Wed, 2020-02-12 14:11
Sam
Mitch Wagner: 'Get to the Point -- Fast'
[We asked veteran tech reporter Mitch Wagner to deconstruct two of his recent news stories, explaining why he wrote them the way he did. Mitch has done so -- you will enjoy his contribution. --Ed.]
A tech journalist today needs to get to the point right away. As a tech journalist, I have an ideal reader in mind every time I write an article. As I write, I'm always asking myself how I can best serve that reader with the news they need to know, fast.
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[Enjoy this true story from SWMS contributor and PR pro Anton Molodetskiy -Ed.] You may think that journalists would rather talk to a telemarketer than answer your phone call, but the phone is still a key tool for both reporters and PR. I learned this hard way a few years ago while managing outreach for a B2B startup coming out of stealth.
Placing contributed content ideally comes without strings -- "pitch it, place it, forget it" -- but that's not how it works at Third Door Media, publishers of Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. Third Door is in the community business. Community editor Wendy Almeida wants to help but you must help her too.
Newsletters sure are tough to pitch. Many lack bespoke content. Many are assembled by managing editors or junior folks with scant domain expertise. Others are columnists impervious to suggestion. Every now and again you’ll find someone pitchable, such as...
If you're looking for pitchable deep expertise in the IT infrastructure space, you can still find it in Packet Pushers, a team of podcasting publishers who celebrate their tenth anniversary this May. Freshly posted on their site is the 500th episode of the Heavy Networking podcast.
As someone who has been writing an almost-weekly Web Informant email newsletter since 1995, Sam asked me to comment on the current state of the art. It seems as if newsletters are having a new lease on life. Up until last summer, I wrote one of the Inside.com newsletters on IT security...
TechCrunch has announced yet another event series -- TechCrunch Early Stage -- designed to help seed and Series A startups grow quickly. The first event will take place Apr. 28 at the Hilton Union Square San Francisco. Events in Paris and New York will be announced later this year.
Editorially, what will Protocol aspire to? Editor-at-large David Pierce laid down some two-ton hints last month on his Twitter feed. Studying this list will help shape client expectations and help you build an approach to 2020's "place to be."
Perhaps you read last month about Day 1 of the Wired25 event in San Francisco. Many a newsmaker spoke, and it was an A-list event from a speaker and attendee POV. Less was written about Day 2 -- "Culture & Fam" Day, Wired called it. The formula may become a brand-builder in the 2020s as the second digital generation comes of age.
This past year was tough on tech PR -- no need to recount the details. But in the nick of time IDG Insider Pro has breezed into town. Though it does run product reviews that appear on other IDG sites, it's no mere roll-up. It's got unique analysis and contributed content and much that other sites do not have -- and it's pitchable like the old days.