In the hot seat:
Simon Usborne: Feature Writer and Reporter, Financial Times, The Guardian, Independent
Simon’s Focus:
- Simon Usborne is a general freelance feature writer. 30% of his output is travel writing and the other 70%, general features
- Simon writes 12 stories a year for the Financial Times – commissioned by Tom Robbins
- The FT is the only National broadsheet Simon writes for (contractual agreement)
- ¾ of the stories for the FT come from Tom, the other ¼ are from Simon
- Other outlets Simon writes for are The Guardian, National Geographic, Mr Porter and BA Highlife
- Let Simon decide which publication a story would fit best in, PRs just need to feed him the story
Top Tips:
- Title and 1 paragraph is enough for a press release
- Simon is always looking for a spark that then leads into the real story – provide a strong narrative
- History of buildings is important for Simon and he prefers hearing about this to thinks like pillows and thread count in a duvet
- Advises PRs to think of different papers needs when pitching a story
- The FT are interested in real, in depth stories – help Simon find the meaning behind the story
- For National Geographic Simon mainly writes reports – eg Bear conservation in Italy
- For Mr Porter the stories are mainly round ups eg 7 of the nicest beach resorts in Spain
- Likes meeting PRs for coffee but prefers an email in the first instance
- Works from home so has to think logistically about meeting up – a lot of time out of his day
- Personal approach and relationship building are important for Simon
- Simon says client events can be of use but need to make sure the speeches are brief, informative and entertaining
- Does go to evening events but has to be something he envisages writing about
- Simon recommends always including people within a story, believes people remember the people in a story as they are always the most interesting element
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