Getting Ink

The Christmas Quiz. Except, not about Christmas.

As you may or may not remember, way back in February of this year I made a New Year’s resolution to watch 100 new movies.

It’s actually been pretty great – I’ve been going to the cinema regularly, I've discovered Lovefilm and I've seen a good mixture of indie, foreign language and mainstream movies. I love going to the cinema in the afternoons, now my daughter is in school. I've seen some really amazing films - although I should warn the parents among you that Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeakquel is most decidedly NOT an amazing movie.

So, as a thanks to everyone who’s given me their recommendations this year, I’ve put together an end of year movie quiz.  Here are 20 quotes from films I’ve seen this year as part of my movie project – the challenge is to fill in the blank word (just identifying quotes makes it too easy to cheat!) and, for a bonus point, name the film. Eternal glory, boasting rights and perhaps even a box of Fuzzy Felt to the first person to get all 20 correct: 

1. "_____ love pepper. They hate cinammon." 
2. "So we're not getting married but I have to get rid of my ______?" 
3. "A few hours ago, you were getting chai for the phone ______" 
4. "What a happy surprise! ______ is alive after all!"
5. "I can't believe it. You and Dad get paid to write about _____ and you hate dirt."
6. "I've got a ______ the size of a honeydew."
7. "Tracy was playing with _______ before she met Evie" 
8. "You're a young girl. You should be at ____. You should be dressed up, going out with boys, going to school." 
9. "What did you expect? Coffins and ______ and moats?" 
10. "I found _____." "What?" "I found _____. He's much taller in person."
11. "The good news is the engine has exploded and we're all going to ____."
12. "Big mountains, rivers, sky. Just be out there in it. In the ____."
13. "I'm letting you off easy. I was going to ask for the whole ___."
14. "Years ago, I knew a boy who made all the wrong choices. He seemed a student like any other. His name was _______."  
15. "I am a death dealer, sworn to destroy all those known as the _____"
16. "Just because she likes the same bizarro crap you do doesn't mean she's your _______."
17. "We think the new _____ is the cat's Me-Wow."
18. "Are you now or have you ever been a Norse God, Vampire, or Time Traveling ______"
19. "You stay under water for three minutes. If you can do it, I'll just nick you. But if you can't, I'll poke one of your ____ out."
20. "His salary's 300 quid a week? You can't pay a ______ that!"

Are PRs going to come to their senses in 2010?

If you’ve never read Dan Hughes’ blog, All That Comes With It, I recommend you do – Dan is one of the UK’s best parent bloggers, and he’s also organising a fantastic charity walk along Hadrian's Wall for 2010 that could use some support from the PR and media community.

In recent months, Dan and I have had a few conversations about the relationship between blogging and PR. Dan, like many bloggers, feels on some level that PR is ‘polluting’ blogs and robbing them of their grassroots appeal, while I tend to make references to it being 2009 and not 1969 in Haight Ashbury.

This week, both Dan and I have written about what we think will happen to parent blogs in 2010 – if you're interested, click to read Dan’s post and my own post. One of our points of disagreement is how big a role PR will play in blogs in 2010 – Dan thinks PR agencies are going to come to their senses, realise blogs are one big self-referential circle jerk and stop pitching them; while I think PR agencies will continue to work with blogs even more although I suspect smart agencies will begin targeting their efforts towards a smaller number of perceived ‘premium’ blogs.

Dan reckons my view is tainted by the fact that I have an interest in perpetuating a PR/blogger relationship – which is sort of a fair point.  After all, I provide training workshops to PRs in working with bloggers.

But here’s the thing. As a journalist, at least, I’d rather not have to worry about blogs. I’d rather not know that when I pitch for an online commission I’m up against bloggers who will charge a 10th of my usual rates. I’d rather not know that major publishers are (frankly) pissing all over professional writers by paying £75 for online features or £25 per post. On that level, I’d rather believe that blogs are just a passing phase and in another year or so, we’ll all get back to reading professionally produced content, paid for at professional rates.

I just don’t think it’s going to happen.

So, given that I see the future being online content, I don't expect PRs to stop reaching out to online content producers (bloggers) who offer them a cheap, effective route to reach consumers.  I am not a PR expert so please correct me if I'm wrong, but in terms of search engine marketing and reaching a targeted audience, I suspect blogs are a pretty cost-effective part of the media mix. Yes, measuring the return on any social media campaign is tricky at best, but I think it is being done, by most people.

But I’m really interested in the perspective of other journalists and PRs on this issue - do you agree that smart journalists should be trying to get hands-on experience of blogs and online publishing? Do you think PRs are right to pitch blogs? Or will we all come to our senses in 2010?

How long before we start paying you?

Twitter's depressing sometimes, isn't it?

