An insight into the commissioning process

The topic for this blog comes from a question asked in my last workshop: do editors ask me to write stories on certain subjects or do I pitch ideas?

Good question. I’ve gone through periods, especially back in the day at trade magazines, where pretty much all the feature briefs were fielded out to me by the features editor rather than me pitching. But when I started working for the nationals and consumer titles and those editors didn’t know me from Adam, I had to pitch fresh ideas myself. These days, it’s a combination. Sometimes an editor will drop me an email and ask if I have any ideas and could I send them over, other times they’ll send me a brief and ask if I have availability to work on it. I’d say most of the time now I’m in a fortunate position to work on ideas I want to work on (usually that means they're sustainability focused, or feel-good/solutions-based journalism). One editor knows not to contact me with suggestions as I’m quite particular about what I want to cover for that particular title. I wasn’t always in this fortunate position and I know things could change again and so I don’t take it for granted. Although I’m far from raking it in, due to the media consultancy (the workshops, the online course, the content network agency and the Power Hours), I no longer have to say yes to absolutely every single potential commission that lands in my inbox, giving me the luxury and breathing space to focus more on stories that I’m interested in, and generally for publications I want to write for.

Of course, this is just my way of working. There’ll be freelancers who won’t write for certain publications if they asked them, there’ll be some that due to the terrible rates in journalism need to accept any work that comes their way, while some journalists will only work on particular features for high-paying publications.

If you have any subjects that you would like me to discuss in a future workshop or newsletter, please send them over as I’m always on the lookout for new ideas.

It pays to be kind

I’d finally refilled my Le Labo bottle after several failed attempts and was happily walking to my workspace in London when I was suddenly reminded of an arrogant entrepreneur in one of the beats I used to cover. A veteran in the industry, he was a strong contact of the magazine and was one of the first people I interviewed when I joined. From the offset he was rude, condescending, and always tried to assert control. In order to continue dealing with him I had to put my feelings towards him to one side. When I broke free, I never had to deal with him on that level again – well, till I was freelancing on a newsdesk and I wrote a critical story about his company and then he turned on me. Karma anyone? 

Over the years since I’ve been freelance I’ve had different PR agencies put him forward for interview slots. He might be a name, but when I think of him I just remember that sense of entitlement and his overwhelming arrogance. It’s always a big fat NO from me. We all know it pays to be kind, but if you or your client are rude or a walking ego, journalists (like most people) remember, meaning perhaps they won’t want to work with you or your client again in the future.

A shocking PR experience

I was recently reminded of what a grind it could be working as a trade journalist. Back then, whether it was in-house at say New Media Age (RIP) or Drapers, or freelancing at Retail Week or Marketing Week, I’d frequently have to contact the press offices of huge brands, asking for an interview or comment for a feature or news article (this was if we didn’t have a contact between us on the news or features desk where we could circumvent this and go straight to the CEO or financial director, etc.).

It was pretty much always headache-inducing. Firstly, many emails would go unanswered. There was so much chasing (which yes, I know many of us do as part of our jobs). After a brief exchange about the feature, the Spanish Inquisition would start: who had I contacted, which other brands were featuring, which expert was I chatting to, what would the feature look like, could I send through all the potential questions, and so on. Maybe some of these are questions asked by a client but honestly, even my editor wouldn’t know the answer to these so I’m unsure why I’d be asked to pretty much send out the feature in full to a press officer before they can even tell me if they can comment.

It’s rare that I have to go through all this now. The waiting. The coming back with one thousand additional questions. But I was reminded of this laborious rigmarole last week when I contacted a big brand for a national piece. My god, did it make me glad this was no longer my world. That I didn’t have to deal with folk who made it seem they were protecting the Royal Family. Anyhow, at this stage I now have comment on background. I didn’t even ask for background, which makes it more farcical. I was then asked to send over questions which they could answer on the record. After sending them through the press team responded saying “as mentioned we we’re not answering questions”. After asking me to send questions through. Utterly terrible behaviour and I’ve made my thoughts known.

It did remind me of how much I enjoy speaking to smaller companies, or bigger brands that don’t have a PR team with burly security, and those that can set up interviews quickly. All hail to them.