Editors Speak Out
I spent most of my sessions at the Bulldog Media Relations Summit at the "Meet the Editors" panels.
Makes sense since I'm the media director here. I also appeared on a panel called "Riding the Airwaves, Pitching Top Broadcast Outlets" ( I spent more than 20 years in TV News before I switched over to PR). It was a last minute deal since all the news around the Olympic Torch in San Francisco meant a number of the media were no-shows. I was on the panel with Akilah Monifa from KPIX/CBS San Francisco and Richard Strauss of Strauss Radio. Moderator was Jeffrey Schulman from MultiVu. I think it went pretty darn well, especially for a surprise. We'll see how I do on the feedback survey.
So back to the other editor panels. If there were any underlying themes:
- Blasts are spam. Everyone says 70-80% of their email pitches are irrelevant.
- Pitch thoughtfully, especially really understand the publication's target audience.
- Think like a journalist - what's the peg?
- Bloggers like direct contact from the CEO.
- Pitch concisely, subject lines are very important. Watch superlatives. A bad pitch line would be "Company XXX releases revolutionary new product"
- Everyone's getting into video. The Wall Street Journal is starting to send reporters out with small hand-held video cameras, the staff at the Mercury News attends weekly "new technology" education sessions. All the new hires at USA Today are rich media producers. The SF NYTimes guy would like to hire a full time web producer.
- For television, especially, figure out the visual aspects of the story. If it doesn't have anything beyond screen shots, it's probably not for TV News.
- It would be great if company blogs could provide more than promotional material, had some useful elements.
- Certain newspaper and wire reporting tasks, especially coverage that involves public documents, and posting of press releases are being outsourced to Bangalore.
- Be sparse and selective with follow up calls. End of the day seems to be best.
- Be aware of daily, weekly and monthly deadlines (check the ed cals)
- We're heard it a million times before, but relationships are key.
- Be a trendspotter.
- Academics welcome, if they really have the expertise.
- Surveys need to be scientifically accurate and not too obviously self-serving.
- If you don't return a reporter's call, they're going to assume you're hiding something.
For the most part, all the attending media were friendly and open, some even had spent some time in PR. The exception was the session "How to Get Featured in Leading Lifestyle Media" with editors from Dwell, San Francisco Magazine, and Sunset. The correct title should have been "How to Not Totally Annoy Leading Lifestyle Media." With the exception of Sunset, the tone of the session was pretty negative towards PR, especially the guy from Dwell who basically said he never reads or cares about PR pitches sent to them. And they all hated creative mailers.
To end on a positive note, the one person I found delightful was Jesse McKinley who runs the San Francisco Bureau of the New York Times. His coverage is mostly political, breaking news and some feature-writing so he's not one of my NYT targets. But he had a great attitude, sense of humor and I'd really like to get to know him anyway. Very good writer too.
