For years it was called the B.O.D. or Building of Death by employees of the Clear Channel stations inside. An afternoon talk show host had adorned the seven floor office building with the name after the light tan façade had been painted charcoal black with purgatory grey accents, but the name stuck for a variety of reasons. As I pulled up in my rental car for the first time in six years, a smile crossed my face upon discovering that the entire edifice had been painted purgatory grey and this subtle change was just the beginning.

Armed with as many bags of Chick-fil-a as my arms could carry I walked into the WGST/GNN newsroom with my mentor and subtly greyer News Director Matt Cook and on the surface little had changed in the room since I had anchored and reported there a decade earlier. The news desks, carpet and news booth were frozen in time from the days when I’d open a newscast with the time and temperature, but the second I closed my eyes a different story unfolded. In that half second I noticed that the scanner noise that still haunts my dreams was gone and the room was exceptionally quite. The acrid smell of the running cart eraser could not penetrate the smell of chicken and biscuits because it just wasn’t there.

In the News Directors office I listened to him tell me that they didn’t need scanners anymore because the Twitter newsfeed from surrounding police, fire and EMS had principally replaced the need for them. The AP was important, but following other reporters and anchors on Facebook and Twitter also ensured that they had every morsel of information that the competition did.

The news staff of close to 25 people was now a meager six, two of them part-time. There was little opportunity for anchors to do interviews as each of them were cranking out newscasts for at least  three  or four stations scattered around the southeast.  The few times they reported live from the field, they employed 4G technology for crystal clear transmission back to the studio instead of using a giant bag phone or bringing a giant Yagi antenna with them.

The  former clutter of noise that used to fill that room was now replaced with digital white noise. Sans the bags filled with buttery biscuit goodness, how would a Public Relations professional cut through these new barriers? After we discussed ways to better use social media and technology to get on the radar of editors and reporters, one of the news anchors of the station poked his head in and thanked me repeatedly for making the effort of bringing food in and listening to him rant.  He went on about how everyone wanted something from him and it was nice that I would just introduce myself and want to get to know him.

I left the Building of Death with a most valuable piece of information that I will resolve to employ in 2012. Not the new social media channels for outreach (though important), but the reminder that in this New Year I can’t just ask and take from reporters and anchors (friends or otherwise). That as with any relationship there needs to be give with the take. I need to make time to chat and get to know those I work with before I can expect to take of their time. This sounds like a “duh” moment, but when you are juggling multiple projects with multiple clients and reporters are juggling multiple stories for multiple media outlets it is easy to let these simple, personal gestures disappear.

We have all (including myself) spent a fair share of time talking about new media here on Matter Chatter. And yes, it is indeed the face of the future. As someone who spends a significant portion of her day reading blogs and managing Facebook and Twitter pages for clients, it’s easy to get sucked into the instantaneous information-overload that is online and social media. I had a little nudge out of the online bubble this morning when I read about a new statistic from the Pew research center (via TechCrunch – all that blog reading!): 21 percent of American adults say they don’t use the Internet.

Now, I suppose that this shouldn’t really be shocking. But when you’re bombarded daily with news of folding newspapers or budget-cuts at magazines, it’s difficult to remain upbeat about the future of traditional media. Stop for a minute and think about it though – would you knowingly cut out 1/5 of your audience before you even started trying to get a message out? And what about clients whose primary targets include older-generation consumers who might not spend much time reading or put much value in online media?

I know we all go after the Wall Street Journals and Good Housekeepings… but next time you’re thinking of only pitching print with that top-tier circulation number, make sure you remember the 1/5 that still enjoys reading a daily local paper or niche magazine. Understandably, the outlet depends on the message, and for many of our clients the best strategy is both print and online… just don’t forget that well-rounded perspective on your target audience.

During the past few years buzz has been building around the idea of hyperlocal journalism and the PR industry has followed suit, seeking out ways to pitch these outlets. The execution of hyperlocal coverage varies slightly by outlet, but in general it appears to be a mix of user-generated and professional edited content. Media watchers, including those of us in the PR game, are waiting to see which services will emerge as the strongest – with the biggest backing to hire staff and / or with the largest readership and / or commanding the biggest ad revenue.

The Columbia Journalism Review this past fall noted in a lengthy piece on the reconstruction of American journalism that, “Reporting is becoming more participatory and collaborative.” Indeed, USA Today publisher Gannett recently announced plans for hyperlocal sites in 10 markets across the U.S. while it’s been reported that AOL will pour $50 million into Patch this year. Even YouTube is throwing its hat into the ring, last month launching its test CitizenTube news feed.

Locally, in Massachusetts, GateHouse Media has been ramping up its WickedLocal.com site during the past several years to be a “portal” site representing featured content from 158 individual community websites.

