Is this forum still active?

[Frank Nowikowski]

Is this forum still active?

I haven't received anything from here for ages (years).

Best

Frank

John Frank Nowikowski

Mexico City, Mexico

[heather]

>Is this forum still active?
>
>I haven't received anything from here for ages (years).
>
>
>
>Best
>
>Frank

Hi, Frank....yes it is, sort of.

My emails show the last flurry of activity was 2 and a bit months ago.

Heather Welford
--
http://www.heatherwelford.co.uk

[Frank Nowikowski]

Hi Heather,

Well your mail came through so I guess I haven't accidentally been unsubscribed!

How is everybody?

Best

Frank

John Frank Nowikowski

Mexico City, Mexico

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[Simone Castello]

Still around.

I wonder how many of us are still earning their crust as journalists.....

I don't do much objective writing nowadays.


Simone Castello

http://www.simonecastello.co.uk/

@simonecas

http://www.linkedin.com/in/simonecastellodigitalstrategy

---

From: frank.no...@gmail.com
Subject: Re: [FleetStreet] Is this forum still active?
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 10:55:36 -0600
To: fleet...@googlegroups.com

[Frank Nowikowski]

Ciao Simone,

What kind of non-objective writing do you now do?

Saluti

[Michael Newlands]

Still extant but struggling.  As far as new business goes research is more promising than journalism at the moment.  I've been lucky for the past few years but my last major string has been taken in-house and it seems very much like the days of the self-supporting freelance journalist are behind us.

[PJ White]

On 26/11/2013 16:46, Frank Nowikowski wrote:

Is this forum still active?

I haven't received anything from here for ages (years).

Hi Frank

It rumbles on. Sometimes there's a serious bust of activity. Then it goes silent again.

If you want to catch up, it's all online at the google group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/FleetStreet

I suspect everyone's so off their heads on Nigella recipes they can't remember what they're earning.*

PJ

*Topical joke over here in England.

[Simone Castello]

When I'm not doing editing work (of the academic variety), I write digital marketing copy.

I'm job hunting at the moment as I don't enjoy working from home any more. I think I need a new challenge.

I wonder what other people are up to....

Simone Castello

http://www.simonecastello.co.uk/

@simonecas

http://www.linkedin.com/in/simonecastellodigitalstrategy

---

From: frank.no...@gmail.com
Subject: Re: [FleetStreet] Is this forum still active?

Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 11:06:56 -0600
To: fleet...@googlegroups.com

[Rod Newing]

I am still hanging in, although I write a fair number of analyst style reports these days.

Rod Newing

Freelance writer and journalist

London

+44 20 8748 5315

[Frank Nowikowski]

An annual income of US$ 36,000 (£ 22,300) leads to maximum happiness, it appears. 

More than this amount creates a rise in expectations that can't always be met - setting one up for disappointment.

This according to a University of Warwick study being released tomorrow (Wed 27 November):

http://www.alphagalileo.org/PrintView.aspx?ItemId=136744&CultureCode=en

Best

Frank

John Frank Nowikowski

Mexico City, Mexico

[Marc Beishon]

On Tuesday, November 26, 2013 5:56:10 PM UTC, Frank Nowikowski wrote:

An annual income of US$ 36,000 (£ 22,300) leads to maximum happiness, it appears. 

That can't be far off poverty level if you have a family - can't see anyone being very happy about that. 

M.  

[Mike Wilson]

Flat out at the moment, editing a trade magazine for financial advisers - politics, economic policy, regulation and so forth.

Yes, I've finally gone across to the dark side. It had to happen one day I suppose. But excellent fun.

Best to all

Mike

[Guy Clapperton]

Gone a bit quiet right now but have been writing for the Guardian and editing supplements for the New Statesman alongside media training, independent e-newsletters for exhibition companies and soforth.

Sent from my iPad

[Louise Bolotin]

I've sold 5 features in the last 3 months, which is 5 more than I sold between January 2012 and August this year. I fill in time between firing off pitches into black holes by editing books for publishers and writing corporate bollocks for assorted hedge funds.

Louise

[pjwhi...@gmail.com]

Why do you think you're selling features now, Louise? Just got lucky? Or are editorial budgets easing a bit.

PJ

Sent from a phone

[Michael Cross]

On Tuesday, 26 November 2013 16:55:36 UTC, Frank Nowikowski wrote:

How is everybody?

