My Vision and Mission Statements

When I first read the vision and mission statements on Pine Tree Watchdog's website, I was a little confused as to how they were different. They seem very similar at first, but after reading through them a couple times and by looking at what other people in class wrote, I think I understand the difference. Here's my attempt at writing them for Well Now.

Vision: Well Now will fulfill the responsibility of a wellness magazine for young women by providing them with well-researched articles written in an entertaining and informative way so that they can become their best selves.

Mission: Well Now will engage young women in becoming their best selves through an entertaining magazine-style online news outlet that combines the knowledge of professionals with the real life experiences of the writers.

I'm still not sure if those are very different but I gave it a shot. It took awhile to think these through and to come up with clear and understandable wording, so hopefully these make sense.

The Class's Reaction to My Pitch

Well, seeing as I wasn't able to get my PowerPoint into Dropbox until yesterday, only two people commented on it. I had already put my pitch into two previous Dropbox folders (EJ Pitches fall 2013 and EJ Pitches fall 2013 (1)) and they showed up in both of those so I'm not sure why no one else could see it until it was in EJ Pitches fall 2013 (2). Anyways, Allie and Emily commented on my pitch and both of them were positive with only a couple ideas for improvement.

Allie said that I should expand on how Well Now is different from the competition, specifically Self magazine. I was planning on going into that more if I were to actually pitch it (which we now are), but basically my magazine encompasses more aspects of well being. Self is more focused on physical fitness, where my magazine will focus on emotional and mental well being as well.

Emily suggested that I should partner with a local health food store to promote my magazine. I think this could be interesting, but I wouldn't really want to partner with them. It might be interesting to hold some of my conferences at places like this (as well as places like yoga studios) though for when I'm first starting out and can't afford a bigger place. Maybe there could be a deal where I offer them discounted advertising for the use of their space when holding a conference. This would give them advertising and it would bring people right into their business for the conference.

I wish I had gotten more feedback before the presentation today, but I guess I'll just have to see what the class thinks when they see it today.

Using Different Media

When Terry Williams came to visit I'm really glad that he talked about using different types of media when reporting. He said that he likes to hire people who can do video, audio, and photos and that most times, only being good at one isn't enough. I'm currently taking Digital Reporting with Tom Haines and I've been learning how to use those three types of digital media and how to incorporate them into social media. Throughout college I've learned how valuable social media is to journalism and that good reporters use social media. I never really thought about using digital media though until I took Tom's class. I always figured that a paper would hire someone else who was good at using it and that they would let the reporter just do the writing. In class though, as well as at TNH, I've been realizing how important it is for a writer/reporter to be good at using digital media to report. I'm happy that Terry Williams brought this up when he came to our class because it shows that this actually is a good skill to have and that papers actually look at this that when choosing who to hire. I'm glad that I've been learning about this in Tom's class and I'm also glad that I'll be able to improve these skills and apply them to real life during my internship next semester. I'll be interning at the Nashua Telegraph and they told me that they're going to be letting me use equipment so I can do video, audio, and photos. I'm excited to be able to develop my skills even further and it'll hopefully make me a more valuable reporter and more papers will be willing to hire me. I think that this use of digital media for reporting says a lot about where journalism is going. It opens up so many more possibilities for how we as journalists can tell a story.

Reactions to PowerPoint Pitches III

5) News in Comics

• Overall first impression: It is eye-catching and it is obvious that the pitcher is confident in the company.
• Ideas for improvement: Make sure to title each slide. Most had titles, but a few didn't.
• Maybe use fewer graphics and pictures. Some slides were a little over powering. Or maybe just make them a little smaller. On a few slides the pictures took up a lot of room. For example, I think slide 9 is done well, slide 8 has too many pictures, and on slide 7 the pictures are too big.
• Make the text a little bigger so it's more of the main focus and so it's easier to read.
• Use bullet points.
• Add name and contact info to the first slide.
• Add a slide that talks about who the team for this company will be. For example, drawers, writers, editors, etc.
• What I liked about it: I like that actually numbers are used and that there is a graph. It makes it more realistic.
• The organization of slide 6 is done really well.
• I like the theme of the PowerPoint and how the yellow line is consistent on each slide.
• I like the comments from the audience/potential readers. It works as evidence that this is a good idea. 

