The 10 tomato plants in our garden, including two heirloom tomato plants, are wilting. And the basil just sits there looking helpless. If this newsletter is late today, it’s because I’ve been in the garden for the last several days giving a hearty drink to the green beans, beets, carrots, radishes, peas, spinach and three… Read More
Pitching
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
CDs, tapes available from Media Relations 2005
If you missed the Media Relations 2005 conference in San Francisco in April, you can still learn terrific PR and publicity tips by buying the CDs or cassette tapes for $15 each. Read the entire list here. It includes the panel I participated in titled “The 10 worst Journalist Faux Pas You Can Make.” I… Read More
Pitch your products for holiday gift guides
If your product or service would make the perfect Christmas gift, now is the time to pitch many of the major magazines that have special holiday gift sections and work several months ahead. But how do you know which publications are doing gift guides? Or which are doing feature stories on products that make great… Read More
Weigh in on the Michael Jackson verdict
I know. I know. You’re sick of Michael Jackson. I am too. But true Publicity Hounds who have something to offer the media don’t stop here. They think of ways to piggyback onto the not guilty verdict. Some examples: —What do child advocates have to say about the pop star, who admitted on camera that… Read More
Pitch ethnic media
When publicist Miriam Silverberg took on Meli Melo, a French restaurant in New York City, as a client three years ago, she immediately got to work pitching ideas that would result in the greatest publicity possible. She dreamed, of course, of a four-star restaurant review in the New York Times. But she’s realistic enough to… Read More
Don’t overlook ethnic media oulets
When you’re creating a media plan, don’t overlook the numerous ethnic media outlets, from small weekly newspapers to specialty radio shows. This article at WashingtonPost.com says the landscape of ethnic media has grown more crowded in recent years, reinforced by the same immigration patterns that are driving the nation’s population growth. It has been particularly… Read More
Honey, the money dog
Filling up your gas tank doesn’t get more fun than this. When Don Rogers picked up a cocker spaniel named Honey six years ago at the dog pound, he could never have guessed the fame she would bring to his gas station–Crazy D’s All American Fireworks at the El Cheapo Gas Station just off I-95… Read More
Contact info for L.A. radio stations
If you want to get booked as a guest on a Los Angeles radio station, check out LARadio.com, a subscription site that gives you access to news about L.A. radio stations, behind-the-scenes bulletins and breaking news, night-before headlines delivered to your email box, more than eight years of archived columns, more than 1,000 email addresses… 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