Amazingly, I have a staff job: running a newspaper for lawyers. www.lawgazette.co.uk

 

I have reporters & subs & everything, a bit like old times really. 

 

[Louise Bolotin]

On 26 November 2013 19:30, pjwhi...@gmail.com <pjwhi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Why do you think you're selling features now, Louise? Just got lucky? Or are editorial budgets easing a bit.

 

No idea, is the short answer! A bit of both, I suspect.

One feature took me 5 months to sell - I thought I'd never place it. I've not pitched much though in the last 18 months. Certainly last year the constant silence from commissioning eds was disheartening. My other wordsmithing jobs bring in a reasonable income so I don't feel under too much pressure to keep drumming ideas that must be flogged at any cost.

Louise

[Bryan Betts]

I think that's more features than I sold in that period. I fill in the
time with some writing for corporates, a regular gig reviewing software,
and helping wrangle a toddler and a baby.

Bryan

[Chris Wheal]

Am currently at the NEC, Birmingham, promoting my new phone app that I am giving away for free. Have done four of the nine days of the show so far. This is show number six or seven since April. I have no income from this.

In between, I am still working for AOL and writing features for niche business mags, mainly ones we produce for membership organisations. Oh and I still teach journalism a bit.

Chris Wheal
+447831268261
Sent from my iPhone

[Russ Swan]

I've also got a proper job, first time in a while. New direction for me, with a consumer magazine group. Interesting times.

Not long ago, this forum would have been all over the Wade/Coulson thing. Any thoughts, anyone?

R.

[Mike Wilson]

Speaking from the other end, as an editor (glossy financial trade mag), we've noticed a significant pick-up in ad activity during the last two to three months, and things do seem to be moving quite well on side activities like video and seminars. We're still paying our writers more than ourselves - ah well, that's the entrepreneur's pain for you - but dammit, we're the shareholders so maybe that's not so bad.

It might be that financial services are a special case - I can only speak for our particular sector, obviously. But there's also little doubt that social media is changing things in ways that even a sceptic like me can't ignore. Even something as simple as plugging our web stuff on Twitter and LinkedIn is boosting our web traffic and our impression revenues - but we're still having to work quite hard to persuade some of our freelances that they're going to have to hold their noses and do it.

Anyway, here's the online version of the mag: http://www.ifamagazine.com/

Mike

[Charles Arthur]

"ot long ago, this forum would have been all over the Wade/Coulson thing. Any thoughts, anyone?"

My thought is: don't comment on ongoing criminal court cases in a forum that is online and indexable.

best
Charles
(written while mobile. May contain errors.)

[PJ White]

On 27/11/2013 09:06, Mike Wilson wrote:

Speaking from the other end, as an editor (glossy financial trade mag), we've noticed a significant pick-up in ad activity during the last two to three months, and things do seem to be moving quite well on side activities like video and seminars.

I guess there are reasons to think financial services is a special case. But I'm wondering if it isn't a more hopeful trend generally. I've picked up one or two glimpses of positive signs. Not enough to suggest that any journalism work would be secure or significant. But enough to hope that magazine budgets in 2014 might have enough in them to funnel a bit in my grateful direction.

I miss journalism. I've got used to reduced income. I'm comfortable with Aldi. But I want to get on the phone again. I wonder what's changed, how different it will be next time round....

PJ

[Manek Dubash]

Back on track (thanks Charles) - I'm now writing the occasional feature,
more time spent chairing conferences and round-tables, writing /
researching corporate white papers, making videos, managing social media
forums...

Do I still qualify as a journalist? I'm not sure any more when people
ask what I do how to respond :(

Manek
--

--

*_Editorial & Communication Services_*
<http://www.manekdubashassociates.com/>

*Manek Dubash, Managing Director*

*M: +447788 923557*

**Site: www.manekdubash.com <http://www.manekdubash.com/> Blog: Big Tin
<http://bigtin.wordpress.com>

Manek Dubash Associates. Registered in England & Wales. Company number:
4731413.

[Ryanscribe]

I think my experience mirrors Manek's to some extent:

• PR/comms (75%)
• strategy advising (20%)
• investigative work (TV, one or two articles) (the rest)

Whilst the business models for journalism and certainly "my" kind of journalism are challenging, there are some very interesting tools (social media espec.) coming out, almost a bewildering array. It's easier to work in teams for some of that, and I think also easier to work with non-traditional or non-media operations.

