How does a desk journalist work at La Voix du Nord?
When you are a desk journalist, you do not do field reporting. I travel very little, sometimes not at all. My work mainly consists of monitoring. I read what other media publish and what circulates on social networks to identify topics. I cover sports, climate, the environment and, more broadly, regional news.
For example, for a piece on the Strasbourg Christmas market, I first looked at what Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace had published. Then I checked whether other local newspapers were talking about it. From there, I take up the information while citing my sources and enrich it with other elements.
What relationship do you have with press officers?
On a daily basis, I work very little with press officers. I receive press releases because I am on several mailing lists, but I rarely use them. If the PR seems relevant to me, I ask the press officer for additional information or keep it in mind to integrate it into a broader topic. As a rule, if I want to write a piece, I simply inquire with the press office of the brand or company in question.
What do you expect from a press release?
It depends on the topic. In my department, we mostly handle national or international news. If it’s very local information, for example news about Decathlon whose headquarters are in the North, it’s rather the regional desk that will handle it.
For my sections, especially sports, I do not necessarily deal with new product announcements. But I can change my mind if the topic is really interesting and offers a different angle. Last year, for example, I went to Paris for a press presentation of a range of running shoes. I could test the models, form an opinion. I was absolutely not obliged to write anything afterwards, but I eventually did a test for the magazine La Voix des sports. The information provided during the conference allowed me to enrich topics already mentioned, including another article about a pair worn by athlete Jimmy Gressier before its official release.
To get my attention, I expect precise and concrete information. For a sports product, I want the characteristics of the pair and its manufacturing process. Press releases that are too marketing-focused are useless to me. What I need is a clear angle and technical details.
What sources do you use for climate and environment topics? Do you use reports such as those from the IPCC?
For these topics, I mainly do monitoring and curation. I do not have regular contacts with press officers in this field. I often rely on the work of journalists from our economy and environment departments. Reports like those from the IPCC are very large; we do not necessarily have time to read them fully. In this case, we rely on AFP dispatches, which we supplement with other elements. Our team is essentially focused on breaking news. We rarely spend an entire day on a single piece.
What advice would you give to a press officer who wants to address you?
I recommend proposing a well-defined angle, preferably linked to the region. It’s also useful to send additional information to enrich an article already published, by providing details, additional data. Anything that can help shed light on a topic from another angle.
What Etienne Dujardin expects:
- Additional information on breaking news
- Regional and national news
- Precise angles and technical data for sports topics
- No marketing content
Read also :
Romain Schneider (Le Figaro): “The language is sometimes too technical in press releases”
Gabriel Nedelec (Les Echos): “A phone call has more impact than yet another press release”
Gaëlle Dupont (Le Monde): “Communicators must understand our constraints”
