Cision: How did you find your way into journalism and was it something  you had always wanted to do?

Doug: I always wanted to write in some form. I was in bands and running a fanzine, then started to get music reviews printed in magazines here and there. I decided to quit my office job and concentrate on writing. Did a post-grad journalism course at Napier Uni and started freelancing in music, books, film and across the arts and entertainment fields straight away.

 Cision: Have you noticed any significant changes with regard to the style of literature that is now proving to be most popular?

Doug: I don’t think so. There’s always been a blend of more and less commercial literature on offer to readers, from obscure literary works to mass-market genre fiction. There’s good and bad writing in all genres, but unfortunately the good stuff isn’t always the best-selling. Such is life.

Cision: What are your views on the current situation surrounding journalism that has been prompted by the Leveson inquiry, and how important is it to encourage young people to continue with creative writing and a career in journalism?

Doug: Leveson has cast a harsh light on journalism, but it’s not as if that’s representative of the vast majority of the industry. I think young people will continue to gravitate towards journalism, I don’t see any signs of that abating.

Cision:As a freelance writer, do you feel more journalistic freedom in comparison to the restrictions that may be posed by working for a particular paper?

Doug: Yes, definitely. I have worked in offices for particular papers at times, but didn’t really like it much. As a freelance you have scope to pick and choose what you pitch to editors, so it’s usually something you’re really interested in. At a paper, it can seem like a bit of a treadmill at times. The downside is, of course, that you’re always struggling to get enough work, especially in the current financial climate.

Cision: What are your top three tips for PRs wishing to gain the attention of a literary journalist?

Doug: It’s not rocket science. Be courteous, be concise and be organized. Not too much to ask, is it? 

Cision: Have you received any event invites from PRs that have been bizarre?

Doug: I don’t really work in any areas that get bizarre PR invites. I wish I did, it might make things more interesting. I used to work on the arts desk at the Edinburgh Evening News, and during festival time you’d get a lot of strange freebies sent to you by Fringe shows. Pants, sweets, condoms – totally random stuff.

Cision: How do you use social media as a journalist and how effective do you think it is?

Doug: I have a Linkedin account but to be honest I never use it. I am on Facebook and Twitter all the time, and these are less geared towards pure career journalism and opportunities probably, but infinitely more useful for general background knowledge, ideas, pitches and general buzz. I mostly write about books and music, and friends and colleagues are always posting great new releases and exciting news, stuff that in a good freelance writer generates ideas. It’s not entirely tangible, I guess, but it is definitely very useful. I also regularly blog about books, music, my own novels, anything that takes my fancy really, and that just feeds into everything else.

Cision: With 2012 being the year the world has its focus on London, the UK is celebrating the best of British talent, creativity and values. As part of this, the RSC is presenting the Royal Shakespeare Festival beginning on 23^rd April which will run until November. How important is it to acknowledge writers from the past and the present and will you be attending any dates?

Doug: I won’t be attending any events at the Shakespeare festival as I’m based in Edinburgh, so it’s a bit tricky logistically. For sure, it’s important to acknowledge our literary history, but I prefer to concentrate on the future, that’s just the way I’m made, I think. I don’t have much time for looking backwards.

Cision: Are there any other literary events that you are looking forward to this year? Do you have any gig dates coming up? If so what are the details.

Doug: I always love the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August, as a resident of the city. I’m reading at it again this year, but that aside, it’s always a fantastic two weeks, and the atmosphere in Charlotte Square is brilliant. I’m also going to the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate in July for the first time. It’s the biggest crime writing festival in the UK, so I’m really looking forward to that.

No music gigs, but a handful of book festival events:

14th May, Faber Social, London
14th June, Crime in the City, Glasgow
21st July, Harrogate Crime Writing Festival
17th August, Edinburgh International Book Festival
15th September, Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival, Stirling

Cision: You are also a musician. Do you regularly combine your freelance journalism with music? How do you feel these two expressions of art can work together?

