suzanne bearne suzanne bearne

Baby, think twice (before you send that book to journalists)

Every week or so I receive an email asking if I would like [insert name of author] new business book. Due to them not being relevant to anything I'm working on - or hoping to work on - it's never a yes. I don’t know when I last accepted a book by a PR, or covered one in a piece. (Or perhaps I’m being wrongly targeted – if there was one that was more sustainability focused that could generate feature ideas, I’d be open to such an email).  

But I was prompted to write this newsletter after working at the BBC in Manchester last week and seeing yet another book uncalled for/unwanted/unasked for business book being sent to an editor and put to one side, never to be read. You might all know by now how much I abhor waste anyhow, but wow, how many unread business books and other books must be sent to journalists every week. Do ask a journalist first if they want said book rather than it being left to collect dust in the office and chucked out years later when there’s an office clean up. I know some journalists will want books, there’ll be dedicated sections, book reviews, and so on. But so many books are sent unprompted to journalists who are never going to read it, never mind have the opportunity to feature it anywhere. If that’s the case, then do ask beforehand, rather than sending out. 

Ps one journalist told me that at least said books were rather useful before – by using them to create a makeshift laptop stand before HR kindly granted him one.

Read More
suzanne bearne suzanne bearne

How To Make A Journalist Happy

Hi everyone

Happy January. I hope you're enjoying the start to the new year.

About four years ago I listened to a talk by moral philosopher Peter Singer at Hay Festival where he posed the question: what would you do if you saw a young boy drowning in a pond? Well, of course, if you're physically able to you'd try to save him, wouldn't you? But then, he asked, if we know millions of children are dying as a result of say poverty or malaria worldwide every year why aren't we saving them? It was a thought-provoking question. And so this was Singer's powerful introduction into the subject of effective altruism – doing the most good you can do – and exploring one of the ways you can help achieve that: by pledging to donate a significant portion of your income (usually 10% or more) to effective charities, ones where your money goes the furthest in terms of helping people, namely by saving lives.

His talk stayed with me. I bought one of his books at the festival, signed up to donate to effective charities (through an organisation called GiveWell), lined up an interview with Singer himself, and wrote an article for the Observer on people who have pledged to donate 10% or more of their income for their working life. Admittedly I've not signed the pledge myself (honestly as a result of not affluent enough with a career in journalism but there's people on lower incomes than I who have committed) but I've kind of been obsessed with the movement ever since and have knocked out pieces about it for the i newspaper and more recently the BBC.

I'm bringing this up as recently Giving What We Can (GWWC), the organisation which people pledge through and who helped me source the great case studies, emailed me after the BBC piece had gone live to show me a chart of the people who had signed up the pledge as a result of reading the article. In a world where you're fervently working away on an article, which might garner perhaps with the odd retweet and share, before you're busy squirrelling away on the next, that email lightened up my day and made it feel all worthwhile. More often than not us journalists never really find out the results of our articles so to receive an email that highlighted what had happened after it had gone into the ether was really heartwarming. I thanked them for sharing that.

I covered the organisation in a Guardian piece at the start of this year and again GWWC sent me a quick email to say people had joined after reading the piece. Now I don't expect journalists would want continual updates and about anything (for example, if they'd written about a new retail POS system and 20 independents had bought it as a result of their piece - and I'm not knocking that as I used to cover the retail industry - or rather if a lawyer's website had received 2,000 hits thanks to that divorce piece in the Telegraph), but I do think sometimes – when it calls for it – to share a strong reaction to a piece, especially when it might make them feel fuzzy inside, would be appreciated. In a world of gloom, showing us why we do what we do despite the low pay and so on, can be wonderful, and also beneficial for relationship building too.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Have a great week.

Susie

Read More
suzanne bearne suzanne bearne

A Green Opportunity For Press Coverage

Photo by Li-An Lim

Photo by Li-An Lim

Hi everyone,

Although my newsletter fails to sync with Earth Day next Thursday, I thought I'd still seize the opportunity to look at how the media has finally started to step up its attention on the climate crisis.

Given the climate emergency we're facing and the fact the UK is hosting UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November, there's set to be A LOT of coverage around this year's event. (This CN Traveller article by its sustainability editor Juliet Kinsman is just one example; it's also well worth a read.)

You might have already pitched a story to magazines to coincide with Earth Day, founded in 1970 to help protect and conserve the planet. But fear not, it's not too late to fire off story pitches and opinion pieces to newspapers and online titles.

Of course you don't need a date like Earth Day to pitch your climate-related stories. With climate change already here in the form of intense weather patterns, the media has stepped up their climate and environmental coverage significantly in recent times, meaning there's a stronger appetite for your green pitches.

We're seeing publishers establish dedicated climate hubs. In February The Independent created a climate section covering news, views and sustainable lifestyle features. (I checked and there's no devoted desk but if you ever have a straight climate pitch, I was told climate correspondent Daisy Dunne is your contact.) The title has also created a climate channel within its TV platform.

The FT has set up Climate Capital, a dedicated area on its website bringing all of its climate coverage under one roof, and appointed Emiliya Mychasuk as climate editor. Over at The Sun, political correspondent Natasha Clark is now reporting on environment and climate news ahead of COP26 in November.

Although by no means a climate reporter, over the years I've stepped up my focus on more positive and impactful journalism, with the environment becoming a stronger part of my (very varied) portfolio. In recent years I've whipped up a report on quantifying sustainability for WGSN (for subscribers only), reported on the rise of carbon trackers for the BBC, interviewed people cutting back on flying for the Guardian, explored the impact of business travel on the environment for the Guardian, honed in on rental fashion for the i, and interviewed an XR activist for the Guardian.

With being COP26 set to be held in Glasgow in November, there'll be an even stronger demand for climate-related stories. Get pitching.
 

Enjoy the rest of your week.
Susie

Read More