Free Media Database for UK Media
Here’s another free online database of journalists, covering the UK media: journalisted.com
It’s pretty simple: just go to that page, type in as much of the name as you know, and get a set of matches. For instance, here’s a link to a search for Smith.
And here’s a page for one of the journalists on the [...]
Online Directory of Freelancers is a Media Relations Freebie
Most media directories cost money, but not this one: the Society of Professional Journalists’ online directory of freelance journalists.
The directory lists 914 professional journalists who make a living as independents, and gives their names, coverage areas and best of all, contact info [including email], right there on the web. It’s true.
The reason it’s out there [...]
Sure Fire Elements of Media Stories, Or How to Get in the Times if You’re Looking for a Job (Hint: Be Cute, Young, Blond and a Twin)
Part of my media training curriculum is explaining to people that the media covers only a set group of topics — they are broad, but they are really all you will find in American mainstream media, so if you want coverage, you better figure out which buckets your story fits in.
They are:
Novelty: things that don’t [...]
3 No-No’s When You Pitch the Media By Email
Almost all journalists say they want to be pitched by email. So guess what — they are deluged with email pitches! And to make matters worse, most of them are bloated, non-news pitches that get deleted faster than you can say, “did you get my email?”
How to avoid the trash bin? That’s easy — pitch [...]
Even White House Reporters Don't Like Interviews "On Background"
One of the most important techniques every spokesperson should master is negotiating the “terms of the interview.” All too often, spokespeople go into interviews assuming one thing, while the journalist assumes another. Later, after the spokesperson has blabbed about your their product, bad-mouthed the competition and otherwise made a fool of himself, he blurts out, [...]
New York Times Bloggers Dish With PR Pros
Three New York Times writers/bloggers sat down for a lively panel discussion on the second day of the Media Relations Summit in NYC: Andrew Ross Sorkin of DealBook, Saul Hansell of Bits, and Tara Parker-Pope of Well. Following are notes from each:
Hansell:
Interested in: spot news, little things, debates, interactive features, news analysis and commentary, stuff [...]
Do You Know What Stuff Journalists Like?
“Think like a journalist.” It’s one of the most important skills a PR person can have. As a former journalist, frankly, my experience in the media gives me a big leg up. For PR pros who have never pulled a paycheck in the media, it’s a never-ending quest to get inside the head of journalists [...]
To call or not to call? That is the follow-up question.
When you send an email pitch, do you always follow-up with a call? Or do you never follow-up? This is one of the trickiest questions in PR.
On today’s PR University audio conference with top editors of womens’ magazines, there was a definite split among the panelists regarding their receptivity to follow-up calls.
“Please don’t call me,” [...]
GM's Wagoner Uses the B-word and Gets Burned
Being a spokesperson is hard — seriously. And being the spokesperson when you are also the CEO of General Motors in 2009 must be close to impossible. But hey, that’s why they get paid the big bucks, right?
GM’s CEO inadvertently used the phrase “bankruptcy…could work,” at a media breakfast with the Wall Street Journal in [...]