Dreaming of down time

I’m writing this from Wales where I’m staying with my dear friends S & L who recently left London to live out their countryside dreams. I’ve woken up to birdsong and the view from my window is a square of trees. Dreamy. The stay was supposed to be a little break (aka no work) but perhaps that was always going to be impossible. As a freelancer, I find taking time off a huge challenge. During these few days in Wales, there's been a newsletter to write, an interview with the Met Office, emails to answer, a brainstorming session between a journalist and an eco organisation to organise, a BBC World Service radio programme to edit (and a lot of this I tried to sort out before my trip but it wasn't meant to be). Shall I go on?

Although I'm in Amsterdam A LOT, it’s never a holiday, while my trip to Berlin in July involved a workshop and a hotel review (ok, the latter wasn’t too enduring). I think my last few consecutive days off were over Christmas.

In her newsletter last week, journalist Anna Codrea-Rado wrote about how perhaps we should incorporate more breaks into our daily lives rather than focusing so heavily on the big holiday every year. This I can do. I definitely take time out of my daily life to exercise, head down to the beach for a swim, go on day trips, volunteer, and catch up with friends. But as a freelancer, it's hard to down tools completely. Do you agree?

A welcome (and emotional) impact from journalism

A few years ago I interviewed Rose* for the Guardian's How I Spend It slot. It was an emotional conversation that I've never forgot.

Rose had lost both her parents when she was trafficked over to the UK from Nigeria, aged 21. She was forced to work as a prostitute for five years. "It was against every basic belief and right that I knew," she told me. "We weren’t allowed out on our own. There were always men guiding us. They abused us. We were forced to do unthinkable things."

Her life took a turn when she met a woman in a hairdressers who spoke her local language in Nigeria. The woman hatched a plan for her to escape and let her live with her. Later, Rose met someone and had a family.

When I spoke to her she was single mum, and an asylum seeker, meaning she was unable to work and further continue her health and social care career. "It reminded me that even though I’m safe, I’m still a prisoner. I don’t have freedom. I cannot work...I want my son and daughter, aged 10 and 7, to see me as someone doing something, not sat at home doing nothing. I’m grateful, but it’s not me."

She lived off an allowance of £100 a week. As she wanted to improve her children's prospects, a third was spent on tutors.

After the piece was published, a charity got in touch to say they would fund her health and social care course.

Last week I received a message that, I have to admit, left me sobbing. I have added it below but in a nutshell the trustee from the charity said they had since helped secure Rose and her children accommodation in London, sponsor her nursing training and provide legal support to secure her UK citizenship. This year Rose will qualify as a nurse, and is due to receive full citizenship in 2025. Her kids are thriving and her daughter is hoping to become a lawyer.

* Rose's name was changed in the article.

Here is the original Guardian article.

Friday night in Amsterdam's Red Light District

It’s 10pm on Friday night and I’m in the Red Light District (RLD) working. No, not scantily-clad behind neon windows, but interviewing residents and business owners about the proposal to move the RLD out of the neighbourhood. As the hours roll by, the area becomes more boisterous. In some areas, where there’s lines of red-lit windows down narrow streets, it's overbearingly congested. Noisy. Drunken men leer at the women behind the glass. Some walk out like they’ve won a prize. Most, though, are just there to gawp. I go from business to business - coffee shops to bars to tattoo parlours and restaurants, looking for people to interview. I don’t know how many I go in over the hours but I soon understand how difficult reporting like this can be.

While you might come across vox pops (a series of short interviews, usually with members of the public) in a paper, on TV or on radio, what you don’t see are the attempts to get people to talk. Here in the RLD, most don’t want to chat. Either they don’t have authority from their boss, or it’s Friday, they’re busy. “It’ll only take one minute,” I almost plead after countless knockbacks. They shrug their shoulders and shake their head. I can’t help but think our whole conversation just took a minute. One more. Many are nervous and when they find out it’s for radio, they back out. I find a case study via a WhatsApp group, which then leads to a neighbour next door being open to being interviewed. We end up having a good chat. She wants to be off the record, though. At this stage, I can cope with it. I try more places. No, no, no.

