From The Gray Lady to Belo, newspaper stocks are getting hammered. CNBC's David Faber gives a grim rundown of the carnage.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=942851153
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
The Art of Effective Pitching: Relevance & Relationship
We live in an age of information relevance - journalists are constantly fine tuning the content they provide for their respective audiences to deliver news and information that directly affects their readers.
Relevance is a word the Media Relations team at PR Newswire hears often during the conversations we have with hundreds of journalists each month. Journalists use words like “disappointed,” “baffled” and “aggravated” to describe their feelings about the lack of relevance in pitches they receive from PR professionals.
“I receive irrelevant pitches from time to time, and I agree with other journalists that this remains a problem in the PR industry,” said Derek Gale, Senior Editor, Hotels Magazine, Oak Brook, IL. “For journalists, there is nothing lazier than a PR person not doing the basic work of researching what specific publications cover.”
“We get hundreds and hundreds of things a day,” said Wendie Feinberg, managing editor of PBS’s Nightly Business Report. “We do a very focused program and our biggest problem is that people who pitch us have no idea what we do or have never seen one of our programs. It simply amazes me that PR people don’t take the time to learn about us and what we do before pitching us.”
Journalists are starting to fight back however, by blocking e-mail from PR people who purvey irrelevant pitches. ("Sorry PR People - You're Blocked" http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/10/sorry-pr-people.html). Feinberg uses a spam filter to block all email addresses from which she received an irrelevant pitch. “Once I send your email address into the spam filter you stay there,” she said. “Everyday I take email addresses and stick them in the spam filter and tell the system not to send me any more emails from that address.”
Relevant, thoughtful pitching will keep you out of the spam filters, and will increase the likelihood that journalists will consider your idea. Best practices include:
Doing your homework first
After you identify the outlets you want to pitch, browse their web site, read articles from past issues, request hard copies of back issues and read them cover to cover, download their media kits and editorial calendars, and watch or listen to past broadcasts. In short, familiarize yourself intimately with the outlets.
Cultivating the relationship
It is absolutely critical that you get to know the journalist before making a pitch, and the first step in building a relationship is an introduction. Make your first call to the journalist an introduction, not a pitch. “That is a phone call I rarely get, and one I would not hang up on,” Feinberg said.
Feinberg, a former PR executive for a telecom company, understands how difficult it is to get a story placed. “But I always made an effort to get to know the reporters I was pitching,” she said. “I traveled to newsrooms all over the state. I wasn’t pitching – I was building relationships.”
More than just pitching
While PR efforts focus on editorial coverage of a client’s news, Ed Silverman, editor of Pharmalot, (http://www.pharmalot.com/), a pharmaceutical industry news site owned by The Star-Ledger, said PR professionals can forge a solid relationship with journalists by making an effort to become a resource for journalists that goes beyond just pitching. Silverman writes about insights in the pharmaceutical industry – the effect of a new product on a company’s fortunes and FDA approvals.
“One of the key things I need is the opportunity to talk with more people inside the company,” said Silverman. “I want access to people who are immersed in the issue and want to talk about it. As an agency, you are in the unique position to deliver if you can get me on the phone with that person.
“But,” he cautions, “it only works if you deliver.” “It’s rare for me to have this source relationship with an agency but it’s one I would welcome having.”
Silverman advises that you lay the groundwork ahead of issuing the release. “Get the spokesperson set up before you issue the release,” he said. “This way when the release goes out, you have someone ready to talk about it. Not enough PR people lay the groundwork ahead of time, and I wish more would do that.”
You must invest time and effort into doing your homework and cultivating relationships before you pitch. By pitching journalists only relevant stories you not only increase your chances for pick up, but you also build credibility with journalists who will recognize you as a trusted resource they can depend on.
Relevance is a word the Media Relations team at PR Newswire hears often during the conversations we have with hundreds of journalists each month. Journalists use words like “disappointed,” “baffled” and “aggravated” to describe their feelings about the lack of relevance in pitches they receive from PR professionals.