Doug: I started as a music journalist, so I guess that was a crossover there. These days I do less and less music writing. My fiction has had some crossover with music as well, my second novel was about an indie band, and I recorded some songs as the fictional band. I still like to take my guitar along to book events, play a few songs.

Doug’s latest novel, Hit & Run, was recently a #1 bestseller on the Amazon Kindle, Fiction and Crime charts.

Editorial information on Doug Johnstone along with thousands of other media contacts and websites, can be found in our CisionPoint media database.

This week’s pick of comms news curated via @CisionUK.

Pinterest drives more sales than Facebook: stats by @DavidMoth via Econsultancy

“The jewelry and accessories retailer compared engagement statistics from Facebook and Pinterest visitors to see how their behaviour differed.

It found that after integrating ‘pinning’ buttons across its website Pinterest has become its number one social referrer, assisting roughly 10% of sales, compared to 7% from Facebook.”

Youth and social media by Sarah Gale via Brand Republic (reg. to read)

“Researching younger age groups has never been easy. The typical teenager has always been difficult to engage with, unreliable and uncommunicative, which has led to difficulty in recruiting and low response rates amongst younger respondents for market research.”

Consumers “overwhelmed” by brand messaging on social media, research finds by @CMRLee via New Media Knowledge

“What do consumers want from brands on social media? It’s a question that dogs marketing managers daily, but new research has pinpointed some key areas where marketers should focus their efforts to maximise their investments.”

Over half of UK youth using Twitter by @katie0108 via The Drum

“More than half of young people in the UK are now using Twitter, according to the latest YAP (Young Adult Power) Media Index.”

Leveson inquiry fails to get to grips with Mail Online’s ‘column of shame‘ by @dansabbagh via Guardian

“They have Mark Zuckerberg. We have Martin Clarke. The Mail Online supremo is the king of the British internet and he came to the Leveson inquiry on Wednesday afternoon to show the judge what he could do. Luckily Clarke was up against opponents (the judge and the inquiry counsel) whose knowledge of the internet matched that of two professors last seen alive in the Bodleian library in 1981. But those hoping to learn more about how the Mail got to number one online globally would have left feeling bemused.”

Lorna Bradbury is the deputy literary editor for the Daily Telegraph, writing mainly for the Saturday paper as well as contributing online content. As a literary journalist with the Daily Telegraph for the past 10 years, she has written extensively on fiction and non-fiction while maintaining her weekly column ‘Ask Lorna’, answering Review reader’s letters, as well as running the children’s book coverage.

“It’s extremely important for readers to have access to intelligent, well-informed reviews of books, especially before they part with their money”.  Bradbury believes that “readers need a reliable voice to help them make good, informed choices” and feels that Telegraph staff are in the “privileged position of being able to do that”.

Bradbury regularly chair’s book events and discussions at literary events and festivals and will be reporting on the Hay Festival for the Telegraph.

The Hay Festival for the past 25 years has brought together writers, authors and readers from around the world to debate and share stories. With the festival fast approaching, Bradbury says the Telegraph “are hugely excited as things are gearing up for this year’s event from May 31 2012 to June 10 2012. It is Hay’s 25th anniversary year, and the programme is stronger than ever with writers such as Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie, Terry Pratchett and Hilary Mantel appearing, as well as performers like Tim Minchin and Harry Belafonte”. Bradbury says “culture and literature are taken seriously at the Telegraph, and so the sponsorship of the Hay festival is a natural fit” and being one of the world’s leading festivals, she says “it is a privilege for us to be associated with it”.

Bradbury will be chairing some of the events at the festival, including a session on Wallis Simpson and the abdication crisis with historians Anne Sebba and Juliet Nicolson, and an event in the children’s programme with two novelists for teenagers, Annabel Pitcher and Marcus Sedgwick. “I’ll be part of a large team of Telegraph journalists who will be at Hay for the duration of the festival, both reporting on events, and chairing them. We will also be hosting our own event there – a Question Time style panel, featuring, among others, Peter Oborne, Kate Humble and Brian Moore”.

