My original New Zealand media people on Twitter list is still available on this site. It’s been updated many times with two new entries yesterday and four updates. If you think you should be on the list, or if you are on the list and think your entry needs to change, please get in touch.

In addition to the HTML list I’ve also created a Twitter list:@billbennettnz/new-zealand-media-people.

Everyone who is on the HTML list is now on the Twitter list.

New Zealand journalists and media organisations on Twitter:

Newspapers, radio and TV stations:

@3NewsNZ – TV 3 News
@BusinessTalk – Business Talk
@ComputerworldNZ — Computerworld New Zealand
@dompost – The Dominion-Post
@DunedinNews – Dunedin News
@Karere – Maori News
@LoveThisPaper — Kim Gillespie, editor Wanganui Chronicle
@NewstalkZB – Newstalk ZB Radio
@nzherald – The New Zealand Herald
@NZPAnews — NZPA News
@PressNewsroom – The Christchurch Press
@nzresellernews — Reseller News
@NZstuff — stuff.co.nz
@rnz_news – Radio New Zealand News
@TheNBR – The National Business Review
@TVNZNews – TVNZ News
@upthisway – This way up – Radio NZ consumer show
@WaikatoTimes – Waikato Times (appears to be dormant)

Magazines

@coupdemain — coup de main digital magazine
@discounderworld — Monthly digital magazine
@goodmag — Good magazine
@idealogmag — Idealog magazine
@ITBrief – IT Brief, trade title for computer professionals
@NetGuide – New Zealand NetGuide
@real_groove — Real Groove
@ripitupNZ — Rip It Up
@salientmagazine — Student magazine from Victoria University of Wellington
@TheGrooveGuide — The Groove Guide
@UnlimitedMagNZ — Unlimited

Journalists and New Zealand media people

@AdrienneRewi — Adrienne Rewi, freelance journalist, travel guide writer
@AliIkram — Ali Ikram, TV3 journalist
@AnaSamways — Ana Samways, New Zealand Herald Sideswipe columnist
@andemac – Ande Macpherson, Group Interactive Director Mediaworks Radio, commentator & blogger
@asiapublishing — Doug Green, Asia Publishing Group nzmanufacturer.co.nz
@bloggerbb — entertainment editor for the NZ Herald online
@billbennettnz— Bill Bennett, tech journalist, freelance, Auckland
@blairensor —  Blair Ensor, eporter, Marlborough Express, specialising in rural
@bjdooley – Brian J. Dooley, tech journalist and independent analyst
@CallMeDrAl — Subeditor, Unlimited magazine
@CateOwen — Cate Owen, digital person for TV3 Sunrise
@Chrisbellnz — Chris Bell, freelance
@ChrisKeall – Chris Keall, freelance, NBR technology writer
@Cliptec – Phillip Smith, Cliptec media monitoring
@ColinJacksonNZ – tech commentator
@craig_martin — Managing Director, Indie Travel Media Ltd
@dubdotdash – Peter McLennan, designer, dj, blogger, muso, renaissance man
@ethicalmartini – Martin Hirst, associate professor AUT
@GreerMcDonald —Greer McDonald, social media editor, stuff.co.nz
@HamishBarwick – Hamish Barwick, Fairfax Business Group
@HamishCR — Rebel producer, director, presenter, Throng TV
@hoskingonzb — Mike Hosking, Newstalk ZB
@jamesc0leman – James Coleman, radio and TV presenter
@JohnJCampbell — TV current affairs host and Bro’town star
@jonohutchison — TV3 News and Sunrise reporter
@juhasaarinen — Juha Saarinen, freelance
@julietspeedy — TV3 journalist
@KATEHAWKESBY — Freelance
@kiranchug — Kiran Chug, reporter at The Dominion Post
@lindajmartin — Managing Editor, Indie Travel Media Ltd
@littlehigh — Paul Reynolds, radio commentator
@lukeappleby — Luke Appleby, tech blogger for stuff.co.nz
@macnzMark — Mark Webster, freelance IT writer, Mac specialist, NetGuide, Macthemag, Mac Planet
@markrevington — Mark Revington, Unlimited editor
@Michael_Forbes — Dominion Post reporter for the Manawatu-Wanganui region.
@miroslab —  Miro Slabbert, PC World art director
@mitchellhall — Mitchell Hall, NBR reporter
@monty64 — Denise Montgomery, TV News Producer, Producer ONE News @ 4:30
@MrsDesperate — Bronwyn Marquardt, journalist, travel writer, author, blogger
@NatashaUtting — Natasha Utting, Campbell Live
@nathanbeaumont — Nathan Beaumont, education reporter at The Dominion Post.
@nztaylor — Martin Taylor, director, digital publishing forum
@PatrickCrewdson — Patrick Crewdson, web editor at The Dominion Post
@petergnz — Peter Griffin, Science Media Centre
@radiowammo — Glenn Williams, radio host Kiwi FM
@rgoodchild — Rachel Goodchild
@RodCheeseman — TV3
@robonz — Rob O’Neill, Computerworld New Zealand editor
@scottbartley — Scott Bartley, reviews editor at PC World
@simonhendery – Simon Hendry, New Zealand Herald tech writer
@SineadBoucher – Sinead Boucher, digital editor for Fairfax New Zealand
@SitaMitaBita – Sita Narsi, designer extraordinaire at Fairfax Business Group
@someonegetsteve — Steve Leon, new media producer, In-business mag and others
@staceyvivienne — Stacey Wood, Dominion Post Capital Day reporter
@starrjulie – Julie Starr, Editor-in-Residence at Wintec’s School of Media Arts in Hamilton, runs the Evolving Newsroom
@stevebwriter — Stephen Bell, Computerworld Wellington reporter
@TedGibbons – Ted Gibbons, editor PC World New Zealand
@vmcm1 — Virginia McMillan, freelance, health business
@WazL — CEO at APN online

