5 Questions with Nick Huber
Nick Huber is a UK freelance tech journalist and thought leadership/media consultant, covering technology, business and innovation. With over 25 years of industry experience, Nick developed his expertise in translating complex technical concepts for broad audiences during his tenure at some of the UK’s most respected newsrooms, including the BBC, Financial Times and The Guardian. He has also advised hundreds of large tech companies, consultancies and PR agencies on their content and media strategies.
We sat down with Nick to discuss his approach to covering deep tech and what makes a pitch stand out to him.
Hi Nick. You have a really interesting background, having spent 25 years as a technology journalist for big publications including the BBC and Financial Times. What's the most common mistake tech founders make when explaining what their company does?
They explain their ‘mission’ or ‘purpose’ before explaining what their company does, which is annoying for journalists. Usually the mission is generic and includes the same offering that loads of other start-ups also claim to do.
Explain the basics of your business in one sentence of simple language. If you can’t do that, why would a journalist trust you to offer insights into an industry?
How do you approach translating deep-tech concepts for a general audience without your editors or readers feeling patronised?
That comes with a lot of journalism experience and having my work pruned, challenged and improved by great editors. Apart from that, I imagine that I’m explaining something to my aunt or my friend, neither of whom work in deep tech.
Do you have any advice for how comms managers and founders at quantum technology companies should adjust their approach when pitching journalists covering different beats (business, tech, science)?
You probably know this already, but do your research and use your common sense. Work out why the journalist may be interested in quantum tech. Has the journalist written about it? Or their newspaper or magazine?
Send them a personalised story pitch. Don’t pitch the same story to loads of other journalists at the same time. You’ll know when you’ve got a strong story pitch. It almost sells itself. And don’t use AI to write the pitch. Journalists can tell.
Also, quantum computing is very technical. You’ll need to work hard to explain it clearly, especially if you’re pitching a story to journalists who don’t specialise in tech. If you think you’re over-explaining quantum tech, or some other complex tech, I guarantee you won’t be. Journalists have a much higher standard for clarity than a comms manager or company founder.
Do you have any pet peeves in press releases or briefing documents that you wish comms teams would stop doing?
Sending a non-news story to hundreds of journalists just to meet a monthly quota for media outreach. Not explaining something properly, so it raises more questions than it answers. Leaving out key information, such as the financial payback from a case study or time savings in days/hours.
Most press releases I read are too vague and meandering. And the press releases spew jargon and feel generic.
Finally, when you're interviewing a technical founder or scientist, what's the one thing you wish their comms team had briefed them on beforehand? What makes a pitch stand out to you in your inbox?
Not everyone knows as much about your favourite subject as you. Or cares about it. Make them care. Imagine you’re the journalist and their audience.
Any pitch that is personalised stands out to me, written in a journalism style and has a strong news hook. Pitches like that are very rare – maybe one per cent of those sent to me.