Perfect pitching: Winning over journalists and bloggers in the new media landscape

On Friday, April 27, PRSA’s National Capital Chapter will hold a workshop with media pitching coach Michael Smart, of MichaelSMARTPR. Smart has trained people who have scored coverage in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and on CNN and NBC.

You’ll learn:

• How to take advantage of the upheaval in the media industry
• Eight “story boosters” that turn ordinary news into stories journalists and bloggers crave
• The anatomy of a perfect phone and email pitch
• Foolproof ways to determine the correct journalists and bloggers to approach
• What do say or write to grab their attention every time
• How pitching bloggers is similar to – and different from – pitching other media
• The secret test journalists subconsciously apply to every pitch that has nothing to do with newsworthiness
• Four proven formulas for winning email pitch subject lines
• A specific pattern for knowing  exactly when to follow up with your media contacts-- and when not to
• What most annoys journalist and bloggers, and how to avoid it!

Location:

Hager Sharp

1030 15th Street, NW
Suite 600E
Washington, DC 20005

Friday, April 27, 2012
8:30 a.m. -1:00 p.m.

Click here to register. 

Cost: $135 PRSA and WWPR Members; $175 Nonmembers; $100 student/retirees
(continental breakfast included)

About Michael Smart: Michael Smart, principal of MichaelSMARTPR, has been landing top-tier coverage for 14 years. He’s also trained more than 3,000 communicators across the globe how to boost their media and blog placements, including pros from Allstate, Disney, Verizon, Edelman, Fleishman-Hilliard, the EPA, a U.S. Senator’s office and many other companies, associations, and non-profits, large and small. Michael has twice been a top-rated presenter at the PRSA International Conference, and he partners with PRSA to offer daylong pitching workshops and national webinars on the topic.

Meet the Assignment Editors - Getting on the Agenda

On Tuesday, March 13, PRSA’s National Capital Chapter will host a workshop with top editors from major news outlets to discuss pitching and the changing news media.

Panelists for the event include: Steven Ginsberg, Deputy Political Editor for the Washington Post; Lisa Matthews, Planning Editor for the Associated Press; Vandana Sinha, Assistant Managing Editor for the Washington Business Journal; and Lois Dyer, Futures Editor for CBS News Network.

From discussing the best time to contact an editor, to how far in advance they should be contacts, this workshop will provide PR practitioners with fantastic tools for pitching their stories.

Date & Time: Tuesday, March 13 from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m.

Location: Naval Heritage Center, 701 Pennsylvania Ave, NW (Metro: Yellow & Green lines)

Cost: $35 for members, $55 for non-members, $10 for students & retirees.

Directions: http://www.navymemorial.org/Visit/NavalHeritageCenter/tabid/153/Default.aspx

For more information and to register, please visit http://www.prsa-ncc.org/option,com_events/task,view_detail/Itemid%20,194/agid,451/year,2012/month,03/day,13/.

Case Study: National Association of Federal Credit Unions

Curbing Holiday Budget Hangovers                         

National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) saw a timely opportunity to promote credit unions and their services throughout the holidays and partnered with News Generation to capitalize on the fact that people want to avoid overspending their hard earned dollars during the holiday season.

The unique ability that radio has to effectively and efficiently reach a broad and large audience in a timely fashion appealed to NAFCU, and so a plan was set to pitch stations prior to “Black Friday”, arming listeners with useful tips before they went shopping.  News Generation maximized reach by targeting the largest networks and top-25 market stations. This all earned-media strategic approach focused on securing quality interviews with top NACFU experts on highly-ranked stations to maximize on-air time for the organization.

The total audience reach for this campaign exceeded 27 million adults, across national, regional, state networks and top market stations, and the buzz led to more media requests after the tour ended.  And keeping with the holiday savings theme, this effort cost a fraction of a cent to reach each listener.  

Sample: This one Associated Press hit alone reached nearly 15 million listeners: https://newsgeneration.sharefile.com/d/sc6614c3961a4dd58.

Lessons Learned from Sports Team Communicators

(left to right: Kevin Byrne, Lara Potter, Ben Guerrero, Mex Carey)

On Tuesday, February 14, 2012, the PRSA National Capital Chapter hosted an event at the U.S. Navy Memorial & Heritage Center in Washington, D.C. “What Sports Team Communicators Can Teach Us.” Panelists included Kevin Byrne (Senior VP, Public & Community Relations, Baltimore Ravens), Lara Potter (Vice President & Managing Director, Communications & Brand Development, Washington Nationals), Ben Guerrero (Manager of Media Relations, Washington Capitals), and Mex Carey (Sports Information Director, Georgetown University). The event was moderated by Aaron Cohen (Vice President of Media Relations, MSL Group).


