Editor of themediabriefing.com and ex-Leeds Trinity student, Patrick Smith, highlighted the importance of journalists reading even more than writing – particularly in specialist areas.
“You need to be knowledgeable and read all of the things that make you an expert,” he said. “It helps to have a specialism. Whether you’re going to be a freelance reporter, TV journalist or feature writer, to have specialist knowledge or expertise is what editors are after.”
Patrick explained how the journalist of today should possess both traditional and modern skills. He said: “There are journalism tools which will never change. You need to know what a story is, and you’re nothing without sources. Be good with people – there’s an old fashioned assumption that the newsroom is a macho place but many of the most successful journalists are nice people.”
He added that, due to journalists being bound by a responsibility to report truthfully, they should not enter the industry to be liked. “Don’t forget – there are a lot of people employed to make sure their brand looks favourably in the outside world,” he said.
Patrick worked for the Press Gazette in 2006 before joining Paid Content: UK in 2008 as only the second full-time UK reporter working entirely online. He is now the editor and head analyst of the mediabriefing.com – a site which exists to “curate, sort and analyse” stories.
He also stressed that journalists should take care not to limit themselves when looking for work. He said: “Have an open mind. Consider the job, even though you might not have heard of the title.”
Patrick went on to identify a number of modern, internet-based tools which are being increasingly used by journalists in their work.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds, he said, are a useful way for journalists to read many news stories online, presented in a simple and digestible manner.
In addition, he said that Delicious – an online bookmarking service which lets anybody search a number of publicly saved bookmarks – can be even more efficient than Google in researching past stories.
Finally, it was Twitter that Patrick said is proving one of the most useful new tools for journalists to source news stories. Twitter, he said, along with a client, such as Tweetdeck, can provide a single interface which allows journalists to track trends, contact sources and build a picture of emerging events.