Public relations and communications

@adagebusiness — marketing and media consultant to small business and not-for-profit groups
@AngelaMoriarty — communications manager for Positively Wellington Tourism
@Belindanash — AUT communications manager
@BulletPR – Bullet Public Relations
@campbellh — Campbell Hodgetts
@caanz – Catherine Arrow, public relations consultant
@ClaireDel — Claire Del
@craigadolph — Media Planner/Buyer at GSL Network
@ericalloyd — Erica Lloyd, Network PR
@HarcourtsToni — Harcourts NZ communications manager, Toni Skiffington
@Ideasshop — PR company
@jossdeb — Joss Debreceny, senior comms advisor at Ministry of Education
@iChild — Monica Wales, Media planner and buyer, ad industry blogger
@julielandry — Julie Landry
@KevinPtak — Kevin Ptak, Porter Novelli Public Relations
@louisvanwyk — Louis van Wyk, Tuanz
@markomPR — Markom Public Relations
@networkpr — Network Public Relations
@paulbrislen — Paul Brislen, communications at Vodafone NZ
@Paul_Matthews – Paul Matthews, Bullet Public Relations
@paulpursuit — Paul O’Leary, Pursuit PR
@samfarrow — Sam Farrow
@SarahPSparks — Sarah Sparks, director of markomPR
@shineprjack — Jacky James, Shine PR
@simcmanus — Simon Mcmanus, McManus Tourism Communications
@sknightly — Stephen Knightly, Pursuit PR
@The_Saurus — Rachael Joel
@wagthedogagency —  Full service digital agency
@watchthewitter — Jenny Wilmshurst, marketing planning & communications

Bloggers and online media

@althecat — Alastair Thompson, Scoop Media
@audaciousgloop – Simon Young, writer
@benkepes — Ben Kepes
@bernardchickey — Bernard Hickey, business journalist, runs Interest.co.nz
@deadball — Sports blog run by music industry types
@dpfdpf — David Farrar, Kiwiblog
@freitasm — Mauricio Freitas, Geekzone
@justinflitter — Social CRM, helpdesk and customer service related blogger
@KiwiblogDPF — Kiwiblog
@Kunal_Kripalani — Kunal Kripalani, social media guidelines blogger for policy & strategy
@mrsgooding — Christine Gooding, shannonsway
@nzben — Ben Gracewood, TV gadget reviewer
@philbilbrough — Phil Bilbrough, Scoop
@publicaddress — Russell Brown, blogger, journalist and TV presenter
@roadcycling – RoadCycling.co.nz NZ’s Online Cycling Magazine
@rww —Richard MacManus, Read Write Web
@Scoopnz – Scoop

This list is not comprehensive, if you’d like to be included, or you know someone who should be added, please leave the twitter name, link and a few descriptive words in the comments below and I’ll make the additions when I have time. Also, please let me know if any corrections are needed.

