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Music To Write By

June 4, 2014 By Yael Grauer Leave a Comment

musicalnoteSooner or later, it’ll happen to you: you’ll have time carved out to write but will be absolutely unable to concentrate. In case taking a break isn’t an option, listening to music might do the trick. Here are some of my favorite tunes and sounds when I really don’t feel like doing anything, but need to convince my brain to work in spite of it all. Feel free to share your own in the comments.

American Primitivism

Songza has all sorts of great playlists, but I always keep coming back to this one. The finger-picking acoustic tunes have a hint of country and a hint of blues. No lyrics, so it’s not completely distracting, but it’s interesting enough to help you focus.

Coffitivity

It’s not really music, but rather an app that mimics the sounds of a local cafe. If you’d like to be able to turn the volume up and down at will, not worry about spilling coffee on your laptop, and have a strong wifi connection that isn’t slow as molasses, you’ll enjoy Coffitivity.

Focus@will

If you like white noise in theory but can’t find any that doesn’t want to make you break things, Focus@will just might do the trick. The free version plays 60 minutes of sounds at a time, and paying for a subscription unlocks all sorts of other features.

Other People’s Soundtracks

Sometimes when I’m writing a profile on a specific person, I listen to the type of music they like to try to get in their head a little bit. Of course, this only works if it’s not music you absolutely despise. I usually look for them on Spotify or just find soundtracks of the type of music they say they like.

Your Favorite Tunes

I know, I know, it’s so obvious that it’s barely worth mentioning, but you probably have some tunes laying around that just might work. I find myself listening to classical guitar and ukulele quite a bit (Jason Vieaux, Jake Shimabukuro, Adrian Holovaty, etc.) when editing, and more raucous music (Jayke Orvis and the Broken Band, for example) for idea generation. What do you listen to when you write?

Filed Under: writing Tagged With: music, writing

What is the Future of the Magazine?

October 6, 2011 By Yael Grauer Leave a Comment

Is there a future? I went to a panel discussion on just that last night, and three panelists explained the way they think long-form journalism will co-exist with e-readers, apps and the changing world of media.

The first speaker was Deborah Hopp, who publishes Minneapolis + St.Paul Magazine and works in publishing at MSP Communications. She pointed out that humans like the fact that magazines are finite, as opposed to trying to “finish” a web page. And although newsstand sales of magazines are down, readership is up. Hopp threw out a dizzying array of statistics to back up her points. One that stood out for me was that the average amount of time spent reading a magazine is 43 minutes. The average amount of minutes spent on a website? 2.

Hopp discussed many reasons why newsstand sales are down–less service from wholesalers, competition from other vendors at checkout reducing impulse sales, even the location of magazine racks in stores like Walmart changing. Although newsstand sales have decreased, Hopp pointed out that subscriptions have increased. But what about all of the magazines that have folded? It is advertising that puts the nail in the coffin, she said, not circulation.

It was also heartening to learn that 25% of magazine subscriptions come from the internet, and that magazines drive more web searches than any other form of media.

Hopp did warn of some of the risks associated with new media–not least that it risks creating a generation of skimmers. “Shallow readers are shallow thinkers,” she said. And although the internet brings with it speed and timeliness, this is not a substitute for quality and craftsmanship and culture.

Next we heard from Utne Reader editor David Schimke, who is one of my heroes. He spoke about how magazines were devalued as advertisers were looking for bigger numbers of readers. When the ads were dropped in large numbers due to economic constraints, it was the internet which devalued content. Schimke expects a move towards niche publications, such as Mother Earth News, as one example–it was the best-selling magazine in 2010. Motorcycle Classics was another example.

Schimke recommended new writers brand themselves as niche market writers. This could be a topic, such as holistic heath, or a type of writing, such as investigative journalism or profile writing. It is no longer just enough to be a good, clean writer. A sense of expertise is also necessary as these niche publications work with a smaller audience (which they often also sell product to). The world has become much more competitive, so writers also need to be blogging, tweeting, working with authors, speaking, putting video and podcasts on their website, promoting their own work and writing SEO-optimized copy. He left us off with some final words of wisdom–know the magazines you are pitching inside and out. This will become far more important, he predicted, as niche publications lead the way.

The final speaker was Katie Byrne, who worked as a VP of the technology group at Future US and created an award-winning app to bring the print and digital publications she oversaw into the world of mobile phones. Byrne brought a refreshing perspective to the somewhat destabilizing changes in media, pointing out that so many of the social media outlets we have help us build our own brands, and that writers have never had the freedom to tell their story in so many ways until now. Digital media is an enhancer, she said, not a threat, so long as you make it work for you instead of you working for it. Byrne also pointed out that the volatile world of media is desperately in need of expert voices, and those to help determine which content available online is valuable and which is junk.

So what’s the bottom line? Although we can never predict the future, here’s what I got out believing:

  • There is still a market for long-form journalism and feature writing. It won’t all go the way of 150-word blog posts and slide shows. Although people crave immediacy and breaking news, this hasn’t replaced the need for in-depth thought and analysis.
  • The internet can be used to complement print media, rather than just replace it. (Experience Life magazine does a great job with this–providing links to videos, for example, in their beautiful magazine.)