This week, I've noticed an increasing number of bloggers on Twitter, debating what to charge PR companies for writing features on their client's websites. Today, I read about a blogger celebrating - and being congratulated by other bloggers - because she had negotiated the PR executive up to £35 for a 600 word post. Jesus. I dread to think what the opening offer was.

It's not a criticism of the bloggers - it's just another example of how devalued professional writing has become in some circles. Why pay a journalist £500 for a feature if a blogger will make a reasonable fist of it for thirty or forty quid?

Of course, we journalists comfort ourselves with the idea that our years of experience and specialist knowledge mean we can continue to justify our price premium.

For example, I've written about enterprise technology, HR, business and the public sector for 10 years now. I've done proper training and stuff that means I can interview people, do shorthand, and hopefully not write anything that will end up with someone being sued for libel. And during my career, I've built up a really great network of contacts and lots  a smattering of technical understanding - that's got to be worth something, right?

Well, sure, unless you're Intel. Which this week made the horrible error of sending out a blanket email to seemingly every journalist in the "IT journo" phone book. So I got an email saying that "as one of the leading authorities on all things technological" with an "interesting blog" I am a "credible influencer" in the industry. Cripes!

On this basis, intel really hopes I'll want to contribute to their new online encyclopaedia of technology which will have interactive timelines and all sorts of whizzy features. It'll be a really amazing resource (on Intel's website, of course) and I can submit articles on anything I like, so long as it's technology-related. Oh, and they're not paying. Of course.

Who could resist? 

Four months and counting...

Back in mid-August, I was invited to an event by a chirpy PR exec working for a consumer PR agency. It was to launch a new toy range, and as I edit a toy review website, the PR agency thought I’d like to come along, see the new range, and take away a sample to review for the site.

I replied explaining that I couldn’t attend the event (which was in London) and neither could any of our team, but I was interested in the product and could we please get a sample to review for the website. Five days later, the PR replies: “no problem, I’ll get the sample sent over”. I send the reviewer’s details, let them know to expect the product, and promptly forget about it.

September 4th, I get another invite to the toy launch. Hmm. I email the PR back saying I’d already declined the invite but asked for the review sample – has it been sent? Are we still okay to do the review?

Five days later, the PR replies. “Of course. What publication is this for?”

Refraining from saying anything sarcastic about how unusual it is to invite someone to your client’s event without having the first clue who they write for, I reply, reminding her of the website and again providing the address for the sample.

We then don’t hear anything until almost six weeks later. Then, on 26th October, I get an email from the PR. “I noticed I haven’t spoken to you about this. Are you still interested in doing the review?”

This time, I allow myself a little sarcasm. I reply to the PR saying: “Wow, you’re alive. Yes, once again, we’d love to do the review, here are the details, thanks very much.”

The PR replies two days later. “Great. I’ll get these sent out right away. Sorry for the delay!”

November comes and goes.

So on December 3rd, I email the PR because we’re finishing up the reviews for Christmas and most of the companies we’re dealing with are anxious to get reviews up as quickly as possible. So I drop the PR a quick email saying, “Just concerned these might have gone astray in the post. Can you let me know if they were sent?”

A week later, and I’ve had no reply. Nothing.

Here’s the thing. I get that there’s a pecking order in media and new websites are quite low down in the pile. And I get that a website written by a team of bloggers isn’t exactly GMTV or the Daily Mail. So sometimes we wait for stuff, or we might only get to borrow stuff for a few days. I’ve no problem with any of that.

But I do have a real issue with a lack of professional courtesy. Taking five days to reply to emails? Isn’t okay. Inviting someone to an event and then forgetting who they write for when they reply to you? Isn’t okay. Promising a sample in August and still not having sent it by the middle of December? Isn’t okay. And not replying at all to an email asking if the sample might have got lost in the post? Is just bloody rude, frankly and a big, fat waste of my time. Which I don't have a lot of.

This is a big consumer PR agency. It won some Agency of the Year award last year. So one presumes it's pretty successful. But my over-riding impression is that it employs idiots. And the chances of me wanting to get involved in the next thing they pitch me are pretty slim, I have to say.

Moving from Virgin (back) to BT

In March of this year, I blogged about the problems I had moving from BT to Virgin. After I blogged about my frustrations, a very nice man from Virgin Media got in touch and did some magic that created my new account, and my broadband was soon up and working. I had three routers, for some reason, but I didn't dwell on it.

The only downside of the intervention was that somehow Mr Nice had created a whole new account for me, and I was paying a direct debit onto the first account I'd created. For some reason, Virgin couldn't get its head around this. So somewhere around June, my phone was cut off because Virgin hadn't collected a payment for three months. I called, paid the bill in full, provided the bank details again. 

