Archives: July 2007

These guys do work. Now, How to Pitch does, too.
In mb editorial, we’re like most service-minded editors: obsessed with making our stories do work for our readers. We share queries that landed their writers the bylines of their dreams so you can replicate their success; we tip you off to media industry movement so you can get a lead on places seeking staffers with skills you’ve got in spades; and we dig into how media folks prevail in their work so we can take cues from them. So, to keep things as helpful as we aim to be, we’ve organized our How to Pitch archive by topic, to mirror the way we know freelancers target places to publish their work.

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Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion's Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook's Morin Oluwole, and bitly's Tim Devane. Register now.

You may have noticed callouts on the mediabistro.com homepage to our press release blog, Release Me. With all the media-related releases we get (and we’re sure you do as well), we thought a clearinghouse was in order. Right now, we post the releases, but we hope PR people will put up their own. If we do this right, it will be a great resource for all things media-related. Our question to you: How to make this happen? Would you post releases if the form was simple, like Revolving Door?
Hit up the forum to weigh in. We’d love to hear your opinions.

This past week the mediabstro.com staff got together for a working lunch. I know what you’re thinking— we’ve gone all corporate already since the sale last week— the ping-pong table is gone and we’re all wearing suits. Well, we never had a ping-pong table (no idea why), and any suits are still of the leisure variety. So it’s still Kool and the Gang over here.
We bounced around some interesting ideas yesterday. Most of them centered around bringing our devoted MB community members further into the digital age with our content. While I won’t steal anyone’s thunder, I’ll be happy to share my suggestions of the day (besides the one voicing my desire to be better at card tricks).

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Employees who are passionate about their company are the best performers, regardless of industry, tenure or gender. That was a conclusion based on a study by PeopleMetrics, after speaking with about 6,000 workers across the U.S. So are you telling me that it really doesn’t have to do with the amount of money you can make? Well, it’s pretty common to hear that true passion and zeal in an employee produces the best product. I have a friend who does IT compliance for one of the biggest banks, but despite the fact that she’s raking in the dough, she’s not as content as she imagined. Although the bi-weekly checks do provide some sort of gratification, it’s short lived compared to envisioning the type of work she will be doing in the long run. Worker confidence has also risen, measuring reaction to overall economy and job market, a piece of info which can boost those hesitant to switch over to their dream job, even if it means a significant cut in pay. So regardless of having to climb back on the ladder, seize every opportunity because you never know when you’ll hit it big.

Despite the millions of people who work and commute in the bustling city of Seoul, Korea, I was pretty amazed at the eco-friendly rules the citizens adhere to. Whenever you buy an item and request a bag, you are charged a few cents more per bag. This encourages people to carry their own shopping bags and reduces the amount of unnecessary plastic being wasted. Even though there are no signs on the garbage cans, there are small nets attached to each can to sort out bottles and cans from other items. People carefully separate their garbage and place the cans into the net while throwing away other things into the can. Yes, the traffic is horrendous in Seoul and it definitely contributes to the pollution in the air. But regardless of that, the small action of recycling and carrying shopping bags can make a gigantic difference in the overall challenge of global warming. Now that we’re being faced with a major catastrophe in the near future if changes aren’t made, every bit of effort will surely decrease the odds of a major disaster. And when you know you have resources or means to reach the masses, it’s worth taking advantage of that outlet. It’s also a big plus when companies promote well-being and environmental concerns for employees to take part in and take those ideas home to share with others. Want to feel the full effect of contributing to protecting the environment? Become an employee for one of mediabistro’s own job poster and work on ways to market and communicate to the public on the effects of environmental damage on a global scale.

If you’re a Freelance Marketplace member who thrives on competition (the “in your face, pal!” set), and loves the classic art of experimentation (the “if it grows in the ground it’s probably fine, right?” set), we’ve got something we think you will like.
We’re looking for volunteers to beta test a new feature in the Marketplace soon, where select members will be part of a “featured freelancer” section at the top of the page. Basically, you’re meant to stick out like a sore thumb. But don’t worry, that’s a good thing in this case. The ultimate goal is to increase your exposure in the Marketplace, which in turn will score you more gigs.
Obviously, we figure that any Marketplace member would want to be on top of the page. We might as well ask you if you’d like big sack of cash. So, we’re asking a little something in return. We’d like you to take a very brief survey about your experiences on Freelance Marketplace. Specifically, we want to know how often you get freelancer inquiries, how many jobs you get from those inquiries, etc.
Once the completed surveys start rolling in, we’ll begin featuring freelancers in a dedicated section at the top of the Freelance Marketplace page for a period of time. After you’ve been featured, you’ll complete another very brief survey to measure whether you had any additional success from the added exposure. If enough members dig it, we may make the feature permanent.
So if you’re a Freelance Marketplace member interested in some fruitful experimentation, click here and let us know. You’ll be hearing from us shortly.

