There’s more to a journalist than meets the eye

There are many advantages to employing a freelance journalist to write content for you but it’s important their individual skill, expertise and attitude aligns with your goals.

Certain types of content (long and short-form) can be much improved by journalistic nous. Articles and features, for example, news releases, dossiers, white papers and more. Anything that is informational, educational or newsy in nature. This is where journalists excel.

Excellent writing skill

A trained and experienced journalist should have excellent writing ability and be adept at sniffing out stories, or finding interesting angles, compelling facts, stats and information. They also have useful contacts they can rely on for additional background material and research input.

Experienced in media law

Journalists are usually highly trained and disciplined at adhering to deadlines. To work in the field, a journalist must have a solid, professional grasp of media and publishing law so they can stay out of trouble and ensure their customers (whether editorial publishers or corporate businesses) do too.

Knowing how to get press coverage

Another reason a freelance journalist is a valuable addition to any team is because they know what makes a good story, what is guaranteed to get picked up by the press and read by readers. They are often talented in the art of storytelling, which is essential to cut through the noise of content overload and get people’s attention.

Exceptional interviewing skills

A less apparent but valuable journalistic talent, highly beneficial for marketing communication, is the interviewing technique. It’s a skill journalists acquire early in their careers and practice throughout. Some have a natural aptitude for putting people at ease, asking the right questions at the right time and getting candidates to open up and ‘reveal’ new information that goes beyond the standard ‘canned response’.

This talent is often referred to as their “journalistic snout”. It enables them to dig up lots of interesting and valuable material that would otherwise stay hidden “in people’s heads”.

Journalist experience

As an editorial journalist, writing for some of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines, I mastered these skills and became prolific at delivering stories and articles for the likes of Bauer Media, Conde Nast, Guardian Media, Dennis Publishing and Nexus Communications.

How does this benefit you?

In addition to clear, crisp and original copy, here are my value adds:

• Experience – 25+ years as a journalist and copywriter.

• Specialism – technology journalist since 1992.

• Breadth of experience – from news and articles to corporate storytelling.

• Unique understanding – both commercial and business.

• Qualifications – journalism, publishing and familiarity with media law (note: I am not a media lawyer).

• Quality – I have processes and systems in place to ensure quality and accuracy and that all copy is as clean as it can be.

• Objectivity – I see you as your external audiences do, which gives me a valuable perspective.

Get in touch for an informal chat about your requirements and how a journalist can help your business, or sign up for my newsletter, which is full of useful information – and no bull! - that I don’t share anywhere else (fill in the subscribe form below).