PR’s Secret Success Formula

July 22, 2010 Leave a comment

It’s difficult to launch an effective media campaign if you don’t study the media. Stories that are in the news and topics that are being covered can offer you a great launching pad for your PR campaign.  By tying your story into an issue or topic that’s already in the news, you’re pitching a story that you know the media is already interested and are making a pitch that you know is timely and relevant.  Obviously not every story is going to lend itself to your business or your expertise, but if you take the time to truly study the news and broaden the way you define yourself, you might be surprised how many stories there are out there that actually fit.

For example, let’s say you own a nursery.  You know plants and flowers.  Maybe there is a gala at the White House.  You can pitch a story on the floral arrangements that would work the best, or why the choices that were made were the right ones or (better yet) the wrong ones.  Or perhaps you can address the bee crisis.  Bees are endangered and that fact has been in the news.  Are there flowers we could plant or things we could do that would help?  Those are two stories that you could address that are already in the news.  You’re pitching yourself as an expert with specific expertise, not simply as a business owner who wants to promote your company.

When I wrote my PR books, The Alchemy of Success and Spin to Win, I pitched stories on how my books could help business owners learn the nuts and bolts of launching an effective media campaign, but those weren’t the media pitches that landed me in the national media.  I knew that if I wanted to garner coverage in the major media, my pitches had to be sexier, more relevant and come with a sense of urgency.  The best pitches have a call to action.  So, I studied the media for stories of celebrities, politicians and major businesses that were going through some kind of media crisis and presented myself as a public relations and damage control expert who could address how these media train wrecks could best be dealt with.  I covered the gamut discussing such topics as Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson, Microsoft, and the presidential candidates.  I also discussed how various fields such as plastic surgery and the banking industry needed to shift the way they were positioned in the media.  This approach gave me a wide range of topics to address.  I had to move quickly and contact the media when a particular story was in the news.  But the basic pitch remained the same, only the specifics changed.  This approach landed me coverage in a wide range of media outlets including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, the BBC, NBC, CBS, ABC and many other media outlets.

This approach can be a bit more time intensive, but the upside is – it works.  It truly is the closest thing there is to a public relations silver bullet.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Filed under business, Marketing, marketing strategy, Media, news, newspapers, PR, Public Relations, TV Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Working on the Media’s Timetable

July 13, 2010 2 Comments

Unlike advertising, direct marketing, online marketing or other types of promotion, when it comes to traditional public relations, keep in mind that the media works on its own schedule.  Short lead news-oriented media outlets such as newspapers, TV and radio plan much of their content around the news of the day.  Long lead publications that specialize in certain areas such as beauty, fitness or entertainment, are not as news-driven, but they too can change plans or direction at a moment’s notice.

That’s not always easy when you’re a business owner with your own busy schedule.  Your time is valuable. You have a business to run, clients to take care of, or products to sell.  It’s difficult to (and sometimes not possible) to drop whatever you’re doing to do an interview on the media’s time table.  But that is often the reality of dealing with the press and if you play it smart, it can pay off for you big time.  Although you will usually have time to plan and arrange your schedule to do an interview, that is not always going to be the case.  There are going to be times that the media wants to do an interview and wants to do it immediately, or wants to schedule it at a time that is inconvenient, or (the most annoying of all) reschedules it at the last minute, forcing you to, once again, change your plans.  First of all keep in mind, that producer or editor is not intentionally scheduling a time in order to make your life more difficult.  He or she is juggling a number of stories and working on several deadlines.  You wouldn’t believe the amount of times that an editor or producer has to switch from one story to another on a moment’s notice. A million things can come up, a fire, an international breaking story, a Presidential speech; any number of stories are going to preempt you.  This is just the nature of the business.  It happens all the time.  Keep in mind by working with them; you are positioning yourself and your business as the news.

But to do so you need to work with the media.  For example, don’t tell the producer of a national morning news show that they have to come to your office to shoot the segment and that you’re only available on Saturday between 1 and 3 p.m.   That’s a guaranteed recipe for never getting on that show.  Remember you meet your needs by meeting the media’s needs.

There may be times that you’re just not going to be able to accommodate their schedule. There are going to be some interviews that you’ll have to miss.  But only miss an interview if it’s completely unavoidable – the plague, an alien invasion – you get the picture.  You may be annoyed, and you may be angry, but if you can possibly arrange your schedule so that you can make the interview, do it.

Above all keep in mind that if an interview is changed, or if your segment is bumped, don’t take your anger or disappointment out on the interviewer or the producer.  That might make you feel better while you’re ranting and raving, but once that’s done, all you’ve accomplished is burning a valuable bridge.  Always keep your objective in mind. Your objective is to build your business, to create success through media exposure.  Never forget that only media reaches your target market and offers you the credibility of being featured as a news story.  No other form of marketing offers that type of validating exposure.  Your objective is to do those interviews, and use that media exposure to gain more coverage, not to alienate the press. Media begets media.  Every interview you do is helping to pave your way to greater success.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

For further information visit:
www.AnthonyMora.com

Filed under business, Marketing, Media, Media Relations, news, newspapers, PR, PR Campaign, TV Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Newspapers on the Rebound?

