Getting Ink

Seven Questions for... Olivia Gordon

Olivia Gordon is a freelance journalist and regular contributor to women's magazines, national newspapers and supplements. She lives in London and will be helping to run our nationals:101 and women&health courses, as well as offering media training and pitching coaching through the:101.

We asked her our seven burning questions:

What’s your current job?

For the last two and a half years, I've been a freelance journalist, writing mainly features, but also doing the occasional news story and in-house features desk shifts. I've contributed to a variety of national papers and women's magazines, including the Observer, Guardian, Times, Telegraph, Mail, Evening Standard, Red, Cosmo Bride, She, Psychologies, NW, First, Real, Essentials, Tatler and Woman's Own among others. I'm a generalist with a passion for covering fresh issues and trends and do everything from reportage to real life to travel, health, the arts and lifestyle.

What did you do  before?

I worked as a staff features writer for the now-defunct women's magazine Real, reporting on everything from what makes a tomboy to discrimination against disabled mothers to what goes on backstage at Miss England.

Did you always want to be a journalist?

Yes, as a child, but unfortunately I allowed myself to be swayed into teaching and publishing as a new graduate, before seeing the light again.

What’s the best  thing a PR could do for you?

Give me an exclusive on an amazing new trend, pass on all the info needed before I even have to ask for it, and help source great interviewees. Not much, then!

When did a PR person last annoy  you?

The PR who sent a mail-merge gone wrong to me and several other journalists. In my case it read:

'Dear Ms Gordon

Please find below details of XX who is currently in XX teaching XX. On XX's return we would be interested in writing about his unique experience in Gordon, Olivia, including some interesting facts/information on XX.

Many thanks for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you if this is of interest.'

Classic!

When did you last annoy a PR person?

A day ago, when I went to a launch and only stayed for five minutes to get my goody bag. Very naughty, I know.

Can you tell us  something we don’t know?

In 2004, research confirmed that typically, women's hips are larger than their busts, so we are more pear-shaped than hourglass.

Seven Questions for ... Sally Whittle

Sally Whittle is the founder of the:101 PR training company, Getting Ink and the new media request blog. She is a freelance journalist for a large number of publications including Government Computing, Health Service Journal, Children Now, the Guardian, Third Sector and Human Resources.

Sally was on staff at Computing and InformationWeek in the 1990s but went freelance in 2001, and has decided she is unsuited to full-time employment. Instead, she lives in Lancashire, and thinks of ways to take over the world. She asked herself these questions...

What’s your current job?
I’m a freelance business, HR and public sector journalist. I write for various newspapers, websites and magazines. I also teach sign language to babies.

What did you do before?
I’ve been on staff at IT trade magazines and a financial website, before that I was a nightclub manager in Leicester Square, and a fundraiser for Greenpeace in Canada.

Did you always want to be a journalist?
Yes, apart from a brief spell in my teens when I wanted to be a forest ranger. I stuffed up A-Level geography and reverted to Plan A.

What’s the best thing a PR could do for you?
Be enthusiastic, offer me stories not press releases, understand the practicalities of how stories are put together, and ideally, do it on an all-expenses-paid trip to Antigua.

When did a PR person last annoy you?
Last week when I was on deadline and a PR lined me up with a spokesperson who was unable to answer even the most basic question. Irritating, because I missed my deadline as a result.

When did you last annoy a PR person?
Most days, I expect, although it’s not intentional. 

Can you tell us something we don’t know?
I’ve been taking guitar lessons and just played Slow Dancing in a Burning Room with my 17-year-old neighbour on vocals. Rock and Roll, eh?

Seven Questions for ... Chris Wheal

Chris Wheal is perhaps the:101's most grown-up trainer. He's written about insurance, for example. Chris is also an expert in everything to do with podcasts and 2.0 technologies,as well as writing features on business and personal finance.

Chris will be attending the:101 Meet the Media event on February 13th (details here) but in the meantime, we asked him our seven burning questions, and here's what he told us:

What’s your current job?
My most interesting current job is to write, edit, and produce sound and video for a new website project called Creative News. It is for the Creative Industries Observatory and the first few assignments included interviewing former culture minister Chris Smith (now Lord) and a trip to Disneyland Paris to talk to their head Imagineer.

What did you do before?
I have regular stuff for Insurance Times, have done some editing for Engaged Investor, produce Healthcare Finance and written for Building. It's a mixed bag really. I have edited a couple of weekly magazines and was editing a monthly called Service Management before Christmas. I have been freelance for 12 years and run my own company so I get to do a lot of different things at different times.

Did you always want to be a journalist?
I wrote a letter to the Independent in 1987 about Albania. It got published and had four replies, including the London School of Economics, and they all agreed with me (many years later the government later did what I had suggested, though I doubt my letter tipped the scales). I decided if what I wrote was good enough to 
print then I ought to be paid for it, so I became a journalist.

What’s the best thing a PR could do for you?
These days think about video and audio as well as just the words. The angle of the sun can cause havoc, interviews in rooms with lots of background noise are a common feature and so on. So much will be for 
the web and will involve audio and video that PRs need to learn new skills in terms of setting up interviews and events that will allow for good video and audio to be easily and quickly produced.

When did a PR person last annoy you?
When they commissioned me to ghost write an article and I was paid late. Being paid late is the bane of any freelance's life and I hate it.

When did you last annoy a PR person?
On a press trip to Germany when the German PR chief insisted he was in charge, not the Brits. The trade press in Germany show their copy to the PRs before running it. The Brits do not. He assumed that because they were always happy with everything they saw from the German trade press (there's no point sending stuff you know they will want to change) they could speak just as freely to the UK trade press.

