5 Questions with Berenice Baker

Hi Berenice. You have a really interesting background, having spent 15 years on the IT side as a test analyst. What inspired you to make the switch to tech journalism, and have you ever looked back?

Towards the end of my IT career, I was often brought into projects that were already over time and budget, so the work was short-term and pressured. What I found I enjoyed most wasn’t the technical work itself, but writing up what was happening in a way people could understand and act on.

Around the same time, I started pitching pieces outside work, from a running column about the joy of coming last in races to a national newspaper health feature about my family’s experience trying to access Alzheimer’s medication.

That was the turning point. I realised I was more interested in writing than in staying on the technical side, so I took a journalism course to understand the craft and made the jump. I haven’t really looked back. I still use my IT background every day, but things have moved on a bit since I started. Tim Berners-Lee didn’t invent the World Wide Web until the year after I graduated.

With your focus on AI, quantum and robotics technologies, you’re writing about some of the most exciting emerging technologies of our generation. But with so much happening in the world of deep tech, how do you decide what to write about?

There’s no shortage of topics in deep tech, so I’m really looking for patterns rather than isolated announcements. A single breakthrough is interesting, but what matters more is how it fits into the broader evolution of a technology. Are we seeing progress on the same bottleneck from different angles? Are things starting to move from research into something usable?

That’s where my background helps. I’m always looking at how things work in practice, not just what’s been demonstrated. A lot of that comes from speaking to people across the industry and joining the dots between what they’re working on.

It also means looking beyond the big tech companies. Some of the most interesting developments are coming from startups, where you often see new approaches emerging much earlier.

As a freelancer writing for diverse titles like Tech Monitor and SDxCentral, how do you tailor complex deep tech topics for different audiences?

I think of what I do as technology translation and the “to” language depends on the publication.

Something I learnt early on at The Engineer was to picture a real person rather than a generic audience, what they’re dealing with day to day and what they need to understand to do their job.

Then, as I’m scanning announcements or speaking to people, different elements will jump out depending on where I’m writing. The same piece of news might trigger a networking angle for SDxCentral, or fit into a bigger story around physical AI and infrastructure for The Infinite Loop.

The core reporting stays the same, but the framing shifts to make it useful.

What do you enjoy the most about your job, and what advice would you give aspiring journalists who may be working in a different sector currently?

What I enjoy most is taking something complex, often quite abstract and making it clear and useful without oversimplifying it. That’s especially important in areas like AI and quantum, where there’s a lot of noise and hype.

I’ve worked across a wide range of sectors over the years, and the common challenge is always the same: making complex technology understandable and meaningful in context.

For people looking to move into journalism from another sector, I’d say your background is an asset, not a disadvantage. Some of the best stories come from people who understand how an industry actually works. Start writing, even if it’s small pieces, build a portfolio and focus on explaining things clearly. That’s the core skill.

I used to run the graduate journalist programme at GlobalData and one thing I noticed is that very few people are aware of B2B journalism. It’s rarely taught, and writing for a trade publication is seldom anyone’s dream job.

But a lot of investigative scoops originate in B2B, because that’s where you find the specialist knowledge and the contacts to spot a story early.

Finally, how do you source your stories as a freelance journalist? What makes a pitch stand out in your inbox, and what’s the best way for PRs to support you?

Sourcing is a mix of direct outreach, existing contacts, industry events and platforms like Qwoted. I also follow research papers and preprints, particularly on arXiv, alongside journals like Nature and Science, to understand how ideas are developing before they become commercialised and to spot patterns early. Over time, that builds into a network of people who are both knowledgeable and willing to explain things clearly.

Google Alerts usually drop too late for news, but if you see two or three announcements in related areas in a short space of time, it’s often a sign there’s a bigger industry move underway that’s worth investigating.

In terms of pitches, what stands out is specificity and relevance. It makes my life much easier if a PR frames a release around my beats and the titles I’m writing for. It also helps to include images or supporting material where relevant, clarity on whether interviews or comments are available and direct contact details for someone who can arrange access to the right spokespeople.

In emerging tech, some startups are starting to publish blogs alongside press releases to provide deeper context. That’s a useful trend and one that genuinely helps journalists.