Reply From Elizabeth Rhodes Concerning Prior Post….

As follow-up to the prior post, I joined an on-line Q & A hosted by Elizabeth Rhodes and Matthew Gardner. I submitted several questions, all of which went unanswered. However, Ms. Rhodes was kind enough to take the time and send an email explaining several aspects of her reporting. Number 1, she is a reporter. I guess that justifies stories that are interesting to the reading public, but perhaps not always complete or thorough.

Name: Elizabeth Rhodes
Email: erhodes@seattletimes.com
Phone:
Here are the included comments:
Hi Bill, We had so many questions today that we only could answer a fraction. Yours didn’t get answered (and some weren’t questions, but rather observations, so I doubt you were expecting answers). However you did give your blog site so I could find you at Windermere and answer in this format. I’ll answer your question re the Rouhanas in Sunday’s paper. Their house was on the market 6 weeks before it sold. I talked to them 3 times. As I hope you can appreciate, putting together the Sunday/Monday home values package is exceptionally labor intensive. Takes us weeks to put all the pieces together. So we can’t do all the reporting and take photos at the last minute. We’d taken the Rouhanas’ photo in late April (shooting for a publication date of May 6, which we couldn’t meet for technical reasons). When I talked to them last, on May 17th, they didn’t mention that they’d switched to JLS so I didn’t know that. And the house actually sold after our deadline. That said, the issue with them was how long their house was taking to sell. That didn’t change so I don’t think we mislead the public. I’ll also answer your question about my qualifications. First, I’m not the real estate editor. I’m the residential real estate reporter. Foremost are my qualifications as a reporter: a journalism degree from the University of Kansas (although I am a Seattle native; grew up in the North End). I have almost 40 years of reporting experience at U.S. and European papers. I’ve been at The Times 20-plus years, the last 12 covering real estate exclusively. I’d covered it before on a sporatic basis. The general rule in journalism is you’re trained as a journalist first, then you have the skill set to pick up expertise in a particular topic. That’s why police reporters don’t have to be ex-cops, our medical reporters aren’t doctors, our movie reviewers aren’t former actors or directors, etc. The important thing is to understand the news process and to be able to write. The rest is learned on the job. I’ve read an awful lot and talked to hundreds of people to do that. (I read your company bio; looks like you, too, have learned most of your expertise on the job; there’s no substitute for that, is there?) Hope this is info helps answer your questions. Yours, Elizabeth Rhodes