Journalism: a trade, not a profession

Star responds to my enquiry about her media recession with an interesting viewpoint from the US. 

She says: 

I am seeing the profession of writing–and I do consider it a profession–being downgraded by digitization and outsourcing.

I’d disagree, in as much as I consider writing for the media or marketing (which is what we’re largely talking about here) a trade, rather than a profession.

What’s the difference? 

Well, you don’t (or shouldn’t) need a degree to practise a trade. Training, yes. Maybe vocational qualifications or some kind, especially if you’re operating heavy machinery or working with volatile chemicals. 

But journalism – or any kind of paid-for writing – doesn’t need even that. It certainly doesn’t need “professionalisation” in the sense of a university path towards qualification. (Especially given the poor match between what universities teach on journalism degrees and the requirements of the media industry.)

Why do many in the media talk about it as a profession? Mainly to try to shore up the crumbling walls of their career.

If you can professionalise a trade that is otherwise easy to enter, you can, with luck, stop people entering it. Following the law of supply and demand, fewer people in any line of work should mean higher pay for them. 

Unfortunately for this argument in the UK (and I assume in the US), a BA is now a de facto minimum standard of educational aspiration for non-underclass young people. 

This means a BA becomes much less useful as a professional filter. If around half your education leavers have one, it’s difficult to see how elitist it can be. And without elitism, it’s difficult to exclude new entrants to professions and so keep incomes up.

Oddly enough, journalism is seen as an easier degree option than, say, biochemistry, so that’ll push up student numbers. And it’s seen (rightly or wrongly) as a vocational degree that will be helpful in getting employment, which is why I suspect it’s taken the place of media studies as the soft degree of choice for some students.

The result? No real benefit for “professional” journalism in terms of keeping incomes up. But a massive downside in terms of student debt racked up by young people taking a journalism BA, with low prospects for a high income to compensate for it. 

Star underlines the horror of all this in her comment. She says: 

Writing is now “repurposing” (changing the words in someone else’s work to make it “original”) or else pulling 400 words out of your brain as authoritative. It’s educated typing, I guess. I saw an ad for 1000 articles–hey, a thousand bucks! Who could even type that much–that’s 5 novels’ worth.

Writing, and hence journalism, is valued less and less – by both the people who publish it and by those who consume it. Unlike plumbing, say, it’s a trade that people seem to be able to live without. 

Simply calling writing a profession won’t prevent it from being undermined and undervalued. At least calling it a trade makes it a bit easier to deal with psychologically.

How to write a good brief for People Per Hour

I’ve written before about online creative freelance marketplace People Per Hour. 

I noted that one key problem with the site is the hopelessly inadequate briefs supplied by potential employers.

So, if anyone reading this is thinking about trying to source freelance writing using the site, here’s how to prepare your brief.

It’s clear about what it wants, about how much effort will be required, and about how the budget tallies with the proposal. It’s also literate.

So, come on potential freelance employers, it’s not that hard.

Why free is not just about the money

Very interesting piece by Stan Schroeder on Mashable on the different implications of free online content.

• “Free” is not just about price – it’s also about simplicity and ease of use. 
• Some content will be difficult to charge anything for. Unfortunately for journalists, it’s news.
• Forcing charges down people’s throats is a bad way to go. So that broadband tax to pay for content is a bit of a loser.

For once this is a piece whose author really seems to understand the nuances of online monetarisation. Well worth a read…

[HT: HyperwriterUK]

Can a donation model fund web content?

Media owners and publishers are, to say the least, anxious about the financial viability of journalism, given the web’s capacity for undermining the usual business model for content (buying stuff) by, basically, giving it away free.

The UK government is even thinking about annexing part of the BBC licence fee to support regional news on commercial broadcasters.

Last month saw a high-level newspaper industry meeting in Chicago to address the issue. It was a get-together that seemed to underline how clueless they really are about how to tackle the problem, according to the usual cloud of not-really-journalist-bloggers who comment on these things and are parasitic on the real thing.

But we’re not interested in problems today on Freelance Unbound. Oh no. We’re interested in solutions.

By coincidence, two supposed solutions have been sent to me within the space of days.

The first comes via the always interesting Editor and Publisher journal. The author, Steve Outing, accepts that micropayments, as lambasted convincingly here by web pundit Clay Shirky, are a non-starter.

Instead, he is very taken with a donation model being touted by a California start-up called, slightly unappealingly, Kachingle.

