Personal branding and the evolution of ‘innovative’ journalism

It's quite simple really. Find good stories, tell them (and you can now tell them in more ways than ever), and an audience will form.

Cheers for the mention JosephStash . First, I'd disagree that personal branding (a phrase I call for a moratorium on) in this instance requires "a hint of arrogance" – it requires nothing of the sort. I think you mean "appear self-confident". No one – not least employers who don't know you from Adam – likes arrogance. Arrogant is the last thing I want to come across as. You don't even have to be comfortable with the idea of personal branding to get a great job.

Secondly, my Twitter feed simply isn't an "automated feed" for my Guardian work, as you describe it. Getting hired as a specialist reporter necessarily means your reading, sharing and conversation changes as well. When was the last time you saw me write about local media or tools for journalists? I don't get involved in as much Twitter chatter as I'd like to, that's true – but the demands of attempting to win a renewed contract in your first 10+-hour-a-day job are hugely different from the demands on a second/third-year student. That's unfortunate, but that's the way it is. Couple of months back I started making a conscious effort to get more involved on Twitter.

Onwards. Your point about the "journalism students" quote is a bit glib. Of course, the innovative journalists – the A Team: Andrew Sparrow, Alexi Mostrous, Adam Gabbatt, Andy Carvin, etc – will continually learn, trial and adopt new storytelling tools, but that doesn't mean they should be compelled to call themselves student journalists.

The secret to getting a job today is doing good work and working bloody hard at it. It was the same yesterday. It was the same last June. It was the same 190 years ago. Who cares about "personal brands" if your work can precede you? It can online.

Josh

Discount cards are hardly innovative. Is it any wonder the journalism business model is broken if we're reduced to copying a mainstay of tourist cities?

That being said I wish Marc all the best in making it a success but I think it's a stretch to call it innovative.

Love the discussion with hrwaldram about community management and I'm fascinated but not surprised about student journalists' reaction to seeking alternative careers.

There are currently four times as many PR pros as journalists in the US. Between 2009-10 US newsrooms lost 10% of their journalistic staff. What the market is saying is quite obvious and the future of journalism, asides publishing PR releases verbatim, is precarious.

The chances of landing a journalism job, especially in a down economy is increasingly unlikely. If you do prepare for salaries such as Granada TV were offering - 7000 p.a. for a recent graduate that's a tough financial decision to make.

Journalism skills are easily converted to marketing, PR, community management, social media and a myriad of other professions. I know university has a way of pumping you up and spitting you out full of the joys of spring and focussed on a job in your chosen profession. The reality is journalists need to be more flexible now.

As Monday night's #journchat and #socialchat both explored, there's mounting belief that some kind of "brand journalism" could be a potential outlet. http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/will-a-brands-next-big-move-be-a-journalism-department/ is a great discussion about this. The sheer amount of journalist graduates and sheer lack of journalism jobs, especially at a liveable rate will see students having to look for other jobs to survive.

Personal branding can only go so far, you still have to be able to touch those with the power to hire or their consultants.

davelee Oh how the worm has turned given the job want list. Are the NCTJ qualifications keeping pace with technology?

JosephStash By any chance did "The Reporter" or whatever the journalism department newspaper is called now reach out to graduates of UCLan from varying years in the past? I'd be fascinated to see the percentage of those who went onto a journalism career.

Thanks for the mention. I'm not really sure what to think. I never set out to create a brand. Actually what happened was that I stumbled upon the first step in an incredibly pragmatic approach to journalism. I've since had to consolidate lots of loose ends into a firm plan. I suppose this shows the variety of ways people get into the position they're in.

I haven't applied for any jobs and don't plan to. As I mentioned earlier in the year, my plan has been to pursue Plastik as a career for at least the next year or two. On its own, it doesn't pay enough and so I have to work as a freelance designer and also come up with new ways of monetising Plastik (Plastik Pass was the first way that Plastik made any money).

In any case, and very much contrary to the approach taken at Monocle where they even considered their mailing labels from day one (this is fact), any kind of brand which now exists over Plastik has developed over time. Fortunately, it's now a very coherent, strong brand and I'm very proud of it.

As the end of my postgrad approaches, I find myself quite anxious about the security of self-employment and doing something quite unlike anything else in South Wales at the moment. Fortunately, I have the relative safety of being able to supplement my income with side projects and also the support of family. It's important to realise that not everyone can afford this luxury. If Plastik was my absolute sole income, I would not be able to continue.

Perhaps this is the reason that more people aren't able to do really innovative things. Love of your work is great, but love doesn't pay the bills.

