Confessions of a tech journalist turned flak

Ricardo Bilton of Digiday talked with an ex-tech reporter to take us through the grind and explain why they’re not stressing over joining the dark side.

Here are some excerpts:

You were a journalist. Now you’re in PR. Why’d you jump ship?
Truth be told, I was pushed out. I think a lot of reporters in the tech news game really take that as a blow to their ego. I certainly did with as many 15-hour work days as I put in. It’s hard to be marginalized as a line item on someone’s budget, but really that’s what ends up happening. I tried not to take it very personally. It ended up being a really good thing, too, because it showed me just how valuable my skill set (writing, reporting, editing, consulting) was outside of tech journalism.

The irony is that while demand for the reporter skill set is high, journalist salaries aren’t.
It’s either the pay (which is a huge factor) or years of busting your ass without having that work getting acknowledged all the way up until they let you go. The compensation to me is very interesting though. We’re paying journalists way less than other positions at these publications. I’m not saying marketing isn’t important, but if your junior marketing people are making more money than your multi-year staff writers, there’s a huge problem.

Read more here.