My 6-month long campaign to get the Philadelphia Inquirer to let me write a column has reached a dead end, and so I reveal the reason for the video I made weeks ago where I asked all of you to put in a good word for me - Who Is This Fran Person? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eQBOj4-9pw
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- Music by Fran Blanche -
Fran's Science Blog - http://www.frantone.com/designwritings/design_writings.html
FranArt Website - http://www.contourcorsets.com

By Fran

16 thoughts on “Calling the philadelphia inquirer!”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars SeanBZA says:

    They do not want columns, as that is an expense taking valuable advertising space away from the layout. Syndicated stuff is fine, because they get it essentially for free, fixed cost to the syndication house that sells the column space to newspapers, so actually having a local column is near impossible, as likely all the editorial decisions are not made locally, but by a syndication house, and they just get sent a block of news and stuff to pad out the ads with, and print it to fill a full page of newsprint, so they can sell the ads.

    Newspapers sadly are dying, they are only holding on because of the older subscriber base that has them delivered, and every year that number is falling. By me the most successful newspaper is free every week, delivered to your door or shop, and they have a larger circulation than the actual pay newspaper, because the cost is covered by advertising. And yes they also give you the entire paper free online, no registration, no nothing, no hard sell asking for email, just please read the paper and get the ads, either story by story, or the whole thing, exactly like it is printed on paper.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ernest Schultz says:

    Write a "Letter To The Editor". A few years ago I felt the need to write a letter to the NYDN and it was the first time I had ever done that and I was very surprised when they actually printed it in the Voicer's section.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Luigi says:

    Fran, be persistent to the point they will know your name by heart. They will eventually answer you, just to make you stop. LOL.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars That Guy says:

    Just do it online, paper newspapers are on the way out

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Wesley Rihn says:

    This is why most people don’t bother reading newspapers.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jim Crelm says:

    Antique electronics are not relevant by definition. Relevant technologies such as AI are too depressing a subject for most media once you really get into them and their implications for society. Gadgetbahns and such already have their boosters writing articles for free.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Liofa says:

    You need to show you have some written journalism experience before they'll be interested. Even young journalists, straight out of university have been writing for school newspapers, local newspapers and their own blogs. Having a science youtube channel is great, but it doesn't show that you can write newspaper columns. Having a column in a newspaper or on a reputable newspaper website is almost the holy grail for a lot of young journalists. Especially if you expect to get paid for it. The best way to get your foot in the door is to write, write, write… It's easy to write generally about any science subject, it's not so easy to put an interesting and possibly critical spin on it that would appeal to a newspaper editor without any scientific background. They need to know you're a good writer first and foremost.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Job King says:

    Philadelphia inquirer is only interested in publishing opinion pieces that justify the city's incompetent policies and officials

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Janet Diaz De Valentin says:

    Wow, Then let’s. Boycott, The paper screws that…That’s crazy….

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Richard The Lion Hearted says:

    I grew up in Philadelphia. I agree. Went to Friends Central School. Now live in Hawaii. Multiple letters u are now a stalker. Going down u are now on a watch list.🤡🤣😂

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars 1954shadow says:

    Yes, yes, yes! Want us to send the Inquirer, emails to petition to have you do an article for the paper?

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars VWestlife says:

    As a kid, I never understood why the Philadelphia newspaper spelled it with an I while the tabloid spelled it with an E.

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars lordmuntague says:

    What's going on here then? Possibly…

    a) They have the security concerns you mentioned,

    b) They have pre-decided their editorial policies at the highest level and do not consider them even worth discussion with anyone else,

    c) You are sufficiently unique and original that they have no box to tick against you and therefore your correspondence is endlessly circulating between people who all look at it and say "not me"…

    d) All of the above.

    This is the corporate world – pure control freakery and no imagination.

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Seeking A Great Perhaps says:

    When I was young I got the feeling like everything was screwed up and I didn't understand why people wanted the world we currently live in. I thought I'd get over it and understand when I got older. Decades later, it still feels like everything is broken, except someone has snuck up behind me and shoved my nose down into everything that is broken. Ah, that first time you receive a bill from a hospital.

    What isn't purely dysfunctional is either infuriating or absurd.

    It is entirely possible that as I pass from this world, the last thing I will do is laugh. It will be bitter, frustrated laughter. But it will be laughter.

    May you all, in an exasperated, possibly intoxicated moment of despair, sink all of your money into the most absurd investment possible, and then get suddenly, fabulously rich by mistake.

    Me, in the early days of Reality Television: "This is vacuous; no one will ever watch it."

    Me now: Laughing at me, then, having been dumb enough to have been too smart by half.

    I can say this: of all of the things printed in the average newspaper, I'd probably rather read some cool science than any of the rest of it.

    Speaking of which, did you all hear Will Smith slapped Chris Rock? DIDJA HEAR? If only we had more journalists covering this…human interest story, it wouldn't be this wicked underground thing only a few hipsters know about.

    The state of journalism today, I'll tell ya.

    Pico and Sepulveda, Pico and Sepulveda…

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Michael-Pica Scheel-Delphon says:

    Not if it something to Read, but not Read out Loud, then How We Going to know that it about then…

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Travis Hartnett says:

    This probably falls into the category of "We don't accept unsolicited submissions" the publishing houses, record labels, etc., have as a standard protocol.

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