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Feb 06 2014

How to Bond with Today’s Freelance Journalist: a Q&A with Healthcare and Business Writer James Ritchie

With hybrid expertise on the business and healthcare beats, James Ritchie has earned himself job security at a time when journalism keeps changing. “Business journalism is never going away,” he explains. “People need business information to make decisions.” What’s more, Ritchie says, “I have a broad background in covering healthcare; that’s my competitive advantage.”

Ritchie has more than eight years of experience covering healthcare, including medical practices, health IT, insurance companies and hospitals. After working as a staff reporter for the Cincinnati Business Courier, Ritchie became a full-time freelance writer for a variety of media and corporate clients. He continues to write for American City Business Journals in several capacities.

I asked Ritchie about the role of PR in his day to day work as a journalist.

How has journalism changed for you in the last 3 to 5 years?

“The pace has changed. Throughout the media world, you see a lot more short pieces on the web to break or update news. Headlines need to scream, ‘Read me!’ Quite a few stories can be told with infographics and bullet points. It’s harder to get and hold people’s attention, and if you’re planning to write a long narrative piece at many publications the bar is very high. It had better be a remarkably interesting story.

“Of course, it depends on your audience too. In the traditional daily newspaper you have sports, business, news, comics, etc. But now a lot of people are reading about what they’re interested in and tuning out nearly everything else. If I own a restaurant, I’ll read a trade publication on restaurants. And if you’re writing on business and particularly in specialized areas – in my case, usually healthcare – you’re more likely to publish the stories of 700 words or more, because the audience is hooked by virtue of the topic.

“But there’s still no room to be boring.”

What makes a great story?

“What I’m going for is something inherently useful to the reader. They’ll take the information and do something with it; it’s not a passing interest.

“There are a lot of ways to tell good stories. News today is often recursive, where one outlet is quoting – and linking to – another. If you can show your readers something interesting or useful in that way then you’ve done them a service. For investigative stories, you often see data journalism, where you’re trying to pick out trends from a big data set. If you can analyze the databases, you can tell stories that you couldn’t have gotten to in the past.

“But there’s still a place for going out and looking people in the eye and getting stories. We have to be careful not to move too far away from that. You need humans to tell the stories.”

How often do you deal with PR professionals?

“Quite a lot. There are many cases where PR people help me to get in touch with executives, physicians or other sources in their organizations. And I listen to their pitches as long as they’re relevant to something I might write.

“Of course, you can’t respond to everything. A healthcare reporter shows up on all kinds of lists. When I was in a staff reporter job, I would probably get 200 emails a day. But most of them wouldn’t be relevant to me. They may have personalized the email with my name, but it was going to a whole lot of people. One time I got a pitch about a health screening van in a parking lot in Montana. I would delete that.

“Things that are pitched to me specifically, I read.

“I like Help A Reporter Out (HARO); I put queries out. If it’s a hot topic you get a lot of response both from PR contacts and directly from sources.”

What can PR people do to improve their relationship with you?

“Probably the main thing is to focus on the person-to-person relationship. Build a social bond. You might not be best friends, but you can position yourself so your email gets read. Send a sentence or two. Say, ‘I have a story I think you might like.’

“If you can provide an exclusive story that’s in line with what the publication does, that helps. Journalists work hard for exclusives. If a PR person says, ‘I’m going to give this to you first,’ that’s of interest. Barring that, at least bring a new angle.”

Do you value the PR-Journalism relationship?

I value the relationship. If you call an executive at a hospital or large company, in many cases they’ll refer you back to a PR person. The PR person can often get you the access you need. The second thing: They’re there, and people internally are feeding them stories that you might not hear about otherwise.”

James Ritchie image: provided by James Ritchie

Apr 22 2013

The New Call to Action: How to Generate More than Good Press

In a press release, the call to action is a sentence that spells out exactly what you want readers to do. Traditionally this has been directed at journalists. It’s the contact information we tag on the end to say, “Please call for more information, esteemed press contact!”

Newsflash: The press release isn’t just for journalists anymore. It’s for bloggers, industry professionals, customers, prospects, investors—anyone with an Internet connection. Now that the press release has arrived in the 21^st century, it’s time for PR pros to learn some new tricks. And where better to learn than the fast growing, forward thinking world of digital marketing!

Optimize Your Press Release with Targeted Calls to Action

Lately one area of digital marketing has received more buzz—and bigger budgets—than any other: Conversion Optimization. Conversion Optimization (CO) refers to the methods and strategies marketers use to convert their visitors into paying customers, content subscribers, members, or loyal web app users. Though the field is only about a decade old–invented by e-merchants and Internet advertisers–CO has some important lessons for the age-old press release.

The biggest lesson? Tailor your press release to multiple audiences at once with targeted calls to action that address the social media maven, B2B contact, curious layperson, and journalist. Conversion Optimization is about personalization, personalization, personalization. That means targeting content to individuals with a one-size-does-not-fit-all approach.

