eye_on_pr 43 TV Pitching top tier business editors 5-20-03

"Eye On PR"

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Nationally recognized and award-winning writer George McQuade reports on the PR industry. We also feature guest writers. If you'd like to share your media experience please let us know, or feel free to comment.

May 20, 2003

By George S. Mc Quade III

Pitching Top Tier Business Editors

From (l-R) Moderator from BM, Karen Axelton, Entrepreneur; Seth Lubove, Forbes; Mark Lacter, editor, LABJ and Bureau Chief Jonathan Friedland, WSJ.

"Don't send the same press release to everyone on staff,"
says Entrepreneur's Karen Axelton

"We get the same press release sent to everyone in the company as if we don't know each other, and we're a tight nit group," said Karen Axelton, executive editor, Entrepreneur magazine told an OnTheScene Productions/PRSA-LA sponsored at breakfast with the media panel (May 20, 2003) at Burson-Marsteller, Century City, CA. Entrepreneur is a monthly business magazine, mostly for small business owners. "We really appreciate it when you send your pitches to a certain editor, who handles that beat, because it always get to the right person as we all know what each other is working at any given time. Entrepreneur has nine editors. An editorial director, who oversees the publications, three executive editors, article editors, who make assignments, and a couple of managing editors," she said.

Karen Axelton, exec. Ed. Entrepreneur Magazine

"We want very specific email business pitches," says Entrepreneur's Axilton

"A couple of years ago we had a major redesign, said Axilton. "We kind of tightened up and shortened everything in the magazine mainly in response to the advertising climate and few pages. We want very specific email business pitches of which we can focus on and have a header of a few lines. Our readers want to know how XYZ company does things so they can do it too, and less on the theory or detailed activities of what business owners eat for breakfast or what they do when they wake up in the morning. So we're really looking for things that are very hands-on.

Pitches having to do with automobiles, book reviews, government, entrepreneurial profiles, sales and marketing, start-up topics, travel, and women and minority issues should be sent to Executive Editor Karen Axelton at: kaxelton@entrepreneur.com Technology pitches to: Tech Ed. Mike Hogan at: mhogan@entrepreneur.com and for money and management pitches to Executive Editor Maria Valez at: mvaldez@entrepreneur.com. Axelton said, "Before pitching a story to us, be sure to read a variety of the articles on our site and in the magazine so you can tailor your pitches to meet our content needs. Many of the queries we receive are rejected because the subject matter in no way matches what we're looking for."

"Forbes is driven by the whims of editors and writers," says Forbes Editor Seth Lubove.

"I'm always happy to work with PR people, although very rarely will your stories ever get it in, but I like to talk to you, said Seth Lubove, who has been with Forbes, since 1990, in L.A. since 1994 and bureau chief for the last two years. "If Forbes seems chaotic, disorganized and hard to figure out from the outside, it is twice as hard to try to figure out if you're working on the inside. More so in recent years, even though Forbes has made a lot of great strides trying to organize the process in terms of how the magazine closes and how the stories are selected in the planning. It is still pretty much a magazine that is driven by the whims of the editors as well as the writers."

"Brace yourself for our test of competition proof pitches," says Forbes Lubove.

"We are kind of buffeted on the one end by publications like the Los Angeles Business Journal working in one region and at the other end by Wall Street Journal, which are doing a lot of stories that we might try to do," explained Lubove. "As a result we tend to be very conscientious of anything that has appeared elsewhere. If a story has been written by somebody else or is the subject of multiple pitches to other publications, you can drop it or brace yourself for our test of competition proof.

Seth Lubove, Forbes Editor

Lubove says he was pitched an exclusive about an entrepreneur, who was building rocket ships. "I found out later that the PR pro was also pitching other competitive publications such as USA Today, Newsweek, and others, so the only angle that was left was the fact that it turns out that the Entrepreneur was actually building rocket ships to fly himself to Mars. The PR pro got his story, but I'm so sure it was the story he wanted after all. It is a very competitive business, more so now than ever. Forbes has to really distinguish itself both from the local and national media. As far as we're concerned, everybody is a competitor! Just out of personal pride I don't want to do stories that the WSJ or LABJ has done." Lubove prefers email pitches at: slubove@forbes.com.

