Media Diet and a dose of reality

I've been in a bubble since 4 January. That was the last date that I actually read the news. Well, I have sort of skimmed the headlines on the BBC website most (but not all) days. But first I moved house and then I've been so busy finishing my book I've not had time for my daily round of at least 3 newspapers. I've not seen The Guardian at all, or The Sun, or much else. That'll change tomorrow as I fully intend for Normal Service to be Resumed!

The Media Diet got a bit neglected towards the end of last year - there was too much going on and, tbh, I started to run out of interesting media things to blog without repeating myself. It'll be back as an occasional feature from now on, along with PR Annoyances.

Anyway, the book MS was finally finished today - after being up till gone midnight last night then rising at 6 this morning to do the last bits - and has been dispatched to the publisher.

From tomorrow, it's back to the regular grindstone - I have 4 articles to write, 68 PDF pages to proofread for a client and a book MS to edit for another.

And now the dose of reality.

I've mentioned a few times lately how colleagues have been made redundant from staff jobs or seen regular freelance work dry up. I was foolish enough to blog about being offered work. Actually, I'm still being offered work. But I digress. Today I discovered I'm probably going to lose my biggest regular client - the one that gives me daily copy-editing work every weekday morning and a monthly cheque that covers my rent every month. Nothing's confirmed yet but it look ominous and I can't help wondering at the timing - I put my rates up for the first time in 4 years at the start of the year and now I expect to be dropped amid mutterings of taking work back in-house. But I can't not put rates up in the current climate, especially when I've carefully explained that clients have not had a rates increase in previous years and that I'm now simply catching up with inflation. So, it looks as though I'm going to be part of the statistics in my shrinking industry.

I might need that bar job after all. But not just yet.

Media diet week 3

Press: the Press Gazette was back in publication this Thursday after the Xmas break. What a relief. I'd really missed it. My favourite section is "The Knowledge" - always crammed with masses of great features on freelancing and thus a good source of tips and advice. I had a mini-skive from work on Wednesday morning to do a few errands, so I popped into WH Smith to buy some new magazines, purely for research as I plan to crack some new markets if I can. I came out with copies of The Oldie, Psychologies and Tastes of Britain, none of which I've had time to read yet, which means some of the weekend will be spent lying on the sofa - coffee in one hand, mags in the other. I already have a pitch in mind for the foodie mag.

Blogs: Bloglines is turning out to be the new Facebook for me. It's only been a fortnight since I tripped over this site but it's rapidly turning into my no. 1 procrastination toy. I just can't resist adding new blogs to it to read. I've discovered the blog of novelist Anne Brooke, which is witty, slightly bitchy in an ever-so-nice sort of way and covers a huge range of minutiae. Fascinating stuff. Another novelist whose blog I follow is Martin Millar. This cult writer loves football, lying on the sofa and drinking tea, in between playing computer games and watching Buffy reruns. I normally read hack blogs so reading about the lives of those who write completely different stuff is a refreshing eye opener. It's good to get out of the rarefied world of journalism now and again.

TV/radio: I watched The One and Only on Saturday. I have a weird fascination for the BBC's talent shows. And watching people pretend to be Elton John, Cher and (a truly rubbish) Rod Stewart was about as weird as it gets. At least Torchwood was back on Wednesday and lived up to my expectations.

Books: would you believe I am STILL ploughing through Attention All Shipping? My excuse is that bedtime is the only time I get to relax with a book but the past two weeks I've been so tired that most nights I've only managed half a dozen pages before I had to switch the light off. The end is in sight though. Only about 30 pages to go...

Media Diet week 2

A short week, as I plan to do this on Fridays in future.

Press: pretty much the same as last week. I still haven't even opened InStyle due to volume of work (bugger, cos I need a fash fix) although I managed to flick though Good Food and the fashion pages of New Woman. I even read almost all of Eve. Press Gazette was back, hurrah! I'd missed it. No time to look at owt else this week.

Blogs: this week's stand-out was Dave Lee's hilarious account of his day out with Andrew Gilligan. A great piece of writing as well as the "dine out for months on this" factor. Otherwise, it's gone quiet. Almost all the bloggers I follow seem to be taking a break after Xmas.

TV/radio: I sat through the opening episodes of Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach and wondered why I'd bothered. Too bloody smug for words describes the former. The latter was just dull. I watched Mistresses on Tuesday. Sarah Parish is always watchable and while this was predictable too, it had a certain glossy compulsiveness. I'll follow this to the end. At least it's nearly Torchwood time... The Archers was boring this week.

Books: still reading Attention all Shipping. Have started ploughing through the fetish porn to review for work, but am not finding it inspiring. Next book on the large stack is Rupert Everett's autobiog. Looks good, had better not disappoint.

Media diet week 1

I've been perusing a few newish blogs (newish to me, that is) and one had a weekly round-up of that blogger's media (sorry, I forgot who it was!). Last year, I did a general media round-up, but this is going to be a regular entry this year and I'm going to log everything.

So, here we go. Since New Year's Day, this has been my media diet.

Press: Online, I took my news, as usual, from The Guardian, The Sun and BBC News Online. I only look at other newspapers online if someone draws my attention to a particular article or if there is such a massive breaking story that reading full coverage is essential. There's no time to read more widely and I only buy print if I've had something published. Apart from that I got my bimonthly copy of Editing Matters, my regular monthly batch of glossy mags (BBC Good Food, In Style, Eve and New Woman), the Radio Times and the Chester Chronicle. There was no Press Gazette this week due to the Xmas break.

Blogs: I had a bunch of blogs aggregated on a feed reader that turned out to be a turkey last week (pun intended). What with the extended break, when things went wrong with the technology, I was cut off from my usual blogs (as I hadn't bookmarked them elsewhere). Then I discovered Bloglines. I don't know why I never came across this before, but it's fantastic. I've moved all my blogs there, plus added some new ones - you can see them all if you wish. Future media diet posts will only include new ones.

TV/ Radio: as usual, EastEnders and The Archers loomed large. I don't watch a lot of TV. I had a Xmas binge but now it's back to TV Desert, meaning I watched nothing else last week. Roll on Torchwood... I am going through a phase of listening to Pandora again. I can go for months without it then I have to have it on while I'm working.

Books: I'm currently reading Attention All Shipping, which is very entertaining as well as fascinating. Apart from that, I'm ploughing through a pile of fetish porn, for work purposes. No time to read anything else.

Must dash. I have just been offered a gobsmacking wonder of a writing assignment - more soon...