Post 21: Cricket and the push/pull of the information age

August 10, 2009 in Computers, Freelance life, Sport, Web 2.0

I’m a cricket fan. I adore the longer form of the game.
Part of me understands that a game which spans thirty hours over five days is anachronistic and I see why some say Test cricket is dieing. It’s easy to see the logic that asserts that condensed forms of cricket tailored to the hectic demands [...]

Post 16, 2009: Two new ways to fund journalism

June 3, 2009 in Freelance life, The future of journalism

I think everyone now agrees that while newspapers in their current form are in strife, nobody wants quality journalism to disappear.
But no-one knows how to fund it.
I’ve got three ideas and in this post I want to deal with two.
1. Industries should fund journalism directly
I cover a couple of obscure industries that have little dedicated [...]

Post 3, 2009. Mnemonics

February 12, 2009 in Freelance life, Search, Web 2.0, Work

I was writing a document yesterday and found myself thinking about which phrases it contained that I would one day use to find it using Google desktop search.
In the past, I imagine I would have thought about the name or been more careful with the folders I saved the file into.
Now my whole thought process [...]

Post 66:08 I cannot believe I have to write this, but here goes

October 2, 2008 in Freelance life, P-aaaaargh!, Work

Hey PRs. Two tips!

READ THE PUBLICATIONS YOU PITCH TO BEFORE YOU PITCH TO THEM
Note the sections they include. Form an opinion about the type of readers the book or site cultivates. This will avoid you wasting time when calling journalists with bad ideas. It will also mean you are actually delivering value for your clients [...]

Post 65:08 PR kids deserve better from their managers

October 1, 2008 in Freelance life, P-aaaaargh!, Worst practise

Over the last week or two, I’ve had a few sad calls from young PRs.
I’ve tried to be nice but the calls have been dreadful. They go like this:
PR: Hi. I’m XXX from PR Agency YYY. I see you have a feature on topic ZZZ.
Me: Yes I do. Who’s your client?
PR: Company A.
Me: Why do [...]

Post 64:08 Hi PRs – thanks to my new experiment you can send me ALL THE PRESS RELEASES YOU WANT!

September 12, 2008 in Freelance life, Web 2.0, Work

For more than five years, I have asked vendors and their PR companies not to send me unsolicited press releases.
I don’t really need them and I was sent so many, they became an irritant. Most are drivel.
So I decided to do without them.
I’ve had to be a bit prickly about it, but I think the [...]

Post 60:08 Speaking in a human voice

August 26, 2008 in Freelance life, P-aaaaargh!, Web 2.0, Worst practise, social networking

I’ve bene thinking a lot, lately, about how to put a human voice on PR so that it works better on me.
The thinking comes from a recent bout of PR from a major vendor that has decided everything they do is epoch-making. A .3 release is a revolution. A .4 release has become a remaking [...]

Post 58:08 Conferences vs. partial attention

August 19, 2008 in Freelance life, Vendors I have met, Work

I spent two days last week at a conference. It was generally interesting but a massive commitment of time and funds (nearly $1000 for accommodation and travel, although as a journo that’s not so much of an issue: people pay for us to attend!).
So of course as a self-employed person, I had to keep working [...]

Post 57:08 An old favorite returns and more social media musing

August 11, 2008 in Freelance life, P-aaaaargh!, Web 2.0, Worst Pitch Ever?, Worst practise, social networking

Twice in the last week PRs have sent me material in emails with several others cc’ed or included in the To field.
In one case more than 100 email addresses were there to be harvested.
To me this is the most basic breach of email etiquette (and privacy!) imaginable and quite astounding in this day and age, [...]

Post 50:08 I get Apple’s frosty PR position

June 19, 2008 in Freelance life, P-aaaaargh!, Vendors I have met, Worst practise

I use Windows. It’s actually pretty good. XP, anyway.
So I am no Mac fanboi.
But in the last week, I have “gotten” Apple.
It started when iTunes did something weird. I emailed support and they fixed it.
That got me thinking, what if I could get Apple on SmartCall, the podcast I run about customer service and contact [...]