Posts Tagged ‘Bulldog Reporter’


10 Tips for Developing Relationships With The Media

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Developing relations with the mediaHaving just returned from Bulldog Reporter’s Media Relations Summit in New York, this seemed an appropriate topic for today’s blog post.  

Sessions I attended included those with PR “masters” and members of the media where they talked about developing relationships, as well as pitching the media. Interestingly, the responses and advice seemed to depend on who was speaking and whether they came from a PR agency, a Fortune 500 company, or were members of the media, in addition to the kind of media targeted. 

One of the sessions, that I tweeted live from, offered a panel including Verizon’s media spokesman, Bill Kula, APR, Jane Mazur from Ogilvy PR, Sandra Sokoloff of Porter Novelli, and Bruce Zanca with Bankrate.

The following are ten of the key points for developing long-term relationships with the media:

  1. Listen, learn, understand and follow a reporter’s coverage
  2. Think like a journalist – understand and anticipate
  3. Act with integrity, honesty, and respect
  4. NEVER lie nor “wing it”
  5. Offer exclusives, if appropriate, and whenever possible
  6. Establish trust while stealthily “stirring the pot” of your competitors
  7. Stay on top of breaking news so you may carve out a niche for your client
  8. Know who else journalists are talking with
  9. Help new beat reporters understand your business and provide them with information not available elsewhere, and connect them with third-party sources
  10. Remain accessible and forthright; deliver well thought-out responses

This is by no means an all inclusive list – the actual seminar boasted nearly 10 times this many points. I’ve merely attempted to pare it down to a bite-sized nugget.  Are there important points I left out or that you would add?  I look forward to discussing!

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Posted in Industry Events, Media Outreach, Media Relations, News Coverage, Public Relations | 4 Comments »

Network = Net Worth: Making the Most of Your Investment

Monday, March 16th, 2009

Valerie Simon

Most of us freely acknowledge that a strong network will help your business, your career and even personal life. Dedicating time to networking is always a challenge. Though social networking provides a multitude of convenient opportunities to meet and converse with others who share similar interests, good old-fashioned, face-to-face networking remains an excellent way to build and develop deep relationships. It’s true, attending conferences and meetings are an investment of both time and money, But if you target the right events, and make the most of them, you’ll certainly find a worthwhile return on your investment.

networking.jpgSet your intentions
Consider who you hope to network with before you commit to attend an event. Are you hoping to meet others in the PR industry or improve your contacts with the media or vendors? Do you want to focus on those who share a similar focus, such as healthcare or technology? Are you looking to broaden your network to include professionals from around the country, or do you want to build a name for yourself on a local level? As with any investment, be sure to do your research in advance.


Get out there and mingle
Members of our team here at BurrellesLuce will be out and about this spring, attending local events across the country such as the PRSA Western District Conference (April 22-24)  and the PRSA GA Annual Conference in May. We’ll also be meeting folks from across the country at national gatherings such as the Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals Annual Conference (April 21-24), Bulldog Reporter Media Relations 2009 (May 17-19), the PR Week Measurement & Monitoring Roundtable (May 14) and the PRSA Counselors Academy Spring Conference (May 31-June 2).

Stay in touch
To make the most of the events you attend put your social networking savvy to use. Following up with new contacts via email is a nice start, but to begin cultivating long term relationships, be sure and add them to your LinkedIn contacts. If you Twitter, be sure that your twitter ID is on your LinkedIn profile. While LinkedIn provides an excellent database for staying up-to-date with inevitable changes in jobs and contact information, Twitter provides a great outlet to broadcast information to your network, as well as a great means for more frequent conversation. While there remains discussion as to whether people are comfortable adding professional contacts to their “friends” on Facebook, find out if your new contacts’ organization has a fan page and become a fan.

If you would like more information regarding any of aforementioned events, or would like to meet up with someone from BurrellesLuce at one of these events: drop me a email at vmsimon@burrellesluce.com; send me a tweet @ValerieSimon; leave a message on the BurrellesLuce Facebook fan page!

I’d also love to hear what networking events you have found most effective and why.

