Tales From the Beat

Mon dieu! It seems like every story pitched to me lately has some sort of embargo. Sometimes it makes sense. Many times it doesn't. Often the embargo is offered way too late in the game because the PR person, or their client, operated at the pace of escargot. In this week's episode I'll talk about some pitches for embargoed stories I've recently received. At least one time, I was the snail. 

From creepy to crappy to brilliant, I get 'em all--subject lines for emailed story pitches from PR people. My recent haul runs the gamut so in this week's episode of Tales From the Beat I share some with you and talk about why they either hit the mark, were just off target or were totally useless. One even found a way to use the term "catfish" and it was definitely not about dating or angling. Enj...

You're a PR person with a mission to get coverage, any coverage for a demanding client. You got a reporter to do a story once on that client, now you keep coming back, gnawing on that scribe like a dog on a bone over and over again, even if the story doesn't amount to a hill of kibble. In this episode of Tales From the Beat, I give a first hand account of just such a situation and some pointers on...

Love a good memory? A little nostalgia? I do too...except when it comes to story pitches...then I get a bad case of "nostalgia neuralgia". In this week's episode I'll tell you about some recent attempts to snooker me into buying "news" stories that are more like "golden oldies," and offer some advice to my PR friends how to avoid pitching stories that belong in Mr. Peabody's Way Back Machine.&nbsp...

Do you bubble or float? Some PR people are talking nonsense using words like those in order to get reporters to respond to pitches. In this week's edition, I talk about this ridiculous "alternative" language many PR people have adopted and suggest a better way to give a reporter a little poke when following-up. 

Since The Art of the Spiel was first posted, there's been an update. The original episode dealt with a fairly tactless approach by a PR person to get my attention to a story. A few days after the episode was posted I decided to finally reply to her. The way she responded led to a "teachable moment". It's here in this updated episode.  

In this week's episode I'll tell you about a pitch I recently received that mark with an obnoxious email subject line followed by an equally inappropriate accusation—not the way to win a reporter's attention, and more important, agreeing to do the proposed story. Oh, I had a little fun composing a reply. In the spirit of the podcast's premise of looking at situations on both sides of the scrimmage...

What do Princesses Kate, Meghan and condoms all have in common? They represent the subjects of misguided pitches reporters receive all the time--at least the ones that ended up in my inbox. In this episode I'll tell the story from both sides, as a reporter and PR guy and offer some easy advice on avoiding this time wasting and non-productive practice. Oh, I'll also reveal what I learned about the...

It's been about three years since there was an actual auto show in Detroit. It used to be a one of the biggest and most influential in the world with dozens of new product introductions, elaborate and very expensive displays, attracting thousands of journalists from all over the globe. But times have changed. Many automakers have decided to skip not just the Detroit show but others, the multi-stor...

Welcome to Tales From the Beat where I related real life personal case studies from both sides of the scrimmage line as a reporter and PR pro. This is our first episode. I give you a brief intro to who I am and what the podcast is all about then launch right into a situation I ran into recently, showing up to a story at the right time and right location, only it seemed to be quite a surprise to th...