{"id":35814,"date":"2013-06-24T09:57:23","date_gmt":"2013-06-24T08:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=35814"},"modified":"2013-06-24T09:57:23","modified_gmt":"2013-06-24T09:57:23","slug":"journalist-spotlight-luke-westaway-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/journalist-spotlight-luke-westaway-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalist Spotlight: Luke Westaway Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/b>Luke Westaway<\/a>\u00a0is the editor of\u00a0Crave<\/span><\/a>\u00a0at CNET UK and recipient of the Digital Editorial Individual Award at the<\/span>\u00a0AOP Digital Publishing Awards<\/a>. In the second part of his interview, Luke talks about video content, working with PR, dinosaurs and \u00a03D printing.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>Read the first part of the interview covering Luke’s past, being part of a US website and working as a blogger.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Luke<\/span><\/b>How do you work with video?<\/span><\/strong>
We have a video producer and we think really hard about what\u2019s best for video. I am personally really into video \u2013 I love making it and I love the fact it has all the flexibility of the internet that you don\u2019t get on TV. We do think hard about what will make a good video, we don\u2019t want to put things in video just for the sake of it. There are loads of instances where text is miles better; it\u2019s always faster, for example, to get news out in text form. On the other hand there\u2019s loads of times I\u2019m writing when I wish I could show the product. Sometimes it can be really hard to describe things, like a tiny product detail, but as soon as you see it you understand. <\/p>\n

Video also works really well at trade shows because people want to see these products in someone\u2019s hands. The sense you get of the product looking at a press shot is completely different to seeing it in someone\u2019s hands being poked and prodded. It stops it being this mythical, white-background render and turns it into something real.<\/p>\n

What do you look for from PRs?<\/b><\/span>
There are two sides to it. First, there is the, \u2018We need a response\/statement\/quote\u2019 side, and then there\u2019s the, \u2018We need to be sent this product to review it\u2019 side. A great example of PR is when they respond even if it\u2019s just saying, \u2018Yes we\u2019ve received this and we\u2019re looking into it\u2019. A lot of the time you don\u2019t get a response and it\u2019s difficult to know if the email has even registered. <\/p>\n

I know lots of the people who make the decisions at the companies we\u2019re dealing with (like Samsung or Sony) are on the other side of the world and asleep. It\u2019s difficult sometimes for the PR agencies we deal with to get an answer turned around very quickly.<\/p>\n

Do you have any tips?<\/b><\/span>
We like to see things ahead of time as much as possible. We like embargoed releases and to be given a heads-up on news because speed counts. Exclusives are also great. On the product side we just need to see things as soon as possible. It is sometimes frustrating knowing these phones are out there and not being able to get our hands on them. A lot of that time that\u2019s not an agency\u2019s fault. <\/p>\n

What I would value more than being given a, \u2018We can\u2019t tell you what\u2019s going on at the moment\u2019 response, is knowing what the relationship between the agency and client is like. Obviously that\u2019s something they have to be careful about disclosing but putting it in context so we can know whether we need to make a better impression would be great.<\/p>\n

Do you use PR pictures?<\/span>
<\/b>We do because tech products get announced and then it\u2019s a little while longer till we can get our hands on them (or they\u2019re even in the country). Putting images, or links to images, in with press releases is super crucial because we can\u2019t publish anything without a picture.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Take Five<\/b><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favourite gadget?<\/b>\u00a0<\/span>
Absolutely the Kindle; I love the Kindle. I love how cheap it is and how long the battery lasts. It\u2019s a brilliant gadget because most of the technology we look at are personal purchases that you have to save up for but the Kindle, and other e-book readers like it, enter into the you could actually buy it as a gift<\/i> category. <\/p>\n

<\/span>Gadgets are always presented in a, \u2018Why not buy your dad an iPad for fathers\u2019 day\u2019 way, and no one is doing that because it\u2019s ridiculous. I\u2019m not going to make dad\u2019s year with an iPad, that\u2019s ludicrous, but a Kindle is in the realms of possibility. It works in sunlight and I think it\u2019s a simple, elegant replacement to physical books. I just really like it.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the next big thing in tech?<\/b><\/span>
There\u2019s a lot of stuff at the moment about wearable gadgets, like Google Glass and the speculation that Apple is making a watch or watch-like device. I\u2019m not super convinced by all that stuff, though I think Google Glass is really exciting and it will be really fun to see where that goes and what you can do with it. <\/p>\n

<\/span>To be honest, the thing I\u2019m more excited about is 3D printing, which in terms of completely changing the world has a far better chance than wearable tech. 3D printing is amazing; I went to the 3D Print Show last year and saw some of the possibilities it creates, like building your own house.<\/span><\/p>\n

What would your super power be?<\/b><\/span>
Ah man, I have thought long and hard about this and I always come back to flying. If I could fly that would sort me out. Unless I opted for a superpower that gave me the ability to fly tangentially, in which case I would opt for Magneto\u2019s metal-moving powers. He uses that to fly \u2013 he can totally fly \u2013 and he can also manipulate metal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you have any surprising hobbies or interests?<\/b><\/span>
I\u2019m really interested in dinosaurs. It\u2019s one of those childhood interests that never went away. So yeah, I do love a good fossil.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who would play you in a film?<\/b>\u00a0
<\/span>I\u2019ve been compared a few times to Daniel Radcliffe because apparently we have similar eyebrows. He wouldn\u2019t be my first choice; I\u2019m just going with what the people believe. My first choice would probably somebody who doesn\u2019t look anything like me.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ryan Reynolds, the bloke from the Green Lantern. I don\u2019t think I look anything like Ryan Reynolds \u2013 \u00a0no, I know<\/i> I don\u2019t look anything like Ryan Reynolds \u2013 but if I\u2019m casting the film, I get to choose someone very attractive to play me. I think that\u2019s the director\u2019s right really. It\u2019s my story so I should be in charge of casting. I don\u2019t know Ryan Reynolds but I firmly believe he would jump at the chance to play me in a film.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Editorial information on Luke Westaway, Crave, CNET and thousands of other media contacts and outlets, can be found in the<\/span> CisionPoint<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Media Database<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke Westaway\u00a0is the editor of\u00a0Crave\u00a0at CNET UK and recipient of the Digital Editorial Individual Award at the\u00a0AOP Digital Publishing Awards. In the second part of his interview, Luke talks about video content, working with PR, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[248,7272,3532,5741],"tags":[4203,4550,4555,4556,104,2262,3167,3667],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35814\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}