Besides the usual stuff that agencies need to do to survive, we are also on an eternal quest to help startups communicate better. LinkedIn posts, tweets, webinars, blog posts, and more. From time to time, we even turn the tables on our blog and interview journalists themselves. And what better way to gain insights than going directly to the source, as journalists say!
Unlike previous editions of “Journalist’s Insights,” this time, we didn’t do a webinar or speak to Dan at an event. It all happened after some Twitter banter and conversation between Dan and our team, and that tells us a lot about Dan Taylor, aka @sensorpunk. As we see in his answers, genuine interaction (even if it’s online and casual) is extremely important. It’s not all about work; we’re not robots. Fun is fundamental, but often forgotten. So, he’s bringing a healthy dose of it to startup reporting. And we hope we’re too.
Another thing often forgotten in PR blogs from agencies worldwide is to ask journalists about their own stories. We can get so obsessed with finding out how to pitch journalists, and avoiding pitching mistakes, that we don’t ask them about themselves as much as we should (but don’t worry, we did ask technical pitch questions too.)
Get ready for all that, and much more, including how he manages to be a human swiss-knife of a journalist, his best tip for a good startup photo, and even his encounters with royalty, in the interview.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are delighted to bring you a hell of a blog post! Enjoy the jokes, and the sarcasm, and… stay safe!
PART I: GETTING TO KNOW DAN BETTER
BUPR: Where are you from and what brought you to London?
Dan Taylor: I’m from a small town in upstate New York named Glens Falls. The kind of place where a kid can go skiing at the local mountain every night after school in the winter and ride a bike for miles and miles until well after dark in the summer. However, at the age of 17, the bright city lights of The Big Apple start to have their draw
How I ended up in London is a long and winding road, but it involves New York, Vienna, Berlin, Paris, The Next Web, a whole lotta cameras, and a pandemic.
BUPR: What is your role at tech.eu?
Dan Taylor: I write things. A lot of things.
BUPR: How did you meet Robin Wauters? What’s the story of you joining tech.eu?
Dan Taylor: Robin and I first met at the Team Calamari dinner in Berlin in, I want to say February of 2013.
I ended up at Tech.eu as a result of the pandemic obliterating my photography business. After burning through a majority of the savings I’d managed to put away for myself over the course of a decade as a photographer (it’s not a cheap business to run), Bindi Karia pointed out to me that Robin was looking for a new writer. I sent him my CV and the phone rang 20 minutes later. I remember asking, “Am I speaking to my friend Robin, or Mr. Wauters, Founder of Tech.eu?” A short conversation later, I started on Monday 1 March 2021.
BUPR: Everyone’s noticing how the tech.eu style and tone has changed since you joined. What was behind that decision?
Dan Taylor: It’s not a coincidence that more than two thirds of people get their news from late night comedy show hosts. What started with Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update has given birth to a host of “news” shows for the past 47 years. Not even Walter Kronkite had a run like that. My goal is to give people the news in a format they know and love and (hopefully) have them not only walk away knowing a bit more than they did the day before, but come back tomorrow to get more of the same.
BUPR: Where do you see tech.eu within the startup media industry?
Dan Taylor: At present, we’re a trade publication and data source. However, I’m working on augmenting that. Stay tuned.
PART II: HOW DAN DOES WHAT HE DOES
BUPR: Writing is difficult enough, but you seem to wear lots of hats at tech.eu and personally author news. Do you have eight arms, AI assistants, or what? How do you do it?
Dan Taylor: For most of my life I’ve been a one man show. Most things creative, writing, photography, design, broadcasting, audio engineering, video editing, tend to come naturally to me, so I just get on with it and do the best that I can.
BUPR: Do you ever get writer’s block? How do you overcome it?
Dan Taylor: I can’t say I’ve ever had this, but five guitars, two basses, one mandolin, and more time invested in Playstation games than I’d care to admit would probably be my go to.
BUPR: How do you manage your email inbox? Do you have a system to help you save time but not miss out on important emails?
Dan Taylor: Ooof. This is one that I could seriously use some help with. As of the moment, there are 4,364 unopened emails in my inbox. I’m not kidding.
On average, I’ll see anywhere between 75-100 emails a day. My system is as such: I’ll quickly glance at the first five words in the subject of an email. Filter one. If something grabs my attention, I’ll then read the first three sentences of an email. Filter two. If I’ve not yet mentally filed this as, “next”, I’ll then, and only then, actually open the email. Filter three. From there, it either gets a “forward this to Trello to look at further OR writeup” or “Nah … not that interesting” Filter four.
Aaaaand …. every so often there’s the, “mutherfucka, why wasn’t I given advance notice of this? Fuck. Stop everything, write this up immediately. Someone give me the phone, I need to verify some info and get some quotes. MOVE IT TAYLOR, every other journo just got the same email – get this out FIRST!”
BUPR: How do you structure your day and week?
Dan Taylor: I usually get up around 5 to go through emails and figure out what needs to be written up for three days later. My best work is usually done with at least 72 hours lead time. This is the reason why emails beginning with “Today, bla bla bla announces” usually never make it past filter number two. There’s nothing worse (or insulting to a journalist) than “Today …”. In our minds it means, you didn’t care, or respect us enough to hold an embargo, to give us time to craft our own version of the story which includes fact checking, getting additional quotes, looking at the story and offering our readers context as part of the bigger picture. Or at least that’s the way I see it.
