Re: Too much "rich media" pushed to IW Fall 2000 journalists

From: Frank Catalano <frank_at_frankcatalano.com>
Date: Thu 02 Nov 2000 15:50:15 -0500

RAMON RAY <ramon_at_smallbiztechnology.com> WROTE:
> HOWEVER, there's a time for everything. The PR and
> marketing professionals hired by Internet World
> participating vendors are working hard to get the
> media to talk with their clients.
>
> For the most part, I got a lot of text messages (I
> won't go into the PR aspect in this forum), however,
> some of them sent huge, annoying, slow to open rich
> media.

PR people who attach large files, unasked, to reporters
are showing a certain kind of self-centeredness. They
don't know whether a reporter is receiving e-mail over
a T-1 in the office, at 56K in a home office (common),
or from a Web interface on the road (common). They're
doing what they think will make their client happy, not
what will result in coverage.

Rather than go into slamming PR people on this forum
(hell, I've hired several PR firms for clients and been
on the receiving end of pitches for 20-plus years as a
former journalist and now commentator), I put together
some tips on Internet PR in a column for the Puget
Sound Business Journal recently at:
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2000/08/21/f
ocus7.html I go into more detail in Internet Marketing
for Dummies, but that's not due out until mid-November.

Bottom line, though, is that I've been on the receiving
end of many of the rich media pitches (for COMDEX,
now), and so many PR people are so green and so
desperate for coverage, they don't think before they
click. And journalists are a "target audience," just
like any customer when it comes to marketing. The same
rules and thought process apply.

Frank Catalano
Principal, Catalano Consulting
Co-author, Internet Marketing for Dummies
frank_at_catalanoconsulting.com
www.catalanoconsulting.com





Received on Thu Nov 02 2000 - 14:50:15 CST