Conference coffee is awful, but you choke it down because there is no alternative. Likewise, a virtual conference is no substitute for the real thing. But it's all there is, so you make it work. Virtual conferences are popping up all over in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. PR people love them as a way of keeping clients connected with journalists.
We regretfully present a running list of articles addressing layoffs, furloughs and salary cuts across the world of editorial.
Reporters and editors love roundups, because it lets them quickly provide readers with lists of different companies providing similar offerings around a single topic, especially when that topic is timely (witness all the Covid-19 roundups lately). But PR agencies tend to dislike them, because they don’t get as much credit for a roundup placement...
As the Covid-19 crisis moves well into its second month, we've noticed a dwindling number of new story approaches to try. Roundups, with their low-payoff SOV, still rule, especially in B2B. This week did spot a few emerging approaches -- pretty much special reports -- but still providing paths for most tech companies and agencies.
[PR pro Amanda Orr writes:] Like much of the country, communications teams both in-house and at PR firms have been in a holding pattern. As we look at the Johns Hopkins tracker on a daily basis, watching the numbers of infections and fatalities climb, we knew (at least I hope most of us knew) that this wasn’t the time to send emails or make cold calls...
As furloughs and pay cuts ripple through media brands, alternate routes that once looked like a waste of time suddenly don’t. One of those routes is Medium. Pitching Medium-owned publications can be tough, because Medium has free access to thousands of posts that authors contribute each week.
Last week we polled B2B contributed content gatekeepers, nearly all of whom wanted the same kinds of pitches they received before the Covid-19 nightmare. Our research echoed what we heard last month from reporters and editors.
“Pitch the reporters but study the analysts” has been our mantra for a while now. In that spirit, we recently checked in with Constellation Research founder R “Ray” Wang, who has been busy presenting to clients -- and listening to them, too.
David Strom says: "My inbox is overflowing with a virus: all Covid, all the time, with pitches and experts offered from all walks of life. It isn’t just the infosec vendors, either: I’ve gotten pitches from genealogy vendors, and how sports reporters are coping now that there are no professional games being played."
With few exceptions, contributed content gatekeepers are operating the way they always did before Covid-19 -- serving the readers who buy products, manage teams and have projects to deliver. Here's what nine of them said this week.
Last week at this time we saw strategic content from levels high above the reporter level, on "What will it take to get past this coronavirus thing?" Here's what's coming this week, and how you can get a piece of it.
CNBC anchor Jon Fortt offers his perspectives personally, not representing the views of his employer CNBC.