Cut to November. A letter arrives from Virgin, saying they're sorry I'm cancelling my service. What?? I log in to my account and discover - again - no payment has been taken for three months. I pay the outstanding balance online and called Virgin on the 10th.

"Well, the thing is you're showing as a former customer, so I can't activate your account."

"Er, okay, well, just tell me what I need to do to get my broadband back."

"Well, it's very complicated."

"Right. So do I need to pay more? Set up a new account?"

"Well, I can't tell you. I'm not sure how long it might take if you did. It's not my department." 

"So, would it be quicker for me to just set up a new BT account and leave this one closed?"

"Well, I don't know. Maybe."

I said thanks, put the phone down, went to BT.com and ordered a new broadband account in five minutes flat. I was given an email address and password there and then, with an activation date of the 16th - six days later.  

I'm pretty happy. BT's broadband, in my experience at least, is faster and far more reliable than Virgin, and I'm now paying £20 a month or so for a service that used to cost me more than £120 last time I was with BT. And I get free WiFi in Caffe Nero and Starbucks again, which is no bad thing.

The real stinger in the tail, though, was a letter I got from Virgin the day after my last conversation with them. They wanted me to pay the £11 for broadband and phone service in November - which would usually fall due on November 30th. "If you do not make this payment IMMEDIATELY we will instruct a debt collection agency, who may take legal action against you..."

Blimey, guys, way to make a parting gesture.

Just wrong on every level.

Sometimes you get a voicemail message that's SO amazing - in a bad way - that you have to listen to it three times.

Then you have to put it on speakerphone and ring a friend so they can listen to it too. Then you listen to it again, just to make sure you heard it properly. Wow.

With certain identifying details removed, here's the message a PR exec left on my mobile today:

"Hi Sally, it's --- from ----. I'm just calling about an article you wrote for --- magazine where you quoted ----. It was in the context of talking about a ----- that they had purchased from ----. Now I noticed that the vendor name -----, which is based in -----, is missing. I can see where it should be inserted, but it isn't there.

I'm a bit - well, I'm very unhappy actually because the whole point of us responding to the Response Source request was to promote ----- and they're not even mentioned in the article. And it's not going to be enough for you to just insert -----'s name into the article online, because it's over a month old now, so they wouldn't even get the leverage or the views.

As I said, we're pretty unhappy about it. So I was thinking we could do something else with --- magazine so that ----- can get some coverage. What I'll do is drop you an email and perhaps you could call me as soon as possible..." 

Seriously? I mean, seriously?

For those who aren't sure why this is a hugely inappropriate email to send to a journalist, here are some handy tips:

Providing a customer quote is a great way to increase the odds of your client getting coverage, but if you want a guarantee? Buy an ad.

Sometimes copy gets cut by people other than the writer and for many different reasons. Maybe they need to free up space on the page. Maybe a competitor to your client just bought a big ad next to this feature. Maybe the editor just didn't like the sentence where your client got named. Maybe the customer didn't say anything interesting about you. Blaming the writer won't get you anywhere apart from on their 'don't bother talking to that one next time' list. 

If you don't like something, I suggest calling the editor and asking them to compensate you with another feature that DOES include your client's name. Also, please tape the call and post it online. Cause I'd really love to hear how that works out for you. Or you could just say, "Disappointed we didn't rate a mention there, is there anything else you're working on we could help with? Or perhaps you'd be interested in an exclusive interview with another customer?"

Unbelievable.

Did the journalist die out in 2009?

Most journalists have that experience of telling someone at a party that they're a journalist, only to be met with the hilarious riposte: "ooh, better be careful what we say, eh?" Ho flippin' ho.

Except I'm not sure how many journalists I actually know these days - at least in the sense I understood journalism back when I started out.

One of my former editors has given up B2B journalism in favour of publishing sponsored supplements for CIOs. Another former editor from Emap now commissions me for a website about the use of technology in the NHS - the website is sponsored by a vendor. Another former commissioning ed from a national now commissions me for articles in the national press - but they're supplements paid for by major IT vendors.

I write for a couple of magazines published by professional associations, one magazine published by a University, another published by a government department - but at the moment, I only have one regular client that involves actual, independent journalism (insofar as any business journalism is ever independent of course). 

The remainder of my work is split pretty evenly between writing white papers, websites, blogs and other commercial content and taking on PR clients - at the moment I do PR for a women's development social enterprise, for a pre-school activity provider and an acupuncture clinic. Through my PR work, I started a parenting blog and that's translated into a couple of writing gigs and some fiming work  - on websites owned by a travel company and a major consumer brand. I've also expanded my training to include blogs and social media as well as mainstream media.

Honestly, these days when someone asks me at a party what I do for a living I'm more inclined to say that I'm a "writer" than a journalist - it somehow feels more honest. Is it just me? Are there any bona fide freelance journalists still out there?