Media Relations

Key Steps To Creating A Winning Press List

Steve Sturgeon 2021-10-08T17:42:36+00:00 September 12th, 2020|Tags: Audience, Media Relations, PR, Press List, Public Relations|

Know your audience. How many times have you heard that? It’s a rule followed by politicians, public speakers, stand-up comedians and of course expert marketers. The same rule applies to creating your press list. Your primary list should consist only of outlets and people who would be legitimately interested in writing about your organization and/or its products and services. If your company makes computer chips, there’s no point in bothering Newsweek magazine every time you announce a firmware update. You’re only going to be reaching out to general-interest publications when you have “real” news that might matter to a broad audience. So how do you find your “go-to” contacts for your primary list? Subscription-based PR database services There are a lot of wonderful web-based media database tools available to PR professionals, such as Cision, IT Database, Meltwater and Nasdaq’s MyMediaInfo to name [...]

5 Ways To Be Pitch Perfect

As a veteran of wire services and newspapers I have received countless pitches from well-intentioned media relations and marketing professionals who believe they have a story worth pursuing and covering. The pitches range from customized or personal notes to pro forma press release emails to the cute and funny ones. Personal notes have impact because they speak to a prior relationship and journalists will respond usually more often, even if only to say they have to pass on the story at that time. Customized notes show the media relations person gave it a little more elbow grease and perhaps will get a bit more viewing time as a result. As for pro forma press release emails the assumption would be they have little effect, but in truth, if it’s a hot story, with significant impact – the official launch statement of [...]