Tag: journalism

B2B media, Press releases, What journalists want

4 common misconceptions about B2B press releases

Press releases can be an important way of sharing your B2B business news and building visibility, but there are some common misconceptions about how journalists treat press releases.

Photo by Juliana Malta on Unsplash

Understanding how journalists work is important for writing and targeting your press releases and building a relationship with trade journalists.

From the questions I’ve been asked about press releases over the years, these are the four most common misunderstandings:

1. The press release will get used as written

Nope. Most likely, you’ll have sent your B2B press release to a press list.

Publications and websites are competing for stories and readers. If the story is interesting to the journalist, they will be looking to create a point of difference to make it stand out.

Unless of course they are very busy but then if it is used as written then it most likely means they don’t believe it is worth spending the extra time on. (Sorry.)

2. It’s your story

It isn’t your story. You may have written the press release, but once it’s in a journalists hands, they will do with it what they want to make it engaging for their readers.

Think of the competition and how they want to differentiate.

They may take a different angle to what you’ve presented. They may want to interview someone from your business to get extra information or comment.

And they may talk to other people to get different views – including your competitors.

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The accidental freelancer: Thoughts on my first year of self-employment

MIPIM 2019 - CONFERENCES - UK: REGENERATION & WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENTSIt’s coming up to a year since I started out as a freelance and what a career change it has been.

I say started out, I’m more of an accidental freelancer as when I left property magazine Estates Gazette after 20 years, my plan was to take my time exploring different options and ideas before deciding which direction to go, but I’ll come onto that.

My time as a property journalist and features editor taught me lots of things not least that the best time to catch people in the industry is either before 8.30am or after 5.30pm.

Starting out

When I started out we didn’t have laptops and there was one brick-like mobile phone to share on the features desk. If you were lucky enough to get use of the mobile you soon learnt that it never actually worked.

It was the days of long, often boozy lunches and Friday afternoons in the pub (remember those?).

The lack of technology made working life less agile and less productive but in some small way, I do miss those days of being able to get on a train to go somewhere for work and just read the paper.

Fundamental changes to journalism

Mobile phones, digital and social media fundamentally changed ‘storytelling’ and the dissemination of information. It also changed the way journalists interact with their readers.

My skill set broadened considerably. I went from writing and editing for a print publication to a canvas which included digital editions, web content, infographics, podcasts, video, Twitter and Instagram.

The evolution was exciting and exhilarating.

Continue reading “The accidental freelancer: Thoughts on my first year of self-employment” →