The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

In yesterday’s ezine, The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week, I wrote about how Publicity Hounds should rely on weekly newspapers more than ever, now that several dailies are eliminating their zoned editions because of mounting financial pressures.

It wasn’t until today that I remembered a fabulous article in the May/June 2000 issue of The Publicity Hound, my now-defunct print newsletter. Lovelace Lee III, a publicist from Los Angeles, wrote “Don’t Forget the Weeklies,” and explained how he relied on Black weekly newspapers as part of a national publicity campaign for one of his clients.

I’m reprinting the column here becauase it’s a great example of the power of not only mainstream weeklies, but special-interest weeklies. Those include ethnic, religious, educational, business, industry-specific and topic-specific newspapers. Here’s Lovelace’s article, in full:

Don’t Forget the Weeklies

By Lovelace Lee III

God bless the weekly newspaper! You can’t beat it for community news. I’ve used the weeklies to create affordable national publicity campaigns for my clients. And so can you.

In 1991, a young, Black honor student named LaTasha Harlins was killed in a scuffle with a Korean merchant in South Central Los Angeles. With the right spin, Black weeklies treated the update—a year later—as news.

My client was the now-defunct LaTasha Harlins Justice Committee. They needed to raise funds for a community center to be named after the slain teen.

Research of 10 major cities showed that most blacks really didn’t know the details of the LaTasha Harlins murder and editors of the weeklies were still curious. In 1992, I created the LaTasha Was Murdered Campaign to be released to Black weeklies across America.

I began the campaign with personal phone calls to editors of Black weeklies in 25 cities. I told them what I had and why it was important to their readers. The following week, I sent a release package that included a personal letter to the editor, a four-page news story, a black and white photo of campaign spokesperson and rapper Hot Shot wearing the “LaTasha Was Murdered” T-shirt and a page of Hot Shot’s quotes to support the article.

At the end of the release, I asked that editors send me two uncut, full-page tearsheets of the story as it appeared in their newsppaer. And for their support, I promised to send them their very own T-shirt. Of course, they were the first in their cities to have this coveted T-shirt. Crazy, huh?

Not really. Remember, I had already talked with these editors at my expense—a relationship had been established.

Within 10 days of the mailing, tearsheets started arriving from black weeklies all over the country. The campaign reaped press from 35 black weeklies, ADWEEK, two loal TV stations and Players, the international black men’s magazine. A hot rap group decided to assume fund-raising responsibilities for the community center and one of the members even wore the T-shirt in a music video.

Don’t forget the weeklies. A little time spent cultivating a relationship can be good for you and your business or your favorite cause.

Lovelace Lee III is a public relations veteran with over 20 years experience. He’s a screenwriter and author of the soon-to-be published book 501 Things Every black Person Should Know for a Richer & Fuller Life. He lives in Los Angeles He can be reached at robertlucycreative@yahoo.com or 310-743-2855.

While you’re at it, don’t forget your local shoppers, those newspapers usually crammed with ads, that usually show up once a week. If they need editorial to fill it, make sure they have an article or photo from you.

Posted In: Media Kits, Newspaper Publicity, Photos & Graphics, Pitching the Media, Publicity for Niche Markets
posted On: 9/24/2008: 10:57 pm: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

If you’ve hired a virtual assistant, or you’re considering hiring one,  let your VA help you with more than just your business. Delegate many of your personal calls to her.

Here’s an example. 

When my local Pick ‘n Save supermarket stopped carrying Jennie-O turkey sausage links, one of my favorite breakfast foods, they told me that if I wanted to continue buying them, I’d have to call the meat department and place a special order for an entire case.

So every few months, I do. But making calls like that chips away at time I should be spending on my business.

Now, I turn over calls like this one to my virtual assistant, Christine Buffaloe. Yesterday, she hunted for the cheapest 16-foot USB cord she could find online and ordered it. She orders my books from Amazon.com and researches where I can get the most inexpensive office supplies.

This afternoon, she’s calling the sewing machine repair shop to see if my sewing machine is ready to be picked up. When that’s done, she’ll make a doctor’s appointment for me.

