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So we just completed 6 months at @The_Corres.
Also:
- first 6 months of my 15-year career working almost exclusively as a writer
- (almost) the first 6 months away from business content
- first 6 months writing professionally about mental health
What did I learn?
+
Also:
- first 6 months of my 15-year career working almost exclusively as a writer
- (almost) the first 6 months away from business content
- first 6 months writing professionally about mental health
What did I learn?
+
1. Be 100% honest about what you *don't* know. Reporters are trained to believe that their job is to supply answers. For the writer's ego, revealing ignorance is a mortifying thought. We're paid to "know" everything. But since so much in this job was totally new to me ...
... I simply couldn't assume an all-knowing stance. One of the first things I learnt was to explicitly tell readers all the things I don't know. In fact we often start our writing process with a set of personal questions or unknowns, and we ask readers for help to find answers. +
Every time I've told my readers how little I know about a topic, or a mistake I made it in a piece, they've told me it's okay and lifted me on their shoulders, with generous moral support - but also hardcore technical and journalistic advice. It has helped me see that ... +
... what readers often want more than "answers" is to go on a journey of shared enquiry with a person they can trust.
That kinship between writer and reader is the beating heart of our kind of media. Anything that gets in its way better have a very good reason to exist.+
That kinship between writer and reader is the beating heart of our kind of media. Anything that gets in its way better have a very good reason to exist.+
2. "Engagement" as it's understood is broken. What most ad-based media calls "engagement" is a farcical one-way street. They want readers to consume their content, spend precious time commenting on it, and hit the "like, share, subscribe" buttons - but ...
... barring the odd reply to readers' comments, which many reporters still see as a waste of time, they remain completely disengaged and cut off. It's a culture thing. No amount of forcing people or hiring "engagement specialists" can change it unless it's in your DNA.+
3. One way to do engagement right is being fanatical about your readers' expertise. This is the single biggest gain I've made in the past 6 months. How stupid it is that for decades we confined the reader's voice to "Letters to the Editor"! @The_Corres members have taught me ...+
... what collaboration could really mean. Every time I've issued a callout for help on complex subjects (the science of guilt, for instance), they've showered me with books, sources - even deeply sensitive family medical histories, just in case it helps me help others.+
4. Having your story spiked can be a great feeling. I was an editor for most of my career, and one of the hardest things in that role was to tell a writer their story was crap. Most editors I know think it is their job to salvage any copy that comes to them, no matter how bad...+
... but the thing is, some stories just can't be saved. And most of the time, the writer knows that. When an editor you trust tells you what you already know, with empathy so that you don't end up feeling like the worst writer on Earth, it is a big relief! 11/10 would recommend.+
5. Readers don't always want "information" from you. In the subscription media world, business content was the firstborn because it came with a clear RoI. Business content would help readers make money. But readers don't always have such narrow expectation of returns...+
... provided you DEFINE their role clearly. This is where turning readers into *members* from *subscribers* makes a huge difference. Suddenly, the relationship is a lot less transactional. They expect a very different kind of value than just (monerisable) information.+
6. Building a beat is backbreaking work. My respect for beat reporters has zoomed. Building a beat means you have to curb the typical reporter habit of being interested in too many things. It is about heads-down concentration and discipline. Sniffing out new stories but also ...+
... showing up every day with something. Maybe the reader doesn't notice you on day 1 or day 100. But on day 101, when they need you, you have to be there. That's how you build trust, a following. It's about perseverance more than anything else. It's about romancing the reader.+
7. Thinking in terms of series rather than single stories is a great way to keep yourself honest and accountable and make sure that you don't meander into a new subject before you've exhausted all the possibilities of the previous one.
8. A tightly knit team will succeed and fail together. And working remote is NO hurdle to being a tightly knit team as long as you are intentional about creating non-judgmental spaces where the team can blow off steam when the shit hits the fan.+
11. As a reporter, investing in new sources is critical. As an editor, I hated the dial-a-quote culture and was fed up with the same "experts" popping up in every copy. I now try never to repeat the same sources in two consecutive stories. It's been a hugely rewarding experience.
12. Oh and yes, age really shouldn't stop you. I was lucky that neither did a "diagnosis". I'm 37. Not a spring chicken. In fact by the standards of the reporting world, I am what you could call an old, fibrous, unappetizing 
. 3 yrs ago I had to quit a job with depression... +
. 3 yrs ago I had to quit a job with depression... +
... But at work I've never felt more full of purpose (also typos - sorry for the bunch I've made in this thread). This is not the same as "ambition". It is a combination of knowing what you write makes a difference, but not so much that you start taking yourself too seriously. +
