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Pitching the Media: Brooke Siegel, DailyCandy, and Jake Dobkin, Gothamist, Share Tips At Bulldog Media Relations Summit

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

by Colleen Flood*

The timing for the “Meet the Editors” roundtable at the Bulldog Media Relations Summit could not have been a better follow up to my BurrellesLuce colleague Tressa Robbins’ recent post, What Journalist Really Want from PR People. In fact, I had the opportunity to moderate two roundtables with journalists of highly regarded outlets. The morning session was with Brooke Siegel, entertainment editor of DailyCandy.com, and the afternoon session JournalistTakingNoteswas with was Jake Dobkin, publisher of Gothamist.com.  Both conveyed similar messages about pitching:

  • Provide simple, concise details of what they need to write the story
  • Send the type of story their outlet would include

Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes a PR person can make when pitching is sending the finished product. I heard from Dobkin and Siegel that “almost never do they use the ‘story’ as you send it.” And I am sure that most journalists would probably agree.  Instead, they recommend “sending the details” and then “they will write the title and the story.”  Be specific with details, especially in the subject line.  Just be sure you don’t include the entire press release (in the subject line) – Siegel joked that this has happened to her and reached for her BlackBerry to show us, then remembered she had deleted it!

For Jake the details he must have include pictures, illustrations, or video.  Since Gothamist.com is a blog it is important to lure the reader with visuals.  Without any it is likely he will not do the story.  Just don’t send large files. Instead provide photos via a “photo-drop box” like Flickr.

According to Dobkin, PR and media relations professionals should also know before pitching Gothamist.com that:

  • Gothamist.com does 10 posts/day
  • Audience is 18-34 year olds known as “affluent hipsters”
  • Contact via email tips [at] gothamist.com
  • Don’t call us – we’ll call you.  Trust us, you will receive a call if we need additional information
  • Provide videos via YouTube or embed with a code

As far as getting your story picked up by DailyCandy.com, Siegel provides some specifics:

  • Dailycandy.com is committed to covering what’s new and undiscovered in 11 cities
  • Audience is primarily geared towards women regarding fashion, food, and fun
  • Exclusives are welcome
  • They have a “deals email” that is a great way to establish brands
  • No “enter to win” or giveaways
  • How-to videos are welcome
  • Always include a website; this is the “biggest business card you have”

It was a pleasure to meet Siegel and Dobkin in person.  They are real people who work very hard to get their stories out to their audiences.  And while some of their points were specific to their publications, I think the biggest lesson they offered was to remind participants how important it is to “research and know the outlet you are pitching.” Now, that’s a takeaway any savvy professional working with the media would do well to heed.   

Are you pitching journalists they way they want to be pitched? What tips have journalists and bloggers given you for working with the media? Share your thoughts with the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.

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 *Bio: Colleen Flood has been a sales consultant with BurrellesLuce for over 12 years and is eager to become a more integrated part of the social-public relations community. She primarily handles agency relations in the New York and New Jersey metro-area. She is not only passionate about work, but also about family, friends, and the Jersey Shore. Twitter: @cgflood LinkedIn: Colleen Flood Facebook: BurrellesLuce

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Posted in Industry Events, Media Contacts, Media Relations, Planning Media Outreach, Public Relations | 5 Comments »

Media Relations 2.0: What Journalists Really Want from PR

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Last week, I attended a webinar by Sally Falkow, APR, and Rebecca Lieb, on how Internet technology and social networking affects news media and as a result, the public relations and media relations practitioner.

For those of you who attended last year’s PRSA International conference and heard Arianna Huffington open the keynote address with, “The Newspress release is dead…” or those who read Tom Forenski’s rant a few years ago, “Die! Press Release! Die! Die! Die!,” may be surprised to learn the press release, like traditional media, is NOT dead.  Falkow told us the news has changed, but journalists still want information.  The way that journalists work is evolving so we need to provide this information in different ways.

Lieb quoted some statistics on how journalists work today:

  • 91 percent of journalists search Google to do their job (“expert” is a common search term)
  • 89 percent use blogs
  • 64 percent are using social networks

In addition, Lieb went on to say that over 75 percent of reporters view blogs as helpful in providing story ideas, story angles and insight into the tone of an issue. And, almost half of reporters say they are “lurkers” on social networking sites.

So, what do journalists really want and need from PR?  

  • They want the news in easy-to-identify, digestible sections.
  • They are looking for images, quotes, video, backgrounders, fact sheets.
  • Tag the information so it’s easily found. 
  • Give them the full embed code for multimedia.
  • Put your news in a feed.
  • Make it available on social sites.
  • Aggregate your news/social content in one place.

She says, “Deconstruct the press release into special sections and tag the information. By using news tags, a newspaper or news site could pull together larger numbers of news stories and the PR industry would be helping news publishers to gather the facts and present them in a near-publishable format.”

Bottom line: if you aren’t telling your story, then someone’s telling it for you. If the media can’t find the information they need from you, they will find it elsewhere – and you may not like what they find!  

The media in general is expected to provide more than just a print story, or just a video clip – it’s also on the web. What is your organization doing to feed the media’s hunger for content? 

Want more tips and best practices for working with the media and giving journalists what they want and need? Visit the BurrellesLuce Resource Center which provides FREE white papers, tip sheets, and more. And be sure to sign-up for this month’s newsletter, “When Press Releases Go Bad” or view an archive of last month’s newsletter, “Staying Ahead of the Media Relations Curve.”

