She arrived in Milwaukee at age 24 with less than $40 in her purse, learned to speak English and took the streetcar to work. Today, at age 75, Magrit Heitmann still logs up to 1,500 hours a year doing what she loves best–organizing the hundreds of volunteers for Germanfest, one of the signature festivals in… Read More
Pitching
These email faux pas show you’re clueless
Some time ago I wrote about nerdy websites. If you email anything to the media, make sure you aren’t guilty of these nerdy email blunders: –A subject line that says “News Release” with no clue what the release is about. –A generic greeting such as “Dear Editor.” Always use the editor’s name. If you don’t… Read More
12 worst mistakes PR people make
It was difficult to pare them down to a dozen, but we did. Of all the mistakes PR people make when working with the media, Jon Greer of Bulldog Reporter’s PR University and Liz Miklya of Weber Shandwick joined me in whittling down the list to 12. We presented them the Media Relations 2005 conference… Read More
Hospitals should show how they pamper patients
Hospitals throughout the U.S. are pampering patients like never before. You can now recuperate after your heart bypass or gall bladder removal in upscale units with suite-sized rooms, gourmet meals, high-thread-count sheets, attentive security, and smiling staff ready to cater to your every whim. A Forbes magazine survey of the 10 Best Luxury Hospitals finds… Read More
Think graphics when pitching
Maps, pie charts, bar charts, illustrations, clever photos and a whole host of other graphic elements that can help readers or TV viewers better understand your story can be part of your pitch to reporters. But don’t suggest graphics right away until you know whether the reporter is interested in your idea. If the reporter… Read More
When being cute works and can result in publicity
Cute headlines on news releases. Cute lead paragraphs. Cute story pitches. It’s enough to make a reporter gag. Unless, of course, they crave cute. But how do you ever know? When pitching a story or sending a news release, err on the side of caution. Don’t send anything that smacks of cute to reporters who… Read More
Use computer worms, viruses for publicity
A virus has infiltrated my email, and about two dozen messages, all written in either German or Dutch, keep pouring into my emailbox. I’m sure some kind of virus has plagued you. The next time that happends, see if you can get some publicity from it. In the days after major worms hit, I read… Read More
Piggyback off the weather
The spring’s unseasonably cold weather here in Wisconsin–complete with wool socks, furnaces at full blast and hot soup for lunch–is a good reminder about one of the easiest ways to gerate publcity–by piggybacking your story idea off the weather. After sweating through a week of 100-degree temperatures a few summers ago, Publicity Hound John Landsberg… Read More
Don’t pitch your books as the story idea
If you’re an author and you want to get onto Fox & Friends (or any other show for that matter), avoid the Number One problem authors make when pitching. Don’t pitch your book as the story. In the April 11 issue of PR Week, Jess Todtfeld, an associate producer at Fox News, says authors sometimes… Read More
Pitch stories for TV’s warm & fuzzy finale
Just before the local evening news is coming to an end, you hear the TV anchor lead off the final story of the night with the same two words. “Finally, tonight…” What follows is a warm and fuzzy finale, a 60-second slice of fluff that makes you smile as you head to bed. It might… Read More