EXCALIBUR PRESS PRODUCTS & SERVICES

Over the last few weeks I've been asked more times than I can count "exactly what is it that you do". My answer is usually "help you to unleash the power of your words".

However, that's simply not enough, people are curious, intrigued and interested in how I went from a freelance journalist (and former media agency owner) to the owner of Excalibur Press - a unique content creation, copywriting, publicity management and news syndication company.

Most of it was natural transition, being able to see how the publishing, media and writing landscapes were changing and learning to adapt.

But to answer the question of "what do you do?", here is an exhaustive list of everything we currently offer our clients:

1. NEWS SYNDICATION

Excalibur Press sell stories and pictures to a wide range of UK and Irish newspapers and magazines.  Our primary clients are newspapers such as Sunday World, Sunday Life, Sunday People, Daily Mirror etc…We have also partnered up with Solent News UK to service the wider UK market.

2. NEWS/MAGAZINE COMMISSIONS

On occasion Excalibur Press are commissioned by a variety of newspapers and magazines to provide specific one-off commissioned pieces.  These can be in the form of articles and features and full words & pics packages or supplements as well as supplements or stand alone magazines.

3. COMMENTARY

Tina Calder regularly appears on BBC Radio Ulster and U105 as a commentator on a range of lifestyle and social issues.  We can also provide commentary columns to newspapers and magazines on request in a wide range of subject matters including both Irish and Northern Irish politics.

4. PUBLICITY MANAGEMENT

The team at Excalibur Press work with clients (and their PR/marketing providers) to create a publicity strategy either around their business in general or in terms of a specific project.  This will involve content creation, social media content creation, press releases, press distribution where necessary, creating short term strategy, managing immediate crisis management, advice, creation of thought leadership strategy etc….we work with people, brands, events and places to increase their public profile or profile within their industry as well as create a cohesive strategy that works within their resources and budget.

5. WEBSITE CONTENT & WEBSITE BUILD/REVAMP PROJECT MANAGEMENT

We work with clients to create (or rewrite) engaging and “on-brand” content for their website.  We can also project manage your web project between you and your web developer to reduce the time spent by you finding, creating and communicating your navigation and content.

6. BLOG POSTS

One of our most popular services we can create bylined or ghost written content for your website or social media platforms utilising your voice, tone and style.  This service is utilised by everyone from marketeers, PR executives, busy entrepreneurs and small businesses to large firms, bloggers and the publishing world.

7. PRESS RELEASES

Another popular service, we create your press release quickly and effectively to your brief.  Our service is discreet (where it needs to be), however, we are happy to engage with your service users, employees, clients and stakeholders in order to collate relevant content should it be required.  We can also research specific subjects, market trends or other such information if needed. We offer press release distribution but we don’t offer a monitoring service.

8. ARCHIVE CREATION

Many companies who are entering a growth period or who are thinking about tendering for contracted work or other such projects employ us to work with them to create an archive of material on their website (and in some cases social media like FB where it can be backdated) that gives a better insight into their activities in recent weeks, months or years.  More often than not this is a series of backdated press releases, blog posts and updating of specific sections of the website to include successes, achievements and contract wins/completions.

9. GHOST-WRITING

Our team can ghost write anything from reports, blog posts and website content to short ebooks and full novels or factual books.  This service can include everything from editing existing information to initial interviews, research and from scratch writing.

10. SOCIAL MEDIA BRAINSTORM SESSIONS

We can work with you and your team to brainstorm your social media strategy, looking at your current activity, reach and network as well as your competitors.  We will drive a brainstorm session which will tease out customer profiles on social, look at a variety of social platforms and also create some ideas and strategy around content creation.  This is usually delivered as a 3-hour session plus report.

11. SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT & SUPPORT

Our team will work with you to create, upload and distribute your social media content.  We can either disseminate information you already have or work with you to create a full content plan which can then be executed by your team or ours.

12. THE CONTENT WIRE

The Content Wire is a news, blogs and features wire service that has three points of entry.  Customers can subscribe to the freemium service or the premium service to download and use a range of content.  Or PR/marketing professionals or companies can pay a fee to have their press releases and content made available on our freemium service.

In late 2018/2019 we will be launching our fully integrative Content Wire where our content can be pushed directly to your own Wordpress website or social media channels.  Our team can also create bespoke integrations to suit publishing systems such as Atex.

13. HR COPYWRITING

Our team can work with you to create bespoke Human Resources documents for your company including training packs, employee handbooks, systems guidelines, job ads & descriptions and more.  Our basic service will write this content from information you provide. Our premium service will have your work overseen or written by an HR specialist and compliance manager.