Advertising Age recently detailed some of the bigger players on the hyperlocal scene:

The big story about the news business these days, as a matter of fact, revolves around companies that generate news and information using big networks of cheap freelancers. They include Associated Content, which Yahoo bought last month for about $100 million; Demand Media, which is reportedly considering going public this summer; Seed, where writers, photographers and others can submit their content for publication on AOL; and Examiner.com, which says it has 40,000 freelance “Examiners.”

They’ve already got big traction with readers. Examiner’s sites got more than 14.4 million visitors in May, according to ComScore — more than the 14 million people who visited all the McClatchy newspaper sites combined, or the 13.4 million people who visited MediaNews sites, or the 12 million who visited Hearst newspaper sites.

AOL and Yahoo have separately been staffing up their original blogs and news sections; Yahoo is currently advertising for a blog editor for Yahoo Finance, who will report original stories plus hire a team of bloggers. And sites that aggregate local content are also mixing things up. Last year MSNBC.com acquired EveryBlock, giving it a new ability to horn in on newspapers’ role as local information centers.

Newspapers have, meanwhile, been cutting reporters, thinning the distinction between their products and those of their rivals.

However, even The Gray Lady has stumbled in its foray into the hyperlocal market. The New York Times just last week shuttered its hyperlocal and collaborative journalism experiment called, appropriately, The Local, and hooked up with the New Jersey-based Baristanet.com which now has free reign to link to The Local archives.

As PR professionals we should all be on the look-out to make sure any articles we submit or post are transparent in their origin and clear in their objective. While sites such as these or Allvoices.com, NowPublic.com or Helium make it easier than ever for PR pros to submit news and feature stories we’ve still got to rely on some of our tried-and-true pitching strategies: know who we are pitching and make the info clear and relevant for their readers. In Matter’s own backyard, The Cape Cod Times recently cautioned readers of hyperlocal sites to look closely at and consider the source of their news. Newsroom ombudsman Jayne M. Iafrate wrote, “Citizen journalists are reporters and editors with little, if any, professional journalism training who write and publish news. Many practitioners have a specific point of view they wish to promote; others mean well, but fall short of professional ethics and standards simply because they lack training. And other citizen journalists flourish because they provide unvarnished glimpses into their worlds — places and ideas left unexplored by or unavailable to trained journalists.”

Have you been pitching hyperlocal or user-generated sites? What tips would you share with other PR pros for dealing with this new breed of media?

Peter Shankman makes all the right moves.

The guy is brilliant and, if you’re in PR, you can’t help but know that he has a cat named Karma and, when he’s not jumping from an insane altitude, he’s training for an Ironman. Oh, and he’s the founder and CEO of a PR/journalism game-changing company called Help a Reporter Out (HARO).

HARO was founded on Facebook in 2008 and has since grown to be THE social media services company that connects writers and sources. In my opinion, two things make HARO particularly unique: It’s a free service for all involved and it’s a no-BS community where PR pros are held accountable for the pitches they send. Users get booted for spammy, spray-and-pray pitches and, as a result, HARO is somewhat of a safe haven for members of the media.

The lucrative HARO “sponsorship” program that Shankman created is also noteworthy. He places advertisements at the start of each email, which are chock-full of media queries, and the open rates are said (by HARO) to be about 75 percent.

In fact, this business model is so remarkable that, just last week, Shankman announced that his little enterprise had been scooped up by Vocus, a company that provides on-demand software for public relations management and manages the press release distribution service called PRWeb.

We join the industry in congratulating Peter Shankman on this significant accomplishment. According to a Mashable story, he will continue to build the HARO brand with the help of the folks at Vocus and, more importantly, the service will remain free. We look forward to seeing what the future holds for HARO – and continuing to use this fantastic service to supplement our daily PR activities and outreach!

One of the things I love about working at a PR agency is no client is ever the same. There are always new challenges, new pitches and new strategies to be deployed. Though our clients often have products to be launched and reviews to be secured, recently I’ve had the pleasure of working on an account in which our team must rely on the expertise of the company’s executives for pitch fodder. We’ve had some fun and learned some lessons along the way, especially when it comes to responding to breaking news. Recognizing the valuable opportunity breaking news presents for us to mobilize the company’s very-willing executives to comment on relevant topics, our team identified strategies that work well for both our client and reporters.

Of course, with breaking news, there’s really no time to waste and fast action from PR pros (and clients!) is essential. Here are a few additional strategies that have worked really well for our team:

Anticipate the news: Sometimes I think it would be nice to be able to read minds and forsee news. While I don’t have superhero powers, by persistently scouring news outlets and trade publications, it’s not too difficult to identify soon-to-be hot topics and upcoming announcements that are just the right fit for a clients. When you have an idea of what’s coming down the pipe, it’s so much easier to anticipate what reporters will be writing about and to pitch them valuable insights from your client or to provide them with an unexpected angle.

