State of the Media

Clarification: Colleen Taylor

Got an email from Rich Waters at the Financial Times, SF Bureau, saying he doesn't know about Colleen Taylor. I posted last year she had left E News for a "position at FT in SF." Never did say what she was doing because I didn't know. Rich and I finally figured it out.

Colleen is a researcher for mergermarket.com, a tiny acquisition FT made a little over a year ago.

So all of you PR types trying to get covered in FT by contacting Colleen... probably won't work. Remember, just because you know a journalist, doesn't mean they are going to cover your client. You have to have news that the publication might want to cover. And the latest version of the Crapfinder IP verification tool doesn't qualify.

Rich, hope that keeps your email box a little cleaner.

"I WANT THE WALL STREET JOURNAL!!!"

I get this demand from clients at least twice a year. We always try to explain that the process of getting that kind of coverage is not simple, short or based on a news announcement or event. But listening to a presentation by Gordon Crovitz, the WSJ publisher, in Atlanta recently finally gave me some validation.

Crovitz said the way it works is that the Dow Jones gets news out first, then WSJ.com kicks in, then the print story provides context and context only. That's what he said.

Dow Jones does run press releases, but they don't ever cover all the news releases as breaking news. What they are loking for is significant financial news. We're talking billions of dollars here. Once there is a significant trend being reported by Dow Jones, then the WSJ.com will start picking up stories. The WSJ print editors read what comes in from WSJ.com, as well as what is being reported on the larger issue in other publications in the trades and determines if the trend is big enough to warrants coverage. This process could take weeks, months, even years.

That's the way it works. So if you want to get into the Wall Street Journal, be a significant part of a trend that is worth billions of dollars, get other people to talk about your participation in the trend and wit for the phone call.

Like I keep saying, PR is a process, not a tactic.