Ten14 Media

Erm, it’s 10.14am on October 14 (10/14 if you’re American) so there’s no better time to launch the new Ten14 Media website and company direction. Phew, we’re finally open for business.

Not even a flood of biblical proportions, an emergency trip to the vet, a bout of flu - it was a real swine - and some crazy internet hosting shenanigans could stop us.

Some of you may have dealt with Ten14 Media before, possibly without realising it. It’s the company I founded back in April 2007 when I left The Sun after seven years to freelance.

In that time I’ve written for numerous national newspapers, edited blogs and websites, consulted with PRs to make their media relations easier, and developed a plethora of ideas on a daily basis – many of which are still in my notebook for a rainy day.

Ten14 Media was named after my birthday, which is today (no need to send a card), and I am celebrating with a new website, new direction and crucially new team members. It’s the same ethos, though, summed up by our tagline: Simple Words, Clear Ideas, Honest Conversations.

The power of words is often forgotten. Whether printed in the pages of a newspaper, posted on a blog, displayed in a booklet or spoken on a video, what you say, and how you say it, matters very much.

All change please

As the media landscape begins to change, journalists face a stark crossroads. But our skills are still in demand, more so than ever. Simple communication anyone can understand will never go out of fashion.

We’re trained to cut to the facts in the most entertaining, informative and engaging way. We strive to cut through confusion and allow the reader to form an opinion.

Brands now have the perfect opportunity to capitalise on that experience to reach their customers and users through real words they want to read. Not boring bland copywriting written by someone churning out buzzwords and marketing speak but engaging editorial in a myriad of ways through a range of mediums.

So that’s what we’ll be doing. It doesn’t matter whether you use old, new or social media – if the words aren’t right and relevant then you will just be talking AT the people you should be talking WITH.

Experts, experience and editing

At Ten14 Media, I’m creating a hub of talented writers, all experts in their own fields from technology to health and men’s lifestyle to food. Their strong background in newspapers, magazines and digital, alongside my editorship, will allow us to help brands make their words work harder.

It is the credit crunch, after all. We can’t afford to waste any words, and neither can you.

Whether commissioned directly from staff in-house or via PR and marketing agencies, we’ll use our experience to produce words and ideas that give the reader reason to sit up, take notice and engage.

We don’t spin, we don’t bullsh*t and we don’t use confusing terms. We simply help tell real stories through our writing, idea generation and consultancy.

They don’t start “Once upon a time…” either. We’re not into fairy tales. Our stories create trustworthy relationships between brands and consumers that this new age of media demands.

This is who we are

On our Services page you can read some ways in which we can do this. Our About page and the Ten14 Commandments give reasons why we exist. The Client pages show people who have benefitted from our work and then there’s the Team. They’re waiting by their keyboards with twitchy fingers. They might even use a pen and paper if I ask nicely.

And if you still need convincing, check out the Praise. Then maybe you’ll get in Contact for a chat about what we could do for you.

We’ll be blogging here regularly about our values, plans, the media and anything interesting involving words, plus adding more clients, team members and work examples to the site soon.

In the meantime, I’m off to revel in three words for the rest of the day: HAPPY, BIRTHDAY and CAKE.

PS: If you spot any dead links, bad words or browser compatibility issues on the site, please let me know.