by on February 10, 2009 2 Comments

A Conversation Between Journalists, Bloggers and PR Folks – #journchat

If you’re a Twitter user, chances are good you’ve come across #journchat, a weekly discussion between journalists, bloggers and PR folks that takes place each Monday night in the Twitterverse. It’s consistently one of the top trending topics on Twitter on Monday nights, right up there with presidential addresses and the latest talk about Heroes. #journchat was created by @PRsarahevans and is a brilliant idea and use of Twitter to discuss the most current topics related to journalism and media relations.

What’s most encouraging about this effort is the participation of journalists and bloggers. When I first swung by to check it out, I expected to see mostly PR pros handing out and pushing their agendas. I’m so jaded sometimes. What I found blew my socks off – there was some real insightful dialogue from both sides of the table about working together for the greater good.

Discussions follow an organized Q&A session, where participants can Tweet rapid-fire about their perspective on the issues. It’s an open discussion that’s often hard to keep up with, but will no doubt be the best investment of my time on a weekly basis moving forward. There’s also a weekly recap posted on the #journchat website following each week’s discussion, if you want to get an idea of what you can expect next week. [Read more...]

Filed Under: journalism, media relations, twitter Tagged With: , , ,
by on February 9, 2009 3 Comments

Can PR Spam Be Stopped?

Any journalist or blogger will admit to receiving a lot of off-topic pitches and press releases. Some would classify this information as “PR spam” – others would just complain that PR pros are lazy and don’t take the time to learn what they write about, or approach a pitch unprepared. They’re right. I haven’t met a journalist yet that didn’t have a couple of war stories about how bad the problem of PR spam is. Some areas are better than others – for example, financial reporters seem to receive more relevant information than technology journalists, perhaps due to the tighter restrictions around public information.

On the other side of the table, most PR professionals you talk to will tell you that they do their best to only pitch relevant information to journalists and that push-back they receive is the result of catching a journalist on a bad day. Many will admit to sending off-topic information or spam pitches at some point in their career – many have learned from these mistakes, many have not. You’ll always have a couple of bad eggs that resort to pitching journalists cold – playing the numbers game, in hopes that somebody will respond and want to write about the “news” they are pitching.

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about new solutions entering the market that will address the problem of PR spam head on. I’ll talk about some of those solutions in upcoming posts – and I recently wrote a post about MatchPoint’s new solution as one example of a new product trying to stop PR spam. Some bloggers have already taken this issue into their own hands, publishing lists of PR spammers – in an attempt to help other bloggers eliminate the problem with the email filter. You’d have to be living under a rock the past year or so to miss those examples, so no need to reference them all again in this post. [Read more...]

Filed Under: media relations, pr spam Tagged With: , ,
by on February 6, 2009 5 Comments

Using Twitter for Media Relations

There’s no question that Twitter is the new playground for media relations professionals looking to connect with busy journalists and bloggers. It’s a new frontier, that when managed professionally, can serve as a powerful platform for learning about journalists’ interests and preferences. It’s probably one of the best resources to come around that truly gives PR pros the insight they need to tailor pitches journalists will actually want to receive.

There are many articles and posts out there about using Twitter as a public relations tool. I recently stumbled across Bulldog Reporter’s Journalists Speak Out on PR newsletter and have found the content to be very interesting. A recent issue of the newsletter featured an article, “Bloggers Dish Twitter Tips for Building Relationships with Online Influencers,” by Editor Brian Pittman that shed some light on the topic. I couldn’t find a permalink for the story on the site, but wanted to paraphrase a couple of the tips here (you can subscribe to Journalists Speak Out on PR newsletter for free here):

  • Many journalists are open to being pitched through Twitter because it forces PR pros to get to the point quickly – in 140 characters or less
  • It’s easy for PR people to learn what a journalist is interested in writing about if they follow them – and pay attention
  • It’s a bad idea for your first interaction with a journalist to be a direct message (DM) pitch – especially if it’s off-topic
  • The best bet is to show appreciation and acknowledge that you’re following the journalist’s tweets

Of course, the key with any interaction with journalists through any medium is respect. Communicate in a professional manner and pay your dues before jumping in the tweetstream or pushing your agenda. You should always take the time to understand what a journalist is interested in, what type of information they are interested in receiving, and how they like to be contacted through this channel. [Read more...]

Filed Under: media relations, twitter Tagged With: , ,
by on February 5, 2009 2 Comments

MatchPoint Wants to Put An End to PR Spam

I came across an interesting new product for PR professionals today called MatchPoint. MatchPoint has developed a search application tool for PR professionals who engage in media relations that enables them to match their pitches to content reporters have written about using search engine technology.

Simply paste the content of your pitch or press release into a large search query box and MatchPoint will search its database of media content for relevant stories related to the content. This solution has big potential in saving PR pros time during the research and targeting phase of the media relations process. The ultimate goal of this solution is to eliminate off-topic or spam pitches from PR professionals – in theory, because they would only be pitching outlets based on relevancy of coverage.

MatchPoint has an impressive database of content – containing 3 million articles from 11,000 print publications, 25,000 online news sites and 10,000 blogs (according to a recent Bulldog Reporter article). While MatchPoint certainly represents one of the more innovative solutions to be developed for PR professionals in some time, it’s probably best used as a starting point for media targeting at this point. It’s possible to generate a lot of results that match the content of your pitch based on relevance of keywords and phrases, but that doesn’t mean the outlet or journalist is a good fit for the story you’re pitching. For example, if you were to search MatchPoint’s news release, it would suggest various high-tech publications that have written about innovations in search – and sure, you could adapt a pitch for those outlets based on these findings – so again, it’s a great starting point.

