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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

 

Written by Laura R. · Categorized: Healthcare PR, Journalism, Pitching Stories, Public Relations, Social Media, Uncategorized · Tagged: article, articles, health, healthcare, journalist, journalists, media, pitch, PR, press, press release, Public Relations, social media

Jan 22 2014

Healthcare PR Advice from Editor Donald Tepper

Donald Tepper is editor of PT in Motion, a publication for members of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). PT in Motion covers relevant legislation and association news, and “discussion of professional issues and ideas in physical therapy practice.” G2Comm works with a wide range of healthcare providers so I talked to Tepper to get his take on working with PR professionals.

Tepper provides some sage advice for PR folks who want to impress editors by delivering useful and valuable stories.

Know Your Story Inside and Out

Tepper has encountered PR pros who know virtually nothing about their own products or company beyond the press release. “If I’m interested in pursuing a story, I find it frustrating to ask basic questions and the PR person knows absolutely nothing,” says Tepper. “They can’t clarify anything in the press release or speak to anything beyond what’s in it.”

“A lot of PR people think their main function is to pitch.  Trouble is they don’t know what to do next. They don’t know how to tailor a pitch to a particular news outlet.” It helps if PR reps have some honest curiosity and interest about what they’re pitching. Don’t just do a robo call.”

Know My Story Too

Tepper once worked in PR. “When I was on the PR end, reporters would call to ask questions; they knew the subject and the publication and I knew theirs. He doesn’t expect PR people to be experts on his publication but knowing Tepper’s story means knowing what’s relevant to his readers.  “I may get a pitch about a chiropractor who offers a product or service but—because the focus is on the chiropractor—it’s not relevant to my physical therapy readers.  But if the product helps PTs do their job, I’m interested. Tell me why it’s relevant.”

Know What Makes a Story Valuable

“Why should our readers care?” questions Tepper. “If [PR pros] can answer that, I love it. The size and exposure of your company is not important; the topic and angle you’re pitching is.  Pitch me an interesting topic that readers haven’t read before; nuggets of useful advice.

Value for PTs means information that helps them operate their businesses better.  For example, “we would write about what questions you should ask when evaluating EMR [electronic medical records] systems.  Or concept pieces such as ‘What is Crowdsourcing?’ Both have relevance for PTs.”

If you’re pitching a product, the same value criteria apply. “One inventor developed a new cane – Swiss army knife of canes — that found its way into a larger article on inventors. We wrote about how the inventor came up with the idea, then how the product was developed and commercialized. That type of article goes over well.”

Know What Journalist’s Look For

Journalists are always looking for credible and knowledgeable sources. Make your pitch attractive by providing a source “who is willing to be quoted and talks beyond yes and no answers.”

“We prefer to talk to clinical people at smaller companies. More productive interviews have been with clinicians who’ve founded and grown their own practices. They have both a business and clinical perspective.”

Highlighting contrarian points of view is also important to journalistic integrity. Tepper uses multiple methods to identify diverse sources, including social media platforms.  “We’ve had articles where we’ll do basic online research and turn up great sources that way. We also have an editorial advisory group…[and] rely on APTA staff specialists.” If your sources understand the POV you bring to a larger story, you can make it easier for journalists to integrate their voices into their articles.

Know How to Write

Don’t let weak writing stand in the way of your story. “Many of the news releases and announcements I receive are not well written,” says Tepper. “If it’s poorly written or has grammatical errors, it reflects poorly on the message of the release.  I recognize that releases are written to please the client, but it would be nice if PR people attempted to inform the client that if changes were made to the release it would make it far more effective.”

Good grammar is the minimum. To really stand out, you need strong, compelling language as well. “Too many releases use ‘PR language’ with terms such as revolutionary, extraordinary, and cutting-edge.” Cliches make readers tune out. Grab editors’ attention with clear, fresh language that explains the specific value of your story.

