Courtesy of Valleywag on 1/15/2007:
—————————————————-
Michael Arrington is sometimes so refreshingly blunt that one can forgive him his over-compensating aggression, and sanctimonious contempt for those, such as mainstream journalists, who just don’t get it. Asked by Sam Whitmore’s Media Survey to give advice to tech publicists, Arrington answers: “I’ll make time for people who will help me be successful in the future, it’s that simple.” He says he’s happy to cover a marginal client “if I know I’ll get scoops down the road.” Mainstream reporters make those deals all the time. They are swayed, not by financial inducement or freebies, as geeks such as Arrington often suspect, but by the promise of information. Arrington’s so new to the journalism game that, like an innocent child, he hasn’t developed a sense of shame, one that leads his grizzled colleagues to be more inhibited about their dealmaking. Advice to PR flacks, from other tech reporters interviewed by Media Survey, after the jump.
Don Clark, Wall Street Journal
“Don’t be shy about pitching a story that may have nothing to do with one of your clients, but you just think is an interesting story that we’re missing or maybe other people are missing. [PR people] hear things that are interesting and that’s a good way to build a relationship with a reporter.”Greg Sandoval, News.com
Greg says he met PR pro Michael Prichinello while reporting on Prichinello’s client, Kozmo. The relationship grew from there. Prichinello called Greg to discuss trends and ideas that had nothing to do with Kozmo, knowing there was no quid pro quo. The result was that “when he would call with something, I would listen. He didn’t waste my time. I’ll take his call any time.”Fred Vogelstein, Wired
“Because the best are brilliant and plugged in,” Fred likes talking to small companies and entrepreneurs “especially when they are customers of big corporations.” This offers him insight as to “what it’s like to be customer of the big companies out there.”Richard Waters, Financial Times
Set Richard up with “serial entrepreneurs — people who have spent time at big companies. If I get Google on the phone – around earnings – I don’t want to talk about earnings, which gets me in trouble,” he confesses. What he’s looking for are unstructured opportunities to ask broader questions in search of the bigger story.Jeffrey O’Brien, Fortune
Pitch an insight, not just about the company in question, but about an emerging trend in culture and business. “If you want to help me out, help me along that path. Get me started in that direction. Something that goes beyond come and meet our CEO.”Mike Masnick, Techdirt
“Point me to stories that have something interesting we can stake an opinion on.”Mike Arrington, TechCrunch
“I’ll make time for people who will help me be successful in the future, it’s that simple.” He says he’s happy to cover a marginal client “if I know I’ll get scoops down the road.”Ashlee Vance, The Register
Because he writes two or three stories a day, Ashlee wants to be “off the hook, get the quote, file the story, and move along. Waiting for a call becomes another whole process.” Ashlee loves it when PR knows the subject so well they can answer all questions about “shipping info, product details, (and) keep me abreast of events.”Erick Schonfeld, Business 2.0
Erick appreciates PR pros who are experts on the companies they represent — especially those who have been around ten to 15 years and “often know more than the execs I’m interviewing.”Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek
“I look for industry knowledge,” Peter says. He responds to conversation about the industry and appreciates someone who can offer background. Be prepared to talk about the competitor, not to trash them but to show that you know the industry.Larry Seltzer, Ziff Davis Media
Be prepared with credible facts. “With my limited time, I don’t have extra to give to people who aren’t answering questions. I’ll be suspicious if you’re not willing to concede any weakness. You won’t gain credibility that way.”Scott Kirsner, freelancer
His preference for PR agencies tends toward the smaller or independent PR pro. “The biggest agencies are all horrible, unresponsive and slow to return calls…you have to explain the story you’re working on 16 times to 16 different people… The most helpful have been self-employed PR people who have the freedom to tell the client, ‘I’m not going to call the Wall Street Journal because they’re not going cover it.'”Steve Rosenbush, BusinessWeek
He says he gets lots of press releases but not many pitches. He believes that it’s easy to send a press release but it takes conviction to get out and actually pitch a story. In most cases people are simply passing information along on an FYI basis as background, but it’s a small number people of I meet with who actually say I think I have a story here.Kevin Maney, USA Today
“I work best in relationships,” Kevin says. Ideally he’s looking for one contact per company or agency. “I don’t want to be dealing with four, five or six different people at an agency or a company.” He’d rather have one individual to turn to.Demir Barlas, Line56
Demir suggests you offer “feedback to a specific article.” He’s interested to hear your reaction to something he’s done. “The more work you do, the more it catches my attention. I can’t think of a single person who’s done that amount of effort that I haven’t eventually done something with.”Suzanne Kantra, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
“Don’t hesitate to ask me what I want – most people don’t ask.”Paul Krill, InfoWorld
Paul says PR works best for him when “PR is honest about what going on…when they are open and trust me.” A good way to tick him off is to call him late Friday afternoon about a Monday announcement. “Then I either have to work late on Friday – or hope not to be scooped and wait ’til Monday.” In either case, he feels sandbagged.Damon Darlin, New York Times
Damon wants PR pros to say, “Look, here’s the background, here’s the problem we’re facing…I’ll put you in touch with these executives and they’ll tell you how they’re going to solve the problem.” It’s brave, we know, but weekly we hear from journalists looking for this level of honesty.Greg Sandoval, News.com
Greg gives kudos to PR people who don’t cold call “when they have a pitch in the gray area” – in other words, when even the PR pro has doubts about the pitch’s newsworthiness.Andreas Kluth, The Economist
Be “rare, relevant and short.”