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When
you're pitching news to any of the major financial newswires, timing is
everything.
"Think
of us as emergency rooms," says Eric Auchard, chief technology
correspondent for Reuters. "We're in an emergency room for news.
We're doing triage and we're looking at things coming in that are
stories, we're looking at things that are not gonna ever be stories and
immediately tossing them on a pile. And then we're looking at stories
that can be resuscitated."
Auchard
was among five financial wire service journalists who spoke on a recent
panel sponsored by PR Newswire in San Francisco. Also represented were
MarketWatch, Dow Jones Newswires, Bloomberg News, and the Associated
Press. All are staffed 24/7 by journalists, many of whom are on
constant deadline. The panelists said it's critical to get to know the
focus of the news organizations, who the key players are, and when to
pitch them story ideas.
Chris
Noble, assignment editor for MarketWatch, said check the clock before
picking up the phone. It's never a good idea to call a reporter at the
open (6:30 a.m. ET) or close (4:30 p.m. ET) of the stock market, unless
you have major breaking news affecting a publicly-traded company. And
make your pitch brief and direct.
"Every
time you call a reporter at these organizations he or she is juggling
three or four other things. It really is a transaction because when you
call you take a piece of that reporter's time away from something else
he or she might be doing."
John
Raess, San Francisco bureau chief for the Associated Press, said they
look for trend and "water cooler" stories that would interest
readers from Peoria to Bangkok. "It sets the bar pretty high for
what we'll cover." They don't do product announcements unless
they're indicative of a much larger story.
Raess
gave this advice to PR people when pitching: be knowledgeable; be
selective; be direct, and you'll have much higher success at placing
stories.
Dow
Jones Newswires Reporter Mark Golden said a pitch to his organization
should lead with which market the story is going to move on.
While
still primarily a financial news service, Bureau Chief Dan Reichl said
Bloomberg News has expanded beyond financial coverage and now has
reporters covering such diverse topics as politics, the Pentagon,
sports and culture.
One
way to establish a relationship with a reporter is to make youself or
your company an industry source. Raess said establish yourself
credibly; be polite and persistent if you have a good story. Don't be
surprised if you don't succeed right away. Once you become established,
you will become a regular source.
Auchard
said another way companies are getting their story out is through the
use of Web logs.
"They're
a great complement to what we do. Bloggers often become sources. They
do have expertise in their subject. Of the 6,000 people on my source
list I bet 500 of them are bloggers."
All
panelists said PR Newswire is monitored regularly at their
organizations. They value news releases for their contact information
because many companies don't put phone numbers on their Web sites.
While
all 5 panelists said they are happy to receive story pitches, some of
their pet peeves include jargon, e-mail attachments, and sources that
are unavailable the day of a news release.
Visit
PR Newswire's PR Toolkit to access practical tips
and resources to help you create an effective public relations program.
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