The weeks leading up to Christmas are the very best times to pitch the media with your story idea. I offered several controversial holiday ideas earlier this week, and I just found a great list of more story ideas with holiday hooks, courtesy of the PRLeap blog. Many of them would be great to pitch to… Read More
Pitching
Stuart Elliot, NYT ad columnist, offers tips
If you’re dying to get yourself or your PR client in front of longtime New York Times advertising columnist Stuart Elliot, read his pitching tips, courtesy of Marketing Sherpa. He tells you how to get your story into print and how to get onto his podcast. You can access this article for free until December 18.
Following up can tilt publicity in your favor
Ask any journalist if people should follow up with them after sending a press release or emailing a pitch, and you’ll hear the word “No!” The persistent people who follow up, however, are sometimes the ones I write about in my ezine, “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” or this blog. Last month, a publicist who… Read More
Public Radio International producer shares pitching tips
Thinking of pitching public radio with your story? If so, first read these pitching tips from Charles Munroe-Kane, courtesy of Bulldog Reporter. Munroe-Kane produces “To The Best of Our Knowledge” and “Zorba Paster on Your Health” for Public Radio International and says he isn’t interested in breaking news events but, rather, a “cultural” look at the… Read More
2007 editorial calendars ready now
If you want publicity in newspapers and magazines, one of your most valuable tools is each publication’s editorial calendar for 2007. An editorial calendar is the January-to-December list of all special sections and topics that are being planned for next year. It alerts advertisers to the sections where their ads would be the best fit. But… Read More
October story ideas to pitch to the media
TV reporter Shawne Duperon and I had a blast brainstorming “103 Sizzling Story Ideas from July through December.” October is bursting with ideas about the second largest retail holiday of the year that you can pitch to newspapers, magazines and TV stations. Here are some we’re suggesting you use: —That pretty pumpkin looks great now, but how can… Read More
Wal-Mart, Starbucks dominance a great publicity op for small businesses
You can hardly open a newspaper or turn on the TV these days without noticing somebody crabbing about Wal-Mart. Now they’re going after Starbucks. Penny Stafford, owner of the Seattle-based Belvi Coffee and Tea Exchange Inc., charges in a federal lawsuit that the coffee giant uses anti-competitive tactics to rid itself of competition. The suit,… Read More
Spinach crisis: Here are ways you can piggyback
News stories about the spinach-related E. coli outbreaks all over the United States offer lots of opportunity for savvy Publicity Hounds to piggyback onto this story. Here are some ideas off the top of my head: —What’s the effect on restaurants? Have they pulled spinach completely from their menus or are they using frozen spinach… Read More
Celebrity gossip: Tie it to your own publicity
For years, Debra Holtzman kept wishing and hoping that she’d generate publicity in top-tier newspapers and magazines and on the big morning TV shows like “Good Morning, America” because of her expertise in child safety. But the wishing and hoping got her a media hit here and there. Then Debra found the key that not… Read More
Rosie O’Donnell’s zinger a perfect opportunity for Publicity Hounds
This morning, as I was writing the lead item for today’s issue of my ezine on how to piggyback your news off of celebrities, the gals on the set of the ABC daytime hit “The View” were knee-deep in a discussion about the Middle East. As co-host Elizabeth Hasselbeck, a conservative, was making a comment about “radical Islam,”… Read More