A recent poll conducted by the survery gurus at Hay Group reveals that more than half of of all companies provide services and support to encourage a healthy lifestyle. Hay’s Vice President, Michael Carter, maintains that “a fitter work force is a happier work force, and less costly, too.” The key is encouraging an overall lifestyle for its employees made about by small changes. The end result? Fewer dollars spent on health care. But what does a cost-conscious manager do? Is it possible to cross the line from being encouraging to overbearing? Let’s just say I hope our happy hours aren’t replaced with rice cakes and carrot sticks.
I have witnessed simple and not-so-obvious changes here at the ‘bistro, that encourage a healthy lifestyle. Each week, the staff is pampered with our very own private yoga instructor. Add a few downward dogs and some warrior poses, and we are left feeling rejuvenated, focused, and ready to work.
And while we may not offer a state-of-the-art gym, we do have a 30+ steps to climb before we make it to our desks. You see, we can all physically triumph in the morning.

Anyone who’s paged through the September issue of a fashion mag and claimed they aren’t reading partly for the resplendent double-page ads is yanking your chain — who wouldn’t? Seldom is content and advertising on such even footing as when the major print glossies strive to sway the hearts and minds of fashion consumers with their annual September opus. But how to replicate the experience online? Better yet, how to maximize the year-round opportunity the Web presents? ‘Online glossy’ and two-time Webby winner Zoozoom.com may have the answer (hint: ‘you’ and your user-generated content have little to do with it). We put some questions to Zoozoom CEO Mike Hartley CEO and publisher David McIntyre, who filled us in via email.
What about Zoozoom’s offerings were most integral to its recent Webby win?
We think it must be the unique combination of creative, professional content and ads, the approach to interactivity and format that ZOOZOOM embodies. We call it an ‘online glossy.’
What did it take for ZOOZOOM to make it onto the radar of key fashion advertisers?
Consistently delivering quality content year on year has given us a platform to work with fashion brands online. Our ad unit also speaks fashion’s language. Although even the most luxurious of brands have sucked air when we tell them our CPM, on closer inspection our long-term value is apparent. But it’s still a work in progress. Fashion in many respects is very conservative and seemingly old-fashioned. Some brands aren’t however — Chanel, NET-A-PORTER.COM, Neiman Marcus, Diesel and others. We’ve developed relationships with these brands over a number of years, we’ve been persistent, we’ve worked hard and whilst trying to be respectful, we’ve sometimes had to be cheeky. Also, one of the advantages of producing our own editorial content is that we’re out there; we’re in the showrooms, talking with the designers. If we were a blog that regurgitated press releases, we’d have no real contacts within our industry. Our video interviews with designers and Fashion Week coverage are another way we interface. These are just a few of the ways we’ve been able to get and stay on the radar.

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It’s not everyday you learn about a pivotal American historical figure who was previously unknown. But on Thursday morning, when an email from author Andrew Schiff turned up in my inbox, I knew I had to learn more.
Schiff alerted me to his soon-to-be-release biography about Henry Chadwick. Who is Chadwick, you ask? Only the man who invented sports journalism, was the originator of baseball stats, and chairman of the rules committee. How could my education, both as a Red Sox fan and a journalist, be complete without having ever heard of Chadwick? Was this the sort of thing I missed by skipping j-school?
Thankfully, Schiff wrote the book (The Father of Baseball: The Life of Henry Chadwick, hitting shelves October 26), and I can just read it. The author tracked Chadwick’s life by contacting the New York Public Library, the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Society for American Baseball Research, the University of London, and countless other sources.
We constantly hear journalists complain about struggling to find stories (I know I did), but Schiff turned his fascination with a name he first heard when he was eighteen years old into an excellent book. If there’s a better way to find source material, I’m not sure what it is.

When you’re starting out, your financial portfolio probably has lower dollar amounts than a Denny’s menu. You’re making less than $35k a year while you fork over a ton of cash every month for an apartment that’s only slightly more spacious than the boxes of Manolo‘s you have no right buying. You’re paying for Ramen noodles with your AmEx. None of this actually happened to us, of course. We’re just speaking hypothetically.
Though it sounds cool when you tell your friends you scored a media job right out of school, the reality is you’re not going to be raking it in right off the bat. You need to make every penny work. That means doing things like starting a 401(k) or retirement plan as soon as you pick that college graduation cap up off the ground.
If you’re wondering how you can do that and still afford those Ramen noodles, swing by our seminar on Salary Survival Skills. In one night, you can put together a financial toolkit that will make your life a lot easier in the short term and in the long run.
This seminar is part of our Get a Post-Diploma Life: Jump-start Your Media Career series. Top editors, financial planners, and media professionals will guide anyone breaking into the media business on how to ace an edit test, nail an interview, get an editorial job, and survive and thrive on an entry-level salary.
Jessica Eule, Assistant Director of Education
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Salary Survival Skills — New York, Wednesday, August 1, 6:30 pm

Get a Post-Diploma Life: Jump-start Your Media Career — New York series of panels, seminars, and workshops starting August 1