June 16, 2010 Leave a comment

Not long ago, newspapers were seen as a dying breed.  Admittedly, they have seen better days.  Advertising is flagging and readers are moving form the papers to the Internet.  The Federal Trade Commission set up sessions exploring how to safe the flagging newspaper industry.  There was talk of state subsidy and of possibly turning them into some form of charitable corporations.  In “The Vanishing Newspaper” (2004), Philip Meyer, predicts that in 2043, someone will be receiving the final copy of the final newspaper. Yet the demise of the newspaper could have been greatly exaggerated.  Many are turning a profit again, admittedly a small profit, but that is certainly better than the nose dive they were experiencing not long ago.

But their survival has come at a steep price.  These are not the same newspapers that we read a couple of years ago.  Journalists and editors have taken the brunt of the cuts as newspapers have pared down.  According to the American Society of News 13,500 positions have been cut in the last three years.  An article in the Economist points out that unlike papers in many other countries, American newspapers have traditionally relied heavily on ad revenues.  According to the Economist: “Fully 87% of their [American newspapers] ad revenues came from advertising in 2008, according to the OECD.  In Japan the proportion is 35%.  Not surprisingly Japanese newspapers are much more stable.”

In central Europe some publishers had their most profitable first quarter on record.  Brazil now boasts five tabloids and advertising has remained strong. In the U.S., some companies have had remarkable rebounds since mid 2009.

Although most newspapers have raised their prices, and cuts in the cost of paper and in the amount of paper being used have also helped, it is the internal cuts and terminations that have led the way in publishing’s survival of the fittest.  In the U.S., newspapers reacted to the recession by cutting not with a scalpel, but with a butcher knife.  From film and theatre reviewers, to science, business, reporters in nearly all fields felt the cuts.  This approach has reshaped newspapers as we know them.  Most now rely on wire services or the larger national outlets to supply them with much of the information and articles on music, film, food, health, cars, business, and foreign affairs.  With newspapers now heavily relying so heavily on the wire services for their coverage of the arts and business and foreign affairs, we are losing a great deal.  We are left with a homogenized centralized view of the world.  We have one or two voices where once there were many.

Newspapers are also morphing; learning from the net, many are becoming more specialized and niche focused.  Most are concentrating more than ever on giving readers what they want as opposed to offering a well rounded, vetted, journalistic view of the world, which also has its dangers. Yet, the upside is that, realizing that small papers have overall fared much better than large publications during the recession, many are once again becoming truly local newspapers.  An increase on local news and events is a good thing.  It is that approach that initially built the newspaper industry.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

For further information visit:
www.AnthonyMora.com

Filed under advertising, Economy, LA Times, Media, news, newspapers, old media Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Will The Last Newspaper Be Printed In 2043?

June 1, 2010 Leave a comment

In “The Vanishing Newspaper” (2004), Philip Meyer, predicts that in 2043, someone will be receiving the final copy of the final newspaper.  It will then be done, over.  Those types of specific predictions are a bit silly, but this one does make a point.  If the newspaper industry were a boxer, it would be crawling up the ropes after being knocked down for the third or forth time.  Let’s say Meyer is right if so, in 2043, the newspaper will have had its run.  What happens then?  Luckily, it has its own museum now. Washington D.C. houses the Newseum.   Strange word.

As newspapers fail, most agree that the Internet is the culprit.  Readers can find their news online for free at a number of different sites.  The classifieds, which brought in a major junk of change, are now owned by Craigslist.  It’s said those under thirty don’t revel in the feeling of opening the newspaper and sitting down with their morning coffee, because they’re online.  Not only is the information readily available other places, the experience is no longer appreciated.

This is all true, but I think most people are overlooking the huge toll that having newspapers shift from family-owned businesses to chain-owned public companies took on much of the industry.   Wall Street redefined the newspaper industry.  It became strictly about making a profit, as opposed to walking that fine line between making money and telling the news.

The shift has been seismic.  Twenty years ago newspaper circulations was estimated to be at about 63 million.  It’s dropped over 10 million since then.  And it seems as though we hear (or perhaps read) about the demise, or near demise, of another city newspaper on an almost daily basis.

Some are saying it’s for the best, that the newspaper as we know it is holding reporters back from doing their best job and that journalism’s best days are still ahead of us.  One can only hope so.  More and more papers are cutting their staffs and relying on the wires for their true news stories.  That is a red flag!  I agree that we can find the basic news of the day online, but the dilemma of true investigative journalism remains; who will pay investigative reporters to do the kind of reporting that broke national stories such as Watergate, and as important, those reporters around the country who broke local and regional stories of fraud can corruption on a regional and local basis?  That’s what spooks me.  Perhaps the Internet will pick up that slack, perhaps a model will be devised where it will be even more effective in its ability to report local news and keep an eye on the hen house (so to speak).  If not, we’re in trouble folks.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Filed under news, newspapers, old media Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

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