14. SALES & MARKETING COPYWRITING

From sales letters, media packs and mail shots to other marketing materials with strong ‘Call To Actions’ etc...our team can work with you to create an exciting, engaging and informative piece of writing that’ll set you apart from your competitors.  Whether you’re disrupting the market or keeping it traditional, we’ll create a piece of writing that stays true to your corporate tone, style and voice.

15. ONLINE COURSE PUBLISHING

In mid 2018 we launched our Excalibur Press learning platform in which we publish our own and other people’s online courses.  For a small fee or commission structure we can make our platform available to you to publish and deliver your own online courses without the expense of getting your own learning site developed before testing the market.

16. CONTENT CREATION WORKSHOPS & BOOTCAMPS

We can work with you or your staff/team to run workshops in which we can analyse ideas for content creation and put together exhaustive lists of what you can use to engage with your audiences or we can work with you over the course of a bootcamp to make sure you create and schedule a selection of content pieces for your business.  Part of our bootcamp is also working with you to unveil/reveal content you already have that can be repurposed, revamped or reused.

17. CONTENT CLINICS

These are 15-60 minute clinic sessions in which we do an intensive brainstorm with you around ideas for content for whichever platform you want to create for.  The idea of these sessions isn’t to create the content but more to help give you a sounding board and someone who can quickly and effectively come up with an extensive and exhaustive list of content ideas for you to take away and work on.

18. CONTENT CREATOR MENTORING

We can work with your internal content creator(s) on a one-to-one basis or in a group session over the course of a day or a series of meetings/sessions to teach them some of the basics of content creation as well as work with them to consider how they disseminate your content, how they create it, what tools they can use and help them to identify good sources of content within your business/company/organisation.

19. INSPIRATION SESSIONS

Sometimes ghost writing, contracting out or commissioning isn’t what you want for your writing or creative project.  On many occasions a sounding board and someone to help come up with new ways of looking at something or ideas of ways in which you can express something is all you need.  We have a series of 15-60 minute sessions available in which we can help you with any creative project at all - with the aim being to induce your creative thinking by provoking alternative thought, asking questions and offering suggestions and ideas.

20. PRESS KITS

Whether you’re a band, musician, artist, author, brand, product or new company, having a press kit can sometimes be an effective way to communicate your message to the media, publishing and online communities.  We will work with you to create an industry specific, tailored press kit that can be sent out to anyone you feel is relevant. We can also help you to disseminate this once it has been created. We can also produce things such as artist biogs, dust jackets, artist statements, product descriptions and much more individually should you require.

21. EDITING / COLLATING / PRODUCING PUBLICATIONS

From brochures, programmes, ebooks and handbooks to magazines, newspapers and supplements our team at Excalibur Press can project manage your entire publication reducing your time spent working on it or we can work to your direction to simply liaise with the designer to put it together.

22. CORPORATE COPYWRITING

The words you use to communicate your company message to your clients, customers and collaborators can often make or break and business or project.  Our team will work closely with you to ensure we create a piece of writing that adequately reflects the brief. We can take initiative to suggest ideas and possible tones and styles or we can work within a very tight brief of what you require.

23. PUBLISHING (BOOKS & EBOOKS) & PUBLISHING SERVICES

Our publishing department can take you through the whole journey of writing and collating your book to seeing it on the shelves at Amazon, Kindle, Kobo etc...we offer a service that straddles the line between vanity publisher and indie publisher.  From interior formatting, proof-reading, editing and cover design to publicity, author tools and services and a variety of other services we can either offer you space on our Imprint or we can teach you and your team how to become self-publishers.

More about us...

In order to deliver all of the above we have around 16 writers, bloggers, journalists, content creators and authors. We currently collaborate and work in partnership with around 7 companies including photographer, videographer, marketing, training, web development, hosting and design.

Our clients come from the following sectors/industries:

• News & media
• PR & marketing
• Charities, schools and community organisations
• Celebrities, musicians, authors, artists
• SMEs, business & industry

Our key markets served include:

• Northern Ireland & Ireland
• UK & Europe
• America & Australia
• We have content clients and copywriting clients all over the world
• We have shipped books to around 8-10 countries

And some more...

Headed up by journalist, author, commentator and publicist Tina Calder, Excalibur Press is a unique content development, news and publicity agency based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Working with the biggest media institutions across the country (north and south) including BBC, Trinity Mirror, News International (News UK), Bauer, Johnston Press, NW Media Group, Independent News & Media, leading influencers and bloggers. Tina has over two decades experience working as a freelance contractor for the UK and Irish media. As well as having owned a photo syndication agency, news agency and publicity management company she has also had an extensive career in local journalism and media (including radio broadcasting).

CONTACT DETAILS

[email protected]

07982628911

Twitter: @TinaCalder @ExcaliburPress

Facebook: @TinaCalder @ExcaliburNews

Instagram: @TinaBelfast @ExcaliburPress