press release Archives | G2 Communications Inc.-Medical Practice Marketing

Apr 25 2016

“My favorite stories are about people, not things”: Q&A With Leslie Mladinich

Leslie Mladinich followed her passion into journalism and built an impressive career across Bay Area newspapers and magazines, from her first assignments at The Montclarion and the Oakland Tribune, to her days covering transportation at the Tri-Valley Herald. In her first job as a journalism undergrad Leslie got embroiled in the Oakland School District’s controversial resolution recognizing Ebonics.

So why did she choose to pivot her career from journalism to marketing? Mladinich is now using her storytelling skills at Rodrigue Molyneaux Estate Winery and Vineyard, as head of marketing. I asked Leslie to discuss the decline of newspapers, the future of journalism, and how to make your pitch about people, not tech.

How do you see changes in journalism over the last 10 years?

On the one hand, it’s great because journalists, publications, and people’s voices are more accessible. On the other hand, long form writing is no longer in demand. The ability to have longevity with one audience for one publication–to build trust with readers and sources–has diminished.

With electronic media, people graze and scan. They may only read the first paragraph before they shut their laptop. As a result, real writing and news gathering skills are less of a priority, and blogs and memoir style pieces have been elevated.

The decline of long-form writing and newspapers has pushed journalists out, and they’ve turned to corporate communications and marketing. Anyone’s voice can be out there now, but news that makes a difference in people’s lives is declining.

What should PR pros keep in mind when pitching reporters?

All my favorite stories are about people, not things. I’m interested in how any story, event, or phenomena changes and challenges people. If a company is trying to tell its story, I want to know about the people involved.

You don’t have to focus only on the consumer. Who are the people who make your product, and why do they make it? What challenges have they faced? If it’s tangible and evokes the senses, it makes good copy.

What do you look for in a good source?

A good source kept me in the loop and wanted to have a partnership with me. They understood my job and what it takes to make readers read the whole piece.

During my stint as a biotech reporter at the East Bay Business Times, I would get press releases stating that a company had gotten funding for a new medical device. But I wanted to talk to the scientists, not the CEO. And scientists who came up with great metaphors would get quoted because they helped me convey the concept behind the device or drug.

It goes back to why I chose journalism: because I love learning about people’s passions and putting it into writing. For a day or a couple of hours you’re in someone’s profession, problem, or passion, and you get to learn about a subject you might not get to otherwise.

Check out our ebook. We interviewed 10 journalists who advise PR professionals on how to build lasting relationships where both parties benefit. Visit www.g2comm.com.

Mar 22 2016

Surviving the Transition: Q&A with Lisa Wrenn, Bay Area News Group Executive Features Editor

The Bay Area News Group (BANG) is a model of digital transformation, whether it’s expanding digital advertising, producing videos, or building responsive mobile sites. And the group’s consolidation of several Bay Area daily papers over the years is a direct response to declining revenues now that the Internet has changed the business model. At the same time BANG is trying to meet readers’ demands for more focused regional news. As Lisa explains, “Our challenge now is how to cover our large circulation area most effectively with our limited resources.”

I sat down with Lisa to learn how the transition from print to digital has affected her role as editor and the nature of local news today.

How has your role as an editor changed in the last 10 years?

My role as a manager is more important than ever. I’m managing change, and I’m required to do more things with fewer people. I have to identify people’s strengths and weaknesses, and fine tune the job to get their best work. My biggest challenge may be keeping up morale for people who haven’t had a raise in years!

Personally, my strongest skill set was working with writers on long narrative stories, but today we’re writing shorter and faster. I miss the luxury of working one-on-one with a writer to make a story even stronger. Still, we care a lot about integrity, so we work hard to get it right and get it first.

How has the transition from paper to digital affected the stories you publish?

The biggest difference is that now we have to drive traffic to our sites, and that drives how we make news decisions. What we think readers should know and what will drive traffic are sometimes in conflict. We like to take on big local issues, and we have a reporter who covers city hall, but even with local news we often are looking for a headline that is search engine friendly.

“Eat, Drink, Play” is one section that happily came about because we had to do something differently. We decided to make our former Food and Travel sections more Northern-California-specific to make it more valuable to regional readership. In print, our Thursday Eye for Mercury News readers and the Entertainment section, and TO Weekend sections also are somewhat zoned and we focus on local arts. At the same time, if people want to Google a pop star we want the search to lead to us, so I have to be on top of pop culture news too.

What is the best way for PR pros to work with BANG reporters?

Take time to get to know what we’re looking for and who to reach out to. I get pitches all the time from people who don’t even know where our paper is located! It’s okay to say, “I’m not sure if you’re the right person” and send me a pitch as long you’re aiming in the right direction. I get tons of business pitches, and if one is good I will forward it to the right reporter or editor.

Email is still the best way to go, and a follow-up phone call doesn’t hurt. I get hundreds of emails a day so I have to triage, but I will listen to a thoughtful call and reply. And another tip: Include a color photo with an event pitch. In Features, at least, we are very art driven and if we get a good image that gives us more options we’ll use it in a best bet capacity.

Photo: Column sig photo for Lisa Wrenn, Executive Features Editor in the Mercury News photo studio in San Jose on Tuesday, Jan.5, 2016. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group)

Feb 09 2016

To Fix the Copy Fix Your Thinking

Lauren Edwards is founder of WriteCulture, a company that coaches PR teams on writing, pitching and interactions with clients. Lauren has trained over 1,000 PR pros, from entry-level staff to SVPs.

I sat down with Lauren to get her perspective on current PR challenges.

Why is poorly written content so prevalent these days?

The bar is lower because there are more publishing platforms run by untrained writers and editors. There’s also the advent of automated writing and outsourced writing. New software lets non-humans assemble and package nuggets of information into simple formats like online slideshows and “Top 10” lists. And ESL speakers are writing first drafts later edited by native speakers.

Some of the new “citizen journalists” have realized that writing is harder and more time-consuming than they expected and are looking for help. We’re at a juncture where more people would like to communicate effectively but don’t have access to the right kind of education.

What advice do you have for PR professionals who want to write better copy?

Take time to think from the audience’s POV, and write about people not products. When you write about people, you put human beings at the start of your sentences and use active verbs. Also, give away the punchline at the beginning to get to the point faster.

Always keep your clients’ long-term business goals in mind. For example, a famous company I worked with had 80% commercial customers, but their long-term goal was to have 80% residential customers. If you were pitching for them, you’d be smart to emphasize a residential angle to further their business goals. If you don’t know their goals, your choices might actually work against them.

Why is there so much jargon in tech industry PR copy?

Unseasoned PR writers may not know their client’s technology or industry, so they use material already crafted by marketing. They move the words around without trying to reach out to an audience. Curiosity and experience eventually make it possible to write in a meaningful way, but some people retain bad habits.

Another reason is that some people come to work wearing a “professional” veneer. When that veneer is on, they don’t write like people; they write like a “company,” in a stiff style.

What can PR agency supervisors do to improve their teams’ writing?

Stop treating the symptom; treat the disease. The problem isn’t grammar and syntax; it’s the thinking behind the writing. People often focus on details like new product features, but there’s a larger story to tell that will improve business outcomes. The writer should look ahead to goals and coming initiatives, and back at important milestones. This puts “news” into context and accomplishes more valuable goals.

Writers need to think critically during the pre-writing phase, and learn who they’re writing for and why. I always say, “Writing is thinking made manifest.” If you can fix the thinking, the writing often fixes itself.

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

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