Nick

[heather]

Since April I have had a staff job for the first time in a zillion
years - a 2 day a week contract with a major charity which involves
me writing and researching for their website, for their journal and
various other publications. It's a good gig, and it is certainly
*writing* but it's not journalism.

I pitch occasionally -usually into a void, even to editors I have
worked with several times. I write 1-2 features a month but obvs
could not make a living if that's all I did.

I have been told that most editors are overwhelmed by email pitches,
and they're usually rubbish - they get them from PRs pitching useless
irrelevant stories, freelances like me, and also clueless wannabes
and amateurs. I think even my greatest ideas get lost!

I have just signed a contract to sell on the copyright of materials
written for a partwork.

I also train and do occasional media consultancy work. The last time
I did any corporate stuff (PR, marketing materials, consumer stuff)
which was always welcome 'cos the money was good, was about 18 months
ago. I used to regularly do at least one or two meaty gigs a year in
that category.

[Frank Nowikowski]

On Nov 27, 2013, at 5:44 AM, heather <heat...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

"I pitch occasionally -usually into a void, even to editors I have worked with several times. ( …)

I have been told that most editors are overwhelmed by email pitches, and they're usually rubbish - they get them from PRs pitching useless irrelevant stories, freelances like me, and also clueless wannabes and amateurs. I think even my greatest ideas get lost!"

I do find it depressing that the trend is for editors not to reply to mails anymore.

I can't get replies from editors who contacted me in the first place asking for contributions - and who then subsequently used my stuff.

[Mike Wilson]

On Wednesday, November 27, 2013 5:21:21 PM UTC, Frank Nowikowski wrote:

I do find it depressing that the trend is for editors not to reply to mails anymore.

So do I. But I get three hundred emails a day - many of them great bulky volumes of nested forwarded correspondence - and I probably write forty emails back in reply. I read somewhere that each and every email you read takes between five and fifteen minutes out of your productive day - by which reckoning I'd need to be working a 50 hour day just to get through my Inbox. And that would be without doing anything else.

Accordingly, then, a good three quarters of the incoming tide hits the bumf folder pretty fast. The game is to sift out the most useful PR pieces by scanning the titles and the senders, and then to try and read all the rest - especially posts from singletons, because, after all, they might be from readers as well as potential contributors.

I'd be pretty annoyed with myself if I missed a personal pitch from a singleton who I didn't know - let alone someone I did - but I can't say it doesn't happen. My regular contributors would normally follow up with phone calls, which is fine by me.

Apologies, then. I live with my guilt. But only just.

Mike

[PJ White]

That analysis that Frank helpfully pointed out is now past embargo. It's online at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0079358

It's looking at how happiness in countries varies as per capita GDP rises. I think. It's very hard. Anyway, it's not looking at household income or individual happiness, or things you could related to poverty measures.

Thanks for the link, Frank.

PJ

[Martin Cloake]

Working in customer publishing for a company called Progressive Customer Publishing. I'm group chief sub. Interesting game, with a tad more editorial freedom than you may imagine. Great team of people and business seems good - we're always on the lookout for decent writers. I also do a bit of extra curricular stuff on sport, the business and governance of sport, and some general old rambling on Spurs. Things generally seem good. Although let's leave Spurs to one side for a moment. 

Martin Cloake

blog.martincloake.com

www.martincloake.com

Sent from my iPhone

[PJ White]

On 28/11/2013 08:40, Martin Cloake wrote:

Working in customer publishing for a company called Progressive Customer Publishing. I'm group chief sub. Interesting game, with a tad more editorial freedom than you may imagine. Great team of people and business seems good - we're always on the lookout for decent writers.

Good to hear. Though I've never doubted that lots of people are on the lookout for decent writers. The question is... have you got any money?

PJ

[Martin Cloake]

Yes, money too :-)

Martin Cloake
Blog: www.blog.martincloake.com
Web: www.martincloake.com
www.amazon.com/author/martincloake

[Ryanscribe]

Ironically, many moons ago I'm sure I wrote some articles for an ICAEW magazine, under one of its previous incarnations (I see that your company is now producing a much cooler version).

