In this episode of the Get Known podcast, we had the pleasure of talking with Margarita Khartanovich, formerly the Editor-in-Chief at Binary District. Binary District writes stories about tech-related research to catch “technology at its inception”. Their articles are also syndicated on The Next Web.
Margarita is also a PhD candidate in journalism, focusing on the timely and fascinating challenge of how certain people can be about the news they consume in a world where there is so much to doubt. As a former PR person, she gets tough on us PR people and agencies to task on how they can do their jobs better.
Here are a few takeaways from the interview:
- Margarita proposes that journalists should now start to look more at the probability of truth rather than declaring 100% truth in reporting.
- Margarita notes that the reason Finnish and Nordic media is able to maintain their high standard has to do with the level of peer review that takes place in most newsrooms here. She says it is also easier to maintain integrity in local media compared to international press with distributed teams and many different types of contributors.
- She notes that journalists want to find real, honest stories that get past the marketing and hype PR to tell the stories of the struggles and true achievements of the company. Sometimes authenticity is very hard to dig out.
- Struggles and failures are good. You should tell journalists about these things and how you have overcome them.
- Margarita believes that journalists are becoming immune to the standard approach, such as press releases, except in the cases of big companies where less access is possible. She sees notes that companies perhaps should start to do things that are non-standard when pitching a story to the press.
- Companies that want to talk to a journalist need to do their homework. Learn about the publication before you pitch.
Listen to the Get Known podcast with Margarita Khartanovich for the full interview.
We hope you enjoy the podcast! Please feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions to steve@sanfrancisco.fi or tweet us at @SF_Agency!
