\nHow to learn whether a\u00a0journalist blogs<\/strong><\/p>\n
Let’s say you have a story that affects women’s health and you want to pitch it to Deborah Kotz, senior health writer for U.S. News & World Report. You Google\u00a0“Deborah Kotz blog.”\u00a0Google returns to you a\u00a0list of blog posts<\/a>\u00a0she has written. You click on the first one and end up at her blog, On Women.<\/a><\/p>\n On the right side at the top, you’ve found your first\u00a0clue—her\u00a0bio. It explains\u00a0what she writes about,\u00a0the kinds of pitches she wants to receive, and it even includes her email address:\u00a0<\/p>\n Next, it’s time to start looking for clues about other issues, topics or tidbits you can use in your pitch. Look for things specifically about her personal life.<\/strong>\u00a0I spent just a few minutes reading her blog posts.\u00a0She admits in her bio that she’s “often tapping out Oprah-esque confessions” about how the latest news relates to her personally, so this part was easy. I learned:<\/p>\n If I had spent 30 minutes searching for clues, I’d find a lot more than that. But I’d never find that kind of\u00a0 personal information on those pricey media contact lists.<\/p>\n Here’s\u00a0why this kind of research is so valuable.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you’re a PR person or somebody who wants to pitch a story related to\u00a0circumcision, pregnant women in the workplace, work-at-home-moms, housework done by men vs. women, child-rearing, birth control, menopause or dozens of other topics, Deborah already\u00a0has given you valuable clues at her blog that you can tie into your pitch.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n If I were a PR person pitching a new study that relates to birth control pills, for example, I’d open the pitch like this:<\/p>\n “Deborah, I know from reading your blog that\u00a0you’ve wondered about the risks of staying on birth control pills. Results of a new study on birth control, done by our university’s Health Sciences Department shows blah-blah-blah….”<\/p>\n Do you think that would get her attention more than a one-size-fits-all, impersonal\u00a0pitch\u00a0that I could deliver\u00a0to 359 other journalists? Some bloggers actively\u00a0join the conversation by responding to people who leave comments, sometimes\u00a0creating a nice back-and-forth conversation and sometimes dropping more clues.\u00a0Deborah didn’t offer comments at the blog posts I read.\u00a0\u00a0But that’s OK. You can still get her attention by leaving a comment, or several comments, over a period of a few days or a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n Choose blog posts that let you add something to the conversation. Don’t just write, “Great post. I agree completely.”\u00a0Explain why you agree. Or share an anecdote. Or offer a resource that backs up the blogger’s position, or yours. You can skip this step of commenting, but\u00a0it’s one more valuable way to start forming a relationship.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, aka The Blog Squad,\u00a0were my guests during a teleseminar on How to Pitch the Best Bloggers and Create a Publicity Explosion.<\/a>\u00a0 They confirmed what you already know if you blog:\u00a0bloggers pay attention<\/strong> to people who comment at their blogs. If a blog can provide that much information, imagine what you can learn by following the journalist on Twitter, the micro-blogging site.<\/p>\n You can find out if a certain journalist Twitters by checking Harry Hoover’s wiki of\u00a0Twittering Journalists<\/a>. If you can’t find a particular journalist, do a Twitter search<\/a>. If you can’t find anything when you type in\u00a0“Deborah Kotz,” try these variations: DeborahKotz or Deborah_Kotz.<\/p>\n If you hit gold, follow the journalist by clicking on “Follow” below their photo.\u00a0But don’t expect journalists\u00a0to follow you back. Some\u00a0aren’t interested in following other people. They use Twitter primarily to find leads and sources for stories.<\/p>\n I couldn’t find Deborah on Twitter,\u00a0but\u00a0\u00a0her blog provides a handy roadmap\u00a0with pitching clues galore, just waiting to be discovered by Publicity Hounds who are smart enough to do a little digging.<\/p>\n Do you research journalists’ blogs before you pitch? If so, share your pitching success stories here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The next time you’re ready to pitch a journalist, particularly\u00a0at a top-tier media outlet,\u00a0stop what you’re doing and take this\u00a0important step. Find out\u00a0if the journalist blogs. Some journalists blog as part of their job. Others blog on the side because they’re passionate about a topic. It will take only a minute or two, and the\u2026 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":8,"wds_primary_category":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,205],"class_list":{"0":"post-3237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-marketing","7":"tag-blogging","8":"tag-pitching","9":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42117,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3237\/revisions\/42117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"onwomen475\"](\"https:\/\/www.publicityhound.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/onwomen475.jpg\" "\\"onwomen475\\"")
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\nMake your pitch hit a hot button<\/strong><\/p>\n
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\nDon’t pitch just yet, however. There’s one more place where you can find valuable clues—in the comments that follow each blog post. Most bloggers allow comments and welcome getting them. Journalists are no different.<\/p>\n![\"deborahkotzcomments-copy1\"](\"https:\/\/www.publicityhound.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/deborahkotzcomments-copy1.jpg\" "\\"deborahkotzcomments-copy1\\"")
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\nJournalists Twitter, too<\/strong><\/p>\n