Need a Boat Writer? Use Our Directory

Need a boating or fishing writer? BWI’s Online Writers Directory continues growing with new members joining the ranks and includes more than 120 listings. It allows visitors to this website to find boating and fishing writers and communicators by name, geography, writing specialty, website, blogs – and any data that is loaded into the directory is searchable. To see the listings, click on the “Find a Writer” tab above and on the home page or the link below.

Note to BWI members and others interested: The Online Directory is a member benefit and requires input and updating by members that use it. For those who have not yet added information, a private link is needed for access and available by contacting info@bwi.org.

To see the listings, click on this link

Writer Contract & Legal Issues

Writer Contract & Legal Issues

This webinar addresses legal issues with a focus on contracts, specific clauses in contracts that affect writers and how to address them, concerns such as establishing legal liability corporations, copyright protection, and more. It was presented December 15, 2011 by Milton Toby, writer/attorney/head of the Contracts Committee for the American Society of Journalists and Authors. This was the fourth BWI Educational webinar made available through the continued support of Dometic Marine. (Listener note: there is an audio gap of about 2 minutes approximately 40-minutes into the presentation.)

Conducting Successful News Events

This webinar is designed to bring writers and vendors together to improve press coverage of new marine products and boats. The idea for the presentation emerged from a meeting of the BWI Directors where concern was expressed over the high volume of news conferences and product introductions at boat shows making it difficult for writers to participate and glean all they needed from marine manufacturers

Subjects included in the outline of the webinar include:

– The need to keep presentations brief, focused, factual, useful, and if appropriate, quantitative.

– Learning to test the concept from a reader/subscriber perspective and ask, “Is this helpful or interesting?”

– Writer preference for take-away formats – paper releases, flashdrives, or other packaging to best disseminate news.

– The practice of handing out “chotzskies” and if so, what’s appropriate?

– A reminder to focus on video and how to prepare to “be recorded.”

– Honoring appointments and allowing enough time for reviews or tests.

– When enough information is enough and how to minimize the “marketing speak” for better results.

BWI Director, commentator, and columnist, Alan Jones, lead the webinar based on long-term experience of reviewing and writing about boats, new products, and the boating and fishing lifestyles.

Conduct Successful News Events & Better

Webinar: Drive Traffic with Social Media

“Drive traffic to your site with social media,” covers using Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, how to create and best use accounts with each social media site to promote a media outlet you work for or your own company, plus how to gauge whether your efforts are working.

The webinar is conducted by Diane Byrne, one of the best-known and highly respected yachting journalists worldwide, who founded MegayachtNews.com in 2007.

Journalist Future: Speed & Video

BWI’s Miami Newsmaker panelists discussing the “Future of Marine Journalism” offered a frank assessment of continuing challenges for writers and what publications and websites will be seeking in the near future. Common themes are that all in media are having to produce more with less, expect flawless stories and images, view deadlines as ever more important, and that video is becoming the new “sidebar” to articles. Advice to writers: be useful, agreeable and indispensable, find ways to add value, increase delivery speed, and keep up with the technology. Read more

Future of Marine Journalism

With so many changes sweeping through the boating and publishing industries this past decade, BWI has assembled a roundtable of senior publishing executives to discuss what the future holds in store for the boating media and for journalists – working both on and offline – during the Miami International Boat Show.

BWI will present, “The Future of Marine Journalism,” during its bi-annual meeting beginning at 8:00 a.m. on Friday, February 18, at the Miami Beach Convention Center, room A 204-205. Read more

Webinar: How to Start a Blog

BWI’s first educational webinar, “How to Start a Blog for About $10,” was conducted by Kim Kavin, the former president of BWI and the owner of the Charterwave and BoaterMouth websites. It is sponsored by Dometic, leading supplier of dedicated systems and equipment for recreational and commercial boats.

The webinar covers domain name research and selection with Google tools; domain name registration and forwarding with GoDaddy; basic WordPress blog software setup; and introductory WordPress features, such as photo uploads, video uploads and widgets.

BWI 2009 Membership Survey

Journalists who cover the world of boating have been affected like most others serving the recreational market, and they are experiencing additional buffeting from the sweeping changes taking place in general media. In a recently released membership survey, only 4 in 10 members of Boating Writers International (BWI) reported that their income has not changed since last year. Those who are earning less say they have seen a drop of up to 30 percent.

Looking ahead, BWI members are focused on learning to adapt to the accelerating changes in communications. BWI’s survey shows that members plan to, in order of preference: master social networking and new technologies, improve their websites and blogs, and create more material for online audiences. The harsh business climate is also reflected in their interest in copyright laws, contracts, and legal issues, to both protect their work and help assure that payment results from it. Read more