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| Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | Views: 128 |
| Nov 08, 2009 10:17 am | | Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605 | | Here's the situation. You go to a luncheon. Boy Scout and Girl Scout leaders are the keynote speakers. The local news reporter is there to cover the talk. After the meeting, you walk up to the reporter to tell her you are hosting a very important workshop. You tell her nothing quite like it has ever happened in the county before. You request coverage of the event from her newspaper. You know that this woman is the reporter for this area. You tell her it the event happens on Sunday, Nov. 8th at 2 p.m. in the afternoon. The reporter tell you flat out she WILL NOT cover the event and why. The reason? It's a commercial event rather than nonprofit. That is why this local reporter refuses to attend.
So, you go home Wednesday, following the luncheon and send an email (press release) to the newspaper about the upcoming workshop. The next day, in the Thursday printed county-wide newspaper on Page 2 there is your news story - right next to the one written by this reporter about the Boy and Girl Scouts.
Nearly a month goes by and suddenly in your evening email there is a message from this newspaper. And here it is - "Hello, I am trying to have someone cover your Sunday event, but it may not be possible. Could you take photos and information if we are unable to attend? I am sending you a press release packet (to show you how to do it). Please keep us informed. We value your submissions." Mandy Feder, News Editor, Lake County Publishing Company.
Does the news media where you live send you email asking you to write stories and take pictures for their use? Has our struggling economy so impacted the news media that they can no longer cover the news? Are they now forced to have the public write it for them so they can stay in business?
Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
(707)709-8605
Need PR?...Call Lamar!
Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605 |
| Nov 08, 2009 6:44 pm | | re: Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | I'm not a PR professional, so I'm not really aware what's usual or not. I do know there are different rules for non-profits and businesses, and I'm not surprised that your paper is asking you to write up your event yourself.
Which, by the way, stimulated me to put the write-up of my first Maintenance Night in my blog. I know the local papers follow my Twitter tweets, and posting in my blog automatically generates a tweet, so maybe one of the papers will give me some space. (I'm not holding my breath.)
I had another, longer response earlier, but Ryze was acting up so it disappeared. Oh well!
Kurt
Private Reply to Kurt Schweitzer |
| Nov 09, 2009 1:12 am | | re: re: Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605 | | Kurt,
Since you live in Rochester, NY, here is what you ought to do. Look up Small Business Examiners at Examiner.com for Rochester, NY. Then, ask one of them to do an article on your scooter store. Allow the Rochester Examiner to add some free buzz to your business. Keep in mind you do not have to limit yourself to be a one-shot entry or even limiting yourself to using just one reporter. I would go for as much press coverage from as many folks as you can get. You may be surprised at the amount of free publicity you can get...provided you take the time to ask for it. Keep in mind, you need to have a good angle for the report. Bad angles or no angle at all is not likely to end up being an article in an Examiner publication.
Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
(707)709-8605
Need PR?...Call Lamar!
Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605 |
| Nov 09, 2009 7:33 am | | re: re: re: Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | Interesting site. It appears there are only a handful of local reporters, and over half of them cover electronic games in one guise or another. Most local reporting is scraped off the local TV websites (which are very active in their reporting), and when I click on the "Rochester Events" link I'm taken to the City of Rochester's website (http://www.cityofrochester.gov/index.aspx?id=93).
Lots of topics, little coverage, volunteer writers. I wonder if it has any readers.
Kurt
Private Reply to Kurt Schweitzer |
| Nov 09, 2009 8:31 am | | re: re: re: re: Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Scott Wolpow | | 3,105,901 Daily Visitors according to statbrain.com
7,040,174 Uniques a month according to compete.com
Most people stayed for less than 3 minutes according to Alexa.com
compete.com has the most accurate data, it is based on traffic through ISP's not a toolbar which can skew very easily.
Private Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Nov 09, 2009 8:46 am | | re: Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Donald Smith | | Lamar, how large a staff does the newspaper have? If there is more than one event going on that day and regardless of the size of the county,I am sure that there will be. And given the fact that newspapers are short staffed, it might be that they simply don't have the "resources" to cover the whole county at the same time. And a Saturday too?