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Posted in Career Advice, Industry Events, Public Relations | No Comments »

Has Copyright Infringement Prosecution Lost its Gusto?

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

Steve Shannon
A recent headline on Bulldog Reporter “Mistrial Appeal Goes South for Recording Industry: It Appears Copyright-Infringement Movement May Have Lost Its Gusto” sure caught my attention. While the article is factual about the events in the case between the Recording Industry Association of America and Jammie Thomas, whom the RIAA is suing for copyright infringement, the headline itself couldn’t be more wrong. The copyright infringement movement hasn’t lost its gusto at all, and in an ever increasingly digital world, look for creators of original works to equally increase their efforts to protect their copy rights.   

The creation of content, whether it be by a well known rock band or a coffee house performer, a mainstream newspaper or an avid blogger, an established painter or one who aspires to become one, all have a common thread – they all either make their living creating that content or hope to make their living doing so. Without copyright protections, making a living creating and selling original works would be non-existent.  And so would the public’s enjoyment and benefit from top-notch music, news, art etc.

To that end, the copyright infringement movement is only beginning to gather its steam.  Don’t bet for a minute that creators of original works and industry groups like the RIAA are just going to roll over and see their hard work and investments of time and money given away. It always takes a while for law to catch up with technology and as long as there is money on the line, the law will indeed catch up to where the money and commerce is. Whether digital copyrights are clarified by case law, as the RIAA was attempting with the Thomas case, or by the passage of clearer laws on digital copyright, you can be sure this will happen.

In the meantime, it would be wise for in the public relations field to gear their use of copyrighted digital material (mainly news content found on the web) the same as they always have for any other copyrighted works. If you’re in PR, and not sure what the right manner is for the use the copyrighted works, the BurrellesLuce whitepaper “Copyright Compliance: What Every PR Professional Needs to Know” serves as a ready primer.  If you have any questions, and there are always lots of questions around this topic, please post them in the comments and I’ll be sure to answer them.

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Posted in Copyright, Media Industry, Public Relations | No Comments »

Journalists Who Use Fax Machines Are Not Alone

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

Gail Nelson
Journalists who use fax machines are not aloneYesterday I was preparing some marketing materials to help promote the launch of a newly designed interface for BurrellesLuce Media Contacts – our online media database and news distribution service. To my surprise, this is one of the edits I was asked to make:

“Your Media Contacts subscription comes with e­mail ^and fax^ distribution of your press releases.”

My response was, “Enough reporters still want faxed rather than emailed press releases so I would need to insert the word ‘fax’? I actually should itemize the fax as a stated distribution preference?” As it turns out, the answer to both those questions is “yes.”  

According Tressa Robbins of our Media Contacts team, some journalists turn their backs on email announcements due to delivery issues and inbox overload. Tressa has noticed that while distribution preferences are highly individualized, reporters in smaller markets writing for weekly publications opt for fax more frequently than do journalists at large publications.

For me, the surprising ongoing viability of the fax has become this week’s theme. A few days ago, I read the Wired story, Burning Question: Why Are Faxes Still Around? The reporter, Eric Hagerman, asserts that fax remains a practical and speedy way to send an exact copy of a document: “Fax machines are everywhere: doctors’ offices, delicatessens, brokerage firms, even souvenir shops in the developing world (for verifying tourists’ credit cards).” 

(Eric’s story is worth reading just for its brief history of the fax.)

On a personal note: In addition to attorneys, doctors, and journalists, add advertising salespeople to the list of the fax-dependent. The online ad, print ad, and event insertion orders (IOs) sent by organizations such as PR News, Bulldog Reporter Daily ‘Dog, PR Week, and O’Dwyers often instruct me to return the signed contracts via fax. But I choose another route whenever it’s acceptable, such as signing a PDF version using my digital signature.

No doubt, some of the preference for fax is generational, not merely functional. My colleague Johna Burke explores the need for sensitivity and accommodation in her presentation, Four Generations of Media, Four Generations of Audience, as well as in this Bulldog Reporter ‘Daily Dog by-liner.

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Posted in Media Outreach, Media Relations, Public Relations | 1 Comment »

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