My concern – like that of any new PR tool – is the potential for less-professional or less-experienced PR professionals to abuse the system. Conducting a search based on relevance of content and than pitching all the outlets in the search result would be a no-no – and it would result with even more off-topic pitches and spam for journalists. However, if the tool is used responsibly, I could see how it could save a lot of time and be a very valuable tool in the PR arsenal.

MatchPoint is currently offering a free 10-day trial for PR professionals, after which the company will charge $65 per month for the service. I’m sure the algorithm will only get more exact over time as MatchPoint adds to its database. I’m personally looking forward to trying this solution out more for our media relations efforts at Journalistics.

What do you think of MatchPoint? How do you think this tool will help you in your media relations efforts? Do you think it will help reduce the amount of off-topic pitches journalists receive? Let us know what you think.

Filed Under: media relations, pr services, pr spam Tagged With: ,
by on February 4, 2009 1 Comment

Big Challenges for Journalists in the Current Media Environment

Yesterday we did a post about some of the most common challenges facing media relations professionals in 2009. Now we’ll shift gears and touch on the biggest challenges facing journalists today. Like the media relations challenges, we’ve had some great discussions with journalists about their current working environments and the challenges they face on a daily basis.

Some of the most challenges cited by journalists are:

  • Having to write content across multiple formats (print, Web, blog, etc.) – asked to produce more content than ever before
  • Dealing with constant changes to coverage areas and beats
  • Working in uncertain economic environment – layoffs are happening all over the place
  • Forced to do more with less – staff cuts means there’s more work for those left behind
  • Competing against other outlets for the best stories – working around challenges of a 24/7, global news climate
  • Adapting to new media – social networking and Twitter for example
  • Processing and filtering incoming information efficiently – including the high-volume of pitches and press releases
  • Managing relationships and sources for ongoing story development
  • Dealing with uninformed PR reps and off-topic pitches
  • Finding necessary information from PR reps and online press rooms

Many of these findings will come as no surprise to professional journalists or publicists, but the problems seem to be amplified in the current uncertain economic environment.

Do you work in the current media environment? What challenges are you facing on a daily basis? In what areas could you use more help to do your job? What could media relations professionals do to make your job easier? What tools or resources do you find most helpful in your daily work? Let us know your thoughts.

Filed Under: journalism, media trends Tagged With: ,
by on February 3, 2009 2 Comments

What Are the Biggest Challenges for Media Relations in 2009?

We recently conducted interviews with public relations professionals across many different environments and positions – from entry level to management, from agency to corporate, and from small agency to big agency, to gauge what the biggest challenges were for pros in dealing with the media on a daily basis in today’s environment. While we are continuing these discussions with anyone that will listen – and we welcome your feedback – some of the more consistent themes we’ve found include:

  • Keeping up with changing media contacts and editorial changes in a rapidly changing media environment
  • Having accurate media contact information and pitch tips on hand – not having to re-research information pulled from media databases
  • Being able to collaborate more efficiently across media relations teams – moving away from static spreadsheets of contacts
  • Breaking through filters to reach the right contact, at the right time, with just the right information
  • Adapting to new formats and uses of the press release
  • Leveraging new media like Twitter (see MediaOnTwitter wiki) in appropriate ways
  • Working around changing opinions around traditional approaches – like the embargo
  • Having better access to what journalists are writing about, what information they value most, and how they like to best work with PR pros – if at all
  • Quantifying the value of media outreach and placement to clients and other stakeholders – beyond impressions, release pickup and ad value
  • Developing more effective processes for one-to-one media relations – moving away from one-size-fits-all pitching
  • Training junior staffers on the new rules of engagement for PR

These are just some of the more common themes we’ve discovered through our initial discussions. What are the biggest challenges you face on a daily basis? What should be on this list that we missed? How are you adapting to change? What solutions help you the most in your job today? Where are the gaps? Let us know what you think.

Filed Under: media relations Tagged With:
by on February 2, 2009 1 Comment

Welcome to Journalistics

You’re probably wondering what Journalistics is all about. While we’re not ready to spill the beans on exactly what we’re up to, it’s only fair that we give you a general idea – since you took the time to visit our blog.

As the founder of Journalistics, I’ve spent the past couple of years observing industry trends and having hundreds of conversations with journalism and public relations professionals about the state of the industry. More specifically, about the state of affairs surrounding media relations. As a PR professional myself, I’ve spent the past 10 years pitching the media – I’ve developed and managed media relations campaigns for at least 100 clients at this point (mostly high-tech startups).

When I started out in PR – like many of you – I was handed a media list and a release and told to “smile and dial.” In the early days, results came easy. I got a rush out of placing stories and working a media list that way seemed to work fine. Over the course of the past couple of years, it’s seemed more difficult to get results for clients. Sure, a lot has changed in the worlds of journalism and media relations – but in a lot of ways, the approach and exchange are the same.

I think my close ratio really went down because I stopped trying to force feed pitches to journalists that just weren’t interested. It was a waste of my time to pitch stories that I knew journalists were never going to cover. Even when the story is a good fit for an outlet, there are probably dozens of reasons why it may not be a good fit for the format, timeframe, etc. The truth is, a lot of the stories that are pitched aren’t really that newsworthy – and ultimately, it’s up to the media to make this call. [Read more...]

Filed Under: journalistics Tagged With: , , ,