Think Before You Pitch

Tepper’s bottom line: “PR professionals need to understand that PR is more than pitching stories.”  Before blasting editors, know the details, context, value, and interest of your story.

Image provided by Donald Tepper

Written by Laura R. · Categorized: Healthcare PR, Medical PR, Pitching Stories, Public Relations, Social Media, Uncategorized · Tagged: article, healthcare, media, physical therapy, PR, press, press release, PT, social media

Jul 29 2013

Building a Converged Media Strategy: Harmonize Your Message Across Multiple Channels

What is Converged Media?

Have you ever watched a news segment on the Internet? Or flipped through a digital magazine on your tablet? You were benefiting from media convergence–the blending of multiple media forms and technologies into one dynamic experience.

Chances are your company has used converged media to connect consumers to your content. Maybe you placed a paid ad on Facebook. Maybe you posted a blog on your website, then saw it tweeted, retweeted, and finally picked up by a journalist or reposted by a news outlet.

Paid, owned and earned media are becoming increasingly integrated, and that’s where converged media impacts you most.

Why You Need a Converged Media Strategy

There is a surplus of content being pumped into every channel, every minute of the day. Consumers are over-saturated, and attention spans are dwindling. It’s only getting harder to cut through the noise with your message.

It’s no longer enough to have a corporate blog, Facebook page, and monthly press releases. Marketing and PR professionals need to share interactive stories across a variety of platforms, using text, graphics, and video. This convergence of paid, owned, and earned media enables you to reach customers they way they want to be reached, so they’re more likely to pay attention.

Sounds great, right? It might also sound like a lot of work. That’s why you need to develop a clear and targeted converged media strategy that can grow with you.

Still need convincing?

  • According to Michael Briton, author of Your Brand: The Next Media Company, most people need to encounter your message 3-5 times before they begin to trust and take note.
  • Research published by the Altimeter Group reveals that “the average person sees 3,000 brand impressions everyday.”
  • Worldwide, people actively use between 2 and 4 social media accounts, and the number only continues to grow.
  • This non-exhaustive Wikipedia page lists about 200 existing social networks

If you’re not bolstering your PR efforts with multiple media channels, you’re missing out on whole segments of your audience. Even if a consumer sees your message on one platform, they’ll likely forget it until it crops up on another platform (or two, or three…).

Integration: Getting More Out of Individual Marketing Channels

To take advantage of converged media, you need to integrate several channels into a single campaign. You want your message to be consistent and recognizable in each place it appears. The format might change–from a video to a tweet to an infographic–but the story is the same.

Think of your integrated campaign as a finely tuned barbershop quartet. Each member sings their part — tenor, bass or baritone — to create a richly harmonized song. The effect is a big, resonating sound that’s greater than the individual parts.

Blending various forms of media puts you at a distinct advantage into today’s fragmented market. When you start leveraging converged media, you still get to orchestrate the look, feel and tone of your message, and reach consumers where, when and how they want to be reached. And when they bounce from one platform or device to the next, you remain a stand-out on their rapid, over-saturated journey. The perfect confluence of paid, earned and owned media.

 

 

 

Written by Laura R. · Categorized: Other, Public Relations, Social Media, Uncategorized · Tagged: facebook, infographic, media, PR, tweeted, video

Feb 15 2013

Don’t Bury the Press Release Yet…

There are myriad opinions about press releases.  Are they dead?  Are they only to make the CEO – and his mother – proud?  Are they self-serving and lacking in any real news value?  Are they only good for SEO and digital link backs to the company websites?  Are we just keeping PR Newswire and PR Web in business (those people need jobs too…)?

While many continue to debate the merits and validity of our longstanding PR staple there are a few good reasons not to bury the press release just yet. Unless you’re looking for cheap wool socks, the first thing you might do when you visit a company’s website, whether you’re an investor, prospect, job candidate, or customer is head straight to the newsroom, even before you click on the product page.  Why?  You want to see the company’s news timeline.

