Tuesday's may have been the best Media Roundtable that Washington Women in Public Relations -- or any of the other communications professional societies -- has hosted in many years thanks to a strong panel from the press who represented young, new-media alongside experienced long-time broadcasters, print and electronic.
The group (pictured starting from the left in the photo supplied by Gale Curcio) included:
Autumn Brewington, Op-ed Editor, The Washington Post
Jim Asendio, News Director, WAMU 88 5
Patrick Pho, city captain for DC Metblogs (http://dc.metblogs.com/) and Editor of http://www.dmbosstone.com, and
Jerry Phillips, Public Affairs Television and Radio Producer
Unlike most of these programs this group didn't have to be coaxed -- after the first question from the moderator they were off and running, sharing perspectives, history, how-to's and how-not-to's and more.
Brewington, who reported that she gets 60 to 100 unsolicited op-eds each day at The Washington Post, said that it is better to be impersonal than incorrect, noting some who pitch to her as a friend but don't even get her name right. She said that little mistakes matter and even small errors impact the credibility of the person and organization making the pitch.
While all of the panelists reinforced the message of other panels to Know Your Media and Understand the Needs/Interests of Those to Whom You're Pitching, Jim Asendio emphasized the need to know your subject and be prepared for a two-way conversation and the critical importance of immediate response to time sensitive media inquiries. He noted it was insulting and useless when organizations had untrained and uninformed interns make pitch calls.
Pho was refreshing in his honesty that bloggers are not journalists. He said that the DC area is one of the top blogged about communities, along with New York and Los Angeles, and urged that pitches to bloggers be low pressure and make a personal connection.
Phillips tried to educate the group about the increasing difficulty of getting their message covered because technology and the emphasis on profitability have eliminated public service coverage. He gave an example of a small independent pharmacy that was running a special community diabetes program but stations couldn't mention it or cover it because it was now considered advertising and the pharmacy would be expected to pay for coverage.
The program was so successful it could easily have continued for another half hour with questions from the audience. If the next program is nearly as strong (a discussion with Chuck Hester, Communications Director for iContact, social networking/ LinkedIn expert and author of "Linking In to Pay it Forward" about LinkedIn) Capital Buzz readers will want to register immediately for the October 15 brown-bag lunch.
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