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Posted in Industry Events, Media Contacts, Media Industry, Media Relations, Planning Media Outreach, Public Relations, Social Media | 3 Comments »

Highlights from PRSA Travel & Tourism 2010: Muffy Steinhoff, High Noon Entertainment, & Johna Burke, BurrellesLuce

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Transcript -

JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at the PRSA Travel and Tourism Conference.  And I’m joined by Muffy.

Muffy, will you please introduce yourself?

MUFFY STEINHOFF: Sure.  My name’s Muffy Steinhoff and I’m a co-executive producer with High Noon Entertainment based in Denver, Colorado.

BURKE: Great.  Now, Muffy, you did a session today for the PR professionals. Try to talk to them about how they can best work with the broadcast media. Can you share some of those tips with the audience here today?

STEINHOFF: Sure. I probably have to first tell you a tiny bit about what we do. We provide cable programming for many networks. We have about 15 shows going on right now providing for eight to 10 networks. For instance, “Cake Boss” on TLC and “Tough Love” on VH1, and a number of shows like “My First Place,” “My First Sale” on HGTV and a number of shows for DIY Network and Food Network, such as “Food Network Challenge” and “Unwrapped.” OK, sorry, I had to get that out there.

So what kind of things could I tell you? Well, one of the things that I was telling folks today is that when you see a show that you think might have a connection for your property, it’s probably best to contact the production company as opposed to the network itself. For instance, if you had a pastry chef at a property that you thought would be a good fit either as a judge or a contestant on “Food Network Challenge,” you want to see who the production company is. It’s a slate at the very end of the show, and you can see that in our case it’s High Noon Entertainment. You can go to our website, highnoonentertainment.com, and see who produces that show, and then you can contact them directly.  And the closer you can target your message to the right person, the better off it is. We find people all the time who say, `Well, we went to the network and they never put us in touch with the production company.’ We do a lot of casting; we’re looking for the people.  If you can bring people to us that would be a good fit, that’s–that works out well.

BURKE: Great.  And where can people connect with you in social media?

STEINHOFF: I am on LinkedIn.  My name, again, Muffy Steinhoff on LinkedIn.  And also my e-mail address, which is msteinhoff@highnoonentertainment–no, I’m sorry, msteinhoff@highnoontv.com.

BURKE: Great.

STEINHOFF: We changed it.

BURKE: Muffy, thank you so much.

STEINHOFF: Thank you.

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Posted in Industry Events, Media Contacts, Media Relations, Online Video, Planning Media Outreach, Public Relations | 3 Comments »

Defining Public Relations Spam

Monday, May 3rd, 2010
Flickr Image: Darren Foreman

Flickr Image: Darren Foreman

In my last BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas post, I shared some rather entertaining excerpts from journalists and bloggers regarding how they feel about “PR spam.” This post will discuss, “what exactly is PR spam?”

I mentioned before Drew Kerr’s definition of PR spam – “impersonal e-mail blasts that contain completely irrelevant information” – which sums it up nicely. But how do you spot PR spam?  Neville Hobson of The Hobson & Holtz Report wrote these detailed descriptors of PR spam:

1. The product or service being pitched by email is so obviously not one that I would have much interest in, a fact that would be very easily apparent if the pitcher had taken even a cursory glance at this blog or listened to my podcast.

2. The email includes an unsolicited Word document attachment. And it’s worth noting that not everyone uses Word. I do but the pitcher doesn’t know that.

3. The pitcher writes a pseudo-friendly greeting but it only looks like a bad database mail merge. My favorite: “Hi, Neville ,” (notice the space between my name and the final comma). A close second is the simple “Hi ,” with that same space (yes, I’ve had lots of emails like that).

4. The email contains nothing but the text of a press release. That sin is compounded when the email subject line says (you guessed it) ‘press release’ or ‘latest announcement from XYZ Company.’ The nail’s in the coffin when the email also includes the press release as a Word attachment with lots of font and other document formatting.

Hobson wrote this nearly two years ago.  So why are we still talking about this topic today?  Sadly, it’s because PR spam is even more of an issue now than then.  The more technology advances, the easier it is to spam – even unintentionally. 

Some point the finger at “lazy PR flacks,” and yes, every profession has some, but doesn’t apply to most that I know. Some point the finger at the companies that provide media lists, media directories, and media database services.  In my humble opinion, that’s just shooting the messenger.

So, here’s what I think it’s really about.  It’s about client expectation and targeting.

  • Clients and CEOs like to see big names on the media list – even when it’s not appropriate. It’s the PR practitioner’s job to provide good counsel. Set a realistic and common level of expectations. 
  • Once that’s established, research the writers on your list.  Not just what beat they cover, but what they are writing about. What are they passionate about?  How does your story tie-in to these things; in other words, why should the journalist or blogger care?
  • And be sure to check (or double check), journalist, blogger, and community guidelines before pitching. When in doubt, go without.

If you take the time to do this, then surely you won’t be accused of being a PR spammer! What would you add to the list? How do you know when you’ve been the subject of PR spam? What are you doing to make sure your activities are staying off of the “PR naughty list?”

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Posted in Career Advice/Professional Development, Media Contacts, Media Relations, Public Relations | 3 Comments »

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