I come across two friends sat drinking wine outside a fashion store. The woman is vocal and passionate about the RLD remaining where it is. She’s a good find. But when her friend starts his tirade, it’s littered with swear words. “Sorry, no swearing, like I said.” This angers him immensely. “Fucking hell, why can’t I swear?” Followed by more expletives. Sigh. I wonder if he can be edited. Coming up to 11pm, with enough interviews captured, I call it a night.

Learning when to stop emailing a journalist

Every now and again I have to ask a PR to remove me from their mailing list. The request doesn’t give me any pleasure, but it’s often a last resort after receiving too many pitches that I wouldn't cover. I could block them (and sometimes I do) but sometimes I prefer to send through a polite request with a reason so they know why their emails have gone unanswered and perhaps it helps them understand why it’s better to target journalists (something I bang on about in my workshop and course).

I was reminded of this when I saw a journalist publicly flogging a PR on Twitter last week after she posted that she had been repeatedly sent emails about pregnancy and babies which she didn’t wish to receive. I too have asked PRs not to send me emails and then weeks later, they’re back at it. Now I know some of this can be put down to all manner of tech systems and media databases, but if a journalist is telling you not to email them, please do everything you can to respect that. It’s rude to continue emailing when someone has specifically gone out their way to tell you not to, especially about subjects they may find sensitive. However, I will say, there’s always the block button which I am also partial to when a barrage of unwanted and irrelevant emails fly into my inbox.

ps I continually work with AMAZING PRs and have bigged up PRs on here. Also, I'm well aware what a nightmare some of us journalists are too.

Beyond expectations: My first rodeo in radio

While I adore print and online and will continue to work in those fields, I’ve yearned to move into radio for years (so much so it even made an appearance on my one and only mood board in 2020). Last week, to my amazement, there I was up Salford, Manchester helping produce BBC Four’s prestigious Today programme and Radio 5’s Wake Up to Money. I absolutely loved getting stuck in, thrashing around ideas for the next day, finding and briefing guests, and learning first-hand how a radio show is produced. I was only in for two days for a test run but it made me realise how much I love being part of a team. I used to freelance in-house at magazines and at the Guardian but apart from volunteering at the food bank, winter shelters, and Crisis and so on, I haven’t worked as part of a team for years.

Like most people facing a new challenge, I’d had pangs of self-doubt before entering Quay House so I was taken aback when the editor told me how impressed they all were with me and that he’d already shared his thoughts about me with the two bigwigs above him. To have that level of feedback obviously made my heart sing, especially as I’d spent the last six weeks worrying about how it might go. At the end of my last day, he said they’d like to properly train me up.

After longing to move into the format for so long, I'm surprised by how quickly doors have opened. On the first day the editor asked where I lived. “Margate, and actually, kind of also Amsterdam now,” I replied. Ears pricked up behind me. “Did you write the piece “Can Amsterdam make the circular economy work?” asked the BBC World Service editor sat behind me. I nodded. “We were just discussing you yesterday. Would you be open to pitching me ideas?” This was exactly the situation I wanted to be in – reporting on the radio from overseas. I discussed some ideas. This is exactly the stuff we want, he said. We’ve been in touch since and I’m thrilled to say (and I'm still in full pinch-me mode) that he’s commissioned me my first audio piece for BBC World Service (well, as long as there's no tech issues).

While there's a huge learning curve ahead of me and as self-indulgent as all of this is, I wanted to share this as I thought it might help any readers who are faced with barriers when it comes to achieving their ambitions. I never thought this chance might happen, even though I knew I could definitely I'd give it a good shot if it ever came my way. Now, hopefully, I’m at the start of the journey and a new chapter in my career. Of course, it’s all new and anything could happen, but just to get a foot in somewhere I was starting to think was impossible feels like a huge milestone.

