“Pitching
Broadcast Media in the Los Angeles Market”
by
George S. Mc Quade III
Harder than pitching broadcast media is
getting a good seat at a broadcast media breakfast About
100 mostly PR pros packed elbow-to-elbow into a conference room, which seats
about 50 people to hear the challenges and idiosyncrasies of working with broadcast
media in Los Angeles, Tuesday, July 16, 2002, in Century City, CA. The PRSA-LA,
Burson-Marstellar and OnTheScene Productions sponsored breakfast workshop featured
Julia Seifer, special projects producer, KABC-TV, Anthony Smiljkovich, news
researcher, KCOP-TV, Richard Ayoub (pronounced A’-you-b), producer, Extra!,
Nickie Bonner, field producer, CNN Moneyline, and Peggy Jo Abraham, news director,
E! News Daily.
“As you all know the
world has
changed since 9-1-1,”
says CNN’s Nickie Bonner.
Nickie Bonner, CNN Moneyline
“I was here (at a media workshop) last year
talking to this same group and the world was a different place a year ago and
the perspective has changed dramatically,” said Nickie Bonner, field producer,
CNN. “ The world has changed and so has the ‘Moneyline’ program, especially
since Lou Dobbs returned a year ago. The focus has changed and the ratings have
shot up dramatically, which is good news. But because of the events of September
11th and everything that has transpired since then, there has been
a whole shake up of the political and economic world that we live in.
“We always looking
for the local story that has national implications, so we’re the opposite to
what the local news folks are looking for,” explained Bonner. “If it only affects
Los Angeles or Southern California, chances are we won’t be interested in the
story.”
Bonner prefers email pitches at:
Nickie.bonner@turner.com.
“I don’t mind being bugged on the phone either,
but please don’t read the press release over the phone. And I don’t mind people
calling back and reminding me about a story. Sometimes if the story sounds interesting
I will call you back, but I can’t guarantee that. It all depends upon the
kind of day I’m having. So if you really want
to talk to me call me, but I generally try to respond to email pitches even
if it is one line saying ‘Sorry we can’t do that story, or it won’t fit into
our program.’ And I do try to send you some feedback just to acknowledge that
I’ve seen the release, I’ve read it and if I’m interested, obviously I’m going
to call you.”
“I don’t miss the child molestations, the car chases
and kids in the garbage bin,” says E! Daily News Director Peggy Jo Abraham
“I used
to be in hard news, and I don’t miss the child molestations, the car chases
and kids found in garbage cans,” said News Director Peggy Jo Abraham of E! News
Daily. “Now I go home and I’m concerned about Pamela Anderson get her boob job
taken out, but it doesn’t keep me from sleeping. I try to feel better about
the world, and I’m sorry Wynona Ryder got caught, but I’m losing a lot of sleep
over.” On a more serious note, Abraham said her show is much like a half hour
news show, however everything is entertainment with celebrities. “We do sidebar
stories, too. We need experts say on the Wynona story, maybe a psychologist
to talk about why people with a lot of money shoplift, or what would be the
motivation.”
Peggy Jo Abraham prefers email pitches at:
pabraham@Eentertainment.com.
“A lot of the stories come package such as movie junkets, but E! News Daily
likes to get exclusives that no one else has, because so many people have tapped
into entertainment news.”
“I’m in charge of the good life,” says EXTRA’s Producer
Richard Ayoub, EXTRA
“I too
have worked in local news (KCBS, KABC, KTLA and KCAL) most of my career and
moved into entertainment over the last few years,” said Supervising Producer
Richard Ayoub, Extra. “I’m in charge of the good life, which is all about celebrity
home tours or just big, beautiful interesting homes that are for sale, travel
to interesting places, hotels, spas, and what we call the ‘deal of the day,’
where we give away things like ‘Scream Machines,’ which are modern versions
of the ‘big wheel.’ Anything interesting, different and kind of fun I get to
work on. I also get to work on hour specials, where we take on locations. We
done some in Park City, Utah, we’ve done one in Buster Keaton mansion in Beverly
Hills. I came up with this whole takeoff of the Ozzie Osborne, which was extremely
annoying and arrogant. But he’s fascinating, because he’s a really smart
businessman and he’s very successful doing that (show).
“Everyone
knows Entertainment Tonight is king of the hill, and Mary Hart is wonderful,
but I want you to know in New York and Los Angeles we are up against ET every
night and we beat them. We are beating them in the big markets on a daily basis
and that signals change. You beat them in New York and LA gradually the rest
of the country catches on,” boasts Ayoub. “And we always be Access Hollywood.”
