Mitch Lipka, Contently.com

Mitch Lipka | Editorial Director | Contently.com

Maya Payne Smart, freelance business journalist and founder of WritingCoach.com talks with Mitch Lipka, editorial director of Contently.com, an open marketplace for writers and publishers which its founders call “a platform where real journalists can manage their freelance careers.”

PODCAST: Smart asks Lipka about Contently.com.

Maya Smart: Can you tell us a bit about Contently.com—what it is and when it launched?

Mitch Lipka: It’s a relatively new site that started earlier this year and the purpose of it is to provide content for companies that need writing on their websites and are not equipped or found themselves to be over-matched when they were trying to get it on their own. We get the writers for them, edit and provide them completed ready-to-use content.

Smart: As the editorial director for the site, what are you looking for in the writers that you hire? Do you have a preference for people with journalism experience or does any kind of writing experience help?

Lipka: It does not have to be a journalist. There are people who are perfectly qualified to do this who have been marketing writers or who have done a lot of things on their own. If you have published work and you can show that you understand the subject matter and you can write a good sentence, then you can be considered. Really the only people we don’t look at are people are people who provide no interest in any subject that’s relevant to anything that we’re writing about or who don’t take the time to show that they have the skills that are required.

Smart:What are some of the things that define the better applicants?

Lipka: The best applicants are those who take the time—and by time I mean 10 or 15 minutes—to say here are the subjects that I’m most comfortable writing about, which is part of the application, and include a few samples of their writing—just links—to say here’s what I’ve done. After that it’s the subjective question of do I think your writing matches up with what we are looking for. If you take the time to do it properly and show that you have skills then you are going to get noticed. If you fill out absolutely nothing or you take a flip approach and only have an interest in real niche things that have no mass market appeal then chances are you’re going to get passed over.

Smart: What opportunities do you have for business journalists?

Lipka: The bulk of what we do would fall under the business category. We have anything from a site that writes about Wall Street and the media to franchises, small business, a lot of personal finance sites. Probably two thirds of our content goes to something that you would consider to be a business writer’s function. There’s less in mergers and acquisition and more in personal finance and in the business of social media, technology and marketing.

Smart: Given your column for Reuters and The Boston Globe and your own site, The Consumer Chronicle, what advice would you have for fellow business journalists in terms of marketing and networking? What’s worked well for you?

Lipka: Most of my career was spent as a staff writer and an editor. My contacts in the time I spent building a reputation in a particular area helped carry over. The best advice I have is that if you develop a specialty make sure that everyone knows that that is your specialty and that you have it and you have skills that other people don’t and connections to people that give you access that other people don’t have. But you have got to spread the word. So if you have to keep it alive through your own website, blog, LinkedIn, anyway you can, keep sending the message.

This interview was part of a four-day Webinar, “Sales Strategies for Freelance Business Journalists,” that took place in August 2011.

The Economic Rebound: It Isn’t What You Think

Unemployment is still at 9 percent, leaving more than 12 million Americans without work. But there are bright spots in the U.S. economy. Planet Money and Wired Magazine have spent the last six months scouring economic data and interviewing people around the country to find out what areas of our economy are doing well. It’s part of a series called Smart Jobs.

Planet Money and Wired Magazine have spent the last six months scouring economic data and interviewing people around the country to find out what areas of our economy are doing well.

Adam Davidson, cofounder and cohost of NPR’s Planet Money, wrote this about the project: “Now, as the economy slowly rebounds, it is doing more than just gaining jobs. By looking closely at data from both government and academic sources, we can see the gradual emergence of a whole new category of middle-class jobs.”

Looking for a high-tech job? Try cotton. Click the arrow to listen to the NPR story:

Keep an eye on this special report. NPR and Wired promise these stories for Monday.

• The surprising new job centers. (Coming 05.31)
• Why one tech corridor is booming. (Coming 05.31)
• The revival of small-city downtowns. (Coming 05.31)

More good business stories.
NPR: Money
NPR: More stories on jobs

"Freeway" Rick Ross is a former Los Angeles drug dealer who has his own website: http://www.freewayrick.com.

I’m used to hearing economists, academics and officials on NPR, explaining what’s happening with the economy. But last week, I heard the voice of “Freeway” Rick Ross, a former L.A. drug dealer, talking about supply and demand for Alex Blumberg’s segment on the economics of illegal drugs. Talk about stepping out of the box!

The segment says:

“First, I asked him about Claim No. 1: Making drugs illegal drives up the price.

Ross told me that he once grossed $3 million in a single day.

‘When I sold drugs, if they’d told me they were going to legalize it, I’d have been mad, because I knew that was going to drive the price down,’ he said.

Claim No. 1: Confirmed.”

Today’s Tip: “If someone has a theory, run it by the person who’s actually doing the thing,” Alex says.

Alex Blumberg

Alex says he had spoken with an economist, asking whether making drugs illegal draws money into the drug trade. He decided a drug dealer would be the best person to ask.

“I didn’t want to interview an economist,” he says. “The minute I was talking to the economist, I knew this is what I had to do.”

To find a former drug dealer who’d gone straight, Alex called social service agencies to find people who were helping in ex-offender programs. He searched Google and LexisNexis for “ex-drug dealer.” That’s when he found Ross’ Web page. Ross was a main character in the documentary, “American Drug War: The Last White Hope.”

To hear a 30-minute interview with Ross, listen to the “Planet Money” podcast.

