Non-journalist journalists

Old media dying? Old news.

But recent developments bring a funereal gloom to once vibrant new media.

This week a WSJ headline blares: “Spotify Layoffs Are Latest Sign of Struggles in the Podcast Business.” This after Buzzfeed abandoned its News operation, and Vice shuttered its flagship news show and consolidated news teams.

What is an earnest media-list-builder supposed to do?

Look to publishers outside “journalist” circles.

Go beyond the usual influencer (i.e., someone with a mass social platform following, paid to promote you). Include thought leaders, speakers, authors – trusted voices for your key audience.

For instance, say you work for a journaling app. Your list already contains the low-hanging fruit of tech reviewers. Those reach the people who are actively comparing journaling apps and deciding if they want to try yours.

By embracing “non-journalist publishers,” you expand your thinking. You wanna spark interest among people unaware apps like yours exist. You start hunting down people who write about “personal development” and “habit formation.”

The “old you” would call it good after wading through a bunch of articles in the likes of Self and GQ and other sites focused on self-improvement and fitness.

But the “new you” keeps looking. A few Google and YouTube searches give you some promising leads: BJ Fogg and James Clear are among the most influential thinkers in the field of “habit formation.”

Unfortunately, Fogg doesn’t keep up a regular platform to share new ideas (it’s a travesty that he’s denying the world “The Fogg Blog”), and he’s not super consistent on Twitter. And then . . . good news! Clear has a weekly newsletter with 2 million subs! Bad news – a quick glance shows that he rarely if ever mentions any apps or companies.

But your search isn’t in vain – both gurus speak frequently and appear on lots of podcasts. Be of value to them and your app might get a mention without any payment.

Even more useful, query ChatGPT-4: “Who are bloggers similar to James Clear and BJ Fogg? I need people who are bloggers, not simply book authors.” And it will spit you out a list that includes: Mark Manson, Jocelyn Glei, Leo Babauta, Derek Sivers, Maria Popova, and more. Even though they may be best known as authors, they maintain prolific blogs, newsletters, and/or podcasts.

Continue to niche down by asking the tool (or just Google) for thinkers similar to each of those.

Yes, it’s disheartening every time a prominent media outlet folds and your base media list dwindles. But it’s actually fun to exercise your creativity in finding replacements for that journalist who got laid off. And more importantly, it’s a way to distinguish yourself from your peers who rely on media databases.

P.S. I wrote the first and second drafts of this by my own self, but my best version came in at 541 words. I like to keep these under 500 for you, so I pasted it into ChatGPT-4 with this prompt:

I'm about to give you a newsletter article aimed at PR pros who need to find journalists or bloggers or podcasters or writers or thinkers to write about their clients. You need to find ways to cut 60 words from this article. Preserve the language that makes it memorable, unique, and fascinating. Don't be ordinary or common.

It rewrote the whole thing. About half the time, the edits watered down my natural voice and sapped some of the energy I was going for. So I ignored those. But I applied the other half of the edits, giving you a tidy 454-word piece that smelled exactly the same as my version, just shorter. Thanks ChatGPT-4!