Attention Marketers: Hire a Journalist!

On the speaking circuit when I talk about The New Rules of Marketing & PR (including thought leadership based marketing) and when I show examples from innovative organizations, nearly everyone in the audience enthusiastically embraces the ideas. Many people see the potential that thoughtful content has for their business and understand how different this approach is from the some old stuff they are doing (trying to convince the media to write about their widgets and buying expensive "on message" advertising).

But there is always a contingent of people whose eyes glaze over and who adopt a bit of a defensive posture. I always hope one of the skeptics will ask a question because they always voice the same general concern: "This all sounds good, David. But how can we actually create all this content you're talking about: e-books, white papers, blogs and the like? We have a small marketing department and very little budget."

The answer is quite simple: hire a journalist!

With the consolidation of the newspaper and magazine businesses, journalists have found it difficult to get and keep good jobs. Many experienced people are looking for work. And there are many more people coming out of journalism school than available entry-level jobs.

A journalist skillfully creates interesting stories about how an organization solves customer problems and then delivers those stories in the form of ebooks, white papers, content rich web pages, podcasts, and video. And consumers love it. How refreshing to read, listen to, and watch these products of journalistic expertise instead of the usual product come-ons that typical corporations produce.

Of course, this is a dire situation for many reporters and editors themselves, but a tremendous opportunity for corporate marketing and PR departments that need to find great talent to create effective content. Sure, this is a drastically different job description and some marketing VPs may have trouble getting their arms around this kind of hire. But I'm convinced based on the characteristics, skill sets, and work ethics of the journalists I know as well as the evidence from companies (such as IBM) that have already experimented with hiring journalists into the marketing department, that this approach is the right one.

Journalists themselves will need to think deeply about the opportunities that a corporate assignment might bring to their career. Many journalists have a strong emotional aversion to selling their skills to corporations. While some would rather wait tables than work for "the dark side," others may find the opportunity refreshing and maybe even an consider the possibility that a corporate stint as an enhancement to their career that would make them more marketable to magazines and newspapers in their future career.

So I ask my marketing and PR friends: Why not just go for it and hire a journalist?

Comments

[Duane Brown]

That's a pretty good idea, David. Do you think they could be hired to work on website copy for a micro-site?

[Mike Sigers]

How about local college talent on thier way to being journalists ?

[David Meerman Scott]

Hi Duane and Mike,

Thanks for stopping by. I've found that when you bring a journalist for part time work that this technique still works but is less effective for things that are far from their comfort zone like landing page copy.

The issue is you need to teavh them what you want and it is quite different than their training. If they are full-time, that's great - you can invest in training them.

HOWEVER, for things that are very similar to their training they jump right in. I've had the best luck with having a journalist write case studies. They do a great case study right out of the gate.

They are also skilled at e-books and white papers.

I'd strongly suggest you give it a try. The talent pool with joutnalists is fantastic in many ways.

David

[RaviKarandeekar]

Hello David, good idea. I am going to appoint one for my company right away.

[David Leland]

Jolly good idea, David.

I moved from journalism to marketing about 15 years ago, and clients always look to me for compelling, fact-based copy -- with a compelling message. Oh, on time....

Best,
David

[Nigel Morgan]

David, I have been telling prospective clients her in England the very same thing ever since I left journalism and launched my own PR company!

As that was six years ago clearly many of them have already found what you say to be true!

Many thanks for the support!

[Jared Bernstein]

I'm a journalist looking to get into the marketing side so I found David's blog to be a champion for my cause.

I'm looking for work in NYC so if anyone is looking for a journalist in their marketing department and would like to see a resume please email me at jmichael42678@comcast.net.

[Christopher Novotney]

I completely agree with this and encourage corporations to adhere to this advice. I recently began with a company after graduating with a journalism degree and a minor in marketing. This has been extremely beneficial for both the business I work with and my own career. I am now able to utilize my skills of not only journalism, but also publication design, marketing and other areas that my position requires. A great tip that I hope other businesses consider.

[Jim Costello]

I'm a UK-based journalist with experience of working with PR companies - details at
http://costello.jf.googlepages.com/

I've found most PR companies would benefit from objective input from a third party such as a pragmatic journalist. Feel free to get in touch.
Jim Costello

[Jaimee Steele]

Great post. I would also encourage PR agencies and corporations hiring PR professionals to be more fastidious about hiring PR people who graduated with a PR or journalism degree, or are accredited APR's. There is a dearth of PR pros who know how to write like a journalist and pitch stories that would actually appear in a newspaper.

[David Meerman Scott]

Hi Jaimee

With all due respect to PR professionals with degrees and APR certifications, in my experience the vast majority of them are terrible writers. In my experience they tend to write on and on about the company's products and services using jargon and gobbledygook which is exactly why I suggest journalists as the better choice.

Again, this is based on my experience...

[Brandon]

I am a journalist looking for a job in the Kansas City area. I have a few years of experience with my college paper and have held various leadership positions.

I'm good with editing copy, and would be glad to work for anybody in need of my skill set, as newspapers don't seem to have new hires in their budget anymore.

Call or e-mail. - 620-617-4163

journalismpro@gmail.com

[Brandon]

By the way, here are some clips.

http://kstatecollegian.com/1.1357355-1.1357355

http://kstatecollegian.com/1.1354351-1.1354351

I have more stories which can be found by searching "Brandon Steinert" on www.kstatecollegian.com

By the way, David. As a journalist, I can EASILY tell the difference between a press release and a story. Thanks for sticking up for us journalists.

[Josiah from HotelMarketingStrategies.com]

David, this is a brilliant idea that has become even more relevant since you wrote it two years ago. With all the hype around the decline of print media, I've found there are more journalists out there than ever willing to take on projects...even on a part time/freelance basis. With an increasing need to produce quality content, I feel all companies should seriously consider this option. Especially for companies with a smaller (overworked) staff, it's the only way great material will get written.