching' a pool story for an MSM publication. After July 4th, folks are 'done' with pools. I see that both locally and on forum traffic. By September, pools are a dead topic. So, most likely the article she has in mind has a June press date (I think the mag is a weekly), which again means it's probably already 'written'.

So . . .

• I think there's little or no risk to your privacy or computer by doing as she asks,
• but also that there's a good chance she already knows what her story is,
• so, your input will either 'fit in' (or be made to fit) or not.

But, if you're concerned, do your discussion here, rather than by phone. I'll go ahead and turn off moderation requirements for her, so she can discuss in near real-time here.

Ben

Hi all!

Ben, thank you for vouching for me. Yes, I am indeed a real reporter. My full name is Jen Wieczner. I work for SmartMoney, which is the personal finance magazine published by The Wall Street Journal newspaper. You can go to our website at www.SmartMoney.com. We are based in the New York offices of the Wall Street Journal, at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036. I will include my full contact info at the bottom of this message, so you are welcome to call or email me to make sure I am who I say I am. I am sorry for raising eyebrows on this forum!

To correct Ben's statement, we are actually a monthly magazine and our June issue is already on newsstands, so this is not a story for that issue. SmartMoney is sent to Wall Street Journal subscribers and is also sold on newsstands across the country, so you might have seen it. As a monthly magazine, we work very far in advance, so this story will likely come out in the August issue, which comes out in mid-July, or the September issue, which comes out in mid-August. While this might be later than you usually see pool stories in newspapers, SmartMoney attempts to guide consumers in their investing and spending decisions and where they can save money, and in our experience, people start thinking about getting pools when it gets very hot, and late summer may be a better time to find discounts on pools. That's why the story comes out later on in the summer, and it is nowhere close to written!

While I do have a journalism degree (Northwestern University), I am familiar with pH from taking chemistry courses. However, this story has NOTHING to do with pH or most technical details about caring for pools. Rather, we are a personal finance magazine with a mission to educate and guide consumers like you. Like all of our stories, this IS a story that aims to help consumers like the members of this community in purchasing a pool – where and how it is possible to save money, how others have been able to get the most "bang for their buck," and what people need to watch out for when a cost-reducing decision could mean lower quality of a product.

As with most of our stories, we are looking to speak with consumers who have recently purchased a pool to find out more about what they were able to buy, whether they were able to find good deals and how everything has worked out for them. Using real consumers' stories in our articles not only makes them more interesting to read, but it also provides real evidence that the money-saving and other pro-consumer strategies we are writing about are actually playing out in real life. Otherwise, you'd have to take various companies' (in this case, pool companies) word for it when they tell us they have new deals and features that are good for customers. Because our magazine aims to protect the consumer, we never say anything negative about our consumer sources, but we do sometimes say that certain companies are offering bad deals. In those instances, we approach the company, tell them the criticism we have heard from consumers we have spoken to (like you), and ask them to explain their practices. We then publish their comments in the story, too. You may be familiar with other magazines that do this, such as Consumer Reports.

Because we often write stories about a particular product or spending category (cars, gardens, cruise ships, pools), it helps to reach out to forums where people who have bought such products are discussing them. When I found the Pool Forum, I noticed that several people were discussing deals they were able to get on their pool purchases. I hope to speak with people who have recently bought pools to find out whether they were able to save or get discounts anywhere, whether they had to pay more or less than they expected on any aspects of the pool, what they felt was a good deal and what they would recommend against doing in the future. If you would be willing to speak with me about your experience buying a pool in the last 2 years, I would love to set up a phone call. Phone calls tend to be easier for sources because I often have follow-up questions that make typing responses very time-consuming and arduous. If you have doubts about speaking with me over the phone, we can discuss other options and/or set up a pre-interview phone call so I can try to address your concerns before actually interviewing you. I think the word "interview" often makes people more nervous than they need to be. An "interview" better describes what I do when I talk to CEOs and other executives of companies. When I talk to consumers about their experiences with various products, it is more just a conversation where I ask a lot of questions, in this case, about pools :)

If you would be willing to speak with me about your new pool, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to message me on this forum or contact me at 212-416-3261 or jennifer.wieczner@dowjones.com. I have also provided my full contact info below.

Thank you so much, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,
Jen

--
Jen Wieczner
SmartMoney: The Wall Street Journal's personal finance magazine
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
212.416.3261
jennifer.wieczner@dowjones.com

You can find my digital resume on my LinkedIn profile here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jenwiecznerhttp://www.Smartmoney.com

Thank you Ben for checking this out and thank you to Jen for responding ... well defended. One of the things I like about this forum is that it tries extremely hard to block spammers; I only belong to a few other forums and the football ones are the worst but the Harley ones occasionally get a knucklehead as well. I have sent an email to Jen and am happy to share the experience. I would rather conduct it here so that all our users can share as well but I understand that might be out of scope for the article ... whatever, I'm easy but not cheap :D