At least 7 out of 10 Publicity Hounds who beg me to help them get booked on “Oprah” or other big TV shows have no business being there. Either their topic isn’t a good fit for the show, or they can’t articulate a convincing pitch in 15 seconds or less. Yet they continue to flood… Read More
TV & Radio
NPR canceling ‘Day to Day,’ ‘News & Notes’
National Public Radio is canceling “Day to Day,” and “News & Notes” March 29 and laying off 7 percent of its staff, after experiencing sharp declines in funding, especially from corporate sponsors. Twenty-two journalists will lose their jobs, including hosts Madeleine Brand and Farai Chideya. The shows are both based in Culver City, Calif., at NPR West, a… Read More
When TV/radio talk show guests cancel, hosts need fill-ins
If you’re angling for some free publicity this holiday season on radio or TV talk shows, here’s a tip that I included under the headline “…And Build the Relationship” in Tuesday’s issue of my ezine, “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week.” It generated reponse from several readers. Contact radio and TV talk show hosts and… Read More
Pitch an entire segment for the morning TV talk shows
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
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