How to Write Compelling Stories for the Media Industry

Yellowbrick on December 24, 2021

One of the more difficult aspects of the media industry is figuring out what’s interesting to others and what makes a good story. That starts with the pitch — the story of the story. What is the reader going to learn? Why does the reader want to know it? And what has come before the story that you’re writing today?

A good rule of thumb for media writing is that if you think a story is intriguing, others might like it as well. So, first ask yourself, “Is this interesting? Would I read it if I weren’t the writer?” That’s one good way to gut-check yourself and figure out if you’re writing something worthwhile that will grab an editor’s attention and make them want to share it with their readers.

What makes a good story? That’s something we all grapple with every day. It’s one of the most difficult parts of the writer’s job — and the one that’s most critical to your success. News editors are looking for something that’s going to immediately attract readers and make them want to know more.
Now, what you had for breakfast this morning may be new information, but it’s not something that anyone cares about. You need to find that sweet spot where you have a particular insight, or, even better, fresh facts about a subject that people already want to know more about. Then, you can bring those to your writing and say, “Look, you may have already learned something about this, but if you read what I have to say, you’ll come away with something new and better.”

Online Media Education: Writing Versus Editing

Yellowbrick on December 24, 2021

People always ask me, “What’s the difference between a writer and an editor, and why does one become a writer or become an editor. Or can you do both?” Personally, I do both.

But, a writer is mainly focused on crafting their pieces. I mean, they’re going to draft them. They’re going to potentially edit them. I was editing and writing always. A lot of times, people ask me that question, “Why did you become an editor? What’s the difference between an editor and a writer? Or, is one better than the other?”

Personally, for me, I became an editor and went down that path for probably two reasons. One, because you have to have a really big ego to be a successful writer. And the reason why I say that is you’re dealing with a lot of criticism, a lot of rejection. To be able to survive that, you have to be able to deal with that level of rejection and criticism. It’s a little easier, sometimes, to be in the background and not get that in your face all the time.

The other reason is that I had so many ideas. I was so curious. There is no way physically and mentally that I would be able to do and execute all the things I want to do myself. That’s why I needed an army of people doing things — I can assign them things and then edit them. And then we’ll tell all these stories I want to tell that I can’t physically do myself. Furthermore, some people are just more talented than me. They have a great writing style or voice. It’s very satisfying to work with people in the media industry who are talented and give them an extra level of attention.

As a singular career path in the media, if you’re looking at editorial, you’ll continue to improve as a writer. There are a lot of writers who are editors for years and years and years, and then they write a remarkable novel. In the past, it was really looked down on in the publishing world that it was another failed writer. You had to sort of keep it a secret that you were working on a novel on the side. I think that’s changed a little bit.

The etiquette may still be to keep your mouth shut a bit with media writing, but there’s a reason that those editors do that. And, you know, they’re just very skilled. They know how to structure a story. They know the workflow of the story. When they have a story to tell, they know how to get it on the page.

Defining Your Lane as a Successful Media Industry Writer

Yellowbrick on December 24, 2021

As you’re making the choice to enter into media writing, you need to first decide which kind of writer or journalist you would like to become. With more available media data and a greater understanding of who our readers are and what they want these days, we know so much more about what we can do to serve them.

With the proper media education, you can become a culture reporter or even a food critic. In fact, there are so many different routes that you can take based on both your interests and on the needs of the particular organization that you might be reporting for.

One great way to make your mark in the media industry is to become an expert in one or two areas so that when your favorite editor calls on you to report on a particular issue, topic, or story, you will be able to produce it right away.

We will now learn a little bit about online media education, the many ways in which you can report, and the wide variety of topics that you can cover as a journalist in the industry today.

Change and Growth Are Vital Parts of Media Education

Yellowbrick on December 24, 2021

The state of media writing today is very different from the state of writing 10 years ago. Even 20 years ago, websites were brand new. They were novelties within newsrooms.

The most important product that that newsroom may have created in the year 2000 was the print edition of all of the work from the reporters there. And if you look at a television company, the most important thing there was not its website but whatever the reporter or correspondent or anchor would be saying on the nightly news later that night. So, remember that the media industry that you’re choosing to work in is in flux, and change has become a near constant these days.

Judging from the jobs that I’ve worked in, changes in management, learning to adjust, and becoming reorganized as a staff under new leadership are experiences you can expect to go through, especially if you decide to become a staff member of an organization.

So, as you see in your online media education, digital communication is becoming more and more important, but there is a split in the industry. Those who work in major media organizations that put out a television broadcast or a newspaper may be really devoted to the paper copy or the televised copy of the information that they have to share that day. However, the digital presence of a news organization is competing with these more traditional forms of communication. A news organization’s homepage becomes its front page. The benefit of that digital organization’s homepage is that it can be changed without having to print anything or make any major changes. With a click of a button, you can create a new front page.

