hackbash

Right at the beginning of this year we became a two-Tamsin family, as Charlie, me and copywriter Tamsin Mac were joined by Tamsin H, our new content strategist.
Since then, things have evolved much faster and better, and in more ways than we’d have managed on our own. We’ve even hired two new journalists, which is [...]

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I’m still not using BigNews, are you?
If the answer is “What?” you’re probably not alone. BigNews is Ask.com’s answer to Google or Yahoo’s news services, launched earlier this month. I wrote about the launch for iCrossing, observing at the time that an Ask search for “BigNews” didn’t return a link to the site.
Still doesn’t.
The service [...]

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Not every day can be great. Work today was up and down, ending with a surprise sucker punch.
When stuff goes wrong - and I mean everyday, non-life changing stuff - it’s easy to mope about it. I frequently do - there are plenty of toys around my pram.
I’d recommend picking up the nearest Kurt Vonnegut [...]

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I’m somewhat consumed by work at the moment.
Not the sort of ‘consumed’ where an awkward genius with a shock of white hair locks himself up in an attic to emerge seven months later with the answer to the universe, alas, but the kind where an arseload of freelance descends to snuff out every weekend and [...]

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I’m still a bit perplexed by this BBC article. I picked up on it earlier when researching personal finance stories, and ended up writing about it for a client.
The thing is, the BBC seems quite sure that the FSA “is to examine the rules governing websites that compare insurance products”. And, at the time of [...]

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Nobody’s perfect, and I’m quick enough to point out other people’s mistakes, so here’s one of mine. It’s in this news story on Spannerworks’ own website:
Those who reported problemsdid estimated that more than a quarter of the work…
The nicely munched up construction comes from Charlie having fixed my awkward original, and me subsequently forgetting to [...]

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Last week Dave Lee picked up on Spannerworks’ advert for a new journalist, and drew our attention to the fact that it was, frankly, rubbish.
I hope that Charlie’s reply to Dave’s follow-up post explains a bit more about how we work and what we’re doing in a marketing agency. We’ve spent plenty of time talking [...]

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There’s a set of responsibilities incumbent on a journalist that needn’t trouble a copywriter, PR executive or marketing assistant. The latter are generally assumed to have an agenda, with a message to sell or place, and their words regarded accordingly. The former should be writing for the reader.
Given the above, it’s not always surprising that [...]

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