Beat help
Strategy: Many Web sites - even those not specifically designed for journalists - are organized around topics similar to a newsroom's beat structure. Others, such as the Beat Source Guide, offer specific help by beat.
Check The Reporter's Handbook, 4th ed. to find chapters on investigations that are beat specific with a list of Web links for those beats.
IRE has a growing list of guides in its Beat Book Series.
IRE's Beat Source Guide
http://www.reporter.org/beat
Shawn McIntosh's famous page listing links by beat.Librarians' Index to the Internet
http://www.lii.org/
The Librarians' Index to the Internet is a searchable, annotated subject directory of more than 7,000 Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users of public libraries. It's meant to be used by librarians and nonlibrarians as a reliable and efficient guide to describe and evaluate Internet resources.Yahoo!
http://www.yahoo.com
Instead of using Yahoo's search engine, use its list of lists, called a directory. Start there to find proven sources on broad topics.Statistics.com
http://statistics.com
This comprehensive directory of links to data sources is a starting point to find statistical data on your beat.Deadline Online
http://www.deadlineonline.com
Alan Schlein has compiled a list of people-finders that has them all, from university alumni directories to the major search engines.
Reporters' resources
Strategy: Journalists helping journalists. It happens on the Web, too.
Reporters' Desktop
http://www.reporter.org/desktop
Duff Wilson of The New York Times has compiled one of the most useful starting points for backgrounding people and companies on the Internet. Check his links out.Reporting Census 2000
http://cronkite.asu.edu:16080/census/
With support from the Russell Sage Foundation, Steve Doig of Arizona State University has put together a comprehensive site for reporters looking to use the Census Bureau's wealth of data on the census beat or any other.Reporter.org
http://www.reporter.org
Find links to many major journalism organizations, including those that are beat specific.In the News
http://www.ire.org/inthenews_archive/
IRE and NICAR gather extensive resources, including past stories, tipsheets, databases, Internet links and more for journalists covering breaking news stories.Poynter Online's Links to the News
http://poynter.org/dj/shedden/
Wish you had time to create a page for specific stories in the news? Poynter does it for you, with links from holiday stories, such as St. Patrick's Day, to the big news stories, such as September 11. Check here before you start building your own list.