Wed, 2020-06-17 17:29
Sam
Tech Edit Spotlight: Science Edit
Science coverage is everywhere these days. This should be good news for PR pros with science stories to tell, but it’s not that simple. Much of the coverage, obviously, goes to Covid-19. Less obviously, it goes to space. And beginning this month, other newsy topics have staked their claim. What shelf space is left? We studied 14 media brands and found out.
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We spent time this week completing a recently-fielded Fortune subscriber study and it was revealing indeed. A good way to ascertain what’s important to a publication is to complete a subscriber survey. The questions are designed to deliver basic info about subscribers but also are framed to test future concepts.
No airplanes? No problem! We've moved our coverage-challenge brainstorming fully online, and we've learned (and re-learned) many a lesson, in prepping for the sessions and in conversation. Here's a Q&A summarizing problems and solutions relating to pandemic responses and social unrest -- and some general pitching do's and don'ts.
Fast Company last week unveiled The Queer 50, a first-ever list of LGBTQ women and nonbinary innovators in business and tech. The idea germinated in Fall 2019, when Fast Company editors and members of Lesbians Who Tech decided informally that “it was about time a list like this existed,” recalls FC editor Julia Herbst.
Most journalists like to say that they don’t need help from a PR professional, but in my career I’ve found their assistance valuable in specific situations beyond general news requests. If you’re looking to be proactive and find areas where you can assist a journalist, these areas can be the start of establishing a relationship for future pitches and client outreach.
BuzzFeed senior technology reporter Alex Kantrowitz says he’s proud of his first book, Always Day One, published last month in hardcover and online. Always Day One explores management attitudes and techniques that keep Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft on top (Apple not so much, due to its secrecy, Alex says).
From a PR point of view, all Tier 1 TV interviews should go as well as the May 4 CNBC Jim Cramer interview of Salesforce founder Marc Benioff. Jim asked only four questions during the five-minute interview, three of which were veiled invitations for Marc to say whatever he had to say — which he did.
Attention media trainers: you’ll never see an executive “master the message” like Salesforce founder Marc Benioff did last week, live on the air, with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang and CNBC’s Jim Cramer. Marc was promoting the launch of 
Nothing brings PR anxiety like crickets, especially when you pitch contributed content and include the submission. Was the pitch bad? Was the piece bad, or both? Or neither! Or maybe "they just didn’t see it, so I’ll 'float it to the top of their in-box' in a day or two."
Among the Red Hat Virtual Summit attendees this week was veteran open source freelancer Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. Here are his thoughts.
Attending Red Hat Virtual Summit 2020 was fascinating and, at times, fun. But we could see how demanding journalists could have been frustrated. Here are two journalists' views of the experience.