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Advice from the Media

Advice from the Media | David Freddoso

January 22, 2013
Name: David Freddoso Title: Editorial Page Editor Media Outlet: Washington Examiner Twitter Handle: @freddoso 1)Describe your typical workday in 140 characters or less. I write editorials, edit columns, select opeds, assign features, deal with various administrative issues, write columns and blog posts when I can, and promote our stuff on Twitter. 2) What's the best pitch you've ever received? Pitches are completely unmemorable to me, so the shortest are the best. If it isn't immediately obvious why I should care, then I don't have time. So see #4. 3) The greatest words of wisdom an editor ever gave you? If you can say it in nine words, you can say it in seven. And if you can say it in seven words, you can probably say it in five. 4) If there were one thing you could tell every PR practitioner, what would it be? If you're going to bother me, make it good. If it's good, I'll run it. If I haven't run your piece after several calls, there's probably a reason, although sometimes things do slip through the cracks. 5) What's your craziest or most interesting newsroom story? When Phil Klein won the Andrew Breitbart award for professional journalism, I tweeted to congratulate, adding that I needed his column in five minutes or he was fired. I heard him burst out laughing from the next room.

Advice from the Media | Deroy Murdock

December 19, 2012
Name: Deroy Murdock Title: Nationally syndicated columnist Media Outlet: Scripps Howard News Service Twitter Handle: Real men don't Tweet! Personal Blog: I do not blog. I write articles. 1) Describe your typical workday in 140 characters or less. Woke up. Got out of bed. Dragged a comb across my head. Spent day worrying about the world and thinking up solutions to its problems. 2) What's the best pitch you've ever received? When Stefan Gleason was spokesman for the National Right to Work Committee, he always could get me to write about Big Labor bosses by giving me examples of union violence. He would mention someone who got his tires slashed or face rearranged by some union thugs. Like tossing a Frisbee before a Labrador, I immediately would run in whatever direction Gleason wanted. To mix metaphors, Gleason knew how to push this button, and he did it perfectly and repeatedly. 3) The greatest words of wisdom an editor ever gave you? I once asked Scripps Howard's Jay Ambrose how to handle some situation. He said, "Well, Deroy, as long as we're trying to do the right thing." I always thought that was a worthy and achievable standard that also recognized that we journalists are neither perfect nor saintly. 4) If there were one thing you could tell every PR practitioner, what would it be? Take care of the small things, and the big ones fall into place. If you have an event in New York City, for God's sake, include the cross street in the address. Where on Earth is 350 Fifth Avenue? I have NO idea. Ah. It's at West 34th Street. Thank you for sparing me from having to look that up, which just make me grind my molars. Don't just tell me that an event is on December 10. Tell me it's on Monday, December 10. I may know right away that Mondays are always bad for me. So, I quickly can decline an invitation, without having to stop, grab my calendar, leaf through it, and finally learn that this is on a Monday. Then, in a fit of frustration at the publicist's inexactitude, I must send my regrets, while also grinding my molars into mandibular dust. Also, don't call us commentators "reporters." We all are journalists. But commentators are not reporters, any more than surgeons are dermatologists, although they all are doctors. Yes, refer broadly to all of us as journalists. But some of us specifically are commentators. Some are reporters. You also have editors, producers, bookers, and others. Calling us all reporters is inaccurate, irritating, and indicative of a lack of sophistication among those who make this annoying mistake.

Advice from the Media | Josh Gohlke

December 6, 2012
Name: Josh Gohlke Title: Op-Ed Editor Media Outlet: Philadelphia Inquirer Twitter Handle: @JoshGohlke Website: www.philly.com/philly/opinion 1) Describe your typical workday in 140 characters or less. Respond to e-mails. Budget pages. Respond to e-mails. Edit copy. Respond to e-mails wondering why I haven’t been more responsive. Repeat! 2) What’s the best pitch you’ve ever received? I’m lucky to have so much commentary to choose from, but sheer math forces me to decline (politely, I hope) most of the submissions I get, including some perfectly good ones. So I think my sentimental favorites are from the people who become enraged when I say no, demand explanations, urge me to reconsider, and, best of all, tell me something like, “Well, I think it’s really good!” I have yet to meet someone who agrees that I should not publish his submission. 3) The greatest words of wisdom an editor ever gave you? My best editor in college told me to remember the acronym “KISS: Keep it simple — smart!” He was being nice; it really stands for “Keep it simple, stupid!” Most good editing comes down to this admonition. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch famously put it another way: “Murder your darlings.” That is, if you’re madly in love with the beauty or wit of a passage you wrote, you should probably delete it. 4) If there was one thing you could tell every PR practitioner, what would it be? Many PR people are very conscientious about the submissions they handle. But others seem to be acting as mere conduits for whatever their clients give them — and then blaming editors for failing to publish it. I think many clients could be done an immense service by a representative who edits them or encourages them to rewrite, and who is honest about what is and isn’t likely to be published and why.

Advice from the Media | William Beecher

November 7, 2012
Name: William Beecher Title: Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland, College Park. (Pulitzer Prize winning former Washington correspondent for the Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal and New York Times.) Personal Blog: WilliamBeecher 1) Describe what your typical workday was in 140 characters or less. When covering foreign affairs from Washington, I would start the day at the State Department, seeing sources I’d set up in advance, then move to other interviews at DOD, the White House, the Hill, the CIA, or with think tank experts or foreign embassy officials. 2) What's the best pitch you've ever received? During the Kennedy Administration officials spelled out a missile gap with the Soviet Union. It was exaggerated for political purposes. 3) The greatest words of wisdom an editor ever gave you? “Go with what you’ve got.” It was advice from Prof. John Hohenberg at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. The idea was: do as much reporting and research at you could, but when it came close to deadline, you should write the story on the basis of the best information you had at that point. You could always continue reporting and add new information subsequently. 4) If there was one thing you could tell every PR practitioner, what would it be? When your client has bad news, put it out immediately. You might have a day or two of lumps, but if you allow bad news to have legs and fester, it will bite your client endlessly.

Advice from the Media | Robert Whitcomb

August 16, 2012
>Name: Robert Whitcomb Title: Vice President and Editorial-Page Editor Media Outlet: The Providence Journal Twitter Handle: @arbustwit Personal Blog: This New England Blog 1) Describe your typical workday in 140 characters or less. Chronologically: Read news and opinion, meet with people, edit, write for newspaper, do administrative paperwork, put words and art in blog. 2) What's the best pitch you've ever received? From PR folks for Cape Wind describing the exciting potential benefits of offshore windpower. 3) The greatest words of wisdom an editor ever gave you? Assume first that everyone you talk with (and you) might be wrong and don't ramble. 4) If there was one thing you could tell every PR practitioner, what would it be? Send rigorously factually verified and typographically clean copy that looks outside conventional wisdom.