Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Media meltdown: news from the USA

I have been asking readers about how their media recession has been going. From the Big Apple, NYBlues writes in (anonymously, so I can’t link, but he or she does exist) to sketch the ghastly reality of media life across the Atlantic. Not sure about UK market, but over here all that’s left are specializations which are […]

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Media meltdown: news from New Zealand

I asked recently how your media recession is going (and please do take part in the poll on the right, by the way). In response, Knowledge Workers blogger Bill Bennett writes in to sketch out an alarming scenario from New Zealand. You think we’ve got it bad in the UK? Be afraid… The media has […]

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

How’s your media recession?

To mark today’s news that the recession has ended, I’m running a poll here at Freelance Unbound to see if my fellow toilers in the antheap of media feel the same way. The poll will be posted up on the right for a while – please do click to vote (though it would help if […]

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Yahoo: the perils of economic statistics

Not sure what state the UK economy is in? Better not read the papers and newswires today, then – you’ll only get more confused. Today saw the release of the UK’s second quarter GDP statistics. Hmm. How bad were they? “Bad”, says Yahoo Finance, which takes its content from  news service AFP. British economy sees […]

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

11 key ways for journalism students to improve their employability

It’s a tough world out there in the media – what with grinding recession, a skillset that needs updating by the hour and a revenue model that’s been turned upside down by the web. It doesn’t help that more students than ever before are being turned out by the UK’s journalism courses. That makes it […]

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Portfolio magazine axed

Sad news from Condé Nast as it closes Portfolio magazine.  I discovered Portfolio late last year when I stumbled on a dissection of the Wall Street collapse by Liar’s Poker author Michael Lewis. It was riveting and very well written – as you would expect, I guess. The reason for the closure seems to be plummeting ad […]

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Ways to survive the media recession, part 5

Part 1;   Part 2;   Part 3;   Part 4;   Part 5; At last, the end of the journey and a handy summary. But first, Recovering Journalist Mark Potts has a very good post on Life After Journalism that is really worth reading. A former 20-year journalist (hmm – like me), Mark Potts is now “an entrepreneur and […]

Sunday, April 26th, 2009

Ways to survive the media recession, part 4

Part 1;   Part 2;   Part 3;   Part 4;   Part 5; It’s been a bit of a marathon, but finally we’re getting to the end of the recession-busting advice. In the next post, I’ll put together a handy summary, so you don’t have to wade through so much copy to see the bullet points. First – […]

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Ways to survive the media recession, part 3

Part 1;   Part 2;   Part 3;   Part 4;   Part 5; It’s round three of media survival tips for recessionary times. Last time, I talked about Assessing Your Skills, Learning New Skills and Updating Your CV. Now we’re pretty much focusing on networking, networking and networking. And maybe some advertising. First, though: Draw up a plan Be organised. […]

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Ways to survive the media recession, part 2

Part 1;   Part 2;   Part 3;   Part 4;   Part 5; Now for your second slug of recession-busting (NB: slightly updated). Earlier, I posted about my recent, slightly panicky drive to bring in more freelance work. In case anyone finds it of any use, here are some of the lessons I picked up from it. Here we […]