[Ipg-smz] Marketing as a Journalist and Vice Versa

[Tom Henderson]

Liam,

As a freelance, it's possible to do what you want. This topic has been 
covered on this list many times over the past decade.

MY tl;dr is that I'm a researcher and journalist. Others here have broad 
and varied combinations of skillsets, more true "freelancers" in that 
regard, than I. Others are editors, generalists, fiction writers (I've 
sold four of my latest novel!!), non-fiction writers, and a gaggle of 
combos. There are at least three known grammarians (formerly "grammar 
nazis"), and we argue the Oxford comma for grins. I dangle participles 
and end sentences with prepositions to taunt them. I can hear their 
teeth grinding. There are thought and speech police here, too.

I have been known to write for vendor-sponsored publications, but that 
was a passing fancy, and I've vowed to write only for non-vendor 
sponsored publications. When I do research for vendors, they're required 
to print my research intact. When I express opinion, which is 
frequently, you'll know that's opinion vs journalstic-standard-based 
facts vs marketing prattle and foam-and-goo.

The Unbiased Journalist is a figment of your imagination. Subscribing 
and adhering to journalistic standards is a spectacular goal, and many 
here, including I, subscribe to these standards and adhere to them to 
the best of our abilities. In the real world, reporting as a journalist 
in an unbiased way is possible, but to be unbiased is to be an 
automaton, and none of us are those. We may, one day, battle automatons 
for space in media, and that day is coming soon.

Morally, I can do research and publish results based on referential 
standards, facts and findings, (hopefully) poised to a target audience. 
Targeting sales people rather than geeks in data centers are two 
different endeavors. The "general public" are a third set of humans and 
have different needs still.

Having been the guy that had to make what the salesperson promised work, 
I tend to side with the geeks. In tech writing, I can address both 
audiences, but they are composed differently. I distrust vendors and 
corporations, because their goals are not my goals, and often only 
partially the goals of the purchasers of their products and services.

You'll be tempted by vendor money. Editorial pursuits of vendors may be 
highly walled from the vendor's marketing or other 
departments/functions. The taint of bias can be very highly removed, but 
for some, writing for a vendor is verbotten. Others believe that their 
editorial integrity is not besmirched by funding from vendors. They 
often cite that non-vendor pubs/sites are only vaguely separated, and 
find that this fast blurs the distinction. Some do not.

Your comfort and how you sleep at night is something you have to decide. 
Income is your problem. There are tech writers that currently work for 
organizational/corporate internal consumption and are very good at this, 
and do a good and moral job. Moral in the same way that making the best 
burger you can for McDonald's is moral. We all have to eat. Sometimes 
eating defines morality, and sometimes it doesn't.

Sorry to muddy this up for you, but the subsequent replies will attempt 
to give you other and better answers. This is why the IPG community is 
valuable.

Tom



On 12/9/18 1:41 PM, ljkelly1888 at gmail.com wrote:
> Quick question,
> I get approached by a ton of different firms asking if I can help them 
> with content, copy editing, technical writing, and general writing needs.
> The thing is, I consider myself a /journalist/ and not a /marketer/.
> Perhaps, I’m being a bit too naive, but can I morally take on work for 
> private firms to write marketing material for them and continue to 
> present myself as an unbiased journalist? I’ve yet to try this out, 
> but as I’m a bit of a minnow, maybe there’s another way to think about 
> this dilemma?
> Would love a bit of advice on this one.
> Cheers,
> Liam
> Sent from Windows Mail
>
-- 
Tom Henderson
ExtremeLabs, Inc.
+1 317 250 4646
Twitter: @extremelabs
Skype: extremelabsinc

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