Q&A with Charles Orton-Jones, freelance business and technology writer: Part 1

In the latest of our media Q&A series, we invited freelance business and technology writer Charles Orton-Jones into the hotseat. In this first part, he shares his thoughts on journalism, his work as a freelancer, and what makes him tick.

How did you get into journalism?

By accident! I was 18 and on a disorganised gap year before university. I got offered a job to write about offshore finance and was whisked off to New York. Turns out the editor believed a kid could do the job, and wanted to prove it. I had an apartment, fully paid for just off Fifth Avenue. Clothing expenses. And I flew to the Caribbean to interview people. I spent a week in Turks & Caicos. After that, everything else seemed boring.

Can you tell us more about how you work as a freelancer?

I'm a business and tech journalist. There aren't many of us left. Editors email me with a commission and I say Yes or No. I don't pitch. I just get told to write things, a bit like doing my homework.

What are the key areas you’re interested in writing about?

I write across tech and finance. One really stimulating gig is editing a journal called Forward, funded by the intellectual property attorney firm Mewburn Ellis. We cover quantum computing, materials discovery, and pharma. It's phenomenal. Where else do you get to talk to scientists who can make a quantum computer by trapping caesium atoms in a laser grid to cool them down to absolute zero? Or find cancer treatments using artificial intelligence? And I cover tech stuff for Raconteur, Information Age, and all sorts of other journals.

What was your favourite story from the last 12 months and why?

Tech platform Hopin was worth $7.75bn two years ago. It recently sold its main asset for a pathetic $50m. The lesson is that business is chaotic. No one knows what is going to succeed, and what will fail. The PR of Hopin was stunning. They convinced investors to pour in mind-blowing sums, despite there being no real business case.

Are they any other journalists you look up to / avidly read?

Rory Sutherland, vice-chair of Ogilvy UK, is the Wiki Man columnist in The Spectator. He's a genius. He understands how perverse and bizarre the human mind can be. As he says, “The opposite of a good idea can also be a good idea.”

Also: Mark Ritson in Marketing Week. A superlative contrarian.

Charlotte Ivers and James Marriott in The Times. Both are original thinkers.

Marina Hyde in The Guardian for being endlessly inventive.

And the prison doctor Theodore Dalrymple. His series of 300-word articles from the prison surgery are Shakespearean in their insights into the human condition. His essay, What We Have To Lose, on the fragility of civilisation, is a piece I return to again and again.

Who would you most like to interview and why?

Michael Gove. He's the housing secretary. But housing in the UK is an utter disaster. Most renters live in properties so small they'd be illegal in Washington DC. Life for the under-40s is appalling because of housing. And he's the man in charge. Why the f*ck is he not fixing it? I think it would be more of me ranting at him, than an interview. So it probably won't happen.

In part 2 of the Q&A, Charles shares his thoughts on the PR industry and outlines his advice for anyone looking to pitch stories to him.