Joanne the Coach

Journalism, But Not As We Know It

No, I'm not talking about Jan Moir (though I must say her Twitter feed is an exemplary exercise in brittleness. That's right Jan, insult your audience and boast about your salary, dig! dig! dig!)

Instead we ask: when is a journalism job not a journalism job? Why, when it's a beatblogger job, of course. The Guardian is looking for people to write about their local area, using a mixture of online reporting and commentary. And iambic pentameter. Oh hang on, turns out it's not that sort of beat. Sarah Hartley explains more about the project here.

So it's a job combining ye olde journalism skills with tres moderne blogstar skills. Probably pays a bit more than usual, since they're asking for more than usual - that's right, innit?

The Guardian is currently recruiting BB-ers in Leeds, Cardiff and Edinburgh - more details and how to apply here. Closing date: 8th November.

The Mummy Bloggers, the PRs and Working for Chips

One of the regular features I write for ParentDish is a roundup of the week's best parent blog posts. It's been a fascinating introduction to that whole world. Lately, there's been a row grumbling along concerning the way PRs have been circling the mummy blogs, looking for fresh meat.

In a nutshell, what's been happening is that the UK parent blogging scene has expanded enormously over the last year. More blogs, more readers, more word of mouth buzz. And now, more approaches from PRs, who've been sending press releases, offering products for review or incentives to blog about their products. Some mummy bloggers even got a free trip to Disneyland (being further down the blogchain, I got a trip to Butlins instead).

But for every clever PR bunny, there are many with hearts of cloth and brains of fluff. So you'll get nappies and baby food offered to reviewers whose youngest is six, and 'flavoured lubes' offered to someone who is innocent as they day is long (Me). When I get inappropriate press releases, I delete them. But Mummy Bloggers take a much more visible approach. Attempt to reel in a blogger in a patronising manner and they might well react like this.

The impression being given is that some PRs really do think that mummy bloggers are just silly little housewives, grateful for attention and ready to fall for any old flannel. They aren't, you know. When you send an email saying "love your blog", it's perfectly obvious when you haven't read it.

This latest PR request, I think, sets a new low (though I suspect there's deeper to fall). A manufacturer of potato products is running a campaign to educate kids about food (mainly potatoes). They are offering the first 15 bloggers to write about this campaign a whole - count 'em - £20 in vouchers for their potato products.

So your mission, should you choose to accept it - is blogging for chips.

Reminds me of the time I was walking down Oxford Street with my daughter, and we happened upon some male models clad only in pants. Daughter wondered why they were doing this, and I explained that it was their job, and they probably raked in a lot of money for shivering in their undercrackers on London's busiest street. With her best nine year old wisdom, she replied "Yes, but how much for their dignity?".

I think PRs need to wind their necks in a bit and be aware that all this gushing forth towards the mummy bloggers may well come back and bite them on the bum. And mummy bloggers need to be very careful about what they agree to do. Don't blog for chips, you're better than that.

Want to be on TV? You Sure About That?

I think there must be something in the gin over at TV Towers. Given that many of my coaching clients are looking to raise their profile in the media world, I've always got my eyes open for opportunities to pass on to them. But lately I've been rubbing my eyes in disbelief because some of the requests are just plain..odd. And I have a high capacity for odd. Take your pick from

• The BBC programme that's looking for people obsessed with vampires. Only those with own coffin need apply.
• Also from the BBC, the self-explanatory Famous, Rich and Jobless.
• Equally self-explanatory is new show Move Like Michael Jackson. I assume they mean when he was alive. I can't imagine his current movements would make for very compelling TV.
• Ethnic Plastic Surgery on Channel Four sounds frankly terrifying. Keeping well away from that one in case they try to laser off my rosy Irish cheeks.
• Another programme wants to know if your children see spirits. Well, yes they do, but they always know to get cider when I send them down the off licence.
• But winner of the award for oddest show that's currently looking for punters has to be the documentary on cross-species nurturing. Or to translate into plain English - they're looking for anyone who's breastfed a pig. Or a cat, horse, donkey or wildebeast. They're not fussy, just as long as you've breastfed an animal of some description. Nice to know factual television is still in pursuit of The Issues That Matter.