My Local Not-for-Profit did the same thing. They would send you the format for the story and you could send as many pics of the event as you wanted. But there wasn't enough staff to cover the local 4H event,50th Wedding annivesary of the Mayor, the local High School championship, etc,etc. So..they asked for a little help. Unless I am way of base, I don't see what the problem is.
http://www.2plus7.com/blackadonisgold
Private Reply to Donald Smith |
| Nov 10, 2009 2:10 am | | re: re: Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605 | | Donald,
Here's what's weird about this situation. First, the local reporter, who is supposed to cover events in this area tells me she won't cover that story - not that she cannot. And, here reason? It's a commercial event rather than nonprofit. Why should something that is commercial be denied coverage if it is newsworthy - something that is never happened in the area before that is geared specifically toward benefiting the community. Why is that not newsworthy in the eyes of a reporter? But then, when I email a press release to the paper itself, the paper decides to place it on Page 2 of the paper - right next to the reporter who refused to attend my event. Then, the day before my event is to take place, the same newspaper sends me a press kit enocuraging me to wrote a story and take a picture to send them. They want the news that bad.
I simply find it hard to believe all this is standard procedure for a newspaper. I am being sent mixed signals as to what is newsworthy and what is not by the same newspaper.
Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
(707)709-8605
Need PR?...Call Lamar!
Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605 |
| Nov 10, 2009 8:25 am | | re: re: re: Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Scott Wolpow | | She was blowing you off, Lamar plain and simple. Then her editor assigned her the job and she still did not want to do it, so she gave you the assignment.
Private Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Nov 11, 2009 10:11 am | | re: re: re: re: Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605 | | Scott,
I do not know what went on in the background at the newspaper. What I do know is that my emailed press release will be the county-wide printed newspaper today on Page 11. The newspaper emailed me another press kit yesterday. I guess this has become something of a standard procedure for them as I was sent that kit already once before a week or so earlier. Who knows? Maybe the daily newspaper is following in the footstep of the weekly Middletown Times Star and setting up a process where the general public does most of the writing for the newspaper...and then pays to subscribe to read their own articles? I may go out and get a copy of the newspaper just to prove it. Will I be given my own by-line as the Middletown Time Star has often done? I doubt it.
I doubt this sort of thing happens where you live in New York City or where I used to live in Atlanta, GA. But, it certainly seems to be spreading out here in rural Northern California.
Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
(707)709-8605
Need PR?...Call Lamar!
Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605 |
| Nov 11, 2009 4:02 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Scott Wolpow | | Our community papers and dailys are getting thinner each week. I am willing to bet they will follow suit soon.
Private Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Nov 11, 2009 11:12 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605 | | Scott,
Does that mean they may soon be more receptive to publishing citizen media than they are now? Or, does that mean they will simply close up shop?
Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
(707)709-8605
Need PR?...Call Lamar!
Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605 |
| Nov 11, 2009 11:24 pm | | Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Scott Wolpow | | Yes to both. Publishing is getting hammered. Every magazine I know is getting thinner. And the companies refuse to lower their rates.They will use Citizen Journalist because they have no choice.
Private Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Nov 11, 2009 11:54 pm | | re: Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605 | | Scott,
Would you say this was inevitable due to the ever-increasing popularity of the Internet? Or, do you think the economic slowdown greatly sped up the shrinkage of the print media as we once knew it?
Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
(707)709-8605
Need PR?...Call Lamar!
Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605 |
| Nov 12, 2009 8:37 am | | re: re: Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Scott Wolpow | | Borh
Private Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Nov 12, 2009 9:32 am | | Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Mike Fesler | | Printed media suffers from many ailments.
1. Not user friendly
a. You can not look up information needed expeditiously
b. You must turn away from other tasks to utilize
c. Space requirements
2. Not credible:
a. Need I say more?
3. Not timely / current:
a. By the time you read it in print? It is old news.
Economy has nothing to do with the slowdown / pending extinction of print media.
It is simply Demand for a more reliable, current form of information that drives the markets to new and improved medias.
The print media in its present form can not match or even meet the demand for the immediate need, the insatiable desire for constant flow of convenient reliable information.
