Have a wire loose? Jeremy Wagstaff is here to fix it!
Jeremy finds phone calls are like so 1980s unless you are Maggie Q or Shu Qi.
Who are you? Ie what is your blog name and your real name. Why did you come up with the blog title?
I'm Jeremy Wagstaff. My blog is called Loose Wire because that's the name of my (now defunct) column at The Wall Street Journal, the Far Eastern Economic Review, and the title of a collection of those columns in book form (still available at all good bookshops, and some less good ones.)
What are you? In ten (or so) words, you would describe your blog as: …
I'm a social technologist. I've used the Internet since the late 1980s and written about it as a journalist since the mid 1990s. The blog has been going since 2003. It's a motley collection of thoughts on the state of the web, Web 2.0, the media, PR and why it's so hard to deal with any major company in the Southeast Asian region via email.
Why do we need you? Why is your blog different? What makes it stand out from the crowd? Why is it special?
It's not. It doesn't. It's not. You don't need it. There's far too much stuff in your RSS reader as it is. Don't subscribe.
Editorial Deadline? Ie when should PRs NOT call?
Ever. Phone calls are so, like, 1980s. Email is good. It works. Just don't send press releases. They are also, so, like. old. Send thoughtful personal pitches that suggest you might have given it, and me, some thought.
Features list? Do you have one, and if so, where can we get it, and can PRs still pitch to you ideas that aren’t on the list?
I'm interested in anything that's different. Not pretend different. Real different. The Nexus One was different. So was the iPhone. Twitter was different. Trouble is, most great products don't need PR. I need to be convinced otherwise. The more noise PR makes, the more I assume there's a real problem somewhere.
Perfect story? First, what kind of stories does your blog run? Second, what kind of PR-generated or PR-related stories have a chance of getting a run in your blog?
It doesn't run stories, it runs ideas. No PR-generated pieces will run, I will noisily declaim them, but I do mock bad PR. Sorry, but it's a way to improve it.
Contact? What’s the best way for PR to contact you, email or phone best?
Email. Never phone. I really, really hate phone calls from PR people. Well, from anyone, really. Except Lucy Liu. Or Maggie Q.
What kind of stories make a great blog post?
Ones that the blogger felt inspired to write.
If your blog was an animal, it would be a …?
It is an animal.
Do you do lunch/dinner/junkets? Why or why not?
Nope. Principle.
Complete this sentence: You wish that PR would…
Understand that its role has changed as much as a journalist's has.
What stories will your blog be watching closely this year?
The same as last year: the evolution of information.
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