As a literary journalist, Bradbury believes that social media is not only “fun” but is also an important promotional tool. “Twitter and Facebook are great ways of finding out what literary stories people are talking about and of keeping up with the latest book news”. Bradbury is very active on Twitter, tweeting on a regular basis on her personal Twitter account as well the updating the Telegraphs books Twitter.  “Best way of keeping up to date with what’s going on hour by hour during the Hay Festival”.

Pitching Preferences
Bradbury is happy to receive “information about forthcoming books by email, and would urge publishers to send copies of books for review as soon as they have them before publication”

Editorial information on Lorna Bradbury along with thousands of other media contacts and websites, can be found in our CisionPoint media database

For more information on the Hay Festival, please check out the full programme.

Christina Borg - Photo by Paul Vicente

Christina Borg is the Literary Desk Manager at the Sunday Times and deals with the day-to-day administration of the exceptionally busy Books section.

Having previously worked in print and TV advertising and freelance film production, Borg came in to the literary field in 2001 much by chance, but with ‘a long interest in books and a desire to work with writers and journalists’.

Borg’s advice to PRs and agencies is to ‘study the Books pages before making contact’. The books section is chiefly reviews and they seldom publish author interviews or features. She does advise however that ‘there is scope for highlighting publishing news of interest to our readers on the Sunday Times blog, ‘What We’ve Learnt This Week in Books’.’

The Books Section on average receives a very high number of new titles each week but with space at a premium, the number of reviews published is fairly limited. Borg says that, ‘roughly 5% of books published in one month will be reviewed in the books section’.

The Sunday Times Books pages are extremely competitive, the 5% of books that are fortunate enough to appear in the section have been carefully selected by those who know that with the new wealth of literary material available, the reader wants a dynamic selection. Borg notes that the regular contributors to the section ‘encourage readers to examine books more closely and be increasingly discerning in their reading choices’.

A traditionalist at heart, Borg says she is ‘averse to social media’, although she has begun to use Facebook to share details of articles and books that she thinks others may enjoy- but hasn’t quite managed to bring herself to tweet yet!

Editorial information on Christina Borg along with thousands of other media contacts and websites, can be found in our CisionPoint media database

My wekkly pick of comms news curated via @CisionUK.

How Facebook’s Instagram acquisition will impact social sharing  by @RadiumOneEU via New Media Knowledge

“Last year, Mark Zuckerberg observed that online sharing is growing at an exponential rate with four billion things being shared per day. A “share” should be considered anything from an email, a cut and paste, a shortened URL, or, of course, a photo, and as sharing is fast becoming the currency of the internet, it was natural for Facebook to further embrace the phenomenon. As it gains an estimated 27 extra million users from its new purchase, all eyes will be on how Facebook will take advantage of the increased sharing activity, as well as its access to a new pool of targets.”

Survey finds just one in ten UK firms measure social media ROI by John Glenday via The Drum

“A research report published by digital marketing firm EPiServer has found that just one in ten of UK businesses are measuring their ROI in social media – despite continued growth in the sector.”

Socialcam – Instgram for video, the next big thing? by Charlotte Henry via The Wall

“Socialcam is a free iOS app that allows users to take video, put filters on it, and store the result in the cloud. As the name suggests, there is a significant social element to the service. Users can browse, watch and share their friends’ videos, as well as connect the app with various other social networks like Twiter, Facebook and Posterous, and tag friends in videos. The cloud storage is a brilliant idea, as it stops large videos eating up phone memory, that can be used for more important things like Draw Something and Angry Birds.”

UK consumers spend 25% of disposable income online by @DavidMoth via Econsultancy

“This is the highest percentage among European nations and is 2% more than the average US consumer.

WorldPay’s Global Online Shopper Report found that the top three online spending categories for UK consumers are clothes (36%), food (33%) and money spent with department stores (33%).”

Johnston Press predicts ‘few daily print titles by 2020 by @Andrew_Pugh1 via PressGazette

“Johnston Press told investors this morning that it expects editorial content will be split fifty-fifty between journalists and “community contributors” by 2020.

At present just 10 per cent of Johnston Press editorial content is created by readers and 90 per cent by journalists – but within nine years it expects readers and journalists to produce roughly the same level of content.”