"Chasing Aphrodite" is due out May 24.

To listen to an NPR interview with authors Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino, click on the arrow:

In 2006, Los Angeles Times reporters Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino were Pulitzer finalists in investigative reporting for exposing the role of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and other American museums in the black market for looted antiquities.

That reporting formed the beginning of a book, due out May 24, called “Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum.” The book “exposes the layer of dirt beneath the polished façade of the museum business,” its website says. Amazon top 500 reviewer Jill Meyer has described it as “a wonderful read about greed.” To read an excerpt, go to the NPR coverage of the book.

In a live chat at 2 p.m. EDT May 23, Felch and Frammolino will take your questions about the business of museums, investigative reporting and book publishing. They are long-time reporters but first-time authors.

Jason Felch

Felch’s work has been honored by the Education Writers Association, the National Association of Science Writers and the Society of Environmental Journalists, among others. Prior to joining the Times in 2004, he was a fellow at the Center for Investigative Reporting and a freelance writer.

Ralph Frammolino

Frammolino reported for nearly 25 years at the Times, producing  investigative stories that exposed a back-door admissions system at UCLA and revealed how the coroner’s office sold corneas from autopsy subjects without their survivors’ consent.  Since leaving the Times in 2008, he has trained journalists in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka in investigative reporting.

Join us here at 2 p.m. EDT May 23, and get your questions answered about investigating arts institutions with Felch and Frammolino. You can set up an email reminder below.

Live chat with “Chasing Aphrodite” authors Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino

“Aaron and Lena Hofer have been on a downward spiral since the spring. And they are not alone. Now, seven months after BP’s oil well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, researchers say more than one-third of coastal residents are experiencing symptoms of trauma.

NPR's Debbie Elliott switched gears to report on Lena Hofer (above) and her husband Aaron.

Aaron, 27, is a fourth-generation shrimper who lost the lucrative summer season to the BP oil spill. Now the shop where he worked part time picking crab for cash has closed down. The Hofers can no longer pay the rent, have signed up for food stamps, and are bouncing from home to home, staying with relatives.”

 

Today’s Tip: “Be there on the ground. Ninety percent of the story is being there,” Debbie says.

Debbie Elliott

Debbie says she happened upon the Hofer family during a recent visit to Bayou La Batre, Ala., where she and her colleague stopped at a community center distributing free food. Despite having already set up about six interviews, she decided that the Hofer family story was compelling.

“You have to be willing to change gears and rework your schedule,” she says. “We spent a long time with the family.”

Her next segment will compare the mental-health fallout in Alaska after the Exxon Valdez oil spill with that of the Gulf, she says.

Covering these stories isn’t easy, she says. After meeting with the Hofer family, she and her colleague discussed if they should buy groceries for them. They decided against it.

“You have to keep the story in perspective by telling their stories,” she says. “It will do a whole lot more good.”

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) is near the middle of the front row in this photo provided by his office.

Freelance writer Emily Badger profiles U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) for Milwaukee Magazine using great anecdotes to show how he bucks the stereotypical politician traits to focus instead on customer service.

Her lede anecdote is about his tradition of inviting any constituents visiting Washington to his office for a continental breakfast each Wednesday. She writes:

“So many constituents are in and out – fed, photographed and appreciated – in about half an hour, with not the least signal to keep the line moving or that the senator needs to be somewhere else soon. It is Herb Kohl’s signature style of customer service, a throwback to his days running the family’s Milwaukee food stores.”

She shows his quiet side with this line:

“And if anyone is measuring verbosity – and someone is; Kohl uttered 23,107 words in the 110th Congress to fellow Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold’s 113,965 – he’d rather be tallied as a really good listener.”

She shows the modesty of the wealthy senator — whose family once owned the chain of grocery and department stores that bears his name — with this:

“Each day after work, he heads to the basement garage of the Hart building, where his 15-year-old Chevy Lumina is parked in the shadow of Arlen Specter’s Jaguar.”

The lengthy article includes few quotes from Kohl.

Today’s Tip: “Sometimes the most important interviews are the ones you get with coworkers, family, friends, etc.,” Emily says.

Emily Badger

Going into the interview, Emily says she knew Kohl was very modest and not very comfortable dealing with the press.

“I knew that the senator’s own words would not be as central to the story as things other people said about him and my own observations,” she says. “The sources around Kohl helped me identify compelling stories and anecdotes about him (anecdotes that in many cases illustrated how unassuming he is — and why, in the eyes of other people, that’s so unusual for a U.S. senator).”

She uses anecdotes from childhood friend Bud Selig, teachers, Washingtonians and others.

You can hear more about the story in an interview Emily did with WUWM’s Lake Effect radio show.

“Take Compelling Business News Photos” taught journalists how to shoot business-news photos, feel at ease behind the camera and enhance their ability to work with photojournalists.

Attendees were trained on the basics of photo composition before leading and critiquing a photo assignment. The session was held during the 2010 Society of American Business Editors & Writers conference in Phoenix.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

This session was led by Carlos Chavez, the deputy photo editor at The Arizona Republic and 15-year photojournalist veteran.

AGENDA

• Session One: Photography 101: What to do and what not to do in the field
• Session Two: Photo critique: Learn the qualities of a strong photo

SELF-GUIDED LESSON

Take a look through the recordings, resources and tools below. At your own pace, you can walk through the self-guided lesson on taking compelling business news photos.