6) Unblocked Writers

• Overall first impression: It is a visually pleasing PowerPoint but it needs more explanation.
• Ideas for improvement: I know that all of the explanation is in the notes part of the slides, but if the pitch was being presented, people wouldn't see that part. I know that it would be spoken if the presentation was being presented, but I think there should still be a little more text on the slides.
• As it said in "The Art of Pitching," use a dark background and light text.
• Explain in the slides (not just the notes) how the company helps with writer's block.
• What I liked about it: I love the idea! I could definitely see writer's using this site.
• I think each slide gives good information and adds great value to the overall slide.

7) See the News

• Overall first impression: It is very clean and professional looking. There is also a lot of good information.
• Ideas for improvement: I would say to use a little less text, but the thing is, it's all good and relevant information. 
• The name of the company sounds more like a mantra than a name, but it makes sense as a title too. I think just because it's a statement it sounds like a manta more than a title.
• On slide five the word "highlights" is spelled wrong.
• What I liked about it: I really like everything about this PowerPoint. Every slide is relevant and has good information.
• Explanations are thorough and clear.
• It is an overall good looking PowerPoint and I like simplicity of it. It makes it so the content is more important than the looks of the slides which is important.
• I like that the titles of each slide are in a different font because it's eye catching and draws attention to what the slide is about.
• Overall I really like the PowerPoint and the business idea. I could see people using this site and buying the book.

8) The 'New s'tand

• Overall first impression: The PowerPoint is visually pleasing but at first it was hard to tell what exactly the company is.
• Ideas for improvement: State what the company is/does on the second slide. Let the viewer of the presentation know right away.
• I really like the theme/colors of the presentation, but in "The Art of Pitching" it says to use a dark background and light text because it looks more professional.
• The title of the company is a little confusing. The apostrophes are placed strangely. I'm not sure if it's pronounced "the news stand" or "the new stand." I'm guessing it's the first one so maybe call the company "The Newstand" and make it one word instead of two.
• There is a lot of text. Use bullet points to break it up and write shorter, more concise sentences.
• What I liked about it: The PowerPoint covered a lot of areas and gave a lot of good information.
• I like that there is visual marketing strategy page. It makes it easy to follow.
• I like the visual on page six.
• Overall I think it's a really good idea and I could see it becoming popular.

Paid Content

I found the Forbes article about advertising and paid content to be interesting and informative. I never really thought too much about advertising from a journalistic standpoint, but as a person I've always found it to be kind of annoying online. In the article, it talked about native advertising/sponsored content and I think that's one of the most annoying things. I don't like how advertisements are just slipped into news feeds on Facebook or into the feed on Twitter. It's annoying because advertisers just throw their content in between status updates or tweets like it's just another update from a friend or something. They try to pass it off as something that's supposed to be there, but I don't think it works. It always irritates me when I see these when scrolling through my feed. I also don't like the pop up advertising. You'll be reading an article and all of a sudden a video comes across the screen and starts playing automatically. I find the display ads to be the least annoying, but as the article said, they're the least effective.

As for paid content though, I think it can work. I see it a lot in the magazines I read and they blend in well. It's still obvious that it's an ad, but if it's done well, I'll still want to read it. They usually go along with the style and layout of the magazine and are targeted to whoever is reading the magazine (or newspaper). I don't find these ads to be annoying because they're not in your face. I suppose it is kind of like native content, but it's different because it's not on social media. I don't really mind paid content because it's usually something you could see the magazine writing about anyways. If I were the editor or owner of a paper or magazine and an advertiser wanted to do paid content, I would only let them do it if it went along with the theme of the publication. For example, if it was a health and wellness magazine, I wouldn't want a big paid content ad that was trying to sell diet pills. If there was a company that was selling a health product that was actually helpful (like a yoga studio or work out gear) then I'd be ok with that.