BBC/BAFTA Bursaries for Teenagers to Make TV Programmes

If you're a youngling between the ages of 16 and 19, interested in getting into TV, and you're not spending your summer in the Big Brother house, this may interest you instead: The BBC and BAFTA have joined forces to offer you genuine cash money to help you make a TV programme. Now, £3,000 may sound like a lot, but trust me, you'll be lucky if it covers the producer's biscuit bill. But you also get to work with a range of experienced TV personnel, and that in itself is worth more than trifling cash. Or the trifle that you might buy with the cash. So if you're successful, spend it wisely. Full details and how to apply are here.

Blame it on the PRs

I don't mean to keep having a go at PRs, but my goodness, they make it so easy.

On Friday I received an email promoting an event. Lots of other media people got sent it too, including journalists from The Times, Grazia and the BBC. How do I know this? Well, all the recipients' email addresses were left visible in the 'To' field of the message. I started counting how many people had had their contact details exposed in this way, and kind of wished I hadn't, because it came to 294. Come on dudes, even I know how to use the bcc field, and I'm a techno-neanderthal.

Aside from the privacy issues, if you are sending an email to this many people at once, you stand a higher chance of getting tangled up in spam filters. Since ticket sales from this event are raising funds for a charity for people with cancer, I would have thought that the aim was to make it more, not less, likely that media would hear about it. Am I missing something here?

Things I Don't Understand About PRs

So as promised below, I wanted to let you know the good parts of my journalistic communications with the PR dudes. Here you go:

{cavernous echo}

Only joking. Seriously, over all it's been good. When I sent out requests on Response Source, Gorkana and the 4Media group, I was slightly hoping to get replies that included something extra daft to chuckle about. These free services exist to connect journalists with a wide range of PRs and their wares. But many of the journalists I know talk about them in quite derisory terms, swapping stories about the time they asked for information about penile implants, and got a press release for a product that washes your vavoova instead.

Alas, I didn't get anything all that random, but did get lots of useful information which in turn led to stuff I could write about. I am old enough to remember the days when, if you wanted to contact a bunch of PRs, you just had to grab your contacts book and a phone, get your head down and start dialling. So when used well, these sites can be a great resource on all sides. But there were still some aspects of PRs behaviour I couldn't quite follow.

• The sudden silences
  If you send a press release, and I reply with "Oh yes, I've used those, they're great - send more info/jpeg pic and I'll write about it" that's not a trick response. I'm not taking the piss. And it's certainly not a cue for you to go silent and never get in touch again.
• I only said hello, no need to propose
  Just because I asked for press releases on parenting stuff, doesn't make it a good idea to put me on a mailing list for everything you ever represented. I have enough trouble keeping track of info on stuff I'm interested in, I just don't have the brain space for all the rest as well.
• The terrier-like persistence, even though the plot has moved on considerably
  Our friends, The Bunnies in the Mirror, still rang me up to see if I was coming to their event. Twice.
• Why so coy? You're promoting this stuff, right?
  A large proportion of PRs who replied to my request simply hit 'Reply' and didn't bother to put anything in the subject matter about what they were promoting. Still more simply put "For ParentDish" in the subject line. I do keep press releases that I don't use straight away, and I do look back over them. But when you have a dozen with the same subject matter, it's hard to see the wood for the trees. It's a simple thing, but you'll make yourself stand out in a journalist's inbox if you say what it is you're offering in the subject line.
• Why phone people who don't want to be phoned?
  I was very careful to leave my phone number off my media requests, for the simple reason that I prefer to be contacted by email. This is practical as much as anything else, as I am often coaching by phone for an hour at a time, so if you call you won't get me. And if you do, I'm probably just a teensy bit busy. If you pitch by phone I'm less, not more, likely to listen.
• The messages that make no sense or are just plain wrong
  Some of the messages I received simply made no sense at all - they were just fragments of phrases that had been cut and pasted a little too often. And saying "This is for your new health site" when it's not a health site, won't turn it into one just because you have a health product to promote.

