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Yesterday, Tribune Publishing, purveyor of news since 1847, changed its name to “tronc” (short for “Tribune Online Content.”) It’s now a “content curation and monetization company” — a company that makes money from content, what we used to call a media company. Today, I deconstruct the rest of its attempt to use techno-drivel to misdirect our attention from its problems. Crisis-tossed Tribune Publishing, which owns the Chicago Tribune, the LA Times, and dozens of other papers, has suffered through a sale to a billionaire, a bankruptcy, a corporate split, newsroom turmoil, massive layoffs, and an unsolicited takeover offer. Now, as “tronc,” the company wants to be considered alongside Silicon Valley startups. (If this trend catches on, will the Boston Globe company become “hubstuff” and the New York Times “gray_lady”?) The tronc press release is a classic, because it reveals that when a media company wants to reinvent itself as a technology company, it drapes its press release in the same techno-drivel that tech companies use. Instead of meaningless media and corporate bullshit, we get meaningless, shiny Silicon Valley bullshit. It’s a transformation (you can tell because the release mentions “transform” or “transformation” six times).In the commentary below, I’ve added bold to indicate passives, meaningless superlatives, and especially, new-age jargon. I add commentary in brackets and commonsense translations below each section....
It can be difficult to get a news release approved internally—even without thinking about search engine optimization.
However, if exposure, disclosure or page views are your goals, you must heed content discoverability and make your release SEO-friendly.
A list of search engine violations and penalties shows ways your content can fail to attract attention online. This applies to all your owned media content—including your website and news releases.
What makes some releases more successful than others in terms of drawing traffic? They’re written with healthy SEO features. These successful news releases appeal to Google’s latest algorithm, which rewards high-quality, unique and non-spam content.
Follow these five simple steps to create releases that can rank high in search results....
Cision recently published its annual State of the Media Report, which I find to be one of the most valuable resources for understanding changes in news media environment. The report is jam-packed with information about the current news media environment and how most journalists prefer to work (particularly around areas like social media and working with media relations professionals). If media relations is part of your job, I highly recommend you review Cision’s report in detail. Of course, since I know how busy media relations professionals can be (and since I’m such a swell guy), I’ve gone ahead and done the work for you. I reviewed the report in detail, and turned the most interesting findings into an actionable set of nine media relations tips you can use to improve your results in 2016 and beyond. Enjoy!...
Something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: Are we over-relying on media relations in PR?
I’m talking about the broader scope of PR here–media relations, content marketing, social media marketing, community relations, etc.
For many years, media relations has been one of the core aspects of PR.
But, a number of stats and reports lately (not to mention consumer behavior trends in general) have got me thinking: We may be well past the tipping point....
While many find the press release to be an antiquated and now inefficient method of delivering content, the truth is that the press release is far from dead.
There are many audiences online who still rely on press releases as key sources of information.
Be it tradition or its deep roots, they continue to be used, and by more than just public relations (PR) departments. Except nowadays, many different types of press releases serve many different purposes.
But if you’re interested in creating effective and relevant press releases for distribution, you’ll have to understand the history, its evolution in a growing content universe, and all of the options you have available to you.
Consider this a crash course in all things press release...
Previously available only in France, Babbler already boasts “300 customers worldwide and 5,000 reporters that use it everyday” in that country.
On Tuesday, the organization announced that it’s available to PR pros and reporters in the United States.
Here’s the selling point for the network, said via press release:
Babbler helps create, manage and engage media communities by providing them the best way to interact with their network of sources, content, and story ideas, all in one place....
Since its launch in 2011, the Taste blog has become a crucial piece of the marketing efforts at General Mills—from helping the company break big news to highlighting its emphasis on corporate sustainability.
“We wanted to use the blog to tell the stories we wanted to tell—the ones the media wasn’t picking up on or that we wanted to give some attention to,” said Kevin Hunt, who founded the blog and acts as GM’s corporate social media manager.