Outing’s article is actually way too wordy. So I’ll precis the idea here:

• Readers who want to pay for web content as a matter of principle, but don’t want to use micropayments for individual slices of content, can pay a monthly subscription (in this case to Kachingle).
• Publishers can sign up to the scheme and put a “medallion”, or button, on their site.
• While they’re happily surfing the web, readers click on the Kachingle medallion for each site they enjoy visiting.
• At the end of the month, a subscriber’s reading habits are analysed and each site they visit gets a share of the monthly subscription. The share is based on the proportion of visits each site gets.

It’s quite a neat model. The metric used (site visits) means large sites with lots of content actually do worse than, say, a blog like this. But this could be adjusted for by having a sign-up medallion on different sections of a bigger site, for example.

But will it work?

Tellingly, Kachingle isn’t actually up and running yet – it’s just a beautiful Silicon Valley idea.

Nor is it unique. Within days of receiving the link to the Kachingle story (Hat tip: Jessica), I got a notification that some company called Contenture (what’s with these ghastly names?) had started to follow me on Twitter.

Like Kachingle, Contenture also lets readers sign up and donate money to be spread around the sites they nominate and visit. The main difference is that it seems to actually be up and running (I know this because I registered. This ought to mean that eager readers who have paid their $5.99 monthly sub will be filling my bank account with cash. Except the Javascript won’t work on WordPress. Curses.)

The key question, of course, is just how eager readers will be to fork over their cash.

One problem is that, as yet, I can’t see that any sites I know are registered with one of these providers. It’s all very well signing up and handing over my cash, but unless I can see it going to sites I actually visit, it seems a bit of a waste.

And just how altruistic are web users? The one-off donation to keep a favourite site going through a crisis is one thing, but regular monthly payments are another. I can only assume the rate is set low enough so that people may sign up and not really notice the financial drain.

Yes, there are some good things about the idea.

The automatic way it parcels out your cash to the sites you visit according to how much you use them is clever, and avoids you worrying about paying for stuff you don’t read.

And the one-off, one-click mechanism is a hell of a lot simpler than clicking a payment link on every piece of content or web site you visit, or subscribing individually to endless blogs or newspaper sites.

But really, for the life of me I can’t see that this will be anything other than a gimmick.

Remember the kids who wouldn’t pay for Facebook even though they live on it? People think most content is free. And if it isn’t, they won’t, as a rule, use it.

Over at Editor and Publisher, Steve Outing loves the idea – he thinks it’s the model we’ve all been waiting for:

I think that if Google used this same model […] its size and power could in time get Internet users paying billions of dollars for online content.

I’m not so sure. If a media presence as big and ubiquitous as Google got involved then, yes, a whole chunk of the web could become part of a donation scheme. Something like the donation medallion mechanism could be included in Google’s statistics function, for example.

But it’s the consumers who are the sticking point. At some point you have to prise the money out of their clenched hands. How would that happen?

Could the government’s slightly desperate plan to, essentially, skim money from the taxpayer’s often grudging support for the BBC point the way?

Some kind of centralised taxation redistributed according to reader usage might be possible I guess. But would you be happy to get a deduction from your wages to fund web publishing?

And what about people who don’t use the web for news or content, but for email and shopping? Or who use mainly the BBC, which we paid for anyway? Or who don’t actually use the web at all?

It’s a bit of a minefield. And it just doesn’t get over the core problem – that there is an almost unlimited supply of journalism content vying for a finite amount of reader time, let alone money.

One journalist understands the new media reality

To celebrate a tiny milestone in the progress of Freelance Unbound – the 100th post – here’s an item by a journalist who has gone over to the dark side and set up a site whose purpose is – gasp! – to make money from web media.

Julia Scott left a newspaper job to set up a personal finance blog, and in the process learned some hard truths about the business of journalism.

Writing about the experience on Journalism 2.0, most tellingly she says:

Independent journalists (the fancy term is news entrepreneur), must think as businessmen. My readers don’t pay me so my business side dictates they are no longer my primary focus.

This doesn’t mean she discounts her readers – without them she has no site. But it does mean accepting the commercial reality of her publishing model.

It’s a lesson that a lot of old-style journalists actively resist learning. But if there’s to be any future in digital journalism, we have to set aside our repugnance for grubby commerce.

But at least someone out there seems to be getting it.

Journalism is saved! By law!