"Local business news stories is our total emphasis," says LABJ Editor Mark Lacter

"Like most of us here, we (LABJ) are a tough nut to crack as far as public relations pitches are concerned," said Editor Mark Lacter, Los Angeles Business Journal, which has a circulation of more than 55,000. "There are certain areas of the paper where they'll (PR Pros) will get a better reception than others for example we have a weekly feature called "L.A. Stories,"which is little bite sized items on stories around town, every week we have a feature on small business, which may or may not fit some of the folks PR Pros deal with. We are always looking for ideas. Additionally, we have a weekly interview, Q & A, with someone, who hopefully has something interesting to say for 45 inches, which is kind of tough, but we're always looking of interesting candidates."

"Be careful what you wish for in good publicity," says Los Angeles Business Editor Mark Lacter.

Lacter offered these tips: Don't pitch stuff that's in other papers. Be aware that the LABJ comes out Mondays, so if your news conference is Wednesday or Thursday, it will kind of be in the dead zone for us. Get to know the paper and see what kind of stories we do. Be careful what you wish for, because once you do make a pitch, and somebody bites, there's going to a chance that what you were original hoping to get into the paper is going to be a good deal different. Fact is you're going to have a reporter snooping around and coming up with all kinds of stuff that you or your clients certainly didn't anticipate. Always be aware that getting publicity is one thing, but having a reporter really looking into your underthings is something else." Mark Lacter can be reached at: mlacter@labusinessjournal.com.

Mark Lacter, LABJ Editor

"We're not going to jump on a press release or stories that appear elsewhere," says Lacter.

"In terms of stuff that will appear on page one or page three, it is really doubtful, because we are like other Business publications, very enterprise driven," explained Lacter. "We're not going to jump on a press release and go to town with it. We're also not going to jump on stories that might have appeared in either the Wall Street Journal or the Los Angeles Times. We will try to, more often than not, ignore those stories, for some of the same reasons Seth Lubove was talking about. We are not a newspaper or record for L.A. We go after the best stories that we can get into the paper that week."

Jonathan Friedman, WSJ

"We have national beats and we are slightly different," says WSJ Bureau Chief Jonathan Friedland

"We are slightly different than most national newspapers, not only because of our business focus, because we don't just cover things geographically," said Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Bureau Chief Jonathan Friedland. "We have national beats run out of various national offices. Los Angeles is responsible for aviation defense, most of the entertainment industries, hotels and gambling, the electric power industry, the tourism industry, the homebuilding industry, huge retailing and Hispanic affairs. It is a matrix of industries that do not have anything to do with one another. If your client is in an industry that we don't cover out of L.A., chances are we'll pass you on. If your client is a car company we'll refer you to Detroit, if it is a software company you'll be talking to San Francisco or if it is a bank it would be in Atlanta. I'm always happy to put you in touch with the right people."

About a year ago The WSJ underwent the first complete redesign in 100 years. "The stories are shorter, partly because of the lack of advertising since year 2000. WSJ redesigned page fronts, including the front page, so that they are easer to navigate and are more accessible to younger readers," he said. WSJ has added a fourth section, three times a week called "Personal Journal." It covers the areas of ones life the Journal now did not cover before. "The news pages essentially help you run a business, and organize your commercial life. The 'Weekend Journal' helps you find things to do in your leisure time. The 'Personal Journal' is much more news you can use oriented. It is designed to help you make better consumer choices on things like personal finance, health, plans, buying cars, and travel, according to Friedland. He adds that the "Personal Journal" is an element more about how you go about doing something as opposed to a classic or corporate story. Friedland notes that the WSJ also puts more news on the front page in front of the article call the "Extra." The purpose is to expand readership and reduce the average age, which he says is working. He prefers pitches by email at: jonathan.friedland@WSJ.com.

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