Develop colorful quotes from a company executive: Once you have an idea of what tomorrow’s news will be today, touch base with your client to ask him/her for some insight on the topic and to explain how consumers (or other audiences) may be affected. With your client’s help, you can develop dynamic, attention-grabbing quotes to share with your media contacts. Make sure the quotes are short, interesting and could translate effortlessly into a news story. This will help you secure an interview for your client. Alternatively, a reporter on a short deadline (we’re talking about breaking news after all!) may be able to quickly insert one or more of the pre-written quotes into an article.

Respond to reporters who already published articles on the topic: Let’s face it, we can’t always anticipate the news or connect with a reporter before he/she has published an article. It never hurts to follow up with reporters who have already covered the breaking news. Perhaps they’re working on a follow-up story or can direct you to a colleague who is developing a different angle and needs expert input.

Tune into Twitter (and other social media): When it comes to breaking news, it’s not uncommon for an outlet or reporter to post a quick news update on Twitter with a note that the full story is to come. It’s a great day indeed for PR pros when this happens, as it makes it even easier to target pitches and focus outreach efforts.

Surely there are many approaches to PR efforts surrounding breaking news (here are similar but more detailed tips); the above are just a few short and sweet ones that have worked well for us. We’d love to hear your tips, too! What’s worked well and what hasn’t? Please feel free to share.

I’ll admit, I’ve never been one for gambling, yet I can fully see its allure to others. There is something appealing about rolling a winning pair of dice, turning over a winning hand, or pulling down on the arm of a winning slot machine. Heck, even I wholeheartedly enjoy simply walking the floors of a casino and seeing all the excitement unfold. So why is it than that I don’t share in that excitement? Is it because I am not a risk taker? No, that can’t be it. Because as PR professionals, do we not take chances every day? Each time we go after a story and take all the necessary steps to land our clients in these stories, that is essentially what we are doing. Sure, PR is about relationships and utilizing those relationships for the better of our clients, but is there ever an element of pure luck and timing involved with our strategies? I wonder.

Recently, after months of pitching a long-lead story, an opportunity presented itself for one of our clients to be included in a national morning television show segment. As with any great hit, there was such a rush of excitement involved in the events leading up to the airdate. We dutifully prepped the reporter through email exchanges and conference calls, and continuously updated our client on the logistics surrounding the coverage. The pieces were in place. All that was left to do was to wait.

Only a few short days before the piece was scheduled to run, however, we received word that the portion of the segment that would include our client had unfortunately been cut. There was nothing that could have been done differently on our part to change this outcome. These things just happen and in cases that involve broadcast, they can happen at a moment’s notice. Next week’s “Balloon Boy” or an out-of-control Prius hoax could wreak havoc on what should be a shining day for one of your clients.

Times like this though can quickly remind us that no matter how great our efforts, nothing is ever guaranteed. As PR professionals we will forever be at the mercy of the ever changing news cycle, but it is our responsibility to keep taking chances and do everything in our power to make the next big hit happen.

Much has been written about newspapers and their ongoing transition to digital (the topic was covered on Matter Chatter last year); but what about magazines? On Monday, the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) released the findings from its survey of practices at magazine Web sites (in addition to a related article), which reveal some very interesting, and at times unexpected, information about the state of magazines’ online content. Like newspapers, magazines are facing decreased readership and advertising, coupled with budget reductions. They’re also learning to navigate the waters of the online world and trying to identify the business models and practices that will enable their Web sites to succeed.

Despite the challenges magazines face in the evolving digital age, I was surprised by some of the findings from the CJR study, which represent 665 consumer magazines. While the survey explored a variety of topics related to Web site practices and profitability, I was most intrigued by how the magazines reported developing online content and their standards for digital publishing. For example:

- Two-thirds of respondents’ staff are involved in producing online content, but only 26 percent of those staffers have prior Web experience

- Fact-checking (excluding blogs) is less rigorous online than in print for 35 percent of respondents

- 59 percent of those surveyed reported either there is no copy editing online (11 percent), or copy editing requirements are less strict in comparison to the print edition

Stephanie Clifford of the New York Times wrote about the “slack editing” on websites last week, asserting, “The only thing standard about magazines’ Web sites is that there are no standards.”

Personally, I hope the magazine industry will unite to develop some sort of online publishing standards, for the sake of journalism and readers everywhere who rightfully expect high-quality, error-free articles from their favorite magazines. However, this will likely take time, as magazines increasingly transition to the Web and determine if and how they can be profitable online.