Karen Beadle is a freelance journalist and editor specialising in the beauty industry and is the author of the beauty blog, http://www.karenbeadle.com/blog. She works in the beauty industry as a make-up artist, tutoring at Morley College, London. Karen, who began her career working in beauty therapy hairdressing running an account for Clarins in Peter Jones, served as beauty editor for Paul Mitchell for five years, covering beauty features and fashion styles of make-up.                                

She is interested in receiving materials relating to all areas of the beauty industry, including skin care, make-up and men’s products. She says “I have previously written a men’s column for Paul Mitchell and have a beauty therapy background, so I understand the skin and how it works. I only work with consumer products so am great with top beauty advice.”

An active user on social media, Karen believes this to be an important tool for journalists. She says “I have a Twitter account and three Facebook pages, which are linked to my blog and helps promote my make-up courses at Morley College. Two of my Facebook pages are linked to fashion style make-up courses.” She prefers to be contacted through Twitter or by email and says “I’m always looking for great news. Any beauty industry news works for me. One of my favourite PR companies is RMK – They seem to come up with fun good beauty angles. I find a lot of the PRs and the make-up skin care companies are themselves starting to interact with me on Twitter.””

As for the future Karen says “I am extending my courses at Morley and thinking about starting pop up workshops. For creatives. Ideally I’m looking for an expert column to write about the industry from a professional point of view.”

Wow, this week flew by! Already time for the weekly round up of comms news curated via @CisionUK.

Fortune 500 social media statistics: infographic by @DavidMoth via Econsultancy

“However, for the consumer brands and FMCGs on the list having a strong social media presence is an important marketing consideration.

Go-Gulf.com has put together the infographic below to highlight the key social media statistics for the big corporate players.”

‘Tumblr’ to Overtake ‘Blog’ in Google Searches by @ToddWasserman via Mashable

“ust as Kleenex became a stand-in for “tissue” years ago, is “Tumblr” on its way to replacing “blog”?

Google search results show that may be the case. By the end of 2012, there will be more people searching “Tumblr” than “blog,” according to Google’s data.!”

Google Drive set to kill Dropbox with desktop folders and 5GB free storage by Polly Becker via @TheWallUK via The Wall

“Google Drive is – in theory – days away from a big unveiling and the cloud storage system looks like it will take on rivals like Dropbox, iCloud and SkyDrive in the free space fight.”

Web wars quiz: where do you stand? via @guardian Guardian

“Do you stream content illegally? Take our quiz to find out where you stand in the open v closed debate.”

A Guide To The New Facebook Analytics by @digitim via @returnondigital RETURN ON.DIGITAL

“Ever wanted more data from your Facebook ads? Well the time has come – Facebook have released several changes that will have a huge impact on the performance of your brand page and ads. By improving these analytics Facebook are looking for increased investment by brands, allowing them to compete with Google Adwords. No doubt this increased ad spend is to coincide with the expected IPO on the 17th May.”

Time for another comms news round up curated via @CisionUK.

Facebook buys Instagram for $1bn: full statement by Mark Zuckerberg via @guardian Guardian

“Facebook has bought the photo-sharing application Instagram for a reported $1bn.

Here’s the full statement by founder Mark Zuckerberg issued on the Facebook website.”

The Four Ps of Social Media Marketing by @niallcook via Sociagility

“Classically-trained marketers will be familiar with the 4 Ps of marketing, one of the best known marketing mix models, first expressed in 1960 by E J McCarthy. Best summed up as putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time, they are:”

Making PR Social by @jaygavin via @inPressOnline inPressonline

“When we set up inPress Online two years ago we had one clear objective in mind: To make PR Social.

And to achieve this objective we really had two strategies:”

What Bloggers Are Saying About Your PR Pitch by @stentontoledo via distilled

“In an effort to get a bigger picture around my personal outreach, I spoke with some well-known bloggers on how to establish quality and lasting relationships, and believe even the most experienced outreach/PR folks could use their valuable advice.”

