Sunlight Research Desk and MuckRock are joining forces to expand the tools, training and research support that help local newsrooms deliver high-impact reporting. Read more here.
Turning Strangers into Sources
Thu, Sep 25
|Zoom
Join Sunlight Research Center and Jim Mintz, Sunlight’s co-founder, for a practical workshop on one of journalism’s most essential — and under-taught — skills: turning complete strangers into sources who inform and elevate your reporting.
Time & Location
Sep 25, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EDT
Zoom
About the event
Join Sunlight Research Center and Jim Mintz, Sunlight’s co-founder, for a practical workshop on one of journalism’s most essential — and under-taught — skills: turning complete strangers into sources who inform and elevate your reporting. Before the interview, before the fact-checking, before the story even begins — there’s the approach.
The cold contact: Whether it's a knock on the door, a phone call, or a message out of the blue, you often have just one minute — or one paragraph — to make the case for why someone should talk to you. Learn field-tested techniques for making first contacts that build trust, establish credibility, and avoid immediate rejection.
From contact to connection: Learn how to develop sources from scratch — people who were strangers yesterday and may become key contributors to your story tomorrow. Explore methods for relationship building, following up and navigating resistance.