Getting Ink

The Christmas Quiz. Except, not about Christmas.

*UPDATE: Apologies to those of you who did this - I enabled comment moderation and forgot to publish the entries. Ahem. But well done to AJB who scored 18, I'll post the full answers tomorrow*

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.