“I receive irrelevant pitches from time to time, and I agree with other journalists that this remains a problem in the PR industry,” said Derek Gale, Senior Editor, Hotels Magazine, Oak Brook, IL. “For journalists, there is nothing lazier than a PR person not doing the basic work of researching what specific publications cover.”
“We get hundreds and hundreds of things a day,” said Wendie Feinberg, managing editor of PBS’s Nightly Business Report. “We do a very focused program and our biggest problem is that people who pitch us have no idea what we do or have never seen one of our programs. It simply amazes me that PR people don’t take the time to learn about us and what we do before pitching us.”
Journalists are starting to fight back however, by blocking e-mail from PR people who purvey irrelevant pitches. ("Sorry PR People - You're Blocked" http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/10/sorry-pr-people.html). Feinberg uses a spam filter to block all email addresses from which she received an irrelevant pitch. “Once I send your email address into the spam filter you stay there,” she said. “Everyday I take email addresses and stick them in the spam filter and tell the system not to send me any more emails from that address.”
Relevant, thoughtful pitching will keep you out of the spam filters, and will increase the likelihood that journalists will consider your idea. Best practices include:
Doing your homework first
After you identify the outlets you want to pitch, browse their web site, read articles from past issues, request hard copies of back issues and read them cover to cover, download their media kits and editorial calendars, and watch or listen to past broadcasts. In short, familiarize yourself intimately with the outlets.
Cultivating the relationship
It is absolutely critical that you get to know the journalist before making a pitch, and the first step in building a relationship is an introduction. Make your first call to the journalist an introduction, not a pitch. “That is a phone call I rarely get, and one I would not hang up on,” Feinberg said.
Feinberg, a former PR executive for a telecom company, understands how difficult it is to get a story placed. “But I always made an effort to get to know the reporters I was pitching,” she said. “I traveled to newsrooms all over the state. I wasn’t pitching – I was building relationships.”
More than just pitching
While PR efforts focus on editorial coverage of a client’s news, Ed Silverman, editor of Pharmalot, (http://www.pharmalot.com/), a pharmaceutical industry news site owned by The Star-Ledger, said PR professionals can forge a solid relationship with journalists by making an effort to become a resource for journalists that goes beyond just pitching. Silverman writes about insights in the pharmaceutical industry – the effect of a new product on a company’s fortunes and FDA approvals.
“One of the key things I need is the opportunity to talk with more people inside the company,” said Silverman. “I want access to people who are immersed in the issue and want to talk about it. As an agency, you are in the unique position to deliver if you can get me on the phone with that person.
“But,” he cautions, “it only works if you deliver.” “It’s rare for me to have this source relationship with an agency but it’s one I would welcome having.”
Silverman advises that you lay the groundwork ahead of issuing the release. “Get the spokesperson set up before you issue the release,” he said. “This way when the release goes out, you have someone ready to talk about it. Not enough PR people lay the groundwork ahead of time, and I wish more would do that.”
You must invest time and effort into doing your homework and cultivating relationships before you pitch. By pitching journalists only relevant stories you not only increase your chances for pick up, but you also build credibility with journalists who will recognize you as a trusted resource they can depend on.
Friday, November 21, 2008
A good magazine is like a warm glass of milk
I don't know about everyone else, but I just love reading a magazine. No, not on my laptop, not on Kindle (Amazon's wireless reading device) but holding it in my hands and flipping the pages. One of my favorite times to read a magazine is right before bed. I prop myself up with pillows grab a magazine off the nightstand and flip it open. It's like my warm cup of milk.
I subscribe to three magazines: Consumer Reports (my wife and I don't buy a thing without consulting CR), Family Handyman and Muscle & Fitness. Maybe it's the pretty pictures, maybe it's the glossy four-color printing. I don't know. But I know I love holding a magazine in my hands.