There’s a similar list of Australian media people at The Earley Edition: 501 Australian Journalists and News Media People on Twitter

While I have your attention you may be interested in reading:

Can Twitter be journalism?
More on Twitter as journalism

There is a huge demand for people who can combine technical expertise with professional communications or writing skills. Employers are looking for people to write company web sites and other online copy. The jobs break down into two distinct categories: working for companies that are primarily online information providers and working for the web operations of more traditional firms. Both sectors are equally hungry for fresh talent.

It’s not good enough just to know how to create good looking web pages, to get this work you’ll be expected to write the kind of compelling content that will keep customers coming back.

These jobs are not necessarily suitable for journalists and others moving over from old media. It requires a different mindset. Keeping copy flowing through a site and making sure all the clicks work is much more important than worry about whether a site is well-written or not. If you’re a hard-bitten newshound you might be expected to swallow your instinct for high levels of accuracy and checking.

And then there’s the tricky subject of search engine optimization—that is writing the kind of copy that ensures your company features at the top of Google searches from relevant keywords. As The New York Times points out this can mean waving goodbye to elegant, well-crafted prose and witty eye-catching headlines. These two aspects of online writing probably explain why grammar and readability standards are often so dismal on most web sites. Inside the online buisness it’s an open secret that ex-newspaper journalists are often particularly good at delivering readable material that scores well with search engines.

If you’re interested, you’ll find online communications jobs are advertised under I for Internet or M for marketing rather than J for journalism. It’s a great opportunity for out-of-work journalists—and there are a lot of them these days—as the supply of jobs is far greater than the supply of talent.

Many journalists think they can’t do this kind of work because online production tools are difficult to use and that it may involve scary things like databases and programming. In fact, most content production is not at the hard core code-cutting level. That’s usually all done by more geeky, backroom types. And today’s content management systems are no harder than editorial systems. In fact I’d argue they can be simpler.

Right now junior content producers and editors earn salaries in line with people of the same age working in other industries. In other words, you won’t get much of a pay rise if you sign up. However, while the raw salaries might not be all that exciting—the opportunities are fantastic. Some employers offer options, equity or profit share schemes—which puts an entirely different perspective on the offered salaries.

Many of the online editorial-oriented jobs on offer today are in companies which only have a few employees. They offer a chance to get in on the ground floor. There’s always a good chance that options will be worthless, equity minimal and any profit share doesn’t amount to much. In a small organization you’ll have plenty of scope to make sure there are profits.

Even if the promises of on-top-of-base-salary income never materialise, you’ll get to learn how a small company at the sharp end operates. And you’ll see the mistakes. You can take that experience to another start up or use it to form your own business.

Disclosure: I should come clean here and admit I do a lot of web writing and editing in my communications business. If you’re in business and looking for an experienced publishing professional to handle an online editorial project contact me through my web site.

Read: This Boring Headline Is Written for Google

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Any fool can write a good press release that hits its target audience and creates an impact. Writing one that fails to make an impression requires more work. Fortunately there are people who have mastered the art. As an editor I’ve seen some great performance over the years and I’d like to share this expertise with you.

Here are my top ten tips for ensuring your press release gets minimum attention:

1. Cripple its chances of reaching editors and journalists

Everyone can read plain text messages contained in the body of an email. The message will almost certainly get through to any kind of desktop email clients, all flavours of web mail, as well as Blackberries, iPhones and Palm Pilots. To reach less than 100 percent of your potential audience, try putting some of the following clever barriers in the way.