Press Gazette reports on the Government’s determination to “sustain local journalism”. It’s all part of the government’s glorious five-year plan to secure Britain’s place at the forefront of the global digital economy – otherwise known as the Digital Britain report.

Apparently, earnest culture secretary Andy Burnham said: “Citizens need content produced to high journalistic standards. The internet in my view will not replace that.”

So, just how does the Government plan to facilitate this? (Given the inevitable structural change that is reshaping media away from what are seen as “high journalistic standards”.)

“Lots of this does not need legislation but it’s likely that some of the proposals will.”

Oh, great. The Government will just pass a law that says local news media will not die. Maybe there will be a rule that requires us to buy a local newspaper every week. Luckily they’ll be able to track our purchases using our new ID cards to make sure we comply.

Perhaps it’s more likely that the government will simply pour some of our taxes into publishing local newspapers. (Just for the record though – that won’t necessarily make us read them. Take note, social engineers.)

Frankly, I think the Government, and its Opposition, have done quite enough to boost journalism over the past few weeks.

Seriously – just put your feet up and leave us alone for a bit…

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 consultant”. That means he managed to escape the media implosion – but still uses the range of journalistic skills he’s acquired in his new career. It’s a good post with some useful advice.

So, now – your eight-point summary.

1) Assess your existing skills

Think laterally – writers can sub, designers can do production, print specialists can move online and old journalists can teach. Also think about how your skills can work in related-but-different fields, such as corporate writing.          

2) Learn new skills

Build on your existing skills using a host of free web-based information, trial period software downloads and software training sites such as Lynda.com. Focus especially on web analytics and SEO for the web. Hobby-type skills can also come in useful – such as film-making, running workshops etc.                

3) Update your CV (resumé)

Create different CV/resumes that focus on different skillsets or media sectors. That way you can tailor your pitch more specifically to different clients.

4) Draw up a plan

Be organised and keep track of all your work hustling progress, day by day. 

5) Talk to your friends

Mates look after mates, so always ask people you know in the business if they are aware of opportunities. 

6) Contact others

Keep regular tabs on a range of job pages online – and even in print. Obviously follow Guardian.co.uk, Journalism.co.uk and Gorkana. It helps to use social media too. I just got Twittered by a new site called Sourcethatjob.com – it doesn’t have much in the way of journalism jobs, but it could be worth watching as it may grow. Students may be interested to see it has a few intern-type posts (ie no pay, but experience).  FleetStreetBlues has a nice post collating media job sites here.

7) Advertise yourself

Build up a presence online – blog, use Twitter, join something like LinkedIn maybe. Certainly use Facebook if you’re not an old crock like me. Think about a £50 freelance listing on Journalism.co.uk, or even join a professional media organisation such as the CiB. 

8) Using freelance online marketplaces 

There are pros and cons to marketplaces like People Per Hour. I discuss them in more detail here. It’s worth investigating for students I think. 

9) Should you work for free?

Sometimes – pro bono work can get you experience, exposure and contacts. Just make sure you do unpaid work for people who wouldn’t pay you anyway.

And that about wraps it up. Remember, it may seem grim, but there is work out there – you just need to dig a bit to find it. Good luck!

Part 1;   Part 2;   Part 3;   Part 4;   Part 5;

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 – A follow-up note on the whole business of advertising yourself.

Using freelance online marketplaces

One of the things I tried at the end of last year was to register on People Per Hour – an online marketplace for freelancers in a wide range of fields, including media-type stuff such as writing and design.

I thought it might be a good way of tapping into a wider market than I could reach through my own contacts, and also improve my ability to pitch for new work.

In brief, I found it didn’t really work for me, but it might work for you, especially, I suspect, if you’re a student or similar. I posted about this at greater length earlier, so it might be worth you checking out the pros and cons here. 

Should you work for free in the hope of getting paid work later on?

When I went to blather at Kingston, I got involved in a discussion with one of the students about doing unpaid writing work. Although he was only in the first year, he’d been enterprising enough to get an unpaid commission to write for a publication (I didn’t catch which one, as I arrived late into the conversation).

Should you do this? Is it exploitation? Does it undermine your fellow journalists who rely on real income from writing to pay the rent? Does it make it easier or more difficult to get paid for your work further down the line?

