Swotting Up On Angles

When I’m feeling short of ideas, or just a bit dull-witted, one thing I find useful is browsing a travel section and playing “spot the angle”. Usually I don’t need to read much beyond the standfirst.

Then, once the angle (aka a hook or peg) has been identified, I think: was it feasible that I could have come across and pitched that story?

Looking at the Telegraph website at the time of writing, there is a series of “how to have the perfect…” pieces by destination, which have clearly been decided on in-house. So: ignore those. I then come across Mary Lussiana’s piece about Falésia beach in the Algarve, which — here’s the hook — was recently named the world’s best by TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor awards like these are viewed fairly cynically elsewhere, but I suppose this is a nice newsworthy topic offering a fresh way to cover a destination which is hard to do in any “new” way. So yes, I might have tried that myself.

Next up: Robin McKelvie’s report from Arran, entitled “I’ve visited more than 100 countries – but nothing compares to this Scottish island”. It has no real news hook (beyond last year’s discovery of a significant Neolithic site) and clearly hinges on Robin’s Scottish expertise — not something I can match, sadly. The last one I look at is slightly older: a feature by the Telegraph lifestyle regular Jack Rear about sampling a Cotswolds coach tour, pegged on Bourton-on-the-Water’s bid to ban coaches (calling it a “war” is to exaggerate). That again is an idea I might have had, by monitoring the news and being alert and reactive.

I outline all this because it might just be useful for you too. Do it regularly and you’ll begin to see patterns in how these angles come about — and thus might be able to discover them quicker yourself. Obviously they need to suit your client(s), but hopefully one will eventually.