Attachments are an effective way of cutting down the reach of your press release. People reading email on mobile devices often have trouble reading them. Spam filters can treat them with suspicion and if you’re lucky the recipient may use Lotus Notes as a client and have difficulty decoding the attachment.

Another advantage of attachments is that you can trim your audience further by using difficult-to-open file formats: such as the new .docx file format used by Word 2007 – many journalists will struggle to read them.

Attachments are great for bulking up the size of your release so it won’t squeeze through email gateways. If you’re  clever you can put high resolution logos in, say, your Word attachments.  These add  nothing to the press release but can swiftly push the file size over the email gateway threshold.

A further reason for a sending press release as an attachment is its invisibility to email search. So, when a journalist decides to look for your press release among the hundreds and thousands in their email in-box, it will be extremely difficult to find.

2. Minimize relevance

One of the best ways to make sure your press release fails is to make sure it has no relevance to any sane audience. For example, if you are a technology company and you buy a new fleet of cars you can squander your PR budget and make sure any future release goes directly to an editor’s recycle bin by sending the story to the technology press.

3. Send it out whenever

Timeliness is everything. So by sending out releases when you feel like it, you can boost your chances of failure. Better still, for print publications try waiting until five minutes after the final deadline. For online publications wait until the story has already broken elsewhere.

4. Organize schedules so contacts are unavailable for interview

Good journalists are such annoying creatures. Rather than simply printing your press release verbatim and passing the contact details over to their advertising departments, they may want to speak to the people mentioned in your releases. A tried and tested technique for avoiding these complications is to send the people overseas shortly after dispatching the release. International communications are good these days, so just packing them off to a partner conference in Atlanta isn’t good enough, you need to make sure they are on an 18 hour trans-pacific flight or, better still, holidaying on a remote island.

5. Use poor writing skills

Obvious when you think about it. If your writing is poor and confused so that editors and journalists can’t understand your message you’ll kill two birds with one stone.

First, you’ll make sure the first message gets spiked in the too hard basket.

But second, as a bonus, you can establish your reputation as an illiterate idiot that isn’t worth bothering with under any circumstances. That way, your future releases will go straight to the junk pile without even being read.

6. Try bullying

Sadly this powerful technique is often underused. By threatening to talk to a journalist’s editor, or an editor’s boss about their poor response to your press release you can permanently undermine your relationship with scores of people (remember journalists talk to each other so this is an efficient way of burning lots of bridges).

Another approach is to tell the journalist the company in question is advertising thus triggering their professional editorial independence.

7. Don’t bother with photographs

Journalists and editors like photographs. They love good photographs. By making sure they are no photographs of any description you’ll increase the chances that your press release is regarded as totally useless. If you think that’s taking things too far, try sending out crappy, unusable photos. Photos with dozens of un-named people work well in this respect. Getting people to hold champagne glasses, stand in front of company logos, gather around a totally unreadable normal-size bank cheque or impersonate public enemy number one mug shots are all effective techniques for creating instantly ignorable press release photographs.

8. Send it to everyone regardless

This is a great way to upset journalists and degrade both your personal and company reputation. At the same time if you work for a PR agency you can bill the client heaps for having a, er, comprehensive, mailing list and then bill them for time as you and your staff spend all day on the phone dealing with angry editors.

9. Keep things as dull as possible

Journalists prefer interesting stories. Public relations professionals recognise this and use clever tricks like passive sentences, boring ideas, irrelevant background facts, tired clichéd adjectives and implausible anodyne quotes to turn them off and help speed their press releases on their way to the great recycle bin in the sky.

In house and government public relations people are usually better at delivering boring releases than agency staff – if you’re worried your writing sparkles too much, they have much to teach you.

10. Make sure the subject line obscures the message

Even experienced public relations operatives can slip up by giving an email release an interesting subject line. The danger is that after putting in all the hard work required to guarantee nobody takes the slightest notice of their press release they use active language to put a relevant timely subject line message that tempts editors and journalists to open the document and read more.

The good news is there are fail-safe subject lines that are certain to turn off editors and journalists so they can just skip past your release. A classic subject line like press release will probably work, if that’s too simple try important press release or important press release from Company Name.