In the meantime, we can consider how the CJR’s findings affect PR pros. For instance, we should be aware of the policies of each of the magazines we pitch, in order to maximized our clients’ coverage and set realistic expectations. We should recognize the differences (if they exist) between content for print and content for the Web at individual outlets and how that content is produced. As an example, after recently securing a contributed article placement for a client in an online outlet, I asked how we could be considered for the print version in the future and was told the magazine selects the best of the online content to be included in the print issue. Interesting. We should also keep in mind, for now at least, many outlets tend to favor speed above all, when it comes to publishing online content. PR pros can alter pitches accordingly, by offering reader tips from our clients or short contributed articles, both of which can quickly and easily be posted on a Web site.

Like other media, it will be interesting to watch how magazines continue to evolve in response to the digital age and how the changes will affect PR pros. Have you already adapted your tactics for pitching print or Web editors at magazines? Please do share! (more…)

Anyone who has ever sat or scrolled through a “Twitter 101” is probably familiar with two of social media’s top rules: 1) be authentic 2) share worthwhile media assets/content. It’s often struck me as funny that these best practices are being tossed around as something new for PR.

Sure, the type of asset shared might be slightly different than it was 10 years ago, whether it be compelling video or a multimedia slideshow, and we might be forced to show how genuine we are in only 140 characters – but the role of a PR person as a reliable source of accurate and interesting information remains unchanged. I’d take this a step further and say that operating as a sincere individual with appealing things to talk about not only makes you a good PR professional, it makes you a good friend, dinner companion, date, drinking buddy, (insert role here).

Not only does this just feel instinctively true, research indicates that creating valuable resources is more effective than algorithm chasing as it pertains to SEO, a vital aspect of measuring a PR campaign or even the worth of a single press release. With sophisticated, ever-changing formulas for determining Google rankings, I say the best bet for keeping your clients top-of-mind (and top-of-index) is to tell a winning story and just keep it real, man.

For years, ‘what have you been reading lately?’ has been my favorite question to ask when interviewing a potential Matter employee, to the point where I am often teased by some of my colleagues for asking that very question. Nonetheless, I have always believed that the question gives you real insight into what a person offers beyond the ABC’s (writing, organization, press and client relations) of PR.

Today, our culture (led with great gusto by PR super-consumers) is producing and processing more content than ever.  Yet it appears that we (and I include myself) are actually reading and learning less, and therefore extending an age-old ‘mile-wide, inch-deep’ cliché for many professionals. Physically reading a newspaper/magazine/book forces consumers to read things that may not be of direct interest to them, but has the potential to open them to unconventional, yet effective, writing styles or perhaps under reported new trends that are exploding a continent away. At the very least, reading more physical media will broaden one’s knowledge base, which contributes to a well-rounded individual who can see angles/stories/trends that a more narrowly focused consumer cannot. Thanks to RSS feeds, blogs, Twitter, simple online news sites, Facebook… far too often content is filtered, skimmed and regurgitated, rather than understood, explained and taught.  This is a shortcoming that is detrimental to most, but particularly damaging for the PR professional.

Often what distinguishes the average from the good in the game is a professional’s insight on what messages, stories and trends that are gaining traction in the media and how to match them with the various assets of their clients. A combination of both old-school (fiction of all kinds, long-form journalism, The Grey Lady aka The New York Times, metro alternative papers, local broadcast outlets) and new-school (tweets, TechCrunch’s rude boys and girls, vlogs) content will give you the context, understanding and perspective you need to be a better PR practitioner.

Below is a sample of what I regularly read, both online and otherwise.

By the way, what are you reading?

Matt

* Boston Herald, ‘The Inside Track’ – Boston’s top gossip collection. No one admits to reading it, but everyone talks about it…

* The Daily Beast, ‘Cheat Sheet’ – Tina Brown’s latest venture offers up a quality collection of the top five newspaper articles of the day

* New York – Yes, I live in the Boston area, but there’s always an article worth reading in every issue.

* Fast Company – The top press target out there. Smart, insightful and always different.

* Salem News & Beverly Citizen – My local papers, some of the best reporting comes from your local journalists.

* Vanity Fair – Beautiful photos, thicker than a door stop and always a number of must read long-form, non-fiction articles

* The Given Day, Dennis Lehane – Labor unrest, race relations and Babe Ruth in 1919 Boston.

As PR pros, we’ve been following the shrinking media market and modifying our strategies with new ways to get coverage for our clients despite a dwindling audience. Pursuing traditional media coverage will often be top priority, but as the number of journalists and outlets lessen, we have to get more and more creative with our messages and find new audiences.

Yesterday, Ad Age noted that one way companies have modified their strategies to the changing landscape is by creating content for and pitching directly to consumers. While Twitter is old news to some people, many companies are only just diving into social media to reach consumers. Many of us have found that one of the best ways to reach new audiences is getting our clients active on Twitter.

Twitter is one of the easiest and fastest growing ways to broadcast news about your client while creating an engaging relationship with consumers. We just launched a new Twitter account for one of my clients and I am excited to see the new audiences our tweets will reach and the conversations they will create.

How are you finding new audiences and engaging consumers?