What this means for my current mode of semi living in Amsterdam I don’t know, although I’m hoping that the opportunities with BBC World Service means I can get my foot in the door and report from overseas in a different way and more than I currently do.

As for yourselves, obviously I’ve only worked there for a few days so far but it’s been super useful in making me understand how businesses and PRs can pitch radio producers. My learnings will come through in another post, or as part of my course/workshop soon. When I’m working regular shifts, I will let you know what kind of pitches I’m open to and how best to pitch.

Taking steps to ensure the language you use is inclusive

How journalists write a story and the words they use matter. Of course they do. Language is nuanced and forever changing. While progress has been made, ableist language still exists. Inclusion London’s report, Disability, Crime and Hate Crime in the News, examined news coverage of 300 crimes against disabled people over the last 18 years and found that news stories about crimes against disabled people (using the language in Disability News Service here) contained disablist portrayals, frequently using descriptions such helpless, weak, and vulnerable.

While reporters, editors, subeditors and so on have a job to do, PRs and those working in comms also have a role to play to help ensure the language used is inclusive.

I’m bringing this up today as my lovely friend Sara Thornhurst, who provides disability focused inclusion training for PR professionals, has recently worked with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) to launch a new guide designed to help PR and comms professionals improve their understanding of the language to use when it comes to disability. It is one of five guides, and is available to download here.

For those who are keen to learn more, Sara offers online training sessions for PR agencies and teams. More information here.

The downfall of digital publishing

When I started off in journalism back in 2007 there was so much discourse and enthusiasm surrounding digital publishing. Print circulation stats showed the industry was in dire straits but on the other hand, there was so much investment and buzz around the burgeoning digital startups such as Buzzfeed, Vice, and later a flurry of titles like The Pool (RIP). Perhaps these bright young stars were going to show the traditional publishers that this was the future of journalism, starting with 7 Things You Need to Know From Watching an Episode of Friends. I jest.

Listicles aside, Buzzfeed did go beyond the clickbait at times and publish strong stories often followed up by news titles. But its success didn't last. The publisher closed its newsroom in April and its CEO Jonah Peretti said the company “can no longer continue to fund” the site. Now the latest victim of digital publishing is Vice News, which has just filed for bankruptcy. The site did produce stellar journalism and investigations at times and while the company has just been bought, it's far cry from its hey day when it was valued at a whopping $5.7bn.

Like we’ve known for a while, online revenues simply don’t add up. Early in my journalism days when I covered the publishing patch, even scribing a weekly column called Bearne on Media where I would chart the media landscape, there was so much discussion about how publishers could make journalism pay. The Times made a bold leap and followed the FT’s cue to launch a paywall, much to everyone’s surprise. Many thought it wouldn’t work but they have defeated the naysayers, and subs keep rising.

To succeed, there needs to be a mixture of revenue models. In the world of TikTok and Instagram, advertisers are finding more engagement on those platforms than sticking a banner ad on a website (although, advertising goes beyond that).

What we do need is journalism, and for people to be willing to pay for it. Personally I love buying newspapers and magazines. This is what I pay for:

• The Sunday Times (subscription which gives me access to The Times online)

• Ethical Consumer (subscription)

• The Big Issue (subscription)

• The New York Times (subscription)

• Guardian or Observer on a weekend

• Red 

• Positive News (probably twice a year)

• Conde Nast Traveller (probably twice a year)

• Wired (couple of times a year)

• Simple Things (couple of times a year)

• When I’m travelling, I still need my print fix so I'll either buy Guardian Weekly, The New York Times or the FT Weekend. Sometimes I’ll buy the Economist. Or a few of them if I'm feeling flush (and have run out of papers and magazines brought from home).

Plus I like to buy magazine subscriptions as gifts, say a science one for my nephews, a hiking title for my sister-in-law, and a newsy one for my dad.

I hope you can support journalism. I'll add a post on LinkedIn so we can continue the conversation over there.

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.

Does AI spell the end of journalism?