If the last release was written six months or a year ago it creates a perception. Perhaps the company is stalled, losing money, has no new products in the pipeline. Or it has reduced the marketing staff down to a coordinator; again not a good sign.  Press releases indicate the health, the vitality and viability of the company.  You also want to see what disinterested third parties have reported because of your news release.  The mere presence of the press release timeline influences interested parties.

While it may be true that the long narrative style of press releases, interminably reviewed by executives, may be dwindling they are still a marker for company progress.

In a post by Tom Bishops, director of marketing and communications at KnowledgeVision Systems, he makes some good points about keeping the press release alive:

It acts as the official statement of an organization.

It’s front-loaded.

It’s flexible.

It provides content for some media outlets that are short-staffed.

Another writer Elizabeth Mitchell believes the press release still has its place but warns PR pros to only send them to people who would find it relevant, don’t trade clarity for pithy – get to the point, and lose the jargon.

The next obvious question? Are press tours a thing of the past… they are for me!

Photo: www.fannit.com/how-to-press-release

Written by Laura R. · Categorized: Public Relations, Uncategorized · Tagged: media, PR, press, press release

Oct 17 2012

The PR Honeymoon is Over… Now What?

You’ve just completed a successful PR launch for a new medical device that yields faster post-operative recovery for cardiac surgery patients, the clinical trial results have been published in a medical journal and the FDA has approved it for safety and efficacy.  Health and science journalists from top media outlets thought it was unique enough to cover.  The articles have been very respectable by startup standards.

Investors are delighted and all 20 employees are singing your praises.  You’ve had lots to tweet about and post on the company Facebook page and the retweets and comments are rolling in.

But eventually the PR bloom will fall off the rose and the board will be expecting the next wave of coverage.  Customers are not quite ready to go on record, nor are surgeons who are trying out the product.  What do you do?

While you have focused on generating broad coverage with great success the second wave of brand building requires a new PR strategy to sustain momentum.  It’s the right time to narrow your PR focus to reach your target customers – the surgeons who will push their hospitals for acquire your device; the patients who will benefit; the investors who see a healthy ROI.  Identify the publications, blogs and other digital destinations where surgeons and post op nursing staff get their medical news and information.  Set up specific PR programs to penetrate this second tier media: trade publications, medical journals, blogs, etc.

First, research healthcare and medical publications read by your customers. Check out the magazine editorial calendars which schedule feature stories throughout the year to drive advertising spending.  Identify the topics related to your device.  Set up a spreadsheet and populate with those publications and topics.  Pitch your new device and how it shortens patient recovery times in unique ways.  Invite the editor – or assigned writer to interview your company founder.

Develop a thought leadership program for company clinical executives by proposing and ghostwriting articles for those same publications, which are often looking for content, especially for their websites.  These articles help position executives as experts who articulate the problem your device solves — but doesn’t shamelessly promote it.

Don’t forget to post and Tweet all PR driven content on Facebook and Twitter.  Reshape these articles into blog posts, or add an introductory paragraph with a link to your published article.

Start a speakers’ bureau and arrange for speaking engagements at medical conferences and tradeshows where you’ll be exhibiting your product.

Find opportunities to announce the latest company news [following the initial product introduction]: a new round of funding; new customer; new executive hire; results of a clinical trial; etc.

Set up a mini PR program for new customers with a news release template that lets them announce the benefits of your product to the communities they serve and how they’re securing post-op safety for their cardiac patients.

Develop a story around the company founder for the business media; who she is; what inspired her to create a solution; her unique journey that led to the invention of the device.

Set up Google alerts on cardiology or cardiac surgery. Use headline news stories as angles to introduce your company to the media; pitch the founder as a guest for a radio talk show.

The honeymoon will end at some point so don’t ignore the myriad ways you can use PR to promote your company’s accomplishments.

 

Written by Laura R. · Categorized: Public Relations, Uncategorized · Tagged: articles, coverage, executives, facebook, health, healthcare, journalists, media, medical device, PR, startup, Twitter

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