Jerry Schwartz is a national writer and editor for the Associated Press, and a veteran journalist with more than 20 years' experience working in the news service's New York headquarters. He has worked as special assignment editor, directing operations of feature writers across the country. He has covered the courts, including the trial of subway avenger Bernhard Goetz; supervised election-night coverage of state and local elections; and traveled with the Pope. He worked on the AP's special desk established to cover the Persian Gulf War and directed international coverage of the Y2K phenomenon. He has also taught feature writing at New York University and copyediting for the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund. Schwartz lives in Westfield, New Jersey.

Chapter 1: Today's Media: A Look at the Scope of Communications Media from Traditional Newspapers and Broadcast to the Internet. Chapter 2: Media Careers: An Overview of the Kinds of Reporting Jobs Available in Various Media. Chapter 3: The Fundamentals of News: What is News? Chapter 4: Gathering the Information: All the Techniques Including Using the Internet for Research. Chapter 5: Interviewing Techniques. Chapter 6: Organizing the Material. Chapter 7: The Lead. Chapter 8: Feature Writing. Chapter 9: Investigative Reporting.