It’s no secret that journalists have had a rough ride for a long time: hello stagnating rates, falling print circulation rates, publishers dropping out of the sector. Shall I go on? Well, yes, because we have another huge challenge hurtling at us. Come on at us, artificial intelligence (AI).

ChatGPT has prompted huge debate and column inches since its launch at the start of year. Standing for Generative Pre-trained Transformer, the machine-learning platform is a very nifty tool enabling users to type in queries and the AI responding in just seconds. If you haven’t tried it already (it’s quite easy to sign up and give it a whirl), you can see the gist of it with the picture below.

I started by asking ChatGBT to first write an article on the impact of Airbnb on communities across the globe. I followed this up by requesting a closer look at the impact of Airbnbs in Margate in the UK. You can see the response below:

Ok, so after testing the technology, I've decided I won't start rereading What Colour Is My Parachute? just yet.

As you can see, the very basic response did cover some of the key concerns of the platform, but I couldn’t see a national newspaper replacing its human crafted articles with this pared down content just yet. It’s lacking depth, critical thinking, and facts - and then it would need to be fact checked. But arguably, it forms the start of an article (or a GCSE essay). However, one of many other concerns is that the AI isn't providing you with unique copy; instead it's regurgitating the same content to people who have asked similar questions.

Still, some titles have jumped in and are already experimenting with the automated technology. CNET for one has been trialling the tech and using it to help write news articles or gather information for stories.

Editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo said their plan was to find out whether the tech could “efficiently assist” their journalists “in using publicly available facts to create the most helpful content so our audience can make better decisions”. She said the articles were always “reviewed, fact-checked and edited by an editor with topical expertise” before going live.

For now journalists with insider knowledge and a book of strong contacts can’t be replaced – I’m not sure the robots have learnt how to door knock just yet, and I feel we’ll still be yearning to read opinion pieces from actual real-life journalists. But this is just the beginning, and of course, it doesn’t just impact journalists. There’s thousands of other jobs this will have a huge impact on.

Writing in The Spectator, author Sean Thomas believes the end is nigh for writers. “That's it. It's time to pack away your quill, your biro, and your shiny iPad: the computers will soon be here to do it better. ... The machines will come for much academic work first - essays, PhDs, boring scholarly texts (unsurprisingly it can churn these out right now). Fanfic is instantly doomed, as are self-published novels. Next will be low-level journalism ... then high-level journalism will go, along with genre fiction, history, biography, screenplays. ... 5,000 years of the written human word, and 500 years of people making a life, a career, and even fame out of those same human words, are quite abruptly coming to an end.”

Sober reading but hopefully it will spawn a huge creation of jobs we'd never heard of (hopefully beyond just servicing the robots and machines), like many of the past industrial changes have.

Thanks for reading.

Susie

Why isn't mainstream journalism paying enough attention to the climate crisis?

Happy New Year. I hope you had a pleasant break away from the laptop. I succumbed to the flu after our freelancer Christmas lunch in Margate and it was touch and go whether I’d make it back to my parents. But I slogged it to the north east in the nick of time and had a joyful Christmas with my family (after two years of festive separation due to Covid playing havoc).

I know I should probably start the year on a positive note but after reading yet another article from the weekend papers which frustrated the hell of me, I wanted to chat about the disconnect between journalism and the climate crisis. However, it’s not all doom and gloom (I hope), and I’ve outlined a few positive actions you could take away from this, if interested.

My anger was first ignited after reading a travel article in a Sunday paper which outlined the devastating impact of climate change (highlighting last year’s floods in Pakistan in which 33 million people were affected and a third of the country was UNDER WATER) and flagged up regions to avoid due to wildfires and extreme temperatures, instead suggesting alternative places to explore. I assumed that the journalist would then naturally talk about how we need to rethink the way we travel, encouraging us to holiday more local, fly less often, and turn to more sustainable modes of transport given we’re living in a climate emergency with parts of the world on fire or flooded, causing famine, death and homes being washed or burnt to the ground, but no. I reread the article in case I was missing something. Nada.