“Our team looked at it as a way to keep consumers and journalists up to speed on what’s going on across General Mills. In many instances, Taste gives journalists a reason to pick up the phone and call us.”
In the case of the new HefeWheaties beer, Hunt published an articleon the blog about the product on August 12. Within a day, it had already led to placements in national media outlets like NPR,Fortune, and NBC News....
BuzzFeed has cracked the code on how to attract an audience. This is a media property that regularly generates over 200 billion video views per month and over 50 million unique monthly visitors.
Thanks to BuzzFeed, the listicle has become de rigueur for those charged with owned media and social channels. Of course, it’s the BF algorithm — hey, the data says a story about Donald Trump’s barber would trigger clicks galore — that does the heavy lifting.
Call it storytelling by the numbers.
Still, we pay attention to BuzzFeed and periodically conduct our own experiments like predicting what would happen if the White House poached BF talent to extend its own publishing empire....
Even the most experienced of us, can still learn a thing or two about pitching the press more effectively. I myself find that in the art of pitching, there’s definitely a continuous process of learning to refine the pitch and deliver the message in the best way possible.
With that thought in mind, as a side project, my colleagues and I have created a site entitled, “How To Pitch Me” that aims to help those who strive to pitch reporters in today’s tech landscape. Every week, we upload a Q&A submission by a different writer that will help folks understand how to become more skilful in pitching.
While reading these various submissions, I have noticed that there are certain tips that repeatedly come up. These pointers have also been shared with me by many writers in the past nine years that I have been doing public relations work. I decided to compile all these insights into one post that will be truly valuable for The Next Web’s community looking to gain insight on how to pitch right. Here are the top ten pointers:...
Though there are many things to consider when designing an image for a campaign, one crucial thing often falls by the wayside: optimizing the image for the width of the site you're pitching. Editors don't want to make their readers have to struggle to understand your image, so if your design is too wide or narrow for the site you're pitching, you could easily be rejected.
With that in mind, Fractl and BuzzStream looked at the main or featured body tag images for 35 of the top publishers to determine the most popular widths. We also looked at any larger layouts and pop-ups to determine a maximum width for each publisher when available.
We’ll walk you through four insights below that will help eliminate some of the guesswork during your next design phase....
When my boss sent an email saying we should buy former TechCrunch reporter Jason Kincaid’s book, The Burned-Out Blogger’s Guide to PR, she included a link to a review of the book and noted that it explained a lot of our challenges. I admit I was hooked by the first paragraph of the article:“Then-TechCrunch writer Jason Kincaid was attending a press event in San Francisco, frantically trying to finish his story before the embargo lifted. When someone from the company came over to ask how things were going, he blurted out: ‘I hate you.’
”As a former reporter myself (though more on the lighthearted side), I knew I would likely relate to some of his peeves. However, spending some time on the “dark side” has been a bit of a humbling experience. Kincaid reminds us a few times that reporters are people, but I’d like to remind everyone that PR reps are people, too.
Regardless, in between the slightly bitter generalizations and laugh-out-loud moments in this book, there’s a lot of great information and important reminders for startups as well as every PR professional. Here are a few of my favorites:...
PR leaders have to wade through lots of noise.
Some reporters, for instance, are difficult to reach due to the hundreds of pitches that they’re receiving per day via e-mail and Help a Reporter Out (HARO). What PR leaders need are techniques to stand out and outsmart the accidental mess created by the industry.
This process involves learning and experimentation with new communication, content marketing, and information management tools—more importantly, it involves a paradigm shift in how the PR industry builds connections with the media world.
The time to explore and try new techniques has never been better. Here are 7 resources to help you make the most out of your next brain break....
You have exciting news to share about your company, but how do you get the word out? One of the most effective strategies is to create and distribute a press release.
With an attention-grabbing title and the right hook, your company news can be shared with the right audience at the right time.
Do you need help getting started? We’ve talked before about how to format a press release and even included a template here. We’ve also shared 28 great examples of real press releases from the pros. And, in case you need an in depth analysis of which press release distribution service is best, we’ve got you covered too....
