No. I’m not obsessed with President Obama’s fledgling press office or the musings of White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. But maybe I should be.Yesterday, author and former New York Times investigative reporter David Cay Johnston shared his experience dealing with the Obama PR operation in a CJR piece headlined: “Who’s Undercutting Obama?For the moment,…… Continue reading Diss the Press
Category: media relations
Wild Pitch
In a recent conversation with a prospective client, I probed her interest in using social media to advance her company’s business goals. She immediately answered that it’s already being done. Her proof: the success they’ve had pitching bloggers for product mentions.I paused, and gently suggested that pitching bloggers actually resides in the realm of traditional…… Continue reading Wild Pitch
Embargoes Crunched, except if you’re…
I never liked embargoes. Sure, in a different age when there were but a handful of authoritative media in a given industry sector, the ability to work with each of them on an embargoed basis made sense — or at least was manageable as long as you were upfront about it.Today, with a myriad media…… Continue reading Embargoes Crunched, except if you’re…
Twittering Journalists
BusinessWeek’s John Byrne just posted the names and Twitter handles of 32 of his colleagues. Nice of him, though I wonder what his colleagues think?While we’re at it, PR peeps, here are some other lists of journalists who use Twitter:Business Week (courtesy of @johnabyrne)UK journalists (courtesy of PRBlogger.com)Newspapers that Twitter (courtesy of graphicdesignr)Journalists, US &…… Continue reading Twittering Journalists
Conspicuous Unconsumption
Those writing on the ad/marketing beat give tech scribes a run for their money in terms of the number of misguided story queries that cross their desktops.It’s one thing to weigh the editorial merit of some cool new tech product, yet quite another to do the same in the promotion-laden world of consumer packaged goods.Frankly,…… Continue reading Conspicuous Unconsumption
Leverage and the Filter
One would be hard-pressed today to attend a media, marketing or PR conference where social media and ground-swelled client case studies didn’t dominate the agenda.I can’t recall a time in which so many similarly themed panels abounded, and this includes the dot-com era. (Admittedly, this PR pro has presided over his share.)The proliferation of these…… Continue reading Leverage and the Filter
Pitch-Optimized Gmail
As someone who’s endured more than his share of misguided PR pitches,e.g., think inane dot-com come-ons, The New York Times’s intrepid NY-based tech reporter and “Bits” blogger Saul Hansell definitely deserves a medal for his fortitude.It’s a wonder to me that he still works with so many PR people, let alone has the time to…… Continue reading Pitch-Optimized Gmail
PR-Less Pitches
Robert Scoble has a worthwhile discussion on his blog. It sums up how he likes to be pitched story ideas. Hint. It’s more geek-to-geek than PR to journo, with a little crowd-sourcing thrown in for validation. It’s also “PR-less”:This is the way I love to learn about a company.No, not from a PR firm.No, not…… Continue reading PR-Less Pitches
Hocus Vocus
In the last year, Vocus has gained considerable traction in its efforts to position itself as the media database software company that “gets it.” Yet earlier this week in one of my favorite blogs, Church of the Customer, Jackie Huba took Vocus to task as just another purveyor of PR spam. “Undaunted, Vocus powered on…… Continue reading Hocus Vocus
Distance PR Learning
As a credentialed blogger intending to cover last month’s Always On Conference in New York City (before client work took me out of town), I noticed that my e-mailbox rapidly filled with all sorts of inducements to meet with this or that tech entrepreneur.Few indicated any modicum of familiarity with the editorial essence of this…… Continue reading Distance PR Learning