In the arts section of the same paper, I came across a double-page spread encouraging people to book flights purely to see exhibitions across the world. “Fly there for the weekend", was the gist of it. Given what we know about the climate emergency, I feel articles like these are a parody to the reality of the situation (hello Don't Look Up). Sometimes it feels like parts of the media are intentionally trying to end the future of humanity. You just need to recall all the front-page images of whenever it’s a heatwave, with images of people at the beach, rather than pictures of people running out of water, for example, and ignoring the alarming reasons why it’s happening – and what the future looks like, i.e. this could be the coolest summer on record. 

Last year I wrote about the rise of dedicated climate desks, and while this is great news, what doesn't seem to be happening are conversations about the climate across other desks. We are in desperate need of climate training across all editorial. I see food features with are back-to-back meat and fish dishes. I’m not saying all features should focus on us living off-the-grid in the woods (sounds idyllic, though) but I think there needs to be reality check. Time is literally running out and the media has a huge role to play in relaying the urgency of it. 

But we know many of these news desks and TV stations are in the hands of billionaire owners who provide a voice to climate deniers and certainly don’t want a move away from the current system of focusing on growth and more growth (which is harming us all).

So what can you do?

Ditch the fossil fuel clients. I wrote a couple of articles last year about agencies moving away from fossil fuel clients. Many people are rethinking their careers and moving to green jobs, a trend I wrote about for the BBC and Positive News. Could you encourage your clients to run more eco-friendly press trips? For example, in this past newsletter I looked at how one PR company were reducing flying and encouraging press trips by train. Is there a way to follow suit or bring in journalists who live in that region rather than flying journalists out? 

Join a climate training workshop. I received a message on LinkedIn last week from a facilitator and trainer from Climate Clarity, which organises workshops for individuals and organisations designed to spread climate knowledge and provide tools to help them look at their specific power in position in society and look at what meaningful action they can take. More information here.

There’s also the Carbon Literacy Project which offers training to individuals and organisations to help them become aware of the impact of everyday carbon emissions, and what action they can take.

Thanks for reading,

Susie

Here’s Where More Journalists Are Hanging Out

In the last 48 hours I’ve had at least four alerts of journalists doing the same thing. Ping. Another has joined. And another one has joined. What is it, you might ask? The answer is Substack, the newsletter publishing platform.

Writing newsletters ain’t anything new but there appears to be a new breed of journalists choosing to go down this route. Many writers are jumping into this field because the traditional publishing model isn’t working for them anymore. Maybe there’s fewer opportunities to cover what they’d like to be writing about. Perhaps they view publishing a newsletter as an additional revenue stream, with some asking subscribers for a reasonable £5 a month to read their words. It may well be early days for some of them but they might turn into a strong side hustle or equate to a decent salary.

It’s another place you can get a glimpse into a journalist’s life (if you want to). You might gain more of an affinity or glimpse into their lifestyle which might make them easier to pitch to. Maybe they might cover what they’re working on at the moment (like moi, sometimes), or there could be an opportunity for you or your client’s brand to be featured in the newsletter as some may be landing in the inbox of your exact target audience. It might be impossible to subscribe to all of them (time-wise or money-wise), but perhaps there’s certain writers in your sector, or some you feel more naturally associated with, that you may wish to follow.

Also, it’s always another great way to build relationships with journalists. “Oh, I read your newsletter on and xxxx” etc might catch their attention and make them feel slightly more inclined to respond.

Here’s a few journalists on Substack that have caught my eye recently:

• Kate Spicer

• Tiffanie Darke

• Caroline Criado Perez (starts from £5 a month)

• Flic Bowden-Smith

• Farrah Storr (from £6 a month)

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.

