The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

In the Personal Technology column in today’s Wall Street Jurnal, Walter Mossberg recommends Microsoft’s MSN Spaces as the best of the online services for free blogs.

“My Verdict: MSN Spaces is very well done,” he says. “It makes it easy to create a simple, attractive blog with text, links and potos, and to customize the blog in interesting ways.”

Microsoft claims it already has more than 7 million blogs in Spaces, and is adding new ones at a rate of more than 100,000 a day.

Posted In: Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 4/22/2005: 10:40 pm: By Joan
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It was difficult to pare them down to a dozen, but we did.

Of all the mistakes PR people make when working with the media, Jon Greer of Bulldog Reporter’s PR University and Liz Miklya of Weber Shandwick joined me in whittling down the list to 12. We presented them the Media Relations 2005 conference earlier this month in San Francisco.

Here’s our list, in David Letterman-style:

12. Writing bad news releases that are too long and don’t contain news. Boil down the information to no more than a page, keep it simple, and if journalists need more information, send it.

11. Treating all media–TV and radio, editors and reporters–the same. The media is not a monolith. Learn the different roles and media types, and adjust your media relations accordingly.

10. Misrepresenting yourself by not revealing who you are working for. Don’t. It’s a credibility killer.

9. Pitching blogs as if they were traditional media. They’re not–do your homework.

8. Pitching more than one journalist at a media outlet and not telling them. Don’t play this game.

7. Pitching exclusives that aren’t. Don’t.

6. Failing to set the terms of the interview and getting burned. Set the terms before speaking, when you hold the power–not when the interview is under way and you’ve already relinquished it.

5. Putting your name in a release and then not being available to take calls. Check your schedule and have back-up people taking calls.

4. Pitching information or people you can’t deliver. Don’t do it. Check availabilities before pitching.

3. Not knowing what they cover or pitching stories they don’t cover. Do your homework.

2. Being ill-prepared to provide information. Don’t speak to the media unless you’re ready.

And the Number One most egregious sin…

Calling on deadline. Once again, do your homework and make sure you know the right times to call.

Posted In: Pitching the Media, Press Releases/News Releases
posted On: : 8:36 pm: By Joan
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Hospitals throughout the U.S. are pampering patients like never before. You can now recuperate after your heart bypass or gall bladder removal in upscale units with suite-sized rooms, gourmet meals, high-thread-count sheets, attentive security, and smiling staff ready to cater to your every whim.

A Forbes magazine survey of the 10 Best Luxury Hospitals finds mahogany furniture featured virtually across the board. Pampering also includes larger rooms with nicer furnishings, convertible couches for family sleepovers, expansive marble-and-tile bathrooms, stocked refrigerators, VCRs and satellite TV, a dedicated gourmet chef and even a concierge. Read more about the survey.

If you do PR for a hospital and you didn’t make the list, don’t despair. Your local business journal or TV station would probably love to hear about innovative ways you pamper patients. The “pampering” angle isn’t limited only to hospitals. It can work just as well for everything from restaurants to companies that want to attract and keep employees.

Hospital PR pro Dan Collins offers valuable tips for hospitals on “How to Make Hospital P.R. an Easy Pill to Swallow,” a recording of a teleseminar I hosted in which he was my guest. He’s senior media relations manager at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, calls himself a P.R. junkie.

Posted In: Business Promotion, Nonprofits, The Local Angle
posted On: : 3:25 am: By Joan
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Maps, pie charts, bar charts, illustrations, clever photos and a whole host of other graphic elements that can help readers or TV viewers better understand your story can be part of your pitch to reporters.

But don’t suggest graphics right away until you know whether the reporter is interested in your idea. If the reporter bites by saying something like, “Tell me more,” it’s time to let them know how graphics can enhance the story.

If you can supply camera-ready graphics, all the better, but that really isn’t necessary.

Posted In: Pitching the Media
posted On: : 3:19 am: By Joan
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Reporters get blamed enough for inaccuracies in news stories–sometimes rightly so.

Most Publicity Hounds don’t know, however, that mistakes in print and broadcast stories are often caused by other people in the newsroom. So if you don’t like what you see, don’t call the reporter and start screaming into the phone. Find out who committed the error and complain to the guilty party. Here’s a list of things the reporter is often NOT responsible for:

–The headline. Reporters seldom write their own headlines. Copy editors write them. If you have a gripe with the headline, call the copy desk.

–Photo captions. Copy editors usually write these, too.

–Unflattering photos. Photographers, photo editors or copy editors usually decide which photos to use.

–Teasers. If you see a front-page item that teases a story in an upcoming edition, or a “live at 11″ teaser on TV that’s inaccurate, call the media outlet and ask who wrote it.

–Editorials. If a newspaper prints an editorial unfavorable to your cause or issue, don’t berate the reporter who wrote the original story. Editorials are written by editorial writers or members of the newspaper’s editorial board. If you don’t like an editorial, you have the option of responding with a letter to the editor.

If any of these mistakes happen to you, please don’t punish reporters by giving your news tips to the competition, or by refusing to talk to them again. It can come back to haunt you later. Remember, never fight with people who buy their ink by the barrel.

Newspaper editorial boards should be one of your prime targets if you are mustering media support for a particular cause or issue, or if you’re embroiled in a bad-news story and you want to explain your side to the key decision-makers at the paper. Learn all about editorial boards, how they can help you, when not to use the board, how to ask for a meeting, what you must do before you meet, and how to convince them to support your cause or issue. “See Special Report #33: How
to Win the Support and Respect of Newspaper Editorial Boards

Posted In: Newspaper Publicity
posted On: : 3:17 am: By Joan
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