Thanks to Publicity Hound Paul Furiga of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for tipping us off to this story in the Pittsburgh Business Times. It’s about how the state of Pennsylvania is posting at its website blog items written by travelers making road trips across the state. “It seems the state is pretty tightly controlling where the bloggers… Read More
Washington, D.C. free daily hawks issues
A story in Friday’s Washington Post says that with circulation cooling off, competition heating up and retail distribution thinning out, the Washington City Paper took to the streets last week, deploying 20 hawkers to offer the paper outside 10 Metro stations in the District. The District has two other free papers—the Washington Examiner and the… Read More
PMA Update: Be the resident expert at high-traffic sites
Internet publicity expert Steve O’Keefe says that blogging, posting to discussion boards, writing articles and other ways of generating online publicity might be too time-consuming for busy authors, speakers and experts. So instead of trying to be the expert at your own website and hope that you pull traffic, try being the resident expert at… Read More
PMA Update: Book reviewers don’t want press kits
Do you know what book reviewers at newspapers and magazines do with those fancy press kits you send them? They throw them away. Or, if it’s Bob Minzenheimer of the New York Times, he throws away the contents and takes the folders home to his kids. A panel of book reviewers told members of the… Read More
From PMA University—4 principles for book publicity
Book publicist Alice Acheson gave 200 members of Publishers Marketing Association her four principles of publicity success this afternon at PMA University, the annual educational program for authors and publishers. Her principles are: 1. Start marketing the minute your book contract is signed. Write one paragraph about the book and one paragraph about the author,… Read More
From PMA University—Don’t let authors pitch book review editors
Kristen Matthews, book editor for the “Early Show” on CBS, says book publicists shouldn’t let their authors call book review editors like her and pitch a program segment. “Some of them can’t stand to hear the word no,” she told 200 members of the Publishers Marketing Association this afternoon. Others refuse to accept their publicist’s… Read More
How to find out if bloggers are trashing you
If your boss expects a thick pile of press clippings at the end of each month, and you fear for your life because you don’t have them, it’s time to bring the boss into the 21st Century. Find out, instead, what bloggers are saying about your company. I just spent the last hour surfing from… Read More
Off to PMA, BEA
I’m off to PMA University, sponsored by the publishers marketing association, and BookExpoAmerica in New York City. If you’ll be at PMA, I’m on a panel from 10:15-11:45AM Wednesday on “How to launch a proftable 30-day Internet publicity campaign. On Thursday, I’m part of a morning panel from 10:45-1:15 on “How to slice and dice… Read More
Memorial Day weekend ideal time to pitch
Reporters already are knocking off work for a long holiday weekend. TV assignment editors are searching everywhere for a good local angle to Memorial Day. News staffs are lean and will continue to be, straight through until Tuesday. But the print and broadcast media still need enough stories to fill all that airtime and all… Read More
The danger of sponsorships
If your company or oranization wants to partner with a big-name celebrity or sports star, understand the potential danger—and that you might get publicity you wish you hadn’t gotten. Aurora Health Care, Wisconsin’s biggest hospital system, has pulled its sponsorship of the 2005 Ahman Green Football Camp because Ahman Green, the popular running back for… Read More