Sometimes it’s easy to forget that when you’re pitching Tier 1 reporters, you are pitching their bosses at the same time. That’s why it’s helpful to understand the entire editorial process in the publications you’re pitching — not just the persuasion part.
Events grew like crazy last year, and 2024 promises to be the same. So it’s time we offer a cheat sheet on whom to approach and pitch in selected Tier 1 event operations. Unlike reporters, event influencers have no content to review.
We were pleased to find ten podcasts dedicated to edtech. All ten seem to be interview-based, rather than a rundown of recent events, like many other tech podcasts. This bodes well for pitching.
When indie IoT journalist Stacey Higginbotham ceased publishing Stacey On IoT in August 2023, PR pros mourned. Technical and personable, Stacey was in a class by herself. Still, we have found 17 targets worth pitching.
We came up with a half-dozen podcasts that focus on workplace issues. Contact info included. Most are backwaters. Check out the Adam Grant one; he is affiliated with TED.
Here’s a cheat sheet with 15 targets who cover workplace issues, ranging from real estate to DEI. Watch for our companion cheat sheet on newsletters and podcasts that cover this trend.
Fortune will finish 2023 as the hottest publication out there. According to Similarweb, Fortune’s 2022 web audience grew 60 percent, from 12M to 20M. In ’23 it will have grown another 50 percent, from 20M to 30M.
Here are 20 reporters who have covered the topics of disinformation and misinformation. Our research found that the latter term was covered a bit more than the former. There is currently no difference in the two; the terms seem to be interchangeable.
Here’s a cheat sheet with 19 targets who cover issues related to Gen Z. You’ll see a mix of B2B and B2C names, from newsletters to newspapers.
Here’s a cheat sheet with 24 columnists (and reviewers) who write for WSJ, NYT, Bloomberg and the FT. Columnists are typically tough to pitch, being the creatures of opinion they are.
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FRIDGE NOTES
Well, for now it’s Jim Jordan… but such news illustrates the kind of world we seem to be headed for. Adweek has the details, subscription required.
No “predictions” post will appear on this site. That said, quite a number of subscribers have asked for a Zoom/MS Teams presentation on what 2025 will bring. A conversation is precisely the right tool for the job. After the election — and with AI transforming publishing and life — “2025” is best discussed among peers, not predicted. So if you’d like to have a confidential group exchange on what stands to unfold, and why, and how comms pros can come out on top in spite of it all, drop a line and we shall schedule something.
According to Adweek, Omnicom CEO John Wren and IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky were in merger talks for eleven and a half months before the transaction was announced this week. Amazing that it didn’t leak.
Should PR pros stop visiting X, with all its lies and hate? It’s only going to get worse. Or are tidbits from targets too important to walk away from? Click here to watch tech edit vet David Strom and I disagree (at high speed) about this, as one compelling visual after another pops up on your screen. In 2025, SWMS will officially launch “SWMS Sound Thinking,” designed to be “argumentative insight in six minutes or less.” Each segment will explore a timely and controversial topic of interest to tech comms pros. This prototype runs 5:25. Hope you enjoy it — feedback vital and welcome! –Sam
New EIC Jamie Heller has asked her reporters to start going on camera — for the BI TikTok channel — to explain the big, deep-divey story they just published. Other publications do this — especially archival Fortune. BI is now on that too. Game on.
At this time last year, Eric Newcomer and his two podcast co-hosts — Max Child and James Wilsterman — each formed an “AI startup fantasy team” and picked five AI startups to seed their rosters. We’re now in year 2 and it’s time to draft again. The podcasters wonder… which startups do they dump? Which do they add? The player whose startups accumulate the most total value by Nov. 1, 2028 is the winner, so there’s plenty of time to make adjustments. Here’s a link to the AI fantasy team podcast — you may need a password. Not sure.