My take is that it’s absolutely fine to work for nothing – under certain circumstances. The key is to ask yourself what you’re getting out of your pro bono work:

1. Experience. If you really don’t have experience (you’re a student, say), then it pays to get it. The money’s not as important as the skills and ability you develop. Make sure, however, that you get feedback on your work so you can improve. This is especially important for students, but is also valid for professionals if they are moving into a new field, for example.
2. Exposure. This works at any stage in your career. I recently wrote a piece for the members’ magazine of the British Association of Communicators in Business (CiB), because I wanted to get some exposure to the corporate communications market. It didn’t pay any money, but it is a useful thing to point to when I’m talking to potential corporate writing clients, particularly as I have spent pretty much all of my career in business journalism, and don’t have that much corporate work to show off.
3. Contacts. If you want to break into a particular field of writing, it’s worth trying to build up contacts in that world. There are plenty of specialist publications dealing with things such as the arts, say, or other niche areas, most of which are produced by enthusiasts using volunteer contributions. If you put some effort into contributing to these magazines and newsletters, you kill two birds with one stone – you get experience writing in a specialist field, and you also start building up a contacts book of the field’s movers and shakers. And what does a successful journalist have? A solid contacts book. This in itself has a value to potential employers, not counting the clippings you are building up. 

OK, then – there are good reasons to write (and do other media-type work) for free. But what are the downsides?

Primarily, you run the risk that doing work for nothing will actually undermine your ability to get paid work in future. Here’s how that works.

If you want to write music features for something like Uncut, for example, it may not be such a good idea to persuade the editor to give you a payment-free trial. After all, once you’ve given it away for free, why would they rush to start paying you full whack? It’s much more likely that your try-out period gets strangely extended and you end up donating far more than you had planned. And even if you do start getting paid, you may find it’s not at the full rate the “professionals” get.

I’m sure the fine Uncut doesn’t operate so shabbily, by the way (unless you know differently), and I’m sure this approach has worked for some. But logically it’s risky. It’s far better to donate your free writing to media outlets that don’t pay anyway. That means when you come to tout for paying work you have a bulging portfolio, but no track record of giving out freebies to potentially paying clients.

Also, make sure you get some kind of return from the free work. As noted before, if you’re a student wanting to write something for your portfolio and you get a friendly editor or features editor to commission it, ask them to give you advice and feedback in return. Many will be happy – or at least prepared – to do so. (If they’re not, that’s an indication to try somewhere else.)

I’ve been talking about writing, but the principle holds good for other media-type skills. 

If you want to move into web design, for example, then by all means design web sites for free – just make sure it’s not for people that might otherwise pay you. And potential magazine designers can spend many happy hours working up newsletters and leaflets for small charities to hone their InDesign chops. 

The moral? Sometimes you have to give before you can receive. Just make sure you give to the right people.

Next: the handy summary to all this verbiage.

Part 1;   Part 2;   Part 3;   Part 4;   Part 5;

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. This means putting together some kind of chart to keep track of the type of work you’re hustling for, the contact details of the people you’re hustling and updates of the progress you’ve made. If you’re any kind of freelance journalist at all, you should know how useful this is to do. I use something like this – but anything that works for you is fine. The key thing is to keep track of all your contacts, when you call or email them, and when you need to follow up.

Whose names do you put on your super-organised chart? I’m glad you asked…

Talk to your friends

Mates look after mates, as someone I know wisely said about the latest recession. So the most likely source of work is either direct from people you know, or from their recommendations.

This can be a bit awkward if you’re a Brit, as we tend not to like hustling our friends. It’s a bit like going out for a drink with someone you know and then trying to sell them insurance.

Get over it. You need to pay your rent and the chances are that, if they’re in the media, they’ll understand this, and also may well need someone to do some work for them.

I picked up some corporate writing work recently, after I saw an old friend of mine after a few years. She’d moved into internal corporate communications and I asked, half-seriously, if she needed any corporate writing. The answer was yes – quite a bit of it. And that’s work I wouldn’t have come by unless I’d mentioned it. So be proactive.

The longer you’ve been in the media/journalism, the more people you’ll know in the business. Be thorough – run through everyone you’ve worked with. If they’ve moved on, that’s great, because it gives you a way into different companies. If they’ve been promoted it means they may have commissioning responsibility.

If no one has any work on offer, ask them to pass your name on to anyone they hear of who has. Remember – always ask (but don’t pester).

Contact others

Once you’ve run through your entire list of contacts, it’s time to start cold-emailing. But who to choose?

A good guide can be media job ads sites. I keep an eye on the jobs section of Journalism.co.uk, and there’s also the Guardian, obviously. (When I wrote this, I completely forgot about Press Gazette. Which may be an indication of why it’s now stopped publishing.)