Oh gosh so much in here - some really good points Joseph but some others which make huge sweeping assumptions which can't go unaddressed.

Firstly, Ben Bryant is right to point out the distinction between saying “they got their jobs from personal branding and blogging” to “they got great jobs because they were at the forefront on their game”. The point is student journalists (or journalism students) who want to be 'snapped up', as you say, by nationals/big media (if that's what they want to do) will of course need a new edge as the industry continues to rapidly adapt – having a personal brand/blog/website doesn't make you stand out from the bunch anymore.

But as for the comparison to Marc (disclaimer – I know him, have chatted to him lots about Plastik Magazine, and he's helped out with Guardian Cardiff and Cardiff Social Media Surgeries) I'm not sure it's the same kind of thing. Firstly Marc hasn't even finished his course yet. These so-called 'snapped up' comparisons had graduated, applied and were interviewed and then had to prove their worth just like everyone else. Secondly, it would be great to get Marc commenting here as he may feel Plastik Magazine is worth pursuing in itself rather than joining some big monolith magazine – which I'm sure as one of the best students to come out of Cardiff journalism school this year he'd have absolutely no problem in doing. Maybe it says something about his true entrpreneurhip if he continues to go it alone.

I'd like to respond to Ben's mention of Guardian Local (another disclaimer – much affection for Ben too who has also worked with me in Cardiff). Working on any new and exciting project is a risk but no less of a risk than other jobs in journalism – any of them could be cut at any point. Also, If you don't think community management is journalism then perhaps you're in the wrong business – it's at the heart of where things are going.

On your final point Joseph I think you shouldn't discredit the wealth of experience and expertise in news organisations which even the brightest young journalists can learn from.

I somehow got one of these "cutting edge" jobs despite not even having a blog. Still pleasantly surprised by that, as well as a little bemused. I don't even think the journalism I did before I got the job (national press, FOIs, crime and courts) was very cutting edge. I was just lucky and keen as mustard. Of course, now that Guardian Local is ending, I have a blog of my own, ultimately aiming to hit potential employers between the eyes! (http://mmacleod.tumblr.com) But I wouldn't worry about not having a specialism in journalism Joseph. In a round-about way, you already do. By being online, you're lightyears ahead of many paper writers.

Another way of thinking about it: all the examples you've given above (myself included) created their 'brand' by writing about journalism, which is problematic in two ways - 1) thinking/writing about something is not the same as doing it 2) writing on your own industry is something anyone can do (and there's no shortage of journalism blogs out there!)

What sets Marc and yourself apart is you're *doing* something. As davelee says the ways we can build our brand will always change but the wannabe journalists themselves need to up their game: have bigger, more ambitious ideas and rather than blogging about them, making them happen. I know I seem to harp on about this a lot, but you can't put a value on people who start things.

And although it seems sad that the bright young things are absorbed by big institutions, they learn a lot when they're inside (I have never regretted my 3 years working for the mainstream media one bit) - especially now I've left.

Yes, yes, yes - totally agree with this. It's something I came to realise pretty early on in the City course - the idea of actually blogging your way into a job is sort of missing the point. Everyone's experimenting and looking for that breakthrough moment, so employers are naturally turning to people at the cutting edge of journalism. I don't think it's the fact that Dave, Josh et al were bloggers - it's just that they were at the forefront, ahead of the rest of their generation.

I also think getting a job just by being at the cutting edge of journalism is one of the easiest ways for the new generation because a) that's where the openings are (two at the guardian and one at the telegraph for community management over the last month, for starters) and b) the old school don't really understand it - by which I mean you can profit from their lack of understanding and willingness to experiment! The risk is, of course, that your job security isn't quite so assured because any new experiments in journalism might not be sustainable, as we have seen with the sad demise of Guardian Local. And there's also that question of whether some of the openings (i.e. community management) really count as journalism at all...

I've been planning a blog post for some time about how difficult it is to maintain a personal brand while in an organisation that largely discourages them (not that they'd ever admit that, of course). Your points may finally kick-start me into actually doing it.

But that said, I think you're going a bit extreme here. It is still possible to get a job in the same way Josh and I did. Indeed, Joseph, you're doing it -- and you will be employed in the same way, I'm sure.

I agree with your last point, however. All around the media there are - to use a slightly egotistical phrase - young up and comers who could be scraped endlessly for ideas, but we aren't generally listened to all that much.

But then it's not up to someone to come and listen to me, it's up to me to go and talk to people - just like when we were at uni.