So aside from all that, if you are PR-ing for something in the parenting/family line, yes I do want to hear about it. But dudes, none of the above please.

Name and shame?

Several people have said that I should name the PR firm referred to in the smashed mirror debacle. But though I'm not shy of calling a turd a turd, I've decided not to in this case. The reason being that if you point the finger at somebody else, then it becomes solely about them. And I think the point here about lack of attention to detail, and the consequences to that, is much wider, and one we could all do with paying attention to.

But I did email the company involved, politely pointing out what had happened and not once using the phrase "you useless feckers, why in billy blazes did you do this?". I think you can tell a lot about a company according how they respond when things have gone wrong, and this is a PR firm which has won 9 awards for excellence in the last year. This was their emailed response:

Please accept our sincere apologies for the broken mirror and any injury caused to your daughter. We are currently speaking with our suppliers on the delivery mechanism of the invites and will be taking this matter up with them.

What do you think of that? Sincere apology or a bit muted? I wonder what this mysterious "delivery mechanism" is? I hope they don't put it to work organising a piss up in a brewery.

And daughterino's foot is fine now. We are soon to launch ourselves on a joint journalistic mission of sweet testing. I think she's learning that sweet and sour is the name of the media game. 

Feel the Fear (of Phone Calls) And Do It Anyway

When I worked at Anglia TV, we once had a student come in on work experience who was afraid to pick up the phone. She would look at it ringing and visibly cringe. This was remarkable because it was so unusual - workies in TV production are usually outgoing types who have to be physically restrained from breaking into song. And it was also noteworthy because talking to people on the phone is such a vital media skill - you will pick up so much more talking to a real live person than you ever would in an email.

It seems that phone phobic media students are on the rise, according to this post from Tim Luckhurst at the Centre for Journalism. He argues that your first contact with a source should always be via phone. I don't think that is neccessarily the case - we should be sophisticated enough to judge what's the best way to communicate with potential interviewees. Often that will be via phone, but not always - some people actively prefer interviews via email, or at least an initial emailed request.

I do agree that fear of using the phone does seem to be increasing amongst journalists, and not neccessarily just the new ones. Many experienced writers would rather eat their own eyeballs than call up an editor. If this is you, click here for my tips on how to be more confident on the phone.

MediaWomenUK - Don't Be Square Be There

Well, it's all going on over at MediaWomenUK. I created this group on a whim, with no agenda other than since there wasn't already an online networking group for women in media, it might be worth creating one. Men, women,  goats - everyone's welcome to join. The group is nearly 4 years old and is just shy of 700 members, who pass work and support to each other every day. As a group it's quietly, elegently powerful, like a swan on a sponsored silence.

It's still very lo-fi, but that's what happens when you get a techno-dumbo as moderator. Heck, I still get excited about digital watches.

This week I got tickling the Database section of the group. So now we have a members' database of editorial contacts, one for PR contacts and one for experts. Who knows what will come of that? Brace yourselves, people.

Daily Mail Stolen LapTop - Freelancers Beware

News reaches my big flappy ears that many UK freelance journalists have had a letter today, confirming that the latest institution to have lost a laptop containing confidential information is...the Daily Mail. 

Apparently names, addresses, account numbers and sort codes have been sucked up into laptop Valhalla.  Though the letter was sent on the 2nd, so maybe they're not that worried.

So if you're a freelancer who's worked for the Mail, check out your bank account to make sure no-one's been truffling around in it.