It’s rare to meet a journalist who’s charted with a Brexit-themed disco album, but here he is! Rhodri Marsden is the technology columnist for the Financial Times HTSI magazine; he’s written about gadgets and tech for top national newspapers, consumer and music magazines for the past two decades. But he is also a published author and acclaimed musician and producer. We caught up with him to tell us more.
How did you get started in journalism and what titles have you written for over the years?
After university I worked in the music business for ten years or so, managing bands and working on concert promotion in Russia, Bulgaria and the former Soviet bloc. It was pretty stressful. I remember I once sent Goldie to the wrong airport. That was a bad day.
When I was 30 I decided in a moment of hubris that I would write for a living, and incredibly it worked out. The first thing I wrote was a feature for Time Out about QVC. (I was obsessed with shopping channels at the time.) I went on to write seemingly millions of words for The Independent about pretty much everything. Also wrote for The Guardian, I, BBC Good Food, Evening Standard, Radio Times and a bunch of others. And now HTSI magazine, mainly.
Why did you become a journalist?
Someone said to me in 1999 “Your emails are funny, you should be a writer.” This compliment must have lodged in my brain.
What career highlight stands out to date? It could be someone you’ve met, a trip you’ve got to go on or a piece you’ve filed you’re particularly proud of!
Most of the things I’ve written are pretty frivolous, but I once wrote a piece about people in therapy who want to leave therapy but are guilted into staying on by their therapists. That ended up with the British Psychological Society arranging a conference to address that specific issue. I remember thinking “Wow, I think I might have done something useful.”
What is a typical day for you as a journalist?
There really isn’t a typical day. I just scan down a massive to-do list, get all the easy stuff done, then reluctantly tackle the difficult stuff at about 3pm.
How do you think journalism has changed over the years?
I’m not really qualified to talk about how news has changed, but there’s obviously been a slow change over the last 20 years where interesting stories get sidelined in favour of attention-grabbing ones. As someone who is curious about minutiae, the small stuff, that’s been a bit depressing to witness.
What do you think makes a good story?
My definition of “good” doesn’t necessarily align with that of commissioning editors, but I’ve always been drawn to stories of people causing great delight by doing unusual things, whether they’re inventors, artists, businesspeople or whatever.
What are your dos and don’ts for PRs?
I wouldn’t dream of telling you how to do a very difficult job that I could never do, but: sending an email saying, for example, “I just saw that you wrote a piece about egg whisks, I wonder if you would like to speak to my client who makes egg whisks”, will invariably elicit a reply saying “I’ve just written about egg whisks and probably won’t write about egg whisks again for at least another 5 years, if ever, but thank you for letting me know.”
What has been your favourite press trip/press event?
They’re usually very well run. The only thing that lets down press trips is the bad behaviour of the journalists on the press trips.
If you weren’t a journalist what alternative career would you have chosen?
I make about half my living through music, so I would have probably tried to make my entire living through music, and failed, and been forced to marry into wealth instead.