Data in a social age by @CarrieMorris73 via Econsultancy

“There’s no doubt that social has gone loco in the past few years and every big brand worth its marketing salt is investing in a strong social presence as part of their multichannel strategy.”

Samuel Luckhurst joined the Huffington Post UK as sports reporter in March 2012, having previously interned for Sabotage Times and written a football blog called FootballFix. Following a BA in English and American literature, Samuel obtained an MA in journalism at Medway’s Centre for Journalism where he cut his teeth conducting “vox pops”, editing radio packages, writing for print and online formats “and so on and so forth”.

The Huffington Post will be covering the Olympic and Paralympics Games across all sectors of their website.  Samuel says, “It will be hectic in regards to keeping up with events. Inevitably there will be a lot of reporting as we have press passes, but we are really keen to forge an alternative personality, so picking up on the funnies and the weirder side of the games appeals just as much. There will be ‘on this day’ features and we will have interviews prior to, and during the games, from past Olympians as well, as we build up content.”

Samuel, who joined Twitter while was studying for his MA in journalism, says that for a journalist social media is an invaluable tool for news gathering, interacting and forging contacts.  “You learn from people on there – earthy supporters of their clubs or enthusiasts for their sport – and that will only benefit your own approach to covering what they want. The interaction side in particular is great and something Huffington Post prides itself on. Polls, quizzes and news prediction are a vital cog in online media, and it is something we encourage as it builds up a following.”

With the Huffington Post’s sports section only a month old, “it is imperative we mould an identity and offer sports fans something different from match reports and impartial opinions. Exhibiting something refreshing will hopefully lead to me gaining a creative reputation. The license to write features and conjure up irreverent pieces is a joy, so that freedom is something to thrive upon.”

Working with PRs

“I’ve not had a great deal of face-time with PR pros, but of course it can be frustrating if your time with an interviewee is limited. It’s part of their job however, so if anything it tests your skill as a journalist in not displaying any fear about being forthright.

“Fortunately we’ve received a lot of details from PR representatives and have built up a good series of contacts already, and that will only augment the chances of a positive outcome from any future interviews.”

Editorial information on Samuel Luckhurst along with thousands of other media contacts and websites, can be found in our CisionPoint media database.

Easter bank holiday is around the corner, so here is an early comms news round up curated from @CisionUK. Happy easter!

A paywall alternative? Google launches revenue-generating surveys by @SarahMarshall3 via journalism.co.uk

“Google has launched a new microsurvey option, promising revenue-generating opportunities for online news organisations.

The internet giant claims the data collection service could be an alternative to paywalls and ads.”

Facebook ‘creating social search engine’ by Emmabarnett via The Telegraph

“The social network has deployed two dozen Facebook engineers onto the ambitious project, led by former Google engineer Lars Rasmussen, to radically improve the search engine currently available on the social network, reports Bloomberg Businessweek. “

UK web advertising spend to hit £5bn by @marksweney via Guardian

“UK internet advertising spend is likely to reach £5bn in 2012, with Facebook on track for an estimated 60% revenue surge to £288m.

Companies spent £4.78bn on all forms of internet advertising in the UK in 2011, with 14.4% year-on-year growth the biggest surge since 2007, according to an Internet Advertising Bureau report conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers.”

Google making more changes to AdWords: display network updates by @Koozai_Anna via Econsultancy

“This month Google has announced another change to Google Adwords – the addition of a Display Network tab which will consolidate all display reporting and targeting in one place.”

Key tips on the new Facebook Pages by @nmkforum New Media Knowledge

“From BA to Time Out London to O2, we’ve seen a significant percentage of businesses transition to the new Facebook Pages and successfully take advantage of the new features such as Cover Photo, Page timeline and Pinned Posts.”

Six tips for an effective online press room by @markRshapiro via Econsultancy

“Your online press room should be an important component of your PR, sales and marketing plans. Your press room is open and working for you 24/7. Editors and writers often work late at night, on the weekends and holidays when your PR and marketing teams are not available. Your website and its press room have to be able to provide all the info needed.”