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What’s the point of this story? First — as you know by now — that there is only value in content if it “moves.” If my article had not received any attention from my readers, it’s unlikely the reporter would have found it on search. There was no inherent SEO value in my original post — I had invented the term social scoring — so the web activity alone led the reporter to me. But there is a bigger lesson here. Would I have been found by the New York Times reporter if I had only posted my ideas about social scoring on Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? The answer is obvious – no. To have the opportunity for real authority on the web and vast reach, you need a certain type of content that has depth and breadth. Every organization active on the social web needs at least one source of “rich content....
Journalists often speak of their interest in covering trends, and tying your clients to larger issues in the news can be a fruitful tactic. This was probably the thinking when I received a press release about a Pennsylvania hospital’s efforts to “go green.” Normally, it would have gone straight to the delete bin, but since I’m originally from the Keystone State and have some interest in green business practices, I gave the email an extra look. It turned out to be from a company that had just signed a contract to supply the facility with biodegradable trash bags. Now, I’m all for using eco-friendly materials, but the press release made it sound as if the place had just built a new emergency room from recycled bean sprouts: “We’re delighted that such a prominent institution recognizes the contribution [our product] can make to reduce the environmental impact of its daily operations. Our commercial product can be tailored for all kinds of applications and offers an important way for health care facilities, which by necessity generate large amounts of waste, to do the right thing for our environment.” Fast forward. An email arrived from a PR firm in Arizona promising an expert who could discuss hospitals’ efforts to improve “the patient experience.” The expert, I learned, is the CEO of a company that makes patient gowns. Let’s set aside the fact that both emails were woefully off-target (I’m actually sort of grateful, because they provided nice material for a column). What they have in common is that many folks would charitably call them a “stretch.” Both cited legitimate trends, but each was missing a key ingredient: A newsworthy (or quote-worthy) client....
The Republican frontrunner met with the editorial board on Monday morning. The full transcript follows at the link above: FREDERICK RYAN JR., WASHINGTON POST PUBLISHER: Mr. Trump, welcome to the Washington Post. Thank you for making time to meet with our editorial board. DONALD TRUMP: New building. Yes this is very nice. Good luck with it. RYAN: Thank you… We’ve heard you’re going to be announcing your foreign policy team shortly… Any you can share with us? TRUMP: Well, I hadn’t thought of doing it, but if you want I can give you some of the names… Walid Phares, who you probably know, PhD, adviser to the House of Representatives caucus, and counter-terrorism expert; Carter Page, PhD; George Papadopoulos, he’s an energy and oil consultant, excellent guy; the Honorable Joe Schmitz, [former] inspector general at the Department of Defense; [retired] Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg; and I have quite a few more. But that’s a group of some of the people that we are dealing with. We have many other people in different aspects of what we do, but that’s a representative group....
PR Newswire has advised our clients to include images and video in their press releases for a number of years, and we are now seeing a much greater usage than previously. In 2015, 42% of releases included visual elements.
This is a sharp increase from the mere 14% we saw the last time we analyzed these numbers in 2013; however, there is still room for improvement. When you look at last year’s 100 most viewed press releases, 68 included multimedia, a 42% increase compared to 2013’s top 100.
It’s clear that the use of multimedia in press releases is quickly becoming standard practice within the industry. With the continued influx of visuals across the larger communications landscape, I expect these numbers to continue to climb....
As President Xi Jinping continues his crusade against corruption in China, we're learning how high the rot reaches into the ranks of the Communist Party. Yet amid the headlines about avaricious officials and unsavory ties between senior party leaders and moneyed interests, stories about the pervasive workaday ethical challenges are often lost. One example of relevance to marketers is the practice of paying for editorial coverage.