A Masterful Way To Raise A Profile

About four years ago I received an email from the Guardian that both thrilled and scared me: Would I be interested in hosting a couple of Guardian Masterclasses? One exploring freelancing for journalists, the other focussed on how PRs and small businesses can improve their press coverage. A former colleague at the Guardian had recommended me. I knew I should jump at the chance – it could potentially lead to something – but I felt nervous. Running a masterclass for the Guardian? Eeek. To cut a long story short, I accepted the PR Masterclass gig. The programme leaders viewed the session as a success and on the back of it they lined me up to run sessions every quarter or so. Seizing the opportunity and disliking the fact it was just for Londoners (or those on the outskirts), I decided to set up my own workshops across the UK - where I will have met some of you in person - before jumping into webinars, courses, and so on. If I never said yes, I doubt I would be emailing you now. Although I've stuck to journalism and that will remain my core focus, it's meant that I'm a little less worried about money than I used to be. It leveraged me to become an expert, super charged me as a teacher, brought with it countless opportunities, and also helped me feel comfortable with public speaking.

So why should this backstory interest you? Because there's an opportunity for you or your client to host classes or courses with national titles.

The Guardian is investing heavily in its masterclasses and is constantly searching for experts to host classes on a range of different subjects.

If you're looking for a new way to raise your or your client's profile, why not pitch yourself or your clients to become a Guardian Masterclass host? Becoming a teacher can give you/your client a dash of gravitas – and ultimately help sell some more products/services.

Their timetable showcases a list of experts ranging from life coach Fiona Buckland to business strategist Simon Alexander Ong.

Here's the Pitch Your Masterclass page, which features a pitching form. Add details for yourself/your client, what are you pitching - a one-day workshop or three-hour session, for example, and include your bio – do flag up if you have lecturing experience, and if you have a particularly sizable following on social media.

The Times has followed suit and now runs masterclasses and courses via its website. Allyson Stewart-Allen, CEO of International Marketing Partners, has run one on personal branding, designer and maker Nicole Akong has hosted a session on dressmaking, while Lucy Gough regularly leads workshops on styling your home.

Why we can't respond to every email

Emails. They’re the bane of our lives, aren’t they? I’m not sure how you manage your inbox but for most journalists there’s always a never-ending trail of messages hurtling through at a faster pace than you can ever manage to read them. Probably the same for anyone who works on a laptop.

Now as much as I try to instill kindness and doing good in this world, I will say that for many journalists, it is impossible to reply to every email. Now I had someone pop into my LinkedIn messages disagreeing with me on this recently, arguing that they themselves were a boss, managing a large number of people and juggling lots of various gigs, but they still replied to every email. Good on them. And while I try to respond to personalised emails (rather than generic press releases and pitches that have just swapped a another hack’s name for mine), I know that when you’re on a news desk – when you’re working fast and furiously, focused on that story, building on it, calling sources, meeting people, trying another case study after one just pulled out…while at the same time juggling 12 different stories, as well as perhaps inputting them the system, training the new member of staff, heading to Brussels for a conference and attending yet another internal meeting, it's an impossible task.

I know some people will still argue that we should then continue working till 9pm till we do respond, but I disagree. Instead stories and sources are a priority and producing that TV report for the 7pm news or working on that front page. By the time you want to reply to those emails another 1000 might have come through the inbox. So it’s a trade off: do you want brilliant journalism or someone with a damn good email etiquette?

I hope you understand. We’re not terrible people (most of us anyway) and in an ideal world we’d reply to every email, but the nature of the game means it’s overwhelming (it doesn’t help that our inboxes are often overflowing with irrelevant stories) and impossible without impacting our work or our personal lives.

Thanks for reading,

Susie

Do We Need Another Gift?

Everyone loves a gift, don’t they? I remember back in the day when I worked as an in-house journalist and we’d be sent piles of products to the office to try, to keep, but in reality for many, journalists, to pass on as presents or sell on EBay. It was the height of consumerism. More, more, more, please. 

Now things look a little different. We are more thoughtful about what we purchase, we look for brands that are more eco or are plastic-free. We remind ourselves not to be wasteful.   

