Getting Ink

Don't you know who I am?

Sadly, it's not a rhetorical question.

My dubious PR activities mean that my link on the Text 100 blogroll doesn't appear under the "journalist" category. Instead I've been moved to "Good UK PR People".

I mean, obviously I'm pleased they think I'm a good PR person at least, but seriously, guys? I'm not a PR person. Still doing the old journalism thing.

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

Apparently, 50 hacks a week are being laid off and are joining the freelance pool, meaning the likes of me are competing against more and more people for words on fewer and fewer pages. Is it surprising Adrian says that hacks are all a bit – well – miserable?

At the risk of sounding heartless: yes, things ARE really tough, but get over it. If you want to survive the recession working as a journalist, pessimism isn't the way to do it.

Freelancing requires optimism. You'll get a lot of no's for every yes, and it's important not to take it personally. Sometimes the publication has no budget; sometimes the editor has commissioned someone else; sometimes it's just a case of your idea not being quite right for that paper on that particular day. If you let the no's get you down, it's hard to keep generating the sort of ideas that will eventually score you a 'yes'.

Freelancing also requires self-belief. I remember telling an editor in my first job that I thought I was a better writer than him. Probably not my smartest moment - but I believed it. I'm probably delusional but my confidence in my abilities means I'm not afraid to pitch big papers or compete against other freelancers for contracts - because I believe I do a good job, and the client would be pleased with my work.

Without those two qualities, I think it would be impossible to succeed as a freelancer in any kind of market - much less in a recession.

Of course, I recognise we're working in a tough market. I'm taking steps to broaden my client base, I’ve adjusted rates where necessary, and I’m absolutely looking to acquire new skills that will help me to be a better supplier as the market evolves. And it’s possible that despite all of this, my clients could simply run out of cash, stop hiring me, and my income could fall off a cliff. If it happens, it happens. But I don't feel miserable about it. And I'm not so busy worrying about the cliff that I neglect to see the opportunities that ARE still there - less frequent, certainly, and often less lucrative - but opportunities nonetheless.

Amidst all the doom and gloom, I think one basic thing has been forgotten: being a journalist is pretty cool. Hundreds of people would jump at the chance to be a journalist - and it's still one of the most popular choices for university students. If people ask me, I still think what I do is pretty good – and definitely better than a proper job. Isn’t anyone glad to be a journalist any more?

How not to do media relations, part 607,043

Got a fantastic press release today, about a new book.

On the upside, it's a book about management and improving employee morale. This is good because :

a) if ever there was a time morale could use a boost in most companies, it's about now and
b) i do write about HR, business and management, so it's a book that might be relevant to me

That said, there was just one teeny, tiny error on the PR agency's part. At the bottom of the release was a contact telephone number and a link to buy the book on Amazon.co.uk.

Hmm.

Perhaps it's just me, but I'm going to guess that most of my clients are more interested in books BEFORE they're published. If you're going to pitch journalists about a book, we'll usually expect a preview copy, which allows us to review the book in the same week or month that it's published.

This means we're unused to buying review books from Amazon. Seriously. You can't afford to send out a few review copies? I know it's a recession, really I feel your pain, but you know what? If you don't send a review copy, we won't buy the book. We'll review the other books where we WERE sent review copies.

Twitter: bringing hacks and flacks together.

Anyone who uses Twitter these days (and if you're not, why not? Paris Hilton's on there, you know) knows there are lots of little Twitter apps that tell you basically how great or rubbish you are according to some metric or other - Twitter Grader, Twitter Analyzer, Twitter Herder etc etc.

I saw one last week, though, that caught my eye - Twitter Friends. These app creates a visual map of your Twitter friends. Ho hum. But on the left of the screen it also shows your Twitter BFFs; the people you interact with most.

Here's what mine look like:

1. lisatalkingtots
2. whatdoyoudo
3. btudor
4. jedhallam
5. stedavies
6. wadds
7. chrisgreen
8. brendancooper
9. markpinsent
10. misscay
11. siobhanoneill
12. katyhowell
13. robashwell
14. richmillington
15. psmith
16. katebevan
17. domw
18. bmcmichael
19. glennf
20. benroome

What struck me when I looked at this list was that over half of the people represented are PR types.

I can't think of any other sort of communication channel where that's true - emails, phone, LinkedInk, Facebook - all my other comms are biased either towards real-life friends or journalists and editors. The people on the Twitter list I probably speak to a few times each week - whereas on email, I might speak to even a pretty longstanding PR contact only a few times a year.

So what? Well, if I was looking to hire a PR agency in 2009, one of the things I'd be looking to do is see how many journalists (particularly in key target media) were regularly engaging with the agency in question - using things like Twitter. Because I guarantee if Jed or Wadds sent me an email I'd read it a little more closely than I would have done in my pre-Twitter days.

And finally - if I was a PR agency, I'd be looking to get my execs signed up to Twitter pretty sharpish. Where else do you have a captive audience of journos who are happy to chat to you?