As for journalists writing these ads, I think it's very smart of advertisers to do this. Who better to pass off an ad as journalism than a journalist? If you want the writing to be clean and in sync with a certain style, then I think a journalist would be best to write it. Also, they're not wired to think like an advertiser trying to sell a product so their writing wouldn't come off this way either. It wouldn't be over dramatic or in your face, it would be straightforward and informative. I think this is a good direction for advertising to go in, as long it's done well and journalistically and doesn't hide that it's an ad.

Building a Brand For Yourself

I really enjoyed Terry Williams' talk today and I especially liked what he said about how journalists need to build a brand for themselves. It reminds me of what John Herman said when he came to visit us a few weeks ago. That's exactly what John was talking about and it's how he's been able to be so successful. I really like that Terry brought it up again today because I think it's important for us to be reminded of. I think right now it's hard for us to do as students but I've been trying. I always tweet my articles and I also blog about my experiences in journalism. That might be too broad though and not really enough of a brand. It's not very focused. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be overly focused though or if I'm just supposed to show my personality while doing journalism at the same time. Either way, I think building a brand as a journalist is very important. It shows that there is a face and a personality behind the people that deliver the news. It also helps to make you more reliable to your audience or reader. I'm not quite sure how to grow that readership right now though. I know Terry talked about Twitter and having a lot of followers, but I don't have that many. I have 152 at the moment and I don't know how to get more. I tweet about journalistic things and use relevant hashtags. I also include links when appropriate and I include other people's handles so that I can get the attention of bigger names and companies. I want to know what I'm doing wrong or what I can do to improve. Terry said that reporters should have a few hundred followers or more, at the least. I think that when I graduate and start writing for a paper outside of UNH then I'll be able to start building a bigger readership and my brand will be able to grow. It can't hurt to start now though. If only I knew how to do it more effectively...

Reactions to PowerPoint Pitches II

3) The Source

• Overall first impression: The grammar is bad, there is too much unnecessary text and it is unclear what exactly the idea is until you get halfway through the slide.
• Ideas for improvement: Make sure spelling is correct. The first slide after the title slide is full of spelling errors. Most of the other slides have spelling mistakes as well. A lot of the news/social media sites are spelled wrong.
• There are also a lot of unnecessary punctuation marks throughout and capitalization is wrong at times. Make sure words that are supposed to be capitalized are and words that aren't supposed to be aren't. Also, sometimes in the titles of the slides all the words are capitalized and on others only the first word is. Be consistent. 
• There should be a name and contact information on the first slide and there isn't. The person viewing the slide should know who's company it is.
• As said in "The Art of Pitching," the slide background should be dark and the text should be light.
• There is way too much focus on other sites (good and bad) and not enough about why this company is good. Actually, there is barely any information about this company. I'm not sure why all of the information about history, hyperlinks, and other sites is included in this slide. It is irrelevant. 
• This pitch talks up other sites sometimes and I think that's a bad idea because it makes this company seem less necessary.
• There is no business model included in this pitch. There is also nothing about marketing/sales or the team that will run the company. Also, where is the company going from here?
• The sixth slide should be the second slide. There should be no question about what the company is and in this case, I was confused.
• What I liked about it: I like the overall idea for the company. I think a lot of people like the idea of having everything organized in one place.

4) Focused Fencing

• Overall first impression: It is very straightforward and informative. Also, the passion is very obvious.
• Ideas for improvement: As said in "The Art of Pitching," make the slide background dark and the text light. I do really like this theme though, especially the title slide with the little graphic.
• On the title slide make sure to include a name and contact information.
• I think there are too many pictures throughout and too much text. Less is better. Just keep it simple. Also, if this was actually being presented there wouldn't be a need for so much text because it could be explained orally.
• To go along with the opinion that there's too much text, it would be better to use bullet points instead of blocks of text.
• What I liked about it: It covered a lot of different aspects of the company. Each slide provided good information and added great value to the overall pitch.
• I like the slide about the sport itself. It showed why this company would be so important.
• I like that there was an offer. It made it seem more real.
• I really liked the passion behind this. It is obvious that this company actually cares about what it is doing.