Ayoub prefers fax pitches at 818.972.0683 or email at:
Richard.ayoub@warnerbros.com .
“We had staff cutbacks and lost
a lot of money in 9-1-1,” says EXTRA’s Producer Ayoub
“Immediately
after September 11th, we through out a lot of our celebrity reporting,
because all of that seemed frivolous,” explained Ayoub. “We did a lot of hero
stories, which the audience really responded to.” Because EXTRA is a syndicated
show, it was preempted for quite awhile, because NBC was doing a lot of Twin
Towers coverage, and so we lost a lot of money and had cut backs. A lot of companies
felt the impact. Now, finally we’re finding our way back to the kind of stories
we used to do, which is a combination of news and entertainment, but we will
be preempted by NBC on September 11th for their special.”
“Sometimes I wash the trucks in
my spare time,” jokes KABC-TV’ s Julia Seifer
Producer Julie Seifer, KABC-TV (left-Right)
joins Nickie Bonner, CNN, Anthony Smiljkovich’s, KCOP-TV, and E! Daily News
Director Peggy Jo Abraham
“I’m producer
of special projects and medical producer, which is features and covers everything”
said Julia Seifer, KABC-TV. “And as I joke, sometimes I wash the trucks in my
spare time. “9-1-1 is a perfect example of taking a national story and
making it local, or visa versa, which I think any PR person do, whether corporate
or nonprofit, or whatever PR you’re in. We used September 11th story
as the local story of who in Los Angeles is impacted by this, and of course
we will be sending crews to New York in September for the anniversary. Whether
it is the Stock Market, a national trend or article in Journal of American Medical
Association, use that opportunity to localize it.”
Seifer
prefers email pitches, “because it pops up on my screen and I can deal with
it right away. If need to deal with it later, I can, too. Voicemail is okay,
but don’t read your news release over the phone. Fax is great, too.” Seifer’s
email is
Julia.C.seifer@abc.com Fax: 818.863.7080.
“I use experts all of the times
for our investigative stories,” says KCOP-TV’s Anthony Smiljkovich
“We are
part of a special investigative team call ‘Unit 13,’ we look deeper into what’s
happening in the news and put together stories on it,” explain Anthony Smiljkovich,
researcher, KCOP-TV 13. “I use experts all of the time, and every day know I’m
trying to find somebody to talk to about one of the stories I’m working on.
So if you watch Channel 13 last night you probably would have remembered three
things. 1) Our exclusives like Jeremy Moore, step dad or the father of the police
officer, who was seen throwing the man on the police car; 2) our locally
oriented
stories like our ‘carpool cheats, and 3) our convenient store diet story. Things
that touch people’s lives every day here in LA. It’s a great outlet for PR people,
because you can provide experts on the really easy things to do like where can
you can good things to eat when you’re shopping around a convenience store.”
Smiljkovich
likes voicemail and email at:
asmiljkovich@mail13.com. “Have a positive attitude when you call
and try not to be too pushy. I’m looking for experts all of the time. Let me
know what you have and what they can talk about.” Smiljkovich is at 323.883.9850
Fax: 323.850.1265.
KCOP-TV Anthony Smiljkovich’s
tips on tapping into LA
KCOP-TV Anthony Smiljkovich’s
tips on tapping into LA
Tip #1--Watch 2
hours of local news, and at least one hour of national news programming every
day. Be like a TV station and have someone at the office log what
topics are being covered, and who is being interviewed. Your client
may be the perfect expert for a follow up story already on TV.
Tip #2--Know that
print media is important to TV people too. Decision makers read the newspaper
every day looking for a great broadcast story. LA outlets love USA Today,
LA Times, NY Times, LA Daily News, and the OC Register.
Tip #3--To be a
good TV expert, your client should look and talk more like a magazine cover.
For example, "Get sexier abs in six weeks" turns into a good TV sound
bite like this: "You can get sexier abs in six weeks if you follow just
a few rules...” An interviewer will be listening for these kinds of sound bites
that will fit easily into a story. Also, take time to make sure your client
looks good so get them used to wearing a little make up to hide shine, and regularly
wearing TV friendly colors. This could get your client on a producers
"favorite expert" list and may be used for other stories in the future.
Tip #4--Have your
client be happily reachable 24 hours a day. A good expert needs to know
that a TV producer may be scrambling to get a last minute expert at odd hours
of the day or night. If you want to be liked by producers, don't
be rude to them if they spent the time to research unpublished phone numbers
just to get a hold of you or your client.
-
30 -
Email:
818.340.5300 
818.340.5300