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 […]
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 […]
I just got into an interesting spat with Tim Luckhurst, professor of journalism at the University of Kent’s Centre for Journalism. Apparently he thinks only the phone is good enough for journalists to use to chase up stories. For contact with interviewees or sources of information the telephone is ALWAYS the right way to make the first […]
No, it’s not advice from me. It’s advice from hyperactive blogmeister John Scalzi, who has posted a handy video of a forum from the Tools of Change online media publishing conference thing in New York in February. I was aware of the event, and it looked very interesting. I would have liked to have gone […]
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 – […]
Nice headline from my local Surrey & Hants News this week – which is apparently “Surrey’s oldest newspaper”, and which seems to be run by a team of five that includes no editorial staff. So – does he think it’s facing the wrong way? Maybe he doesn’t like the view towards West Sussex…
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. […]
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 […]
Today I spent an hour in a vast lecture theatre giving a talk about freelance journalism to first-year students at Kingston University. It was great fun, actually, and I got to use their super high-tech AV equipment (which luckily didn’t break down on me). That’s me on the right looking suitably dorky in front of […]
Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Sometime between September and Christmas last year, my business plan fell apart and I was faced with the grim prospect of actually having not enough money coming in this year. It happened to a lot of freelancers I know, all at the same time. I […]