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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?
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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& #39;t* know. Reporters are trained to believe that their job is to supply answers. For the writer& #39;s ego, revealing ignorance is a mortifying thought. We& #39;re paid to "know" everything. But since so much in this job was totally new to me ...
... I simply couldn& #39;t assume an all-knowing stance. One of the first things I learnt was to explicitly tell readers all the things I don& #39;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& #39;ve told my readers how little I know about a topic, or a mistake I made it in a piece, they& #39;ve told me it& #39;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& #39;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& #39; comments, which many reporters still see as a waste of time, they remain completely disengaged and cut off. It& #39;s a culture thing. No amount of forcing people or hiring "engagement specialists" can change it unless it& #39;s in your DNA.+
3. One way to do engagement right is being fanatical about your readers& #39; expertise. This is the single biggest gain I& #39;ve made in the past 6 months. How stupid it is that for decades we confined the reader& #39;s voice to "Letters to the Editor"! @The_Corres members have taught me ...+
... what collaboration could really mean. Every time I& #39;ve issued a callout for help on complex subjects (the science of guilt, for instance), they& #39;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& #39;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& #39;t end up feeling like the worst writer on Earth, it is a big relief! 11/10 would recommend.+
5. Readers don& #39;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& #39;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& #39;t notice you on day 1 or day 100. But on day 101, when they need you, you have to be there. That& #39;s how you build trust, a following. It& #39;s about perseverance more than anything else. It& #39;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& #39;t meander into a new subject before you& #39;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& #39;s been a hugely rewarding experience.
12. Oh and yes, age really shouldn& #39;t stop you. I was lucky that neither did a "diagnosis". I& #39;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 https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đ" title="Rooster" aria-label="Emoji: Rooster">. 3 yrs ago I had to quit a job with depression... +
