If you want publicity that reaches the 18-to-22-year-old crowd, take advantage of the powerful reach of college newspapers. But don’t use the same pitching tactics you use with weekly and metro newspapers. For one, reporters at college newspapers are difficult to reach in the morning. That’s because many of them study or party late into… Read More
Print Media
How to pitch to USA Today’s technology columnist
Kevin Maney, USA Today’s technology writer and tech columnist, doesn’t cover daily breaking news, individual product pieces, product announcements or product reviews, unless “they are mind-blowing.” But he wants PR people to let him know about up-and-coming technology that is just coming out of labs and factories, as well as tech trends in other countries.… Read More
How to get into Entertainment Weekly
The best publicist is one who understands that the media is their first client, says Carole Willcocks, Los Angeles bureau operations manager of Entertainment Weekly. If the publicist’s other client happens to be a hot-shot entertainer, that can be difficult. If you represent entertainters who want to get into Entertainment Weekly, read this interview courtesy… Read More
Newspaper editor wants how-to books, info
David Foster, managing editor of the Journal Register Company’s News Gleaner family of newspapers, feeds feature stories to all the newspapers in his chain, including 24 dailies. “Each week I write a lead feature (usually linked to a book), an Off The Shelf column that focuses on overlooked titles, and ‘How to … ‘ which… Read More
Boulder newspaper trains citizen journalists
One of the things I hated about the newspaper business was our failure, as a whole, to teach people how to use the newspaper. That’s why I welcome a new program started by the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colorado. It’s sponsoring an in-person training session for its MyTown site. It’s running full-color, half-page ads in… Read More
L.A. Times changes editorial pages
The L.A. Times, in yesterday’s editions, announced a variety of changes to its editorial pages. Next week, it will announce the introduction of “wikitorials” — an online feature that will let readers rewrite Los Angeles Times editorials. Letters to the editor and opinion columns are a terrific way to promote your product, service, cause or… 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
Tips on how old media can survive
Today’s Wall Street Journal has a great section titled “how Old Media Can Survive in a New World.” It’s loaded with tips from experts on how the traditional newspaper, television, music and advertising industries can survive. The section is worth keeping. Some of the tips will probably come to pass. And it will help you… Read More
How to convince a magazine to write about maternity boutique
This week, 10 Publicity Hounds have tips Andrew Ingram of Toronto, Canada. He and his wife own a high-end maternity boutique. A local magazine that has a Best of Toronto section and a fashion guide continues to ignore them. Andrew wants clever publicity ideas that will get the boutique into the magazine and elsewhere. From… Read More
How to find magazines’ special issues
Here’s another resource for trade magazines and special sections being planned by consumer and business publications. Check out Special Issues, an online database of editorial calendars, special issues and content “mined” from trade and industrial magazine websites. Examples of special issues include industry outlooks, overviews, surveys, statistical issues, company ranking lists, buyers guides, salary surveys,… Read More