How To Get to Noo Yahwk Journalists?
August 28, 2011 4:53 AM   Subscribe

PublicityFilter: Trying to write a "media alert" about an event taking place in NYC in a 10 days or so. Here are my three confuddling questions...

So, I'm involved in a marketing seminar and networking event taking place for the Jewish community taking place next week.

The keynote speaker is flying in from overseas... and I think there are several angles for this that might make it newsworthy. (per MeFi rules, I'm not going to put a link in this post for fear of being accused of blatant self promotion.)

Some of them might be:

- Event is targeted to the ultra-orthodox/hassidic Jewish community, which might make it interesting for the community and culture (religion?) desk/beat

-The speaker is an ultra-orthodox Rabbi who is also an oft-quoted media source as a business strategy and marketing guru, although without his image or Rabbi title attached...

Now for my three confuddling questions:

- Am I thinking media advisory, as opposed to press release? I this correct?

- What is the best way to get NYC area editors/media outlets contact information? or just submit through BusinessWire? PR Newswire?

- When is the appropriate time to sent it out, considering Hurricane Irene is dominating the news?

Thank you MeFi, for your thoughts and never ending stream of brilliant insight!!
posted by Izzmeister to Work & Money (7 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
If you're interested in contacting people at Hadassah, please memail me.
posted by hermitosis at 6:22 AM on August 28, 2011


A media advisory is basically the same as a press release. You can call it whatever you like.

Send it out tomorrow-ish. You want to give news outlets about a week's lead time. Send it AGAIN the day before the event.

If there are particular publications you'd really like to see cover the event, contact their city editors directly. Call them on the phone. You can find phone numbers on the "contact us" section of most news organizations' websites. The telephone is still the best strategy for reaching a real person and getting them to consider covering your event. You will probably not actually talk to an editor, at least not at first. You'll talk to an editorial assistant. The nicer you are to the EA, the better chance you have of them passing your story on to an editor or reporter. General rule: Always be very nice to editorial assistants.

If there are particular reporters you know of, who you think would be interested in the event and who would cover it well, contact them directly, too. An e-mail usually suffices, though a phone call wouldn't hurt. Whatever you do, when speaking to a reporter or editor, do not demand coverage. Do feel free to discuss some of the angles you think will interest that particular editor or reporter (or EA).
posted by brina at 7:57 AM on August 28, 2011 [1 favorite]


1) Media advisory, press release, donkeygram. You can call it whatever you like really. (please don't call it a donkeygram).
2) When constructing media lists in other markets I find the publications I want to target and go to their websites to get emails and fax numbers.
3) I agree with sending it out twice. I like to send my stuff on a Sunday because Monday/Tuesday is such a slow news day there is a better chance of getting a hit.
posted by munchingzombie at 9:37 AM on August 28, 2011 [1 favorite]


All of the ultra-orthodox communities in Brooklyn have their own neighborhood newspapers. Also, you might want to talk to the Chabbad-Lubovich folks, who have news and media arms of their own.
posted by Jon_Evil at 10:01 AM on August 28, 2011


A few things to consider...

Are you trying to schedule one-on-one interviews with the Rabbi or do you want NY reporters to attend and cover the event itself? An "exclusive" tactic could work well in this situation. If there's a target outlet that you have in mind, consider offering a first interview before you reach out to other outlets. Journalists love being offered exclusives, and in some cases, it can increase the chance that a top-tier pub will take notice.

Always email a journalist before you call them. While journalists get hundreds of emails a day, it's a less intrusive way to get on their radar, and then you have an easy opening line when you call: "Don't know if you saw my email from this morning, but I wanted to follow up from my note and see if you were interested..."

While this is easily contested - a media advisory is usually the Who, What, Where, Why, When of an event, while a press release is usually written in the style of a news story. Both seem applicable in this situation, so issue a media advisory if you want broad notice. Consider a press release if there are specific angles of the story you want to highlight.
posted by angsolom at 10:48 AM on August 28, 2011 [2 favorites]


I'm a New York journalist. I get dozens of PR pitches a day, sometimes hundreds. From an end-user perspective, my answers:

1. There's no difference between a press release and a media alert. They both, however, are stupid phrases that no one really uses anymore. Don't put them in the subject line. The subject line should concisely express pertinent info: Name of event, location, date, notable personalities, angles. Not all of these. Just the most important ones.

2. I automatically delete anything that comes through PR Newswire or BusinessWire, because it's incredibly impersonal. This doesn't mean you have to send a warm, thoughtful individually-tailored note to every single person on your list, but you SHOULD spend some time (a) coming up with specific publications and - ideally - specific journalists who you'd like to have know about the event; (b) tracking down their email addresses. This isn't hard: most freelancers have personal websites, most staffers' emails adhere to repeatable, publication-specific email patterns. Worst case scenario pay a few bucks to get behind MediaBistro's AvantGuild paywall where they list tons of editor-specific pitching info for most major publications. This is theoretically targeted at freelancers, but it works just as well for PR. Never, ever cold-call a journalist. Never call after emailing unless you have received affirmative permission to do so, i.e. a reply that says "This sounds awesome! Call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx and let's talk more."

Once you've rounded up your email addresses, break the journalists into categories based on what angle about the event you think the journalists will be interested in (the urban-anthropology Hey Look Orthodox Jews! angle, the business-speaker-in-another-light angle, etc.) and send out specific emails to each group being very clear about (a) what the event entails objectively, and (b) what specifically about it you think this group of journalists would be interested in. Be very clear about what you're looking for: Pre-event coverage? Post-event coverage?

3. Send it out tomorrow. Then send a polite, minimal followup at the halfway point before the event. Be sure to remove any journalists who have replied to you already from the list of followupees.

Final bonus advice: I'm sure you've already thought of this, but don't forget the blogs. Not just big guns like Gothamist, but also the online counterparts to print publications - not just the WSJ business desk, but also the writers of the WSJ.com business blog, for example. Same goes for the NYT, Village Voice, etc.
posted by firstbest at 6:07 PM on August 28, 2011 [6 favorites]


You should also try the press in NJ -- pockets of which have that audience like Lakewood and such -- the state does share media too.
posted by skepticallypleased at 8:08 PM on August 29, 2011 [1 favorite]


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