You could also check out Fleet Street Blues – a journalism blog that cherry-picks journalism jobs from the web and posts them with some analysis of what they require in terms of skills, and also has some decent job hunters’ advice. They also pimp me, for some reason, which is nice. 

But try to think laterally too. If you are in the market for corporate work, check out the web site of the British Association of Communicators in Business (CIB) – the professional association for corporate communications professionals – where there are a number of job listings. I’ve seen contract publishing jobs on the CIB site that haven’t been posted on other journalism job sites, for instance.

I don’t really want a job, but you can assume that if a publisher or internal communications department is hiring, it may be in the market for freelance help – especially if it’s finding it difficult to fill a position.

There’s often a few weeks’ production work on offer between the time a sub or production editor leaves and their replacement can join and get up to speed. It can work with writing too – sometimes a staff changeover can mean extra commissioning to smooth the transition.

And, yes, after that you can start trawling through general publishing company listings and sending out spec emails and CVs.

I did once buy a media yearbook with contacts for various publishing companies, but things like that date very quickly, and I found it wasn’t nearly comprehensive enough – it included almost none of the magazines I made my living from, for example.

So, use the web, and use your eyes. If a local magazine comes through your door each week or month, see who publishes it and if there’s some work there. Use Google to scour the web for publishers in different sectors. Search for your interests or specialist expertise and see who’s involved in publishing in that sector.

Draw up your list and start sending out your bespoke, tailored CVs and personalised covering letter according to whatever sector they’re in. Keep meticulous records. Note whom you sent it to and when, and keep careful track of replies. Most will be a “thanks but no thanks”, and many may not reply. Try one follow-up to them, then cross them off if they stay silent.

This kind of thing is a bit thankless and time-consuming, but can bear fruit. I contacted 14 journalism departments and training companies in the new year to try to get some teaching work. Of those, half a dozen responded with a polite “we’ll put you on file”, but two actually offered me some work – and these are organisations I’ve had nothing to do with up until now.

It tends to have best results with subbing/production shifts (a lot of production editors will try out a new sub at least once to boost their roster), less so with writing. But if you’re really stuck for work, where’s the harm? It beats daytime TV at least.

Advertise yourself

A recession is the time you actually need to spend time touting your wares most.

If you do have an online presence (and you should), make sure the address is part of your email signature.

Also consider joining the more business-focused social networking web sites. I know not everyone buys into Twitter, for example (Management Today’s editor thinks it’s “twaddle”), but enough people in the business world like it for it to be a possible route to new business.

I actually got a commission off the back of Twitter because I started following an ex-colleague, and simply managed to remind him of my existence. The investment was free in terms of money, and took very little time (once I’d figured out Twitter’s slightly minimalist instructions).

It may well also be worth spending some of your real, hard-earned money on paid advertising.

Journalism.co.uk charges £50 for a year’s listing in its freelance directory – which gives you something that looks like this. According to one freelance I know who tried it, the listing brought in enough work to pay for itself (though this was some time before the downturn).

I’m still considering doing this – but probably a bit later in the year, as I’m actually too busy right now to justify it. But £50 is just about low enough to punt in an ad just to see.

I’m also still weighing up the benefits of joining the CIB – the British Association for Communicators in Business.

As noted above, the CIB is the professional association of corporate communications professionals. It also has a directory of freelancers, but you need to be a member to join. That costs a heftier £238.50 for your first year (including a slightly irritating £60 “joining fee”) – which is a bit off-putting. But given that the hourly rate for freelance corporate writing starts at £25-£35, the work is more lucrative, so it’s worth pursuing.

Final thoughts next time, with a bit of a round-up in a final post…

Part 1;   Part 2;   Part 3;   Part 4;   Part 5;

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 go… 

Assess your existing skills

You may believe you’re just a features writer, or a magazine designer, or whatever, but you probably have a wider skill base than you think. 

A friend of mine, for example, is a skilled freelance magazine designer and that’s how she sees herself – so that’s the kind of work she looks for. But actually she’s spent many years doing production for the magazines she’s designed. So she has a whole load of print production/production editing skills that could get her related-but-different jobs. And because print magazines especially are cutting staffing back to the bone, the ability to handle multiple tasks is a big bonus.

This works for words-based journalists too. Can you spell? Do you have a grasp of grammar? Then you can sub-edit as well as write – and vice-versa. And don’t forget that writing doesn’t have to mean writing features. You may not be a news journalist, but if you’re an experienced writer you can also think about writing corporate copy, or PR stories.