Even though Variety is more than a hundred years old, we want to be as fleet and intelligent and new as we can, which is why we have a number of great reporters of different ages and generations and interests in our newsroom. They’re interested in all different kinds of music and different pockets of film. We even have a lot of people whose main source of entertainment is TikTok. That is in our newsroom; that is represented.

Each year, we sponsor the Power of Young Hollywood event where we cede the mic to the upcoming generation, the biggest trendsetters that are all under 20. And you wonder how they’ve been able to gain a foothold already. As long as you’re willing to understand that things change, and you want to change and grow along with the industry, that’s how you keep fresh.

Understanding Tourism: Tourism Bubbles and Theme Parks

Yellowbrick on December 24, 2021

Some attractions can become destinations in their own right. In Orlando, Florida, we think about theme parks and resort hotels. Disney World is an attraction in its own right with its accommodation facilities and services. It’s almost detached from the rest of Orlando, existing as a destination within a destination.
Atlantis, for example, is a hotel resort company that includes everything for the visitor, from accommodation to restaurants, water parks, and zoos. Because everything is in one place, guests rarely feel the need to leave the bubble to experience anything in its immediate surroundings.
The inner harbor in Baltimore is another example of a tourist bubble. It’s a beautiful development equipped with a stadium, hotels, entertainment, retail, and restaurants. Still, in many ways, it feels detached from the rest of the city. You can almost draw a physical border between the tourism development and the rest of the city. That’s what we would call a “tourism bubble”.
Other great examples of tourism bubbles focus on families. Here, you’re thinking of theme parks, resorts but also examples like Disney Cruises and Disney Islands. A cruise is more like a floating tourist bubble, but it functions in the same way. Everything is on board, from accommodation to food, beverage, and entertainment. You can even visit places along the way, but if you never leave the ship, you still won’t be bored for a single moment.
So, on one hand, we have tourist bubbles, which often mean there is a physical demarcation between the tourist area and the non-tourist area. In large cities, you’ll often find tourism precincts. They’re a little different since they’re areas where tourism services are concentrated, but that physical demarcation isn’t as clearly defined.
Times Square is perhaps the most famous example. A tourism precinct has softer edges. It flows more naturally into the surrounding area.

The Stay: Luxury Shared Spaces

Yellowbrick on December 24, 2021

It isn’t only Airbnb. Other brands have attempted to enter the sharing space—the sharing economy for lodging.

Oasis Collection is one of them. Oasis has attempted to accomplish something similar to Airbnb by utilizing unused capacity. They’ve attempted to design it in a manner that is distinct from Airbnb. While Airbnb tries to offer any type of rental goods, Oasis has defined the kind of product they want to sell on their platform, which is why they call it the Oasis Collection.

Another intriguing aspect of Oasis is the variety of destinations available. They also strive to build a member club where individuals can go if they rent one of their products in a specific location. So, for example, you might rent a curated apartment in Marbella, Spain. Marbella is well-known as a hotspot for nightlife enthusiasts. So you’d go there, rent the Oasis apartment, and at the same time, you’d be able to go to the Oasis club once a week for an all-night party. And you’re only permitted to visit because you’ve rented an Oasis.

Another notable feature of that concept is those apartment owners who rent on Oasis are also club members. If you’re an owner who puts your property on the Oasis platform and your apartment is in Marbella, Spain, but you’re traveling to Paris, you can enjoy the club in Paris because you’re an Oasis Collection owner. As a result, they’ve attempted to build a community of owners and guests who prefer to utilize curated apartments rather than Airbnb-style services.

The Stay: The Future Is Personalization

Yellowbrick on December 24, 2021

What made all of this development happen was—and Amazon and Google were part of it, but other companies are also part of it—is the move towards the cloud. Cloud-based data and transactions enable things today that you couldn’t do when the cloud didn’t exist.
Back then, you had to store data in many locations. Now everyone can store data in the cloud. As a result, companies like Google and others can use artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other sorts of capabilities to mine the data and really get to a granular level of understanding of the entire wheel of travel.
That’s what makes it happen. It’s the cloud, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. You can expect to see several new jobs emerging from that in the future, not only in terms of data mining or engineering but also jobs at the property level.
Marriott launched the internal capability of mining its loyal customer’s social media to understand what is happening in their lives so that when they get to a property, Marriott can personalize the experience.
Think about someone posting a picture and saying, we’ve just had an anniversary. We celebrated our son’s 10-year anniversary, and we’re taking a vacation down to Florida. We stayed at Marriott.
Marriott knows at the property level that your kid had celebrated its 10-year anniversary. They can tailor the amenities they will leave in the room, or they can tailor the welcoming that they give you. Say, “Hey, welcome. By the way, we are glad you’re coming here for your 10-year anniversary.” That’s the level of personalization you can expect at the service delivery level, but also during the entire planning phase in the coming years.

