If you’re trying to get onto one of the big morning TV talk shows to promote a product, tie it to a current event—and then sweeten your pitch by offering similar products. That’s what Liz Murphy of Formula PR in el Segundo, California did. Several month sago, she pitched the morning TV talk shows on behalf of… Read More
TV & Radio
Pitching ‘All Things Considered’? Pitch while the story is hot
If you’re pitching National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” Carol Klinger, associate editor, who has worked for NPR since 1995 and fielded thousands of pitches, says you must remember that this show deals with breaking news, not mostly feature-oriented stories that are the mainstay of other NPR shows. Here are her pitching tips. Pitches she hates: Get… Read More
If you missed Oprah’s guest booker, join her Thursday
Wouldn’t it be great if you could get inside the minds of the army of bookers who decide which authors and experts get booked on Oparah, FOX News, CNN and other big shows? They could tell you instantly exactly what kinds of topics they’re looking for, how to pitch them and the big mistakes that would… Read More
Why is ‘the mic is always on’ so difficult to understand?
It happened again—not to two starry-eyed, naive news sources who sat in front of the TV cameras for the first time—but to two political insiders who should have know better. I call it microphonitis—blabbering on and on about private matters and personal opinions and even uttering obscenities—while a microphone is pinned to your lapel. This time, it… Read More
Grade Edwards’ ‘Nightline’ interview: How did he do?
Put politics aside for a minute. If you saw the interview that ABC’s “Nightline” did with former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Friday night, tell us how you think he did from a PR standpoint. If you missed the interview, you can watch it in two parts here and here. I don’t care if… Read More
Did Jesse Jackson know the mic was on?
How could the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a master at playing the media like a fiddle, not know the mic was on last week when he made that repulsive comment about castrating Barack Obama? One of the very first things you learn in Media Training 101 is that if you’re mic’d, always assume it’s on and never… Read More
What Tim Russert taught us about how to interview
After almost five days of non-stop tributes to Tim Russert, none was as fascinating as the five-year-old article I found last night titled “How to Beat Tim Russert.” Jack Shafer, who writes the press column for the online magazine Slate, dissected in step-by-step detail the strategy that any guest can use to disarm Russert, the toughest… Read More
Unusual weather a perfect chance to pitch weather stories
Flooding in the Midwest. Wild fires in California. Snow in the Northwest. Scorching heat on the East Coast. And it’s still only spring. This is the time to pitch weather stories. If you sell or give away a product or service to help people cope with the weather, let the media know. They’re hungry for… Read More
NPR Books Watch Contest goal: Get more authors on NPR
When National Public Radio interviews an author, it’s almost a ticket to the top of the Amazon.com lists. But the way book publicist Yen Cheong calculates it, the chances of an author landing an interview on National Public Radio is 15 times harder than getting into Harvard. Cheong, the assistant director of publicity for Viking and Penguin Books in… Read More
Teleseminars will teach radio, TV publicity tips
If you’re aching to get onto radio and TV, check out the five free teleseminars offered the last week in May by Web Business Ownership, devoted to teaching small business owners and entrepreneurs how to set up an Internet business. You can register here for Media Week 2008: Sunday, May 25: “Small Business Meets Big Media.” J. Roger Powe of NBC… Read More