Specialise in print? Think about branching out online. And, yes, that requires you to have a few different skills. Which brings us on to…

Learn new skills

If you are a skilled journalist or designer, it actually doesn’t take much to add to your abilities – certainly enough to make a big difference in employability. The usual big leap in the dim past when desktop publishing (DTP) was The New Thing was to learn QuarkXPress and try your hand at page layout. Now, however, the big new thing is the web.

The good news is that, if you’re a print journalist wanting to develop your online skills, you can learn enough initially from the pages and pages available on the web to do this without laying out any money for it. Try a search for “web usability” or “writing for the web” for a start. There’s a host of material available, especially from web usability guru Jakob Nielsen. Here’s a very comprehensive site to start you off.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a big draw for employers at the moment – and luckily the principles are pretty easy to grasp. Here’s an article from the Jakob Nielsen usability site that talks about SEO – it’s pretty good and gets the principle across well.

It’s also easy and pretty much cost-free to get started in online publishing. Try a blog out, or some other kind of online writing, just to prove you can. I posted about this here, and I still think it’s good advice.

The other big draw for employers is turning out to be an understanding of web analytics and audience building. These are business-type skills, and today it’s getting much more important for journalists to possess them. 

Google Analytics offers this in a fairly easy – and free – package. If you set up your own web site or blog you can sign up for Google Analytics and use it to analyse your traffic. It doesn’t work for WordPress.com blogs – your site has to be hosted on your own web server space. But even a simple WordPress blog like Freelance Unbound has a stats page that shows you where your traffic comes from and where it goes once it gets to you. 

If you’re a layout sub or a designer and you want to be able to work on the web, you’ll need to learn new software. Again, do it for minimal cost – download the Adobe Creative Suite, which includes Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks, for a 30-day free trial period and learn as much as you can during that time.

You don’t have to pay out for expensive training courses – but I’d suggest you do pay out a little bit to join Lynda.com for a month or so. It’s crammed with video tutorials for all the media and creative software you’ll ever need to use.

It’s $25 a month – which isn’t a huge amount – but if you want to cheat a bit you can download the tutorials to your hard drive to run through at your leisure. Which means you should be able to cancel after only one month’s subscription and then pretty much use the material for as long as you want offline [disclaimer: I actually haven’t tried this yet, though I am planning to when I have time to learn Flash this summer].

There’s also a load of free tutorials to try out before you subscribe so you can see if the site suits you. Am I a shill for the company? Sadly, no. But I’m open to offers.

It also helps to think laterally. Over the years I’ve spent time in bad bands and I’ve made animated films. This means I’m quite familiar with audio and video editing.

For years that didn’t look like it was any use at all, except as a hobby. But what’s happening right now? Yes – publishers are swarming onto the web and starting to produce podcasts and video interviews to upload to the web.

This video from Broadcast magazine is a perfect example. It’s very competent, but it’s also pretty simple. Broadcast sends its reporters out with a camcorder to record video interviews at the same time as they do an interview for the print edition, using a fairly basic DV video camera set-up.

It’s not high-end television – but it does mean you need to know one end of a camcorder from another, understand the basics of lighting and visual story-telling and, if you’re back on the production desk, how to use FinalCut Pro to cut the whole thing together.

One thing’s for sure, just being familiar with InDesign doesn’t really cut it any more for long-term survival.

What do you do with all your new-found skillage? This:

Update your CV (resumé)

Revisit that old CV (resumé, for our transatlantic visitors) and freshen it up. Don’t just give a list of the jobs or commissions you’ve done, break it down into your different skills and different publishing/media sectors. This could include feature writing, corporate writing, sub-editing, page layout, web design and, in my case at least, teaching/training.

When you’ve done that, make a few copies of the document and start tailoring each one to a specific sector or skill. You should end up with dedicated CVs for each application or enquiry you make. For feature writing, stick all the feature writing skills and commissions you have at the top. Same for sub-editing. Same for corporate writing.

“But they’re the basically same thing!” you cry. No – not from the point of view of the people who may give you work. Show you understand the differences between different kinds of work and it’ll make you look better.

What’s that you’re saying? You don’t have enough skills to have multiple CVs? Go back to points 1 and 2 and start again…

More to come in part 3. 

Part 1;   Part 2;   Part 3;   Part 4;   Part 5;