{"id":9436,"date":"2011-09-21T15:07:25","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T15:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/blog\/?p=9436"},"modified":"2011-09-21T15:07:25","modified_gmt":"2011-09-21T15:07:25","slug":"pitching-mistake-calling-the-media-via-your-assistant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/publicity\/pitching-mistake-calling-the-media-via-your-assistant\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitching Mistake: Calling the media via your assistant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"angry<\/a>Here’s one of the fastest ways on Earth to let a journalist know that his time isn’t as valuable as yours.<\/p>\n

Tell your assistant to call the journalist and say something like this: “Hello, Sam. This is Helen LeBeau. I’m Peter Bigshot’s assistant, and he’d like to speak with you. Please hold.”<\/p>\n

When I worked as a newspaper reporter and editor two decades ago, my blood started heating up when I took one of these calls.<\/p>\n

If I wasn’t on deadline, I’d sometimes hold until Mr. Bigshot came onto the line. But sometimes I’d simply hang up. By the time he or his assistant called back, I’d already made a mental note that this guy was a pain in the rear. The poor guy didn’t have a clue that he had sabatoged himself!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The error was particularly egregious if he kept me waiting or if his assistant simply chirped, “Please hold for Mr. Bigshot.”<\/p>\n

Sending an assistant to fetch a journalist sends the message: “My Boss is important and his time is valuable. We don’t want to waste it. But we have no problem wasting yours.”<\/p>\n

Thanks to Wall Street Journal health blogger Katie Hobson, known as @KatherineHobson<\/a>, for tweeting this tip and reminding me about how much I hated these calls. Also see:<\/p>\n

A Simple 5-Part Formula for Delivering the Perfect Media Pitch and Hitting it Out of the Park<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

How to Tie Your Pitch to Breaking News and Make the Media Interview YOU <\/a><\/p>\n

5 Important Tips for Pitching Journalists by Phone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s one of the fastest ways on Earth to let a journalist know that his time isn’t as valuable as yours. Tell your assistant to call the journalist and say something like this: “Hello, Sam. This is Helen LeBeau. I’m Peter Bigshot’s assistant, and he’d like to speak with you. Please hold.” When I worked\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":1,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[691],"tags":[29,205],"class_list":{"0":"post-9436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-publicity","7":"tag-media-relations","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\/9436","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=9436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}