Glad there are some signs of upturn: personally, I am probably the busiest I've ever been. I shifted emphasis when the recession hit and focused in on certain client/subject areas that were quite specialised (if not as high-paying as corporate gigs). I've done one corporate gig so far and the daily fee is eye-wateringly different to my usual NGO/non-profit rates. I have to spend a lot of my time chasing money still, though.

cheers,

Nick

[Martin Cloake]

Yes, PCP took over the comms contract for ICAEW, and economia was a new departure for the Institute. Other clients coming on board too, and the editorial types here are good people who pay decent rates and try to make sure things are done the right way. Very decent environment. Keep an eye on the PCP website, as I say, always good to hear from seasoned writers etc.

Martin Cloake
Blog: www.blog.martincloake.com
Web: www.martincloake.com
www.amazon.com/author/martincloake

[Manek Dubash]

Ahem...

--

--

Editorial & Communication Services

Manek Dubash, Managing Director

M: +447788 923557

Site: www.manekdubash.com Blog: Big Tin

[PJ White]

On 28/11/2013 10:58, Martin Cloake wrote:
> Yes, money too :-)
>

Excellent. I guess you've noted how hoity toity some writers become if
they don't get a personal reply to their pitches. Good luck winding them up.

PJ

[Guy Clapperton]

You saw me in person only a couple of weeks ago and no commissions???? FLOUNCE...

[Martin Cloake]

Chortle. Sadly, I have no commissions right now. But that may change. 

Martin Cloake
Blog: www.blog.martincloake.com
Web: www.martincloake.com
www.amazon.com/author/martincloake

[PJ White]

On 28/11/2013 15:26, Martin Cloake wrote:

Chortle. Sadly, I have no commissions right now. But that may change. 

Dear Mr Cloake

I am a highly professional, experienced and accurate feature writer who's byline has graced many a famous publication and whose read with interest that you are looking for decent writers of which I myself account myself one.

Hear is a pitch that I thought you might like to peruse awhile as I think you will find it is both topical and highly relevant to your readership. Please note that this idea is FULLY PROTECTED by copyright law in all territories including the UK and USA and elsewhere and it is a CRIMINAL OFENSE to take something that does not belong to you without paying for it, thank you for your consideration.

My idea is for Yachting Partners International and has the title, which I think would go very well across a photograph of a big superyacht probably a white one, against the blue background of the sea, of "How stoned are your crew?" This would be a hard hitting investigation into illegal drug-taking at sea by crews of superyachts, looking at cannabis, cocaine and the new designer drug crystal methodism. It would also look at the intoxicating and hallucinatory effects of the contents of the average superyacht's first aid kit which I'm sure you know from experience is one of the first things to get raided when bored crew members are hanging about waiting for the wealthy and high-achieving owners to decide what to do next. The article will help readers identify the common signs of drug taking. This, as you will appreciate if you manage to keep up with the latest news stories, is very important as some of the world's wealthiest and high-achieving individuals are piggin useless at recognising the tell-tale signs of someone being off their head.

Thanking you for your time and looking forward to a positive response

Your's sincerely
Scoop Wannabe

[Manek Dubash]

I'd run that!

Manek
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[Guy Clapperton]

I can't compete with that.

[Michael Newlands]

That's livened up my day, particularly the crystal methodism.

[PJ White]

On 28/11/2013 17:02, Guy Clapperton wrote:

I can't compete with that.

They'll probably say they ran it last month.

It's a technique I read somewhere ages ago and have been using since. When brainstorming features, think of an idea that's guaranteed to get the editor sacked if they ran it. Then tweak it a bit, just enough to get it the right side of acceptability. Makes for much more fun & interesting ideas. I got people in an editorial team to do it once at a off-site team building day. The editor didn't seem entirely comfortable with it....

Daft as it is, I wouldn't rule out that even that idea. It just needs tweaking to bring it into line.

PJ

[Martin Cloake]

I've created a monster. [sigh]

Martin Cloake
Blog: www.blog.martincloake.com
Web: www.martincloake.com
www.amazon.com/author/martincloake

[Frank Nowikowski]

Sounds like a good pitch.

But you might not get a reply since most editors are probably also off their heads these days!!

Best

Frank

John Frank Nowikowski

Mexico City, Mexico

[Frank Nowikowski]

On Nov 28, 2013, at 11:46 AM, PJ White <pjwhi...@gmail.com> wrote:

They'll probably say they ran it last month.

In Mexico that would probably be true of a story like that.

The editor wouldn't fear losing his job as much as fear losing his life!

It is not altogether uncommon for thugs to force their way into editorial offices, spray machine gun fire everywhere, lob a few hand grenades  then torch the place.