The most common form of this practice is the "transportation fee" paid to reporters in return for conducting an on-site interview, or for participating in a press conference. Fees hover around RMB ¥300 (about $50), and are given to the reporter in a red envelope inserted inside a press kit. However, it's worth noting that sums as high as ¥3,000 (approximately $500) are sometimes paid.
Knowledge of these practices within companies varies. For some, these fees are discreetly buried within other payments they make to outside agencies. For others, it's understood to be a "cost of doing business." Justification includes the argument that everyone does it, including multinational brands and big PR agencies; that getting media coverage without it would be impossible; and that Chinese journalists actually need the money because their salaries are so low....
If you want your press release to be discovered – by search engines, journalists, customers or investors – your entire press release process needs to be focused on providing an engaging experience for your audience.
On their own, an eye-catching photo, interesting headline or robust distribution aren’t necessarily going to save a press release that has been carelessly planned and executed in other ways. From beginning to end, you must be thorough and consistent.
The following four steps will get you started when crafting a press release that cuts through the clutter and makes a lasting impression....
The weight of a press release from an SEO standpoint has evolved both on and offline. Whether or not it’s actually beneficial really depends on several key factors. If you’re a well-known B2B (or even B2C) business with a hefty budget and clout among your targeted demographic, then a press release could be beneficial as your news is less likely to get lost in the mad shuffle of it all and hit some major media headlines.
However, if you’re a small to medium-size business focused on a local or niche demographic, there are other avenues you can (and should) utilize to get your news circulating within appropriate channels. Most of us have to adhere to a marketing budget, and let’s be honest, press releases are quite pricey and rarely give us much bang for our buck.
Here are 3 creative alternatives to the press release that our team has found to be much more effective for the small to medium-sized business, and much easier on your pocket book!...
In Iowa this evening, Donald Trump’s pre-speech press conference was rudely interrupted by immigration activist and part-time journalist, Jorge Ramos. Here’s the video.
I’ve been a staunch and relentless critic of Trump’s, and my general disapproval stands. But I have to say: He got this one right. Ramos claimed that he had a “right” to ask his question. Not really, no. Ramos certainly had a “right” to wait in line with the other journalists at the event, and he might even have had a “right” to be vexed if he’d been obviously passed over. But he certainly didn’t have a right to stand up and make a scene, nor to disrupt the proceedings for everybody else.
Having a press credential in your pocket does not entitle you to behave like Code Pink. Ramos did. Ramos was evicted. Good....
What is Hey.Press?
It's a search engine for startup journalists. You search for a keyword, e.g. 'Oculus Rift', then we scour the net to find the most relevant journalists.
You can easily build small, highly targeted press lists. How much does it cost? Search is completely free!...
Cision’s free 2015 Global Social Journalism Study, conducted in partnership with Canterbury Christ Church University, surveyed over 3,000 journalists from 11 countries. The in-depth study provides a snapshot of how today’s journalists view and use social media, enabling you to better tailor your communication efforts.ß
Key findings include: - Two-thirds of journalists log in daily to use social media - 83 percent of journalists choose email as their preferred method of contact - English-speaking journalists engage more via social media than non-English-speaking journalists - Experts are important sources of information for 39 percent of journalists...
You can bet that this tactic is probably not part of any public relations textbook.
St. Louis reporter Elliot Davis tried to score an interview with the city’s comptroller, Darlene Green. The request was denied via email, so Davis went to City Hall to speak with her about the city-owned car she drives, which costs taxpayers $26,000.
That’s when Green’s spokeswoman, Melanie Streeper steps in. Watch what happens....
Hello again, readers.
Since we didn’t quite have time to peruse our favorite pitch responses last Friday, here’s a new edition of our weekly media relations series, put together with the help of our friends at Muck Rack.
First, Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times may be the most powerful tech journalist in all of media right now, and he has a point to make...
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tronc - the self-proclaimed, high-tech, low touch reinvention of Tribune publishing is a silly name that tries to deflect from all of its problems according to Josh Bernoff. The news release is a classic PR fail for this sudden rebirth as a "content curation and monetization company”.