I have always had a soft spot for magazines. I got my start in magazine publishing as the assistant editor of a small health food trade magazine in NJ. It was like a dream. My own office with a window, lots of responsibility and the office was 10 minutes from my house. Want to know how old I am? We used wax paste up with galley paper. Working at the magazine gave me a chance to cut my teeth in newspapers. You see the salary was so low that I took a part-time sports writing job at the local daily for extra income.
I always cringe a bit when I read about magazines ceasing or folding the print edition to go solely online. I understand the reasons - ad revenue is down; printing cost savings. But I still like licking my fingers to turn the pages or dog-earring a page to hold my place for future reading.
The media world is changing and magazines are certainly not immune to the those changes. PC Magazine recently announced it is moving to an online format and ceasing its print version, and other magazines are sure to follow suit.
So maybe I'll ask Santa for a Kindle. On the good side I'll have a lot more room on my nightstand. I'll just have to be careful not to spill my warm milk on it.
I subscribe to three magazines: Consumer Reports (my wife and I don't buy a thing without consulting CR), Family Handyman and Muscle & Fitness. Maybe it's the pretty pictures, maybe it's the glossy four-color printing. I don't know. But I know I love holding a magazine in my hands.
I have always had a soft spot for magazines. I got my start in magazine publishing as the assistant editor of a small health food trade magazine in NJ. It was like a dream. My own office with a window, lots of responsibility and the office was 10 minutes from my house. Want to know how old I am? We used wax paste up with galley paper. Working at the magazine gave me a chance to cut my teeth in newspapers. You see the salary was so low that I took a part-time sports writing job at the local daily for extra income.
I always cringe a bit when I read about magazines ceasing or folding the print edition to go solely online. I understand the reasons - ad revenue is down; printing cost savings. But I still like licking my fingers to turn the pages or dog-earring a page to hold my place for future reading.
The media world is changing and magazines are certainly not immune to the those changes. PC Magazine recently announced it is moving to an online format and ceasing its print version, and other magazines are sure to follow suit.
So maybe I'll ask Santa for a Kindle. On the good side I'll have a lot more room on my nightstand. I'll just have to be careful not to spill my warm milk on it.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Does traditional media matter to corporate America?
More than 20 years ago I served an internship at a small public relations firm in NJ. I remember sitting in on strategy meetings on how to promote our clients' news. During the meeting we would develop a hit list of key media outlets as targets for the release. We'd mail the release, wait a few days and make the dreaded "did you get my release/are you going to use it" follow up calls.
Today, mailing press releases has gone the way of the parachute pants (hey, I had a pair). Now it's all done at the push of a button and releases are emailed to journalists.
And the winds of change are swirling again - actually, they've been swirling for a while. Social Media and Web 2.0 - are there any bigger buzzwords in the PR/corporate communication industry right now?
SM/Web 2.0 is the sexy, now, hip thing (but so were parachute pants). PR firms and corporations are hiring social media experts. The focus has shifted from generating traditional news coverage to creating a conversation on the web. Corporations want their news blogged about, tagged and shared delivering a large consumer audience to their news, and they see SM/Web 2.0 as the vehicle to do so.
And there, lies the heart of my question. Does corporate America still care about the mainstream media? Is the mainstream media model outdated - doomed for extinction?
Today, mailing press releases has gone the way of the parachute pants (hey, I had a pair). Now it's all done at the push of a button and releases are emailed to journalists.
And the winds of change are swirling again - actually, they've been swirling for a while. Social Media and Web 2.0 - are there any bigger buzzwords in the PR/corporate communication industry right now?
SM/Web 2.0 is the sexy, now, hip thing (but so were parachute pants). PR firms and corporations are hiring social media experts. The focus has shifted from generating traditional news coverage to creating a conversation on the web. Corporations want their news blogged about, tagged and shared delivering a large consumer audience to their news, and they see SM/Web 2.0 as the vehicle to do so.
And there, lies the heart of my question. Does corporate America still care about the mainstream media? Is the mainstream media model outdated - doomed for extinction?
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Greetings and welcome to my blog. The Media Mind is about one thing - the media. I'll be posting and commenting on news stories that affect the media industry, and I welcome your feedback.
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