Recently a PR dropped me a line as she wanted to send me something to celebrate a client’s birthday. It was a transport company and I wondered what they would send me, if I would use it, or would it be a waste of packaging and product. I politely said that I was cutting back on things I didn’t need/wouldn’t use so if they felt it might sit in that category, I’d decline it.   

Now I’m not saying I don’t like the odd gift – in fact here’s some dairy-free yoghurt coming to me this week – but living in the world where we have too much stuff, we might need to consider how we approach sending products to journalists (I’m not talking about samples, reviews, etc).

One route around this might be to ask they journalist if they are accepting gifts and perhaps be clear on what you plan to send – for instance, I’ve had people send me (non-vegan) chocolate before when I’m 98% plant-based now (allowing for the odd slip up when I’m travelling although this rarely happens now). People are also cutting back on booze so sending over alcohol can often be a no no.

Also, be wary of the type of - and how much - packaging you use. I always prefer reused packaging but this might not go down well with your editor at Vogue but perhaps your sustainable approach it can be explained. Too much wasteful packaging and the attention for the product you sent to said journalist at a national might be overshadowed by them flagging up the excess packaging on social media. I see this happen quite often so be wary of that too.

Thanks for reading,

Susie

Are You Making Journalists Jump Through Hoops?

One of the most common questions in my workshops is how to build relationships with journalists. Key to that is simply being great at your job. For instance, here's not to do it:

Recently I sent an email to an in-house PR recently asking if more people had joined said organisation as a result of the pandemic or environmental issues. Instead of explaining in a line or two she sent me a link to the company's latest report- which I had to fill in a form to download and tick to accept to receive further correspondence from them and be added to the mailing list (there was no way round this so I emailed her back just asking for the report as an attachment). I then read the report which highlighted that membership had increased but within the stats there was no explanation as to why. I had to then go back to ask if they thought it was down to those two reasons, and she replied asking how much time she could have to respond.

A very weird dialogue. You'd expect the PR manager of such organisation to be able to just share anecdotally rather than sending you to a form and then pointing you in direction of a report which failed to answer questions. I simply wanted to know if the query was correct so I could inform my editor.

I'm still waiting for answer to a simple question.

I mention this as how you work with journalists means everything. Creating an easy and simple dialogue and answering questions quickly, means we would want to work with you again. Extending the process out, being uninformed (I wasn't looking for a quote) tells the journalists that is going to be hard work.

It also highlighted how much I appreciate it when I work with on-the-ball PRs and businesses. So thank you to all you out there that make our lives so much easier.

Thanks

Susie

Following Up On Emails To Journalists

Muckrack recently launched its State of PR report just a couple of months after the State of Journalism one which I missed because I was travelling.

When it comes to pitching, the study found that the majority (78%) of PRs believe one to two follow-up emails to journalists is acceptable. One in five say that three or more is acceptable. (Can I throw in here - please do not send me more than one follow-up!).

In my workshop and course I suggest that is it always worth following up that pitch – caveat here – if it's a good strong pitch that would work for the title. Please don't follow up on pitches that the journalist would never write about (I'm thinking of all the random emails that fall into my inbox, for example, sales of garden centre products, or Easter round-ups, which are far off the mark for what I would ever cover).

Many of the follow ups I receive don't even include my name (neither did the initial email, to be fair) and are such generic press releases – for example, 'Best university towns with pubs' – that sending and chasing is a waste of everyone's time. I do eventually end up blocking many.

Remember I'm in the same boat as yourselves – I pitch for a living so you have my sympathy. I know how tough it can be. And often I need to follow up myself, and it's only through being persistent and checking up on that initial pitch that I've secured commissions. But you have to learn to give up, renose that pitch and find a title where it'll work.

