Happy Thursday writer friends,
I was on a client’s website the other day, looking through stories they’d done in recent years, in an attempt to brainstorm some new ideas for them.
I came across a story about an insurance trend I’m intimately familiar with, but that hasn’t really been covered a lot by mainstream media. It annoyed me that despite this being my client and knowing about this story, I hadn’t thought to pitch it. The article was well written too, very close to how I would have approached the subject.
I was upset at myself as I scrolled down to see who had written the piece, and laughed out loud when I saw the name. Sam Relph. My husband. You know, the person I told about the trend and encouraged to write the story. Duh.
I have written thousands of stories in my career at this point. And it still surprises me when I come across something I wrote (or encouraged someone else to write) that I’ve completely forgotten about.
Anyway, a little trend to warn you about today: I’ll occasionally post on HARO (Help a Reporter Out) when I’m looking for sources for business articles and the last three times I’ve done this, I’ve received:
– Answers that read almost exactly the same, but were from different people. (Yesterday, I received four emails that started the exact same way).
– Answers that were complete gibberish, as though someone had thrown a few keywords into a machine and copied the nonsense it spat out.
If you’re thinking ChatGPT, you’re probably right. That’s my best guess, too. A lot of writers I know are worried about the impact AI will have on our work, and I’m definitely keeping an eye on it, too. A lot of writing will get replaced, there’s no doubt about it, but there’s room for original reporting and storytelling. And I believe there always will be. For now, it was incredibly easy to spot the people who genuinely knew the subject and actually had intelligent things to share about it. It also made me realize I have to be careful to check credentials of the people I quote—especially if I’m looking for sources through places like HARO.
Thought I’d pass that on.
Cheers,
Natasha