‘A Life in Shards’
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‘Asian art expert dies in custody,’ read a 7-inch story on Page B13 in The Times in mid-May. The fate of that Asian art expert, a 62-year-old museum director named Roxanna Brown, turned out to be a provocative tale that ran in The Times Sept. 11-13. How it got from brief to three-part story is a tale all its own.
It was written and rewritten (and rewritten) before it came to be published in three parts (‘A passion for art, a perilous pursuit’; ‘Her career revived, scholar turns tipster’; ‘Once an aid in a federal probe, antiquities scholar becomes a key target’). While some objected, most readers sent praise for the stories by reporter Jason Felch, and asked for follow-up stories.
‘I’ve read The Times for nearly 40 years now. This is the first morning ever that I’ve opened the paper and looked for a story. I had to know how the Roxanna Brown saga ended. Mr. Felch, your coverage of this woman’s life was just terrific. Good job,’ wrote Pat Conwell in La Mesa.
Felch was on paternity leave when Brown was arrested. The reporter, who has covered the story of American museums and the antiquities trade since 2005, when a curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum was indicted by Italy for trafficking in looted art, was intrigued by how it came to pass that a person initially described as unwitting victim of the alleged scheme ended up dying in prison.
Felch was back in the newsroom in June, reviewing documents and photographs and interviewing associates of the the scholar-turned-tipster-turned-accused. It was, he and his editor decided, a compelling and complicated story worth telling. The question between him and editor Julie Marquis soon became clear as well: What was the best way to report it?
First Felch wrote a straight news piece, short and to the point, starting with information from an affidavit of Brown’s arrest. The idea was to twin it with a longer story -- which he also wrote at the time -- that filled in the details of how Brown went from being a farm girl in Illinois to a 22-year-old reporter in Vietnam to a woman at the center of an international smuggling investigation.
The problem with that two-story approach, says Marquis, was that the first story would give away the ending. Ultimately, she says, ‘I think most people love old-fashioned storytelling. This was a case when the material seemed to justify a narrative approach.’
That’s when Felch and Marquis decided it was worth his writing it yet again.
The idea, says Felch, was to deliver the story in three compelling bite-size chunks. As a single piece, Felch says, it might have been an overwhelming story readers wouldn’t have time to read. And as Marquis points out, current space constraints discouraged them from suggesting such a lengthy piece to run on one day.
That’s how readers ended up with what one called ‘a dramatic, searing tale,’ a 150-inch story spread over three days. And, says Marquis, ‘to keep them reading, we chose to end each piece with a cliffhanger. Some people found that exciting, others irritating. But even if they were irritated, they obviously read to the end.’
John Vasi of Santa Barbara was one who says he did not. He wrote in an e-mail that serializations ‘seem to be unsubtle attempts to force the reader into returning.’ He added, ‘If this is journalism, serialization has no place there. If it’s not really journalism, it belongs in Calendar.’
But more readers were captivated, like Mark Willis of San Pedro, who wrote after Part 1: ‘Stories like this are why some of us still buy and read the paper every day. I will look forward to the next two parts.’ In a follow-up note, he wrote, ‘I immediately saw that Mr. Felch’s series was compelling and intriguing, taking the reader from the Viet Nam conflict to the present-day art world intrigues of Los Angeles. Well-written stuff you don’ t see in a blog. I wanted to let him know that some of us appreciate high-quality print work.’
Birute Prasauskas of Lomita also wrote: ‘Wonderful story. Among the news of natural and man-made disasters, also with all the political hoopla, it was refreshing to read a human interest story. I hope that you will follow up with any connected story in the future.’
Others, too, wanted to know what happened next -- especially, what became of Brown’s son. The reporter fills in the details on that inquiry: ‘According to the Brown family,’ Felch writes in an e-mail, ‘Taweesin ‘Jaime’ Ngertongdee completed college with financial help from Brown’s family and is now in graduate school in Bangkok studying business. He lives with relatives of his estranged father. He is the plaintiff on a civil lawsuit filed in July against the federal detention center in Seattle where Roxanna Brown died in custody.’
Vasi, who like a few others didn’t like the serial form, wrote, ‘I am uncomfortable with the serialization of a news article, especially one on the front page. If this is a human interest story, put it somewhere else. I realize that newspapers are looking to attract readers, but I’d prefer you clearly separate the news from the human interest stuff like this.’
To Vasi and those who voiced similar complaints, Marquis responds, ‘It’s a given that not every reader is going to love everything we do ... but I think to distinguish ourselves from the everyday, we need to experiment with a variety of approaches. Who knows, we might even snag a reader who otherwise wouldn’t bother with us.’
Family photo shows Brown with her son in Thailand. Many readers asked after the stories ran what became of Brown’s son. A photo gallery of Roxanna Brown can be found here.