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 [...]
Dan Abrams Update: My "Journalists" Are Really Freelancers And the Like
As previously discussed here, I’ve been quite skeptical about whether MSNBC’s Dan Abrams had a viable business plan when he created his Abrams Research, a new PR shop that claims to use working journalists as corporate communications consultants. Dan is speaking this morning at the Bulldog Reporter Media Relations Summit, so I’ve got some fresh [...]
Chevron Rebuts '60 Minutes' With Its Own Video
Chevron got grilled on “60 Minutes” a couple of weeks ago for its alleged contamination of the Amazon rain forest in Ecuador. If you’re huge oil company, that’s definitely par for the course. Causing environment damage? Check. Getting caught? Check. Getting unfavorable treatment on 60 Minutes? Check. This is the pattern that major multi-nationals have [...]
Even Hizbollah Has a Media Relations Department
There’s a new book out by the New York Times correspondent Neil MacFarquhar called, amazingly, The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday. Yes — you read that right. The Lebanese militant organization Hizbollah has a PR department, and it sends birthday greetings to New York Times correspondents. What a world. MacFarquhar’s [...]
All Together Now: Bloggers Are Real Media!
Thank you, City of Long Beach, CA, for giving us all another reminder that the world has changed and that there’s this new thing called the Internet and a new medium called “blogs” and that together they are “new media.” The story: An aviation blog called “The Cranky Flier” got a good little story: that [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]