As a writer, the biggest take-home points for me were:

  • While it’s important to hone my craft as a writer (and I do find feature writing the most fulfilling), it’s also important to become versatile and learn new tricks. I personally do not enjoy editing podcasts and feel awkward making videos, but perhaps these are skills I need to spend more time cultivating so that I am ahead of the curve. I prefer to focus on craft, not marketability, but the world is changing and it’s important to keep up.
  • At the same time, it’s important not to always jump onto each new development. (Or, in the words of Byrne, “Resist the temptation to overwhelm people with cool shit.”) I had a client months ago who was always chasing the latest technological trend, often at the expense of his client. Introducing new things slowly is never a bad idea.
  • Schimke’s prediction that magazine publishing will go the way of niche publishing made me panic a little bit. Although I cover primarily health, nutrition, physical fitness and mixed martial art, I’ve branded myself as a generalist. Deciding what to spend time on–developing key expertise, honing technological skills, or focusing on the basics…is a challenging endeavor, to say the least. I’d like to think that good reporting is good reporting, and luckily we can each develop several areas of expertise instead of limiting ourselves to just one.
  • Finally, as was touched upon in the Q+A session after the panel discussion, it is more important than ever to preserve separation between content and advertising. This is a tricky topic which could take all day, but electronic media has opened a whole new can of worms as far as conflicts of interest are concerned.

Any thoughts on the changing world of media? Feel free to leave them in the comments.

Filed Under: writing Tagged With: magazine, writing

Honest Headlines: Not That Hard

September 29, 2011 By Yael Grauer Leave a Comment

Any disagreements?In a continuation of this week’s discussion on media ethics, I found this guideline particularly poignant: “Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.”

This is a pretty easy one, provided that you are writing your own headlines rather than having a higher-up do it for you. And no matter how pressed for time you are, asking a follow-up question such as, “Are you trying to say _______” can really nip most potential problems in the bud.

You may lose a few page views, but will gain more trust and credibility in the long run, and this doesn’t really take much out of you in my opinion.

Anyone disagree?

Filed Under: writing Tagged With: headlines, media ethics, writing

Getting Both Sides (When Possible)

September 27, 2011 By Yael Grauer Leave a Comment

Yesterday I spoke about seeking the truth with limited resources; highlighting the fact that attempting to verify accuracy of information when crunched for time or lacking in support (fact checkers, editors, etc). Today I wanted to cover another guideline which is also difficult to follow when lacking in resources, also from the SPJ Code of Ethics: “Diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing.”

It seems like common sense. If one person says something about someone else, you want to get both sides of the story. But this is assuming that the other person is accessible. How do you do this when you don’t even have contact information, or the information you have isn’t likely to reach the person you’re trying to get ahold of? And what do you do when you are pressed for time? How much time is enough time? I was once awoken in the wee morning hours by a very angry PR person who said I should not have written in my story that her client did not respond to request for comment, since it had not been 24 hours. Hardly anybody gives 24 hours, even for print newspapers, but it was a valid point. (I now write “did not immediately respond to request for comment” since it could very well be a timing issue.) Perhaps merely making an attempt to reach a source for comment is enough to give the illusion of diligently seeking out subjects for response to allegations, but is it? When do you hold a story? Again, this is part of the balancing act writers (especially in the blogosphere world of breaking news) face. Finding a balance between high standards of integrity and being on the cutting edge, breaking news… is not easy. Where do you draw the line?

Filed Under: writing Tagged With: media ethics, writing

Seeking the Truth (With Limited Resources)

September 26, 2011 By Yael Grauer Leave a Comment

I’ve mentioned ethics in journalism in previous posts, and wanted to touch on some of the grey areas in the ethics code presented by the Society of Professional Journalists. This isn’t intended to discount the code, by any means, but because I thought it’d be useful to have a dialogue about some of these issues in the changing world of media–and give my own thoughts on why some media outlets have a more stringent policy than others. I’d also like to open the dialogue up and hear opinions from others.

One of the facets of SPJ’s ethics code is seeking the truth and reporting it. “Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information,” it reads. And one of the guidelines that stuck out for me was the very first one: “Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.”

Obviously, deliberate distortion can increase web traffic or create a more interesting story than the one which is real. And this is a clear violation, in my mind, of the trust readers put into a media outlet. However, there are so many reasons why inadvertent errors are common. One is resources and the second is time.

When certain media outlets pay writers a mere pittance (if that), writing for a living becomes a matter of pumping out articles as quickly as possible. If the same outlets also do not have fact-checkers or editors on staff (and, ideally, you’d want at least 2 eyes to scan a piece before it goes live), it’s next to impossible to test the accuracy of information from all sources. This is one reason why I prefer writing for magazines than for the internet. Painstaking fact-checking and expert revision may not eliminate inadvertent errors, but they certainly reduce them.

Aside from limited resources (fact-checkers, editors, writers getting paid a living wage who therefore have a higher skillset, etc.) a big issue is time. New media involves breaking news as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, verifying the accuracy of information (or whether it’s okay to release it) means you are often giving up being the first to post a headline. This is a concession I personally am willing to make, but I can see how it might be more difficult if one were, for example, being pressured by an editor. It really is a matter of juggling accuracy and speed for a demanding public that wants both.

What other gray areas exist in testing the accuracy of information?

Filed Under: writing Tagged With: media ethics, writing

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