The discussion began with opening remarks from Cohen who noted that whether or not you are in sports communications, every PR professional can learn something from the sports industry.

The conversation focused on social media’s role in sports communication. Byrne noted that during the most recent Super Bowl, more than 22,000 tweets were sent each second   and concluded that, “everyone is a reporter [in the digital age].” More often than not, teams aren’t breaking their own news so it’s that much more important to stay ready and be aware of what is happening around you.

Similarly, Ben Guerrero echoed the importance of social media’s role with the Capitals, thanks to owner Ted Leonsis who is a huge social media advocate, particularly blogging. As a result, the Caps probably have a bit of a social media head start on other NHL teams.  Bloggers are welcome in the locker room and players, Guerrero noted, are given the freedom to express themselves, showcasing their personalities, but educated to do so in smart ways.


With all the positive impacts social media has had on the sports world, it has also had its fair share of setbacks. When it comes to college sports, Georgetown University’s Mex Carey stated that he has to closely monitor his players’ social media footprint, as many students don’t realize that they are not just representing themselves, but also a brand. One of the benefits of working with students rather than professionals, is that he has the ability to educate his players on communication, noting, “I’m their teacher when it comes to PR.”



The panelists also answered questions from the audience. Several questions were asked about management of crisis communication within sports teams. All panelists noted that it is important for players to go through extensive media training as most simply don’t realize their media influence when they turn professional. In instances where there is a crisis, Byrne cited the importance of the PR person to be at the table from the start, helping immediately to guide the communications response.  Potter agreed and added, “stay true to your DNA and stay on message with a consistent story.”

As the event came to a conclusion, questions of crisis, scandals, and lockouts were discussed. Of the ups and downs in sports, Guerrero put it best when he stated, “whether you are winning or losing, you can always help the community.” Moreover, when asked about a responding to game or season losses, Byrne eloquently summed it all up with, “we are always selling hope.”

Stay tuned...

What Happened to HD Radio?

Following the 2002 FCC announcement in that “Hybrid Digital Radio,” or HD Radio, would be the standard digital audio broadcasting for the U.S., there was a lot of hubbub about what this new technology would mean for radio, bringing “CD-quality” audio to the airwaves.  Larger music-formatted stations that had the big-budgets rushed to implement the new technology and were the first to jump on the bandwagon.

As you may remember, News Generation first wrote about HD radio when it came on the scene in 2007. To read the original story, click here. 

So what happened?  In short, radio-listeners didn’t come along for the ride.  To listen to HD radio, you had to buy a receiver to get the digital signal, which was pricey then and hasn’t come down much since.   For a medium that is considered “free” and “easy to use” by its users, this is a death-blow.  It’s the same reason that satellite radio is struggling with – justifying its price/value to its listeners.

The other challenge is actually governmental in nature.  The FCC made it clear that while this was “the technology” that U.S. based radio broadcasters would use in the future, they gave no timeline for a digital migration, thus, no urgency was created.  In this scenario, the “if you build it, they will come” mindset didn’t work. 

So while the backbone of digital broadcast is still there for the taking, determining when and how people will migrate over and answering the important question of what it will bring to enhance the listening experience are must-answers before this technology will take hold.

Stay tuned…

History of African-American Radio

During Black History Month, we wanted to highlight radio pioneers in the African American community and provide a history of the birth of African-American radio in the U.S. 

African-American radio began in Atlanta in 1949.  Jesse B. Blayton, Sr. purchased the radio station WERD and housed the station in the same building on Auburn Avenue where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. held the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.  WERD also helped launch the career of Jack “The Rapper” Gibson, America’s first Black radio jockey.

In another southern city, Baltimore in the 1950s found WBAL as the voice of the city.  Station jockey Chuck Richards invited Jocko Henderson to be on his radio show.  Within a few months, Jocko was off on his own, hosting radio shows up and down the East Coast, catering to African Americans. He became so popular in the 1970s, that he even hosted his own television show on WNTA and launched the magazine, Philly Talk. Later in his life, he worked to promote his “Get Ready” campaign which aimed to teach children math and history through records.