As for my week, Mondays and Wednesdays are quite busy as I’m making lots of calls, sending emails, chasing quotes on WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, LinkedIn, etc. preparing for Tuesday and Thursday. Monday = Thursday, Tuesday = Thursday, if that makes sense? Friday I record the Drive at Five around noon GMT, which gives me time to do a quick edit and get it ready for publication at 4pm GMT.
PART III: TIPS FOR PR FOLKS
BUPR: Is the press release dead? How do you prefer to get the startup’s side of the story?
Dan Taylor: I don’t think so. It’s certainly not my primary source of info, or at least I don’t want it to be, but the press release fills in a lot of gaps and when done right, saves me a bunch of time tracking down sources. Please people, if you’re going to make a statement and call it fact, show me your work, point to your data source. I’ll find it, and if it’s wrong or not completely accurate, you can be sure I’ll point that out, and it will leave a bad taste in my mouth.
BUPR: What are the ingredients of a good pitch?
Dan Taylor: It’s quite simple, give me the fundamentals of journalism: Who, What, Where, When, Why, What, How? That’s the news, everything else is the human interest angle.
As for timing – did I mention embargos and advanced notice already?
BUPR: What are things to avoid?
Dan Taylor: Overly verbose, keyword bingo = bullshit. Journos can smell fluff a mile away. Keep it simple, cut to the chase.
And for the love of God, if you’re going to use the phrase “world’s first” (a HUGE red flag), be prepared to present data to back this statement up. And please, make it relevant. I.e. I am the world’s first Dan Taylor born in upstate New York that went to university and studied music. BFG. Who cares?
BUPR: What is your biggest pet peeve about PRs or the PR industry?
Dan Taylor: Slinging crap. I know we’ve all got bills, and sometimes a job is a job, but then have an idea of who you’re pitching to and what and who their readers are. I love getting pitches that are, at best, tangentially tech industry related. Can you smell the sarcasm here?
BUPR: If you could invent something to improve PR-journo communication what would it be?
Dan Taylor: It’s already been done. They’re called pubs and they serve these communications facilitators called ‘drinks’. I know this isn’t scaleable, but it is where the best stories are sourced.
BUPR: You are a photography professional with some epic work done in startupland. You also wrote a piece on making startup photos suck less. How powerful can photos be in a pitch/story?
Dan Taylor: Well, since moving to the other side of the page, I see now why some of the biggest challenges I faced as a photographer are the way they are. Journalists are after the story and the written word and the accompanying image is often an afterthought. I get that (man do I get that now), but…
Every media outlet on the planet (or at least the vast majority) have a slot/require a hero image to accompany a story. If there’s not one attached, this is a time suck for a journalist. We’ve got to request one, go find one, or create our own. Effectively, a startup is handing over a portion of the narrative that they could control to another party. I’d like to think I do a reasonable job when the responsibility lands in my lap, but as you’ve said, I’ve got a decade of experience doing this. Others? Not so much.
Sometimes, and this is the rarity but I direct your attention to #SoSafeWerk, a killer image can give your story legs well beyond the initial focus of the story.
BUPR: How can startups make the most of their shoot, even if they know nothing about photography?
Dan Taylor: Plain and simple: Make. Me. Laugh. Life is serious enough as it is, give people a laugh, and they’ll remember you far longer than the last conversation they had with their accountant.
PART IV: WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS, PLUS, SOME FUN STUFF
BUPR: What are you excited about in tech? You speak with a lot of tech folks, so we’re curious to hear what you think has real potential.
Dan Taylor: I’m a deeptech nerd. What Marvel Fusion is doing with nuclear fission, for example, or how newcleo is using depleted uranium and plutonium to fuel next-generation nuclear reactors, or the rise of Quantum as a Service offers that are starting to show up, or what Sunfire is doing with electrolysis in the industrial gas and fuel sectors, now that’s my jazz.
That, and I’m really hoping I see the Holodeck that teleports in my lifetime. Yes, I know this violates the laws of physics, but hey, rules are meant to be broken, right?
BUPR: Tech.eu was recently acquired by Webrazzi and also seems to be expanding with a number of job roles up for grabs. What’s the big plan for tech.eu?
Dan Taylor: I’d love to tell you, but I’d have to kill you. And killing isn’t really a clean business. Now, severely maiming is a different matter.
BUPR: What was the funniest thing that happened to you in your journey so far?
Dan Taylor: Puh, there are SO many. I think the time where I hung out with a member of the royal family at an event for the better part of half an hour before a security staff member addressed her by her title. I turned and looked at her, at which point she said, “Oh, I was SO enjoying that you had no idea who I was.” I’m pretty sure my face exhibited 50 shades of crimson.
BUPR: What do Sundays (or days off) look like for Dan Taylor?
Dan Taylor: Ha! A day off? What’s that? Sundays look like Wednesday preparation. To be fair, I do relish my Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons/evenings. This is the time when I get to enjoy my collection of instruments, long bike rides (I ride to Brighton from London at least twice a year), and/or a dog that is not mine, but thinks he is. Much to his owner’s chagrin. 🙂
Have you seen the rest of our blog yet? Here is more from our Journalist’s Insights series:
Busting Journalism Myths with Lindsay Dodgson from Business Insider
Diving into fintech journalism with Doug Mackenzie from Fintech Finance
Securing media placements during COVID-19 with Yessi Bello-Perez from The Next Web
Journalist’s Insights: From PR to Media With Remco Janssen of Silicon Canals
Connecting the European startup scene with Patricia Allen of EU-Startups