I can’t tell you the number of hours she’s saved me, not only doing business tasks, but making personal phone calls that eat up my precious time.

Last year, I hosted a teleseminar on “How to Find a Virtual Assistant to Help with Your Publicity Campaign.” My guests, virtual assistants Diana Ennen and Cindy Greenway, explained that VAs often relieve their clients of personal calls like the ones I’ve mentioned. Once I started delegating many of my personal these calls to Chris, it suddenly dawned on me how time-consuming these calls can be.

VAs, by the way, can help with many aspects of your publicity campaign such as:

—Writing and distributing your press releases.

—Updating your online media room

—Updating your profile on social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn.

—Calling newspapers and asking for permission to reprint articles they’ve written about you

—Researching media outlets and bloggers you want to target with your pitches.

The training program I conducted last year for VAs, interns and assistants on “How to Help Your Boss or Client with a Publicity Campaign” discussed hundreds of ways you can use VAs or assistants. Many VAs signed up for the course, have added publicity tasks to their services and, as a result, have been able to raise their hourly rates.   

Posted In: Blogs, Media Kits, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity Resources, Social networking
posted On: 4/8/2008: 4:57 pm: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Angie Dzalamanow of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina writes:

“I am the public relations manager for Sylvan Dell Publishing, a children’s book publisher committed to exciting children’s imaginations with artistically spectacular science, math and nature themed stories.  We’re doing fairly well at securing reviews for our 29 titles with key trade publications, regional parenting magazines and bloggers, but we would like to create a bigger buzz and score some national attention.

“In the back of every book, we include a ‘For Creative Minds’ educational section with fun facts, crafts and other educational activities.  We also offer free supplemental parent/teacher resources on our website, including 30-80 cross-curricular teaching activities, child-friendly learning links, audio readings, interactive quizzes and a bi-monthly e-newsletter.

“However, our books are first and foremost fun-to-read picture books, and we want parents and educators to understand that there doesn’t need to be a strict line between educational and entertaining.

“The public relations team consists of me and two interns, and our budget is limited.  We need some creative, affordable ideas for media kits and pitches, but we’ve yet to think of that ‘big idea’ we need to garner national media.  Help from your Hounds would be greatly appreciated!”

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Media Kits, Pitching the Media
posted On: 3/11/2008: 1:35 pm: By Joan
Comments: 9 Comments

Gail Sideman of Milwaukee, Wisconsin writes:

“I’m what the business calls a veteran publicist and media relations professional who has landed quality hits, and believes she does a good  job in explaining how a PR or publicity campaign works to those who  have never been involved in one.

“I outline the fact that an online newsroom is necessary and why, and that a foundation and reputation must be built before reporters have enough trust to include or feature  the client in a big story. I also explain the differences between public relations and advertising. 

“Despite all of this and making sure potential clients know what they’re getting into before they sign on the dotted line, I have found that some people, two or three months 
into the effort, maybe while we’re still trying to build a quality online press room, question why I have not been able to score that  ‘big story’ for them.

“How do other media relations professionals deal with  complaining clients after they’ve already explained the industry to them and they’re working diligently to do things in step?”

Posted In: Media Kits, PR Consultants/Publicists
posted On: 1/15/2008: 10:35 am: By Joan
Comments: 4 Comments

If you’re looking for a freelance writer writer for your press releases, articles, a bio for your media kit, or anything else, Angela Adair-Hoy offers free classified ads in her excellent ezine, WritersWeekly.com.

Send her an email and let her know what you need. Her ezine is one of the few I stop to read, no matter what I’m doing.  (Note:  Don’t bother contacting her if you aren’t willing to pay.)

Don’t forget about Craigslist, the world’s largest online bulletin board which is also great for publicizing a product, service, cause or issue for free. (See “How to Use Craigslist as a Global Publicity Tool.”)  , as well as my own Publicity Hound Resources List which includes a vareiety of other vendors selling publicity related products and services.  

Posted In: Media Kits, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity Resources, Writing Articles
posted On: 10/29/2007: 8:32 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments