Email: 818.340.5300 



MAYO enters year 2002 with a popular feature  on its website: "Eye On PR" Everything from 
tricks of the trade to getting on the radar of and industry analysts to making your company 
newsworthy. Nationally recognized and award-winning writer George S. McQuade III  
reports on the PR industry. We also featured guest writers. If you'd like to share your media 
experience please lets us know, or feel free to comment about ours.

Pitching Online News Media 
by  George S. Mc Quade

KenRadio.com Senior Editor offers top 10 
reasons the press think PR Pros are flacks

Host & Editor Andy Abramson KenRadio.com 

 “We have a 105,000 daily listeners on the Internet and terrestrial radio,” Co-Host and Senior Editor Andy Abramson, KenRadio.com told a small crowd of PR Pros at a PRSA-LA and OnTheScene Productions-sponsored breakfast with the media, Tuesday, May 21, 2002 at the Burson-Marstellar conference room in Century City, CA. “We don’t read news release, but we do comment back and forth on original content. I remember running a story at 10 a.m. in San Diego and seeing it as breaking news as late as 8:59 the same night on CBS Marketwatch.”

 “I have a good feelings toward you people, and I love a good PR person, because I used to be one. And I’m here to help you and guide you to make your job easier. I use the David Letterman style to show the top 10 reasons the press think you’re a flack,” said Abramson.

KenRadio.com’s  10 Reasons that the press think PR Pros are flacks include: 

1. Calling/pitching the media without knowing what we cover and how we report  

2.E-Mail replies to requests for information that points you to what was already 
read on the web site

3. Inability to get the company spokesperson on the phone 

4.      The “we can’t talk about it” response to a question when the reporter
 knows the answer 

5.      Announcements designed to impact stock price or valuation 

6.      Announcements that have nothing to do with NEWS   

7.      Lack of timely responses No understanding about deadlines

8. Voice Mail, clueless receptionists and unreachable PR people 

9. Lack of ownership of the information or no links in the chain of personnel

10. Incomplete information or information not available

                                           
                      Andy Abramson
                                             KenRadio.com 

“These are ways to help you be like a bullet proof vest, PR Pros are unsung heroes making the client look smart and getting the client in the press. You must be truthful. I remember when Internet World told us they had 20,000 people attending their trade show. I laid on the floor and we videotaped people walking around me there was so much room. People would be walking all over me a few years ago.”

“We are looking for trends, reports and statistics for our and we welcome audio and lots of video,” said Abramson. “We don’t have a lot of companies coming to us, except Microsoft and Oracle always seem to find us. You can find Andy Abramson at andy@kenradio.com. His fax number in San Diego is 619.615.2007. They also provide a free enewsletter when you register with their site at www.kenradio.com.

 Read our publications and learn to take no for an answer” 
says Editor Ben Fritz

Venture Reporter Editor Ben Fritz

“We honor embargos, but give a day or two notice so we can read them,” said Ben Fritz, editor, Venture Reporter, who also contributes articles to Digital Coast Reporter Daily, and the Silicon Alley Reporter Daily, out of his Santa Monica, CA office.

“We work about six weeks in advance, and right now we’re producing the fourth issue of the Venture Reporter, which is available for $100 annual subscription in print and includes a comprehensive listing of the top 2,000 venture capital (VC) firms, in-depth VC profiles, email alerts of deals, and May 1^st, the third issue listed the top 100 companies,” explained Fritz. “Respect our decisions when you call and learn to take no for an answer.

“Email is the best way to pitch us your client’s story,” says Editor Fritz

 LA are Public Relations and Marketing Communications representatives  learned first hand about secrets to a succesful media pitch at an PRSA-LA and OnTheScene Productions-sponsored at breakfast with the media.
 
“I had one PR Pro fax me the same news release with a cover note stating
they did not receive an answer and they were not sure I got the news release, then they would call afterwards,” said Fritz. “Drop me a line by email and don’t
bother putting breaking news or important story in the subject line, because
everyone thinks their story is important or breaking news,” said Fritz.                                                                                                                                

“We take our email seriously, and we are nice on the phone, but the key is to build a relationship with the reporters.” Fritz can be reached at ben.fritz@venturereporter.net. If he is interested in your story a follow-up call is appropriate, “especially for features,” he said. “As for images, we need high quality pictures, which can be sent by email.”

 
Ben Fritz, Editor, Venture Reporter

Fritz says he reads the PR NewsWire, Business Wire, Internet Wire stories, and glances through the LA Times, Variety and the Hollywood Reporter for news story ideas.   “Since the introduction of Napster, it appears there are several companies eyeing the peer-to-peer networkings. It has sparked a new business-to-business concept. Studios are getting more aggressive in preventing piracy, and it will be interesting to see if they can do it,” he said. Hot stories right now include video on demand, DVDs, software companies, slow growth stories, companies that acquire funding. and home security. If you have good suggestions for our section on  “Q/A for CEO’s," we want to hear from you. Our next deadline is at the end of June.”
 

Fritz recalled the high-tech boom days of 2000 and 2001 where the Digital Coast had “20,000 to 25,000 subscribers, five thousand cut out of our email list, because of the companies that went bankrupt, and we grown about six thousand more since.” When asked about the return of high tech and emerging technology companies Fritz observed “there are more coming back on the East Coast, because of the big corporations in New York. Also gone are the big high-tech conferences. Now we do small summits. For example, last January we had about 100 top companies attend our ‘Digital Rights,’ summit in New York.”

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  amayo@mayocommunications.com
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