Whenever I meet journalists, specifically reporters, I am always struck by the similarity between what they do and what planners do.
Both groups have to assimilate a huge amount of knowledge very quickly in order to declare themselves experts on a given topic in a very short time.
Both have to bring an audience along with them as they attempt to tell a story about what they have learnt.
Both have to remain on top of societal trends in order to ensure that their output is contemporary and relevant to consumers.
Both groups are avid notetakers and scrapbook-keepers and are always trying to finish a bewildering array of side-projects that they have inevitably started.
Over the last couple I years I have increasingly recommended the use of freelance reporters rather than researchers when we need to do some desk research. They usually produce clearer and more actionable output in a faster timescale for less money. Their work is more accessible, the prose is inevitably better and they usually know their subject better and are more opinionated.
Most research agencies don't know how to cost for desk research and try to sell you primary research instead. Most of them also fail to realise that the quickest way to understand a topic is not to talk to consumers, or even to use Google or Wikipedia, but to pick up the 'phone and talk to someone who is already an expert on the subject. Reporters always start by using their network of contacts.
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