'Our Hidden Poor'

If you haven't seen this already, take a look at the Chicago Tribune's recent project, "Our Hidden Poor." The individual stories from around Illinois are compelling, and there's also a terrific audio slideshow with b/w photojournalism by Kuni Takahashi. This is worth your time.

Any newspaper could come up with series like this. Think about people in your community whose stories could be tied together with a common thread. Maybe it's as simple as people who plow snow; or you could go broader, to public servants in various walks of life. Maybe it's kids working their first jobs; or retirees working for various reasons. Maybe it's people who end up at your area's homeless shelter.

Or, you do what the Tribune did: Identify a trend and then put faces on that trend. High gasoline prices, for instance. Show the effect on a variety of people and industries. Or slow home sales: find a range of people who are frustrated trying to sell their houses. Or, in an area where real-estate values have skyrocketed, find people who grew up there but now that they're on their own, can't afford to live there.

Endless possibilities here. The key is, these are ground-level stories about people, rather than just aerial views of trends.