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Podcast: why the work of a novice IT editor is a kind of “military drama”, and what we do with it

This is a podcast with content makers. In the next issue, Alina Testova from Glyph media talks about what a beginner needs to know about the work of an editor in the technological field.


Alina Testova, CEO at Glyph media


In the first issue of the podcast, we talked more about your background. Let's talk about practice and today. What is the specificity of your work? Who would you like to see in a team?


alinatestova: People who can write. This skill is developed at the secondary school stage. Therefore, we do not have “space” requirements. We need people who are able to formulate thoughts in the text and can spend a lot of time on sorting out a specific topic. We make materials for IT companies and we have to dive deep enough into their specifics, technologies, what they have in their work, what happens in the industry in general. We do this for an audience that is not particularly interested in learning everything from the simplest things.

For children who come without a specific background, who worked or studied for a translator or journalist, or for a technical specialty that is not directly related to our topic, but is connected conditionally with physics, the question arises as to whether they are suitable. It all depends on whether they can just sit and delve into a topic . This is primitive, but it works. If a person has enough strength to understand and understand for himself what is and how is arranged in a certain technological niche, plus write about it in human language, then he will succeed.


Are there any specific difficulties for beginning IT editors? How are the nuances in the early stages of implementation in your team? Why be prepared?


Alina: A bunch of difficulties. But we have a real school for a young fighter. We don’t do it in the format of funny videos like the Crossroads advertisement - with an ensign who shouts: “You have to think like meat, you have to become meat!” We don’t say: “Look, now you’ll come to us, and you will have some kind of training tasks, and then this will be real work.” The real work begins right away.

As soon as a person comes to us, we give him editorial policies, various supporting documents and explain what to look for when preparing such and such a task, what to do after you have received the topic, how to prepare plans, how to proceed to write drafts after agreeing on them etc. So people understand how they build the entire workflow, and get a constant feedback. We say: "Here you don’t really have this, this, this, go back to the documents that we sent you, to the redpolitiks, our accompanying plans, see how it is described there, and please do as it is written there." Sometimes there is a share of resistance.

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Alina: We try to understand it before ... Usually people who already write somewhere come to us. If the person published something on Habré or prepared for the technological publication, then he already saw life and "some shit". Such a person understands that the work of the editor is really hard work. In the editorial offices of technological media, N materials must be issued per day. Just sit down and do not get up until you prepare the norm of texts for the day. And do what you want, but please give birth. Therefore, people understand that we must be prepared for monotonous and not particularly extravagant work.

They are already deprived of the illusions of journalistic work. On the other hand, those who wrote not just for publications where it is impossible to comment and get the reaction of the audience, but those who published on Habré, where there is an active community, well understand a number of points. This is a compulsory fact check, a multilateral assessment of the situation, reinforcement of expert opinions with links to sources. Without this, the company or author will be put into place very quickly. And in not the most beautiful terms. Such people understand that this is not a creative process that comes from the head, from the heart and is associated with some kind of imagination and invention, but it’s real work. When you need to double-check the facts, you can not say too much or cheat on behalf of the company. This is a craft.


A playlist with key quotes from our interviews about content marketing and the work of the media.

Therefore, people who have already visited such an environment are more likely to suit us. And we look at what topics a person has sorted out, about which he wrote. We communicate with him, find out whether it will be comfortable for him to work with us, show examples of materials, describe the inner kitchen, designate opportunities for earnings and development. The editor himself understands whether it will pull or not.


How is working at your agency not like working at others? What makes you different?


Alina: Technical specifics. There are not many such agencies. There are agencies that do marketing, and SEO, and SMM, and at the same time texts. As a rule, it looks like such a complex ball, starting from PR and ending with maintaining social networks and website optimization. I do not want to say anything bad about such agencies. This is a good business. But they cannot afford to be fixed on some narrow niche - do SEO for everyone, and texts only for IT companies.

Our team has a fairly strong IT background. And we initially made materials for technology companies - only on Habré. After some time, the number of such clients began to increase, and a pool of those who are not connected with a conditional cloud or development, but who develop their IT systems or sell gadgets, appeared. After such a boost, moving to a wider audience - preparing columns for business media - is easier for us. When you wrote about the nuances of implementing a certain segment of blockchain technologies and figured out the details, writing about the economic aspects of the functioning of a company from this area is much simpler. Since we made materials for sites like Habr, in which people are critical of the quality of the content, the correspondence of the facts of reality, the depth of the description of a particular issue, we got an expertise in terms of fact checking and those editing processes,that accompany the preparation of each material. This distinguishes us from agencies that do "everything about everything."


You produce not only text content. You also do audio and video content. How does all this fit into highly specialized topics and the IT field?


Alina: Audio and video is a niche story in our area. The text penetrates almost everywhere and is at all sites. Even those podcasts that we record for companies , then be sure to decrypt into text . As I explain to everyone who is trying to get a job with us, we help companies talk to themselves in a normal language and for an audience of specialists. This is our difference from others. Companies have a need to talk about what is going on and what they are doing. And at the same time to do this without advertising, without the office, without the "good time" and other "we have become better."

Video is an interesting format. It is very interesting to work with him with b2c clients who do something for a wide audience. Who wants to talk about the gadget, how it works and why it is needed at all. We had such clients. They stay, great with them. Often IT companies have the task of attracting the interest of potential employees. In this case, we help to talk not about how cool the company is, but about how it is arranged inside, what is its office, traditions, and unusual initiatives . Here, photos, videos, and podcasts are used.


Good. Then the last question. Describe your agency in three adjectives.


Alina: You just led me into a dead end now. Blood, sweat and tears! ¯ \ _ (ツ) _ / ¯


These are not adjectives. Then three adjectives about your ideal employee.


Alina: Speaking a little more broadly, our work is a bit of a “military drama”. About people for whom this is a routine. They understand that it is difficult, risky and takes a lot of energy. But such an activity is suitable for them in spirit, so they are ready to harness themselves and feel a certain pride in a job well done. There is no romance in this, there is just no Hunter Thompson and nothing decadent. But there is real satisfaction from the fact that you yourself figured out and helped others. This is a certain noble part of our work, because it is not about vparivaniya something to someone, but about the honest delivery of useful information.


Playlist with key quotes from our interviews about content marketing and media work

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