The Stay: The Sharing Economy

Yellowbrick on December 24, 2021

What makes the Uber’s. Birds, Turo’s, and Air BnB’s of the world stand out in their innate ability to offer unparalleled experiences for consumers. People have discovered ways to monetize off everything: plots of land for one-of-a-kind glamping experiences, relatively unused real estate, and even personal cars that can be rented to travelers. Whatever the case, the sharing economy has become an effective avenue to give consumers an off-the-beaten-path or one-of-a-kind experience, directly from consumers for consumers. This has changed the game for the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries.
Due to the localization of the experience on sharing economy platforms–individuals now have the upper hand when it comes to offering something unique, anywhere and anytime. You can set your own parameters to be matched with the exact amenities you are looking for; a hot tub, 10 bedrooms, nearby a grocery store, ski-in ski-out access. Renters can tap into unused potentials–such as capacity–to help others, and in doing so help themselves through the extraction of money from said space or thing.
You can’t book a one-of-a-kind place in most traditional hotels–they all look the same. Hotels are built to be standardized and are relatively singular in offerings. The way traditional hotels are structured makes it incredibly challenging for them to offer a truly genuine type of lodging experience. Due to this major economic shift, hotels are forced to rethink their strategies in terms of offerings and customization. Some hotels are moving towards allowing customers to book a specific room in a given hotel, though that room will likely be very similar to another room in the same property.
With all that being said, safety and security are often overlooked when it comes to the sharing economy– something that hotels offer that the sharing economy can’t, yet. While there are rating systems that give you a sense of security on whom the buyer is and what others have experienced when interacting with that buyer’s good, home, or service, it is hard to assess overall safety when actually utilizing whatever said customer has rented. How do you know who’s sleeping in the apartment next door? How do you know the area is safe in general? These are answers you can’t really find via these sharing platforms. While the hospitality industry needs to play catch up on unique offerings, the sharing economy needs to rev up their security and safety metrics.

Transportation: The Airline Industry

Yellowbrick on December 24, 2021

Transportation is an important component of the travel experience. It’s what gets us to our destination. The airline industry has many different service options, each offering various levels of hospitality to their customers, as follows:
* The full-service airline
These types of airlines, such as Delta or United, typically offer a variety of routes and destinations. Different seating classes are offered at different price points, including economy, premium economy, business class, and first class. These seating classes may have different seat sizes or leg room space, boarding priority, and in-flight food and beverage options.
* The low-cost airline
These types of airlines, such as Spirit Airlines, offer discounted prices and are barer boned compared to the traditional full-service airlines. There is no first-class seating, routes may be more limited, and in-flight food and beverage options may also be limited.
* The luxury airline
These airlines focus on the high-end luxury customer. They have first class facilities that are above and beyond, including cabins that have fully flat beds, personalized services, and a full meal menu with metal cutlery.
The airline Etihad takes luxury to a whole new level with their product called ‘The Residence’. Your 12-hour flight becomes even more luxurious in your own apartment on the plane, complete with a small living room, a bedroom, and even a shower.
* Charter flights
With charter flights you negotiate the price for the entire plane. Package tour operators such as Thomas Cook and TUI will charter a plane for their guests.
Technology has also supported the development of the chartered airplane industry. Apps such as Fly Victor, NetJets, Blade, or Wheels Up allow you to book your private plane or helicopter as simply as you book an Uber.
* Private jets
Some people have their own private jets, which is realistically not within reach for everybody. If you need or want a private jet for a particular trip, a charter flight may be your better option.

Transportation: Traditional Transportation Options

Yellowbrick on December 24, 2021

Traditionally, typical travel-related companies, such as airlines, cruise lines, buses, or trains, focused only on taking people from point A to B.

Currently, there is a greater emphasis on the traveler’s experience. Safety and fuel efficiency are top priorities at the airline level. But, the in-flight experience for passengers looks more focused.

Seats are getting better. Airlines are also working to improve the servicescape. These are the factors that influence how you feel, breathe, sleep, and digest.

Airlines are emphasizing the importance of the passenger experience with meaningful changes. They are looking for an onboard lighting solution to help passengers cope with jet lag. Travelers are unable to stand often, and food is difficult to digest. Airlines are now considering thoughtful meal options to help you feel better while traveling and avoid getting overstuffed.

Are you curious about these changes? Passengers arriving for a trip or in transit between two aircraft can use the new Changi Airport terminal in Singapore. This enhancement also attempts to appeal to the local community. As a result, they’ve created a one-stop shopping, entertainment, and event destination for all travelers. Airports, for instance, are no longer only concerned with safety and efficiency. They want to make a lasting impression on visitors.