Reporter finds missing man shortly after seeing police photo of him
“How often do newsrooms receive the missing man press releases from police?” Ottawa Citizen senior editor Melanie Coulson asks in an email. “And how often does a reporter on assignment actually find the missing man?”
Newsman Zev Singer checked out the police photo of William Dupon at 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
Less than an hour later, as I happened to be driving on Ogilvie Road for an unrelated story, I saw a man at the bus stop on the other side of the street wearing a black leather cowboy hat that looked just like the one in the picture of Dupon. I turned the yellow Citizen car around. …
I walked to the bus stop, and, after a moment of comparing, I showed him my Blackberry and asked: “Is this you?”
His eyes widened a bit.
“Yes,” he said.
I told him I was a reporter and explained why I had that picture. To be sure, I asked his name.
“William Dupon,” he said.
Coulson notes that “our readers lapping this up. It is the most-read story and responsible for 6% of all traffic to our site … the number one item, including our Olympics stories.
“Who says readers don’t like a good news story?”
* Missing man found at bus stop by Citizen reporter (ottawacitizen.com)
