Journalism

We were there on the last day of Tallahassee Democrat reporter Bill Cotterell’s 42nd legislative session – a Cal Ripken Jr. type feat, unlikely to be repeated. Congratulations and thank you, Bill.
Read his retirement column and story here:
tallahassee.com/article/20120305/COLUMNIST03/203050306/This-Cotterell-column-you-though [...]

The biggest story today out of Tallahassee: the Daily Show’s Aasif Mandvi interrupts Governor Rick Scott’s budget announcement press conference by asking the Governor to pee in a cup to prove that he is not on drugs, mocking the Governor’s requirements that welfare recipients pay for and submit a urine sample before collecting benef [...]

This should all go without saying, but it won’t.
Most bad PR folks that I run into don’t know how to earn local TV coverage. There are lots of reasons. Earlier today I tweeted a preview of this blog and some of the responses were applicable: lack of visual, how to communicate with assignment desks, etc.
It’s even simpler than that, [...]

Some people chastise the press for never getting it right. Not only are those people generally wrong, they are often the cause of such errors in reporting.
Think of the people within corporations or government who believe they get a bad rap in the media. Most of those folks are dismissive, condescending, or institutionally averse to respo [...]

The media loves process stories.
Politicos hate them. A process story for a campaign or administration revolves around inside baseball like staff changes, infighting, fundraising or strategic changes (click here for a recent gem). However, some process stories can be positive, like an upcoming campaign focus, initiative, or for Florida G [...]

Most press releases and advisories copy the headline of the release into the subject line of an email and blast it out to the world. That’s not a good idea.
The best press release subject lines are short and compelling.
Last night, the class I teach on earned media at Florida State University had two guest speakers, a news director and [...]

If your public relations firm demeans the news media to you, you’re in trouble.
Public relations flacks should be the ultimate consumers of the news media they pitch. It’s an essential part of the job to know what is on screens and in print. Otherwise, when they are pitching your stories, it’s like they’re trying to throw a st [...]

PR is like politics and football – everyone has an opinion, especially on Monday morning. Similarly, few are willing or capable to actually enter the arena.
For those that do, many fail, and I think I know why.
There is one element to a press event that will almost guarantee coverage. For as long as I’ve been in public relations, repo [...]

Local TV news is difficult. My father, a local TV anchor, often reminds me of a ridiculous statement that I made in high school when someone asked me what he did for a living. I said, “he reads the newspaper to lazy people.” It was a joke, but it stuck with him.
According to Pew, 78% of Americans say they get news from a loca [...]