How to Spur Readers to Action in More Ways than One

More often than not, you are releasing your company announcement online, through a newswire service, and preserving it on your press page indefinitely. The goal is to make it work for you again and again, not just sit there collecting digital dust. By embedding a powerful call to action or three, you can motivate readers to dig deeper into your website, sign up for a mailing list, or buy your product.

When the content on your site solves a visitor’s unique problem, your brand instantly earns trust, loyalty, and hopefully a sale. PR pros know this as audience segmentation. We all have the same goal in mind: divide your market into distinct groups, and then target them with messages—or pitches—that speak to their needs. Here are some examples:

The Consumer

“Learn more.”
“Participate in our survey.”
“Sign up for our newsletter and receive regular tips and insights.”
“See what others have to say about our product.”

The B2B Sales Contact

“Click here to download a full report.”

“View a case study.”
“View a video demo of our product.”
“Tell us what you think.”

The Blogger

“Try our product and share your thoughts.”

“Sign up for a complimentary consultation.”
“Follow us on Twitter.”
“See our blog for more information.”

Whatever you do, be sure to provide a live link to your website, and an email address, telephone number, Twitter handle, Facebook page—everything you’ve got. The easier it is for potential customers to reach you, the more likely they are to convert.

A final word of warning: Don’t be salesy. Conversion Optimization pros know that is sure-fire way to turn prospects into suspects. A powerful call to action will typically prompt your reader to seek out more information or give you their contact information. It’s not a direct sale, but it’s the first step.

Nov 07 2012

Doing Your First Press Interview? Follow These Tips…

If you’re new to press interviews, the best rule of thumb is to keep your answers short, pithy and quotable. Say what you want to see in print (or broadcast). Keep it conversational; try to avoid long narratives that leave no room for interjection [by the journalist!]. After all, you know how it feels to be subjected to someone who waxes on without taking a breath. If the interview is by phone, which most will be, have a sheet of talking points so you don’t get flustered and fumble.

During the interview:

Say the most important thing you have to say first and say it slowly and clearly.
Don’t build to your conclusion. Be brief in your replies.
Use your answers to make a point or convey a memorable message about your business
A message should answer who we are; what we do; what makes us different
If you don’t like how you started start over.
Avoid jargon or acronyms. Use analogies to illustrate points.
Never say “no comment”. If you can’t answer for legal reasons, just say so.
Don’t speculate or make predictions you can’t substantiate; reporters will not accept your claims at face value.
Remain focused but enthusiastic.
Don’t make things up.
Don’t bash the competition.
Don’t ramble; check in with the reporter; ask if he needs clarification.
Ask for clarification if you don’t get the question; repeat the question if necessary.
There is no such thing as “off the record.” Everything you say to the reporter has the potential to be published.
Turn off your cell phone.
When you’ve answered the question, stop talking.
Do not ask for a review copy of the story before it goes to press. To avoid bias journalists never share drafts with their sources.

What’s a sound bite?
A short, memorable statement that captures the essence of the issue and illustrates the point being made. The key to a good sound bite is:

Conclusion first (think of the headline or lead paragraph in a newspaper story)
Add an example or supporting information
End by explaining what it means to the reader/listener/viewer.

Aug 21 2012

How Facebook Ruined My Life

I remember when that dinosaur MySpace had parents reeling from seeing their hardware-pierced teens show and tell all on the worldwide web. You would think these deeply disturbing exposes would have mobilized moms and dads against the digital freedom fighters to render the netherworld of MySpace a shriveled up version of the Wicked Witch of the West, with virtue making a big comeback. Alas, the universe had other plans… a far superior, G-rated phenomenon called Facebook took toddlers, teens, parents, grandparents, friends and coworkers on a liking spree half way around the globe.

But those likes quickly became commodities, monetizing and advertising multi-media messages. Social media turned public relations on its ear. Hits and features were replaced by likes and fans, and thought leaders were made from Klout, not essays in a trade pub. It’s just no fun for us old fart public relations peeps. I recall the days when text in a newspaper print story was all the rage… when journalists, although they still thought of us as a necessary evil, at least had a phone number — and you could find it in an obvious place on a website! And occasionally they even answered your call – from a telephone on an office desk! Crazy I know!

Now journalists have to report, write, produce, upload, storify, glorify, tweet, dig, post, blog and Pin up their own stories. Talk about no respect. Who has time to pee let alone answer my oh so carefully crafted email pitches, complete with the most compelling story angles, stats, links and video clips all packed into 50 words. Can’t they at least commend my brevity?!

Still, cracking the code, finding that hidden jewel of a news hook, landing an interview for a client, and a story that not only makes a client’s day but actually has some value for the audience. Getting tweeted, posted and trended is nice too. That’s still where the juice is for this PR gal… and in the words of Fred Astaire (talk about great old farts…), They Can’t Take That Away From Me.”