Beat Organization Template for Journalists
Three documents and three sheets that join a name to every question it left open, however long it has gone quiet.
Free download · No account needed
A beat file usually degrades into one of two shapes. Either it is nothing, just whatever the reporter remembers, or it is one running document that gets long enough within a year that nobody rereads it before a call. A Tri-City Herald editor built a set of newsroom tracking tables for exactly this reason: keeping track of things breaks down whenever a newsroom has turnover or a long gap since the last look. This pack keeps two registers instead of one long document.
Recurring Actor Register holds one row per name that has shown up more than once. Open Question Log holds one row per unanswered question, linked to the actor and story that raised it. The join between the two is the whole mechanism: a name resurfacing anywhere triggers a lookup, and every open question tied to it surfaces regardless of age. On the worked beat file, 19 months of Fairview County coverage, a deputy administrator's oldest open question sat 214 days before an unrelated procurement notice reopened it.
Beat Brief and Story Pipeline Note are the readable layer on top: a four-minute summary of where the beat stands, rewritten as the registers change, plus what is actually close to reportable right now. Attribution terms for named and unnamed sources stay in the separate source and contact management pack; this pack tracks names and questions, not what anyone agreed to. Open it in River and the agent builds all three registers from your published work and notes.
What's in the pack
How the Actor Cross-Reference Works
The methodology doc behind the join: how a name match triggers a lookup, why titles are matched only when one person currently holds them, and the worked case of a 214-day dormant question that a procurement notice reopened.
Beat Brief
The four-minute version of where the beat stands: recurring actors worth knowing on sight, and the open threads that are not yet formal questions. Rewritten whenever the registers change enough to make the summary stale.
Story Pipeline Note
What is actually close to reportable, read off the registers rather than typed up separately, plus what got spiked and why. A spiked story's open questions stay open.
Story Register
One row per story with status, dates, and every linked actor and open question. A document dump that turns up a new name feeds this register the same way a published story does.
Open Question Log
One row per unanswered question, linked to the actor and story it concerns, with a last-activity date and a dormancy flag at 90 days. A question logged here is often exactly what reconciling conflicting sources later has to settle.
Recurring Actor Register
One row per actor who has appeared twice or more, with appearance counts and the count and age of their linked open questions. Two appearances is the threshold for a row here, not three.
A space rule every prompt reads first
A resurfacing name gets every linked open question surfaced, however dormant. Dormancy is evidence nobody had a reason to look again, never evidence the question stopped mattering.
How to use it
- 1
Send your published work and notes
River reads what you already have, including transcript workups with their timecoded quotes, and builds all three registers from it rather than starting from blank sheets.
- 2
Log new stories and questions as you report
Every new story or question runs the actor cross-reference automatically against names already in the register, before you have to remember to check.
- 3
Let a resurfacing name reopen its own questions
Whenever a tracked actor turns up anywhere new, every open question linked to them surfaces in the same pass, no matter how long it sat quiet.
- 4
Review dormant threads on a schedule
Work through everything dormant 90 days or more and decide, one at a time, whether it is still worth pursuing rather than letting it age forever.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. The Story Register, Open Question Log, Recurring Actor Register, and both docs download as Word and CSV files with no signup. "Edit with AI" is a separate optional path for building the registers from an existing notes file.
How is this different from one running beat doc?
A running doc has no lookup. This pack splits the memory into a name sheet and a question sheet specifically so that a name resurfacing anywhere triggers a check of everything still owed against it, which a paragraph you have to reread cannot do.
What counts as a recurring actor?
Anyone who appears in two or more logged stories, not three. Waiting for a third appearance is exactly how a name's first open question goes quiet long enough to stop feeling urgent, which defeats the point of tracking it at all.
Does a court filing or docket entry reopen a question by itself?
Yes, the same as any other new material. If a name in a docket you are tracking matches the register, the cross-reference surfaces their open questions regardless of whether the filing has anything to do with the original subject.
Does this replace source tracking?
No. This pack tracks names and unanswered questions across a beat's coverage. Attribution terms, what a source agreed to and when, belong in the source and contact management pack instead, and the two link rather than overlap.
What format are the downloaded files?
Word documents for the Beat Brief, the Story Pipeline Note, and the cross-reference methodology doc. CSV for the three registers: Story Register, Open Question Log, and Recurring Actor Register. Everything opens natively in Word, Excel, or Sheets, with no conversion step.
What does 'Edit with AI' actually do?
It creates a free account, installs this exact pack as a private workspace, and has the agent read your published stories and notes to fill the registers and run the cross-reference before you write anything new.
Give your beat a memory that reaches back
Download the blank registers and docs as Word and CSV files, or open this exact pack in River and let the agent build them from your published work.
Edit with AI