Contacting reporters to pitch them your story can be intimidating. How can you be sure your email will not be met with silence? Here are a few tips to decrease the likelihood that your pitch is not met with a quick click of the delete button. First,...
News seems to happen faster than ever today. Over the course of three days last week, Americans grappled with the midterm elections, a tragic mass-shooting, and deadly wildfires in California. It's tempting -- and often a good idea -- to tie your pitch to the latest...
It’s every spokesperson’s worst fear. You land an interview with a key reporter, have a great conversation, and then open the paper the following morning to find you’re quoted saying something you don’t remember saying. Reporters don’t typically operate in bad faith. So a quote that...
Op-eds published by top-tier newspapers can drive the public debate. The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times all boast eye-popping circulation figures and influential readers. But small newspapers can pack a big punch, too. You never know when a Congressman will...
Be brief! It's excellent writing advice. For those looking to have their work published in a newspaper, it used to be an order. After all, there's only so much space on a newspaper page. The internet has made textual space constraints obsolete. But attention spans are...
We all remember the famous ones -- Smokey the Bear, the crying Indian, "This is your brain on drugs." These public service announcements may have stiffened our resolve to "Just Say No," or motivated us to pick up our trash, or caused us to be...
Woody Allen once said that 80 percent of success is showing up. Thomas Edison’s famous line “Genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration” advises much the same. The common thread? “Showing up” and making a good-faith effort are key to any successful endeavor. And that’s...
They say that PR is a "relationships" business. After all, "relations" is right there in the acronym. It's certainly easier to get a member of the media to listen to your pitch if you've already established a relationship with him or her. But even the...
Crafting a quality quote, whether for inclusion in a press release or at the request of a reporter writing an article, can be daunting. To make sure that your quote attracts the attention it deserves, here are a few simple tips....
So you've put the finishing touches on your op-ed and are ready to see your name in lights -- or at least on the back page of the newspaper. How do you get editors to consider your piece for publication? You simply ask them. And...