Last night, Ruby Media Group had the pleasure of attending the Meet the Media event hosted by The Professional Women of Westchester at The newly renovated Crowne Plaza Hotel in White Plains. Panelists included Kate Walsh of Westchester Magazine, Faith Ann Butcher of Hudson Valley Reporter, Kacey Morabito Grean of 100.7 WHUD, and Janet Hasson of LoHud. The panel was moderated by Lisa Kaslyn of Prosper Communications.
For those that missed the event, here are some PR nuggets of wisdom for how to land great ink for your clients in local Westchester press outlets and publications.
LOCAL MEDIA PR TIPS:
How do you pitch to local media?
Event Submission.
Be sure to post your local event on all relevant event calendars (Patch, Daily Voice, Lohud, WestchesterMagazine, Westfair, etc.)
Pitching Background Research
Find out who it is that covers what you are pitching and pitch accordingly. For example, are you pitching a hard news story, metro crime, or lifestyle?
If you want to break in as a subject matter expert or source, read the bi lines of articles and see who is covering what you want to be quoted on.
Add value to a reporter.
Every reporter is looking for leads and new story ideas. If you have a truly relevant story that would be of value to a publication’s readers; pitch it. Always pitch the actual news or the human-interest story, do not pitch ‘puff pieces.’
E-mail pitching 101
- Do not send emails with attachments and no body text.
- Put the date in the subject line
- Come up with a witty subject line
- Always answer- who, what, where, when, and why
Be mindful of the reporter’s deadlines and planning. For example, if it is a monthly publication, don’t pitch a story for October when they are already planning their January issue. Be mindful of editorial calendars.
How to get Ink
If you want a reporter to cover your restaurant or new fitness class, invite them in to try it! They can’t write about what they don’t know.
What is one way for PR practitioners to sustain resilience when pitching the media?
Publicists get rejected a lot. The best way to remain resilient is to review your wins. vs. loss ratio. Always keep track of every pitch sent to the media. If a client isn’t quoted, study why. Look at the expert sources that were quoted. Did they provide more substantial quotes? What is different about their quote vs. the subject matter expert you submitted?
Learn from every pitch you lost.
PR is a numbers game. Rejection comes with the territory. How you react to the rejection defines you as a practitioner. Learning emotional regulation tips is critical to dealing with the constant rejection that is part of the process. Resilience is in spite of adversity. One big win can offset many small losses. Stay focused on that. But also, become better at the craft. Additionally, if the media does not reply to you, you may want to re-think what you are pitching. Perhaps it isn’t newsworthy, or you are just missing the mark entirely and need to go back to the drawing board.
Ruby Media Group is a full-service Public Relations Agency in Westchester, Fairfield, and Manhattan. For more information on how RMG can generate national media exposure for your business, contact us at kruby @ rubymediagroup.com