And just to add here: sadly, I and most journalists don't have time to respond to every email that lands in our inbox – although many times I have, explaining they're so wide of the mark, still, the following week another off-the-mark pitch will seep through.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Thanks

Susie

My Flight Free Adventure Across Spain & France

I'm back after an epic six-week flight-free adventure across France and Spain. I arrived back at London St Pancras International station with my suitcase and backpack (yup, that's right - two sets of luggage. I tried so hard to condense my belongings but it just didn't work) on Wednesday evening, and remained on cloud nine for quite a few days. Not surprising given there was a local literary festival on my doorstep, fireworks to celebrate the jubilee, friends to catch up with and dancing at Mighty Hoopla festival, which is always a giant ball of fun.

And now, well, the post-holiday blues have definitely hit. Maybe that's why I spent part of this morning checking out how to reach Georgia and Egypt without flying. Seat61.com is one of my favourite travel websites. I can (and do) spend hours on there. 

Anyhow, this is the breakdown of the trip: London > Bordeaux > San Sebastián > Burgos > Seville > Tarifa > Granada > Alpujarras > Madrid > Sitges/Barcelona > Cadasques > Narbonne > Toulouse > Paris > London.

Like I shared on this LinkedIn post, the days were filled with magical experiences. I met so many new people. I hiked. Lost multiple pairs of sunglasses (hence why I always buy them from charity shops!). Heaved those bags onto multiple buses and up hundreds of steps. I worked from trains. Sunbathed in glorious coves. It felt like forever. Time slowed.

It's cemented a greater desire to travel more. To pack my bags and move abroad. And to do so sustainably. Forget heavy carbon-emitting planes. Travelling by train to many parts of Europe at least is pretty easy and accessible to most. And more of an adventure.

Now to reflect before plotting the next trip (or move if I can bag a visa) in the autumn. It's so much harder now that we're out of the EU. Grrrr.

I did work along the way (and rented out my place) but decided to reduce my hours to make it work – I didn't want to travel and then not properly see places.

While I re-adjust, please let me know what you'd like to see me cover in future newsletters.

I look forward to bringing you more journalist and PR-related tips soon.

Thanks

Susie

Why Journalists Are Leaving The Industry

Image by Etienne Boulanger

With living costs rising, I wanted to talk this week about journalism rates. Some people (not PRs, of course) are surprised to find out that no, we're not paid by clicks, or how well received our pieces are (we don't need more click-bait journalism, although perhaps I wouldn't be saying that if I received a pound for every view of a recent BBC article).

But while bills are increasing, there's one thing that's not going up and that's journalism rates. In fact, some freelance journalism rates are the SAME or LOWER than circa 2010. And even before. Imagine. If I think back to the freelance rates set at a trade title I first started at, the figure seems like a decent amount compared to some places now. Some more well-established tabloid journalists say that they're not even receiving half as much as they used to in the 90s. These days some online titles pay you around £90 for an article. The Guardian and BBC pay around £350 per 1000 words and £326 respectively (quite decent compared to everyone else). If you want to see how much other titles pay, you can check out this handy Freelance Fees Guide, where you can drill down into local news, magazines, books, etc.

Speak to any freelance journalist and they'll no doubt agree that it's a tough out there. Money is one of the key reasons why many journalists leave the industry, perhaps to go into roles some of you are in (PR/comms). Many like me have diversified into other areas and are juggling a few balls. If we still want to be a journalist, we simply have to. I know many who have added copywriter, celebrant, coach, and other jobs that don't begin with the letter 'c' to their bow. (Another popular choice is lecturing, as well as writing books). I actually love discovering what other career paths are out there.

As for me, I'm forever grateful that the Guardian contacted me about four years ago to run its PR masterclasses. Although journalism resolutely remains my focus, as many of you will know, that invite paved the way for me to start running my own workshops, setting up a course, creating Power Hours and a content network matching talented journalists with PRs and business owners. I also let out my home when I'm not there, which has been a lifesaver over the past five years. These other revenue streams have meant I can focus more on the kind of journalism I want to write.

I understand that publishers are having a torrid time, but these paltry rates need to stop. Stop giving overinflated pay packets and bonuses to the people at the top and start paying freelancers (and in-house journalists) a decent rate instead.

Have a great rest of the week.

Susie