A neat by-product of badly written subject lines is they can often fool spam detection engines into rejecting a message altogether; phrases like important announcement from Company Name or message for Clark Kent can come in handy here.

Marketing communications, the business of letting people know about your products and services, can be broken down into two distinct parts: advertising and publicity. For more about the differences between the two, see Use publicity to get noticed.

As the earlier post says, advertising is straightforward. You pay money directly to a media company. In return, you retain control over your message and how it is presented. It’s a commercial transaction.

Publicity is different. It can still cost you money – there are plenty of businesses who will willingly accept payment for their promotional services – but in general you don’t pay the media to propagate your message and you have no say over timing, placement or presentation. You can’t even be sure it will run.

In theory, you should be able to get publicity when the story you want to tell is so compelling that journalists and editors will fall over themselves to ensure it appears in their publications, blogs or broadcasts. Just remember their idea of compelling is unlikely to coincide with your opinion.

Editors are driven by the need to provide readers, viewers or listeners with the hottest news, up-to-date information, the most relevant background features and the best stories. They may also be looking for something entertaining to brighten up their pages.

Contrary to what you may think, they generally don’t care at all about whether their stories help you or your business. Or at least they shouldn’t if they are doing their job properly. However, there are some, less than totally independent publications where this logic doesn’t apply.

Another common misunderstanding about publicity is that the best way to get it is to use something known as the press release. This is a pre-written version of the story you’d like to see in print. Press releases are often written in a highly stylised format, containing the basic facts together with some background.

Press releases can work, but in general they don’t. Many go straight into the bin. And rightly so. That’s the usual place for rubbish. Others are stored, maybe for future reference or to keep potentially useful contact information in a handy place. They mainly exist because clients like them – they create an aura rather than the reality of useful media activity.

In fact, there are publicity experts who believe the overwhelming majority of press releases are never read by journalists, let alone used as the basis for an editorial item.

Some of the best communications professionals – they may call themselves public relations consultants, press agents or even something ridiculously bombastic like media consul – will tell you that press releases are only one, not particularly useful strategy and account for a tiny fraction of their work.

We’ll look more closely at the mechanics of press releases another time.

Remember, publicity involves enticing the media to write or broadcast information about your company, product or services because you have something new, important, exciting or otherwise interesting to say.

Often the best way to do this is to call a journalist and tell them, quickly and concisely, just what your story is and why it may be of interest to their readers. Like everything else in business, this is largely a matter of forming the right relationships.

If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, get some media training or hire a press agent to do the calling on your behalf. Good public relations professionals know precisely who to call and how to pitch stories in a way that will make them more interesting to journalists or editors. They can introduce you to the right people, set up face-to-face meetings or organise phone interviews and help you prepare for these.

Occasionally when you have something particularly important to announce, you may want to hold a formal press conference or maybe host a less formal gathering of journalists for morning tea, lunch or afternoon cocktails. This kind of event works best when used sparingly, it’s not always the best way of telling a specific story, but it’s a great way to make or maintain contact.

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If you have a product or service to sell, it’s important that as many potential customers as possible get to hear about it. Word-of-mouth marketing is a great jumping off point when you’re starting out but eventually you’ll almost certainly need to reach a wider audience. This usually means engaging with newspapers, magazines, the Internet through web sites and blogs or broadcast media.

There are two basic ways a business can use media to get attention; advertising and publicity. Newcomers sometimes confuse the two. That’s a big mistake as they are radically different and operate in parallel universes.

Advertising is always a strictly commercial matter. Generally you buy a fixed amount of space in a printed publication or air time from a radio or TV broadcaster. Online is more complicated, but it generally comes down to display advertising like banners and boom boxes or text ads. These can appear on web sites, in electronic newsletters or even as part of an application like Gmail. When you buy advertising you provide the advertising content, or what people in the business call copy, at your expense.

If you’ve got enough budget you can hire a creative team to prepare the copy on your behalf. This costs money, in some cases a lot of money, but it can be worth it if you’re running a major campaign: clued-up advertising specialists know how to press the right buttons and get results. They can be brilliant, but this isn’t always the case.

