Do you feel threatened by blogs & their capacity to break news stories?

As a blogger myself my answer has to be no. I also write news, features and other content for online and print only magazines – and I still feel comfortable with blogs. I think the difference lies in ‘free’ blogs that you can sign yourself up for via Blogger.com or other similar sites and those that are branded as part of an established publishing organisation. If someone beats you to a story with an unknown blog then it’s not a big deal. If someone beats you via a recognised media channel then it should be a wake up call.

How much do you use blogs to source news stories verses PRs?

That’s a tough question. I might guess at it and say it’s 50:50. But there are other factors to consider too. There are personal interest areas, there’s contact from people that you know and then there’s a variety of other social networks that also carry news ideas.

Have you ever sourced a news story via Twitter?

I don’t know if ‘sourced’ is the right word. I have researched, discussed, been inspired by and finally promoted my own stories on Twitter. Put simply, Twitter is the best thing since sliced bread, but I think it’s more important for freelancers like myself than staffers.

Do you prefer Twitter for personal or professional communications?

I never use Twitter for personal communication. For me it is a hard-core communication tool for professional use only. I don’t swear either.

Did you have a favourite tech story in 2008?

That’s just too hard to pin down. I would probably say that anything by Adobe ranks fairly high on my scale. The release of Creative Suite 4 made my life so much easier, it’s a superb product.

What do you think will be the hottest tech issue in 2009?

Delivery of optimised virtually hosted desktop application infrastructure. Well, you did ask – so I thought I’d be specific.

What is the worst PR pitch you have ever had?

I actually used to be in PR and I am quite open about that. So I may be slightly more sympathetic to the idiocy of putting a junior on the phone to ‘sell in’ stories by reading a script out over the phone. My favourite howlers mostly lie in the construction and holiday homes field when people pitch me their ‘developer’ stories and haven’t taken the trouble to work out that I cover ‘software developer’ issues.