It must evolve. . . . . or become at best an ancient artifact (the equivalent of cave drawings) or at worst extinct.
M.
Private Reply to Mike Fesler |
| Nov 12, 2009 11:30 am | | re: Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605 | | Mike,
How does print media "evolve" and continue to be print media? Even now, you have newspapers, magazines and TV networks with websites. Are newspapers to become a thing of the past - like horse-drawn carriages? Are we going to see more citizen journalism in the local newspaper because the paper cannot afford to hire reporters to cover the news? Instead, will they simply get it off a blog and give the writer credit in the newspaper? Or, will they contact someone like me and request I write an article about my own event and send it to them to fill up space in their own newspaper? Want proof this has actually happened? Check this out.
Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
(707)709-8605
Need PR?...Call Lamar!
Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605 |
| Nov 12, 2009 4:49 pm | | re: re: Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Bobbi Jo Woods | | I think it's also a generational & lifestyle thing.
The only people I know who read the paper nowadays are SOME folks who ride the bust (rest are manhandling a Blackberry or an iPod), and my mother.
Older folks (and others) who are not connected like we are, to the Internet, Twitter, cable news' constant feed on TV, etc. are the ones who read the paper, so to them, most things AREN'T old news if they are not online or watch the cable news networks.
I feel like the demand for newspapers is probably slowing down quite a bit. The two major papers (Minneapolis Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press) here in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area are constantly mailing me postcards and/or calling my phone, prompting me to subscribe. I don't read either of these papers, because not only do both companies have strangleholds on them by the same large company that has too much interest tied into radical left-wing politics, but the content in both suffers as a result. The only non-biased content printed in these are perhaps the lifestyle sections (fashion, travel, cooking, and sometimes the arts) and the classified ads! Seriously.
But alas, I live in a very blue state, so these things won't change.
If I ever buy a paper, it's usually The Onion. I use what I'm done reading to wash windows, entertain my kitty cat, who likes to bat around noisy things, and for packing glass things when moving. That's about it.
Private Reply to Bobbi Jo Woods |
| Nov 12, 2009 6:27 pm | | Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Mike Fesler | | Lamar,
If I had the succinct answer to that question?
I would be in the position to control the media.
The answer lies within.
Question:
What is the true value in a $3,200,000 Stradivarius violin?
What is the true value in a $.99 Stanley screwdriver?
Answer:
The true value is in the person, the mastery of the person using the instrument / tool.
The instrument / tool by itself?
Is of -0- value.
It must be held and used and manipulated by a person to be noticed.
It is only fully appreciated and creative when a person / master is in control.
The media and every other entity has the same scenario.
The most ignored, under appreciated and underutilized asset is the people.. . . the people within.
They have the answer, the way, the means, to create, tp compose, to perform the necessary function to make the object at rest (and becoming extinct), alive and most enjoyed and even coveted.
M.
Private Reply to Mike Fesler |
| Nov 13, 2009 12:01 am | | re: Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Scott Wolpow | | Depends on your needs. The Violin is worthless if you need to fasten a screw.
The Screwdriver has no value in a string quartet.
Private Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Nov 13, 2009 12:42 am | | Does This Strike You As A Bit Unusual? | # |
Mike Fesler | | Scott, your vision is too myopic.
The question was to the true value of the object. Your needs are immaterial, as you may misuse the object only to suffice your immediate needs as you perceive them at the time.
Example: You have the violin and you are cold and hungry.
You may opt to start a fire with the violin to keep warm and live another day to search for food.
Or in your example you need to tighten a screw, how many screwdrivers could you purchase with the proceeds of the violin?
There is no music without the craftsman to manufacture the instrument.
There is no music without the musician.
There is no music without the screwdriver to manufacture the instrument.
Are they connected?
Which is more important in the end?
The joining of the two has proven to make history, to sooth the very souls of mankind.
The strategic partnership / relationship together has raised the craftsmanship to higher levels never thought obtainable by each.
Separated and isolated, they can only exist in their worlds of preconceived existence.
Together in harmony, beautiful music and harmonious joy can be achieved.
But it still takes the hands of the masters to move and utilize their given talents to create.
M.
Private Reply to Mike Fesler |
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