With advertising you get to say where, when and how often the copy will run. More importantly you have complete control over the message and the way it is delivered. (Well up to a point; some publishers will refuse certain ads and there are laws about what you can and can’t say in an advertisement). Advertising prices are loosely-based on the number of readers, listeners or viewers the media delivers. Experienced buyers of advertising often think in terms of CPM or the cost of reaching one thousand people.

In contrast with advertising, you have almost no control over publicity; all the important decisions are made by editors, journalists, photographers and other media professionals. They may choose to listen to you or read your material, but they might equally ignore your input.

In principal it all depends on the newsworthiness of your message. If your story strikes a chord, they’ll take notice. If it’s boring, they’ll ignore it.

Surprising though it may sometimes seem, professional journalists have a strict ethical code. They are not for sale. Their job is to keep their readers informed about important events in their own area regardless of any external commercial considerations.

This is why you should avoid applying any kind of commercial pressure when seeking publicity. For example, don’t imply that you will place advertising with their media property in return for favourable treatment.

At best you will insult them or offend their professional pride. At worst you will create a situation where ethical considerations mean they either can’t touch your story or they choose to take a more hostile approach just to sheet home their independence.

If they take notice of your publicity, the best media operators will attempt to get behind the message you want to send. Their over-riding loyalty is to their readers. Professional journalists don’t regard aiding your sales as any part of their job. Nor should they.

This might seem confusing to some people, after media companies are usually commercial business. You might think editors and journalist would jump at the chance of making money. However, taking a longer term view makes good business sense. A media property with a strong ethical code will be held in high regard by its readers, listeners or viewers.

This not only means that more people get to consume the property’s editorial; it also means they get to see the advertising material. Significantly, a product with strong editorial will usually deliver the better, i.e. more involved or wealthier, kind of customer. At the same time, research shows advertising works best when the editorial is credible.

Even when a journalist does respond to your publicity in a largely favourable way, they still get to choose what is said, where it is said and when the story runs. They choose the angle. They also get to decide how many words to devote to your message and they can choose whether your rivals get to comment or not. An editor might choose to use your supplied photographs or other graphic material, they may not. A journalist – usually a sub-editor, will write the headline and captions.

You wouldn’t normally expect to pay money to a publisher when they use your publicity. However, there are some media properties that will ask for a payment in return for running it.

Alternatively some properties might agree to run your vetted publicity material in return for you buying advertising. In fact there’s a whole spectrum of arrangements from total separation of editorial and advertising all the way to properties that are, in effect, nothing but paid advertising.

At the extreme end of the scale you are dealing with vanity publishers – people who will take your money and make you look good. Your mother may like the result, but you won’t sell much this way.

As a general rule of thumb, publications that sell their editorial integrity are not well-regarded by their readers – that’s your prospective customers. Experienced publicity people often discount the value of these publications.

Apart from anything else, readers tend to know when they are looking at paid-for editorial and learn to trust it less than truly independent content. In particular, younger, media literate, people are especially cynical about this kind of material.

One commonly used measure is that four of their readers would be worth one reader of a more prestigious, editorially independent title. That also applies to advertising in these publications – you can expect to pay considerably less for your space in a publication that isn’t fully independent.

While many businesses organise their own publicity, others hire specialists to do it for them. The most common arrangement involves hiring a public relations or PR consultant. Amongst other things it’s their job to know which media properties and individual media professionals are receptive to which message.

A good PR company can save you a huge amount of time and trouble. They’ll help you prepare your message and train you in the art of handling the inevitable follow-up questions. They’ll make sure the message gets to the right people at the right time.

Some public relations companies have a considerable amount of intellectual property tied up with publication and journalist databases. Other operators keep all this information in their heads, Palm Pilots or Filofaxes. They cultivate contacts and learn the best way to approach each potential outlet.

Be warned that public relations companies rarely guarantee results. In fact, you should go out of your way to avoid any PR operator who makes that kind of promise.

One misconception is that publicity is all about issuing press releases or holding press conferences. Both can have an important role to play, but they are only the tip of the iceberg; most important PR takes place out of sight. We’ll look more at this later.

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