This week a new client called to say that they were dropping plans to publish news and features online because they are cutting their marketing budget. I had signed a contract, a fair rate had been agreed, but I’d not yet been commissioned. Now perhaps I am naive but the early stages of a downturn seem to be the worst time for a business not to be providing information to their clients. And last time I looked advertising bargains were … well I haven’t spotted them yet.
Cutting back on information and news is a saving that could cost dear later. Perhaps there is concern about alarming clients. After all, it’s messy and ugly out there now, and no one knows how many twists and dark tunnels the train must get through before we chug along easily again. Maybe some are worried that they don’t have all the answers. Well who does? We can only make decisions based on the best available information, and that feeling in our guts.
In 2001, I took a break from my job at the FT and was operating successfully as a freelance writer covering the global travel & tourism sectors. By the end of that year I was fully engaged in writing articles about travel security, and how the industry was streamlining operations to function in the post-911 landscape. The hunger for this information was immense. I recall an editor/writer that I used to file for back then named Jerry Chandler, who is a recognised aviation writer and commentator in the US. I was probably the only person ever to suggest a feature about how British Airways managed customer relationships for Concorde and Jerry ran this. Anyway, he said something that has stuck with me. It was that no matter the topic the one constant is that “people want good information, so give ‘em good information”.
People always want this. Always will. And at the start of a downturn, they want it even more. My prediction is that the providers of good information (and products and services) will survive the downturn, and go on to grow when things inevitably and eventually pick up. I stick with people who give me good information. Don’t you?