Similarly, in upstate New York, Frankie Crocker was getting his start in radio as flashy and seductive radio jockey at WUFO.  He then went on to host a show on WBLS in New York City where he coined the phrase “Sock it to me, Mama!” and was known for his suave ways.  He also went on to host shows at the Apollo Theater and became one of the first V.J.’s on VH-1, which eventually earned him a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 1980, Dewey and Cathy Hughes purchased one of DC’s most popular radio stations, WOL.  Cathy Hughes had already proven success in the radio industry after launching “The Quiet Storm” on WHUR, Howard University’s Radio, as well as WYCB, a gospel station.  A few years later, Cathy Hughes went on to launch one of the most famed Black radio institutions in the United States – Radio One. Radio One is headquarted in Lanham, MD and is the largest broadcasting company targeting African-Americans.  Today, Cathy Hughes is known as the Mother of Urban Radio. 

These radio pioneers have help shaped the face of both urban and mainstream radio today which continues the legacy of broadcast quality and service still found across the radio spectrum.

Stay tuned…

The News-Talk of the Town

News-Talk is the big talk on the Eastern Seaboard this week with the launch of the new all news, WNEW in Washington, DC, A CBS owned station rivaling CBS-affiliated powerhouse WTOP, even taking some long-time staffers with its launch.  Some may question why CBS wants to rival itself, but a Washington Post article about the new format may reveal some insight.  WTOP routinely brings in ad dollars that dwarf its competitors --  more than three times the advertising revenue of any other station in Washington, making it the richest radio station in the country. 

Now the female-oriented news-talker WEMP in New York has moved away from its female-centric format to a more straight ahead news-talk station. Sean Ross from Radio-Info takes a fresh listen and determines that while some initial clunkiness existed with a new station, new format and new staff from several disciplines, the power of an all-news FM cannot be underestimated. According to Ross, “Twenty-five miles from Manhattan, I’m unable to listen to WCBS or WINS on my clock radio in the morning. At my Central New Jersey office, on the edge of the New York metro, the only traffic or weather I’m going to get on AM 1010 on my winter ride home is for Toronto, as CFRB drowns out WINS after sunset.”

So, it looks like the glory days of news-talk stations, especially those on the FM dial, are still to come.

Stay tuned…

Sports PR Workshop - 2/14

What Sports Team Communicators Can Teach Us

If sports are a metaphor for life, sports communication is a metaphor for the rest of PR. 

On Tuesday, February 14, the National Capital Chapter of PRSA (PRSA-NCC) will host a workshop at the U.S. Navy Memorial & Heritage Center in Washington, DC from 8-10 a.m.

In this workshop, sports team professionals from the Baltimore Ravens, Washington Nationals, Georgetown Hoyas, and Washington Capitals will provide valuable lessons from their years of experience working in sports communications.

Topics for the workshop will include message discipline in the digital age; lessons about crisis communications from the sports world; integrating social and traditional media and being your own news source; internal communications and selling your plan to your company or client; and how an underdog or small played breaks into the news cycle.

The event will be moderated by Aaron Cohen, Vice President of Media Relations, MSL Group.

Panelists include:

•    Kevin Byrne, Senior VP, Public & Community Relations, Baltimore Ravens, @Ravens

•    Lara Potter, Vice President & Managing Director, Communications & Brand Development, Washington Nationals, @Nationals

•    Mex Carey, Sports Information Director, Georgetown University, @MexCarey

•    Ben Guerrero, Manager of Media Relations, Washington Capitals, @WashCaps

Tickets for the event are available for purchase at https://secure.kinsail.com/results.asp?p=prsancc&pt=store&GroupID=22506.

U.S. Navy Memorial & Heritage Center

701 Pennsylvania Ave., NW

Washington, DC 20004

Metro: Yellow/Green lines @ Navy Memorial/Archives station

For directions and parking, visit www.navymemorial.org

Survey Digs Into Station Programming Preferences

Our recent survey of 150 news/talk radio stations in the top 100 radio markets found that interviews makes up the largest proportion of on-air programming for both English and Spanish stations. 

On the English side, interviews make up more than 40 percent of a stations programming, followed by wire stories at 19 percent, network feeds at 17 percent, news releases at nearly 16 percent, and listener call-ins at 8 percent. 

On the Spanish side, interviews make up 34 percent of a station's programming, followed by news releases at 24 percent, network feeds at 18 percent, listener call ins at 12 percent and wire stories at 12 percent. 

That's a lot of air time for stations to fill.  This programming need giving media relations pros an opportunity to provide stations with guests who have a compelling and timely message. 

Next week, we will reveal what stations told us about what it really takes to get a story on the air.

Stay Tuned...