They slagged off three major companies, who went ballistic when they read it, and agreed they could afford to buy a major UK company, causing a run on the stock exchange and their shares being suspended. The German PR lost his job and no UK journalist went to the headquarters for five years as a result.

Can you tell us something we don’t know?
A rugby referee can run up to nine miles while refereeing a match. Yes I have been known to referee rugby matches since giving up playing. You have to be very fit.

Seven Questions for ... Michael Cross

Michael Cross is a highly experienced newspaper journalist, and one of the UK's leading reporters on public sector IT projects.

Michael will be running several nationals:101 courses for the:101 this year, when he's not busy writing articles, trying to launch a Register of Interests for journalists,  helping to run the Journobiz forum or even posing in his underwear (in the name of charity)

We asked him our seven burning questions:

What’s your current job?
I’m a freelance journalist specialising in government information and IT policy. My main outlets are the Guardian and the British Medical Journal, but I've written for more or less everyone.

What did you do before?
My last staff job was at The Independent. I was also at New Scientist for a long time, and have been a foreign correspondent in Japan, the US and some very out-of-the-way places.

Did you always want to be a journalist?
No, but I drifted in to it when I was 20 and there's probably no way out, now...

What’s the best thing a PR could do for you?
Tell me when interesting things are happening.

When did a PR person last annoy you?
I don't remember; I'll take calls from anyone, but...

When did you last annoy a PR person?
I can be brusque on the phone. 

Can you tell us something we don’t know?
400 years after it was published, rights to the King James Bible still belong to the Crown

Seven Questions for ... Linda Jones

Linda Jones is an experienced journalist and prolific blogger, running successful blogs on parenting twins and freelance writing. Linda will be providing delegates at 101 training courses with insight into writing for women's magazines, including the fabulous story of just why she found herself shouting, "I want to **** your ****!" down the phone to a sub while standing by the satsumas in Sainsburys.

If you'd like to find out more, Linda's websites are here, here and here. Or you could just read her answers to our seven burning questions:

Whats your current job?
I’m director of a small agency in the Midlands, which sells features to national publications as well as doing copywriting and proofreading work for a range of companies and organisations. Current commissions include Practical Parenting and Take a Break.

What did you do before?
I went freelance in 1999, as soon as I returned to work after having my twin daughters Emily and Melissa. Before that I worked on regional newspapers, as a news editor on a couple (The Wolverhampton Express & Star and Worcester Evening News) and had also worked as the editor of an English-language paper in Russia.

Did you always want to be a journalist?
Yes – how annoying is that? When I was 10 I drew a picture of the front page of the Daily Express in my school exercise book and wrote the headline “Disaster, by Linda Jones” I announced that I wanted to work on The Express or The Sunday Mercury in Birmingham, as these were the papers my mum and dad read at the time. It was another 28 years before I filed my first story for The Express and I worked at The Sunday Mercury for two weeks about 12 years ago, quitting after two weeks when I was offered another job. That sort of record also shows that I was always cut out to be a freelance.

What’s the best thing a PR could do for you?
Just deliver what they say they can.

When did a PR person last annoy you?
I got a round robin email yesterday that I think I was supposed to believe was crafted just for me and it heralded the results of a latest survey – sadly, I couldn’t understand a word of it.

When did you last annoy a PR person?
I requested specific contact information from a national body as directed by an editor, when I had suggested I could hit the phone and get that information myself. The editor was keen that the organisation could help. After pushing for two weeks to be given what was promised (the most basic info you could ever want) I sent an email explaining what had been so woeful about their response to my repeated requests for help. I don’t think the PR liked that very much.

Can you tell us something we don’t know?
This question has really made me laugh. I have been asked it so many times and really struggle! Anyone who knows me knows that I can’t keep a secret to save my life and wear my heart on my sleeve. For those who have never met me, I suppose I’d like my answer to be that I have reported on Gorbachev, Claudia Schiffer, The Queen and ooh, Lionel Blair.

Seven Questions for ... Louise Tickle

Louise Tickle is a new recruit to the:101 family, and will be taking several of our courses this year, including nationals:101 and email:101 in Manchester. Louise specialises in writing about ethical business, social affairs, education and travel, and is a regular contributor to most of the broadsheet newspapers.

Here, Louise answers our seven burning questions:

What's your current job?
Freelance journalist

What did you do before?
I used to be a press officer for various national charities, and then a stint in Kosovo trying to persuade local journalists of the merits of political independence in reporting elections, no matter whether their brother-in-law was the mayor.

Did you always want to be a journalist?
Nope - didn't cross my mind till I got fed up of always arranging fun things for journalists to do when I was a press officer!

What’s the best thing a PR could do for you?
Be on the end of the phone when I call, not on lunch with no answerphone. Get back to me with information as fast as possible: a week later is no good. Do what you say you'll do by the time you said you'd do it. Actually, no, that's the basics. If a PR would approach me with a genuinely excellent story idea, in a short pitch, with a good idea of where it could go, and a decent angle and peg, that would make my day.

When did a PR person last annoy you?
Yesterday, when someone demanded why I hadn't got back to their email 'pitch' - in fact, a long, rambling message telling me about why a particular mobile phone company was so good for graduates.

When did you last annoy a PR person?
Probably when I - unusually - bothered to email back suggesting that they look at my website, check out the kind of stuff I wrote, and only approached me again if they had a specific idea for a story, not a paen to their client's HR practices.

Can you tell us something we don’t know?
I  know how to navigate myself safely out of a minefield if only I have access to a four inch nail. No kidding.