On Feb. 28 we received an inquiry from a subscriber (vendor, not agency) asking whether journalists were bristling at being pitched in light of the crisis in Ukraine. The subscriber said “proactive pitching” had been paused. Here was our response…
SWMS contributor Bob Scheier writes: A company’s Wikipedia entry is often one of the first to come up in response to a Web search, and might get more exposure than its Twitter, Facebook or other social media account.
With 2022 a month away, it’s time to imagine next year’s trends, in a way that lets our subscribers take action whenever possible. Here’s our list.
I’m finding that a surprising number of vendors have removed or hidden the “media contact” links on their sites. They’ve been replaced by lead-snagging “bots” asking if I’d like a demo or what “digital transformation” challenges I’m facing, and generic “Contact Us” pages that may or may not lead to someone who can respond to a media request.
Tired of writing pitches and press releases? AI writes copy these days. This month we used Copy.ai to promote the fictitious Wazoolie Pro, “a hypnotizer that convinces prospects to buy products and services they don’t need.”
Over the past few years, conference calls via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other tools have replaced the traditional phone line for conducting interviews. As it turns out, the benefits extend beyond saving on the phone bill.
Relationships are the key to PR success. How many times have you heard that? In our experience, they are “a” factor but two others stand just as important. Let’s explore them.
[SWMS contributor Amanda Orr writes:] There’s a quiet rumbling in the world of PR consultants and tech publicists: media relations is not what it used to be. The change didn’t happen overnight. Perhaps it’s because I’m writing this from my temporary home in Amman, Jordan, surrounded by Roman ruins, but I can’t help but imagine an archaeologist one day in the far off future, excavating a site in San Francisco…
PR pros can learn a lot about Protocol Enterprise as a brand — and about the art of interviewing — by watching the Mar. 9 Protocol Live web event, in which senior Protocol reporters Tom Krazit and Joe Williams interview executives from Google and industrial IoT startup Webee.
Most PR pros know to analyze their targets’ work before pitching. Few make the time. Even if they did, what exactly would one look for? Here’s an exercise anyone can do, and it can reveal quite a bit about how they might cover your news.
YOUR ACCOUNT
FRIDGE NOTES
The Atlantic’s Karen Hao, in conjunction with the Pulitzer Center, is designing a course in AI for journalists. Classes begin next month. Details here. Might be something to alert your friendlies about. Karen hopes to help train 1,000 journalists in AI over the next two years.
Joshua Topolsky‘s edit project for Robinhood is optimized for mobile but you can peruse it here. The design seems crazy. Context from Axios’s Sara Fischer here.
‘The Prompt” is not out yet, but you can sign up for it here.
That’s the strategy as expressed to NYT’s Katie Robertson by Axios CEO Jim VandeHei. First up: Eleanor Hawkins, Sara Fischer and Dan Primack.
Forbes’s reputation is taking a hit because of the ad scandal unearthed this month by the WSJ. Some advertisers have stopped spending with Forbes, at least temporarily. Here’s the latest from Digiday [subscription required].
What a terrific scoop from the WSJ’s Patience Haggin: Forbes for years operated a shadow, tiny-traffic web site — at www3.forbes.com — that housed advertising bought to run on the big-traffic Forbes.com site. Advertisers paid for the real site but were placed on the spammy shadow site. After WSJ broke the story, Forbes took the shadow site offline. One quote from the story: “Imagine if a car dealership slapped a Lexus sticker on an economy Toyota and sold it to you as a Lexus.”
