Tag Archives: Inside PRN

Andrew Woodall is one of PR Newswire’s operations managers, and is also one of the company’s social media advocates.

When folks travel, they come back with some great stories.

Andrew Woodall loved everything about Rome. He majored in ancient history and especially loved studying ancient Romans at the University of Nottingham.

But on the two occasions he visited that beautiful city, he lost his wallet. It’s literally the only place his wallet has ever gone missing.

“I’m not going to hold it against Rome,” says Woodall, 32. “I will go back. It’s a great place.”

Woodall is the operations manager within the editorial department of PR Newswire Europe. It’s a job he’s held for nearly three years.

He also recently took over the Multimedia News Release team in London. So he’ll be in charge of the team, helping clients to build multimedia into their news releases.

“It’s an honor to take over that,” he said. “It’s going to be an exciting year.”

The PR Newswire Europe office, which is based in London, covers a huge territory that also includes India, Dubai, and the Middle East.

It means the London office starts pretty early to tackle releases from clients in India. Then it’s the Dubai office that’s next to get cranking.

From there, Europe wakes up hour by hour and client news releases come from all over – Germany, France, Sweden, and Russia, to name a few.

The work remains steady – reading through copy, proofreading, handling translations, and dealing with affiliates from all over the world every day.

Recently, the London office began a new service that involves writing press releases. Clients discuss their goals and what they would like to achieve, a release is written by the editorial team in London, and it’s send to the client for approval.

Woodall recently wrote a release about Crossfire Hurricane – a new film about the Rolling Stones that premiered at the London Film Festival. This new offering comes easily to Woodall, who has a freelance and journalism background.

Woodall also works as a social media intern on the PR Newswire LinkedIn page with PRN vice president of social media Sarah Skerik. He also helps curate the PRN Europe Sports and Policy Twitter feeds @prnesports and @prnepolicy.

Away from the office, Woodall remains plugged into social media.

He writes about history and cultural pursuits on his personal blog, All the Days and Nights. You also can find him tweeting @thehistorygeeks, a popular spot that’s already garnered 700 followers. There, you can find a short description of what to expect: “Mostly history, some football and some nonsense.”

“I started on Twitter as myself and had about 24 followers,” Woodall said. “But once I started to focus on history, all of a sudden I met all these fantastic people and was winning prizes and joining clubs. It’s been great.”

Woodall also remains busy at home. He and his wife, Clare, a history teacher, just purchased a 1930s fixer-upper outside London.

A recent blog post revealed the Woodalls discovered 38 bottles of homemade wine stored in specially-constructed mini cellar.

“Apple, blackberry, elderflower, all of the great fruits associated with producing outstanding Hertfordshire wine, are represented, ranging from 1977 to 1990. Yes, I tried some. Not to my taste, really. I’m more of a grape man, and I prefer my wine not to gloop during the decanting process,” he wrote.

Woodall says he knows the house eventually will be beautiful. Right now, he admits, it’s a lot of work.

“This is the first time ever that I’ve had my own garden,” Woodall said. “I’m trying to become a gardener. We managed to grow potatoes and French beans. Maybe we’ll grow some more and be a bit more successful next year.”

Christine Cube is a media relations manager for PR Newswire and freelance writer. You can follow her @cpcube.

You might assume a foodie’s favorite food would be something fancy. Not so much with Jordana Gailard. She’s a steak-and-potatoes kind of girl.  In fact, if you were to try to commandeer her grill, she’ll let you know the error of your ways.

“I grill my own steaks for lunch,” the 26-year-old Albuquerque native says proudly. “When a guy thinks he’s going to take over the grill, he’s completely wrong. Not in this house.”

For PR Newswire, Gailard wears many hats. She tweets and pins, assists customers who call in, stages and moves news releases along, and serves as the charitable giving rep for the Albuquerque office.

Gailard is one of the voices behind @PRNFood. And if you’ve ever called the PR Newswire main support line from prnewswire.com, you may have spoken with Gailard directly.

On a busy day, Gailard can field up to 40 calls.

It’s not just her job that keeps Jordi on her toes. She’s also an avid runner.

“My job keeps me on my toes,” Gailard said. “It’s awesome when you get a prospect client who’s excited to get a person on the line instead of a robot. Any and every question comes into that line. We have a great support staff of content specialists here.”

The variety of questions allows Gailard to be knowledgeable in almost every aspect of the company. She’s always working with different clients and people within PR Newswire to get their questions answered. The work is far from mundane, she said.

Lately, a lot of clients are asking about social media, a subject Gailard is especially passionate about.

“I like talking with clients about how social media affects content and their releases,” she said. “Bringing them toward the light in terms of social media is pretty awesome.”

Gailard graduated a double major – public relations and psychology – from the University of New Mexico in 2010. She’s been with PR Newswire ever since.

If you’ve ever visited @PRNFood on Twitter or Pinterest, you may have seen Gailard’s thoughts on successful and not-so-successful recipes. She also can be found chatting with other foodies on Twitter at noon EST on Wednesdays under #hgeats.

Most recently, Gailard tested a chili recipe from Weight Watchers. It was supposed to take only 15 minutes, but Gailard deviated from the original vegetarian recipe and added ground turkey. She concedes the recipe likely would’ve only taken 15 minutes if she’d prepared it as it was written.

“I’m a big advocate for testing out strange recipes, so our followers can look forward to that,” she said. “And if you aren’t following @PRNFood, you should! Who doesn’t love food?”

Christine Cube is a media relations manager for PR Newswire and freelance writer. You can follow her @cpcube.

Natalie Bering doesn’t remember the first picture she ever took, but she knows when she fell in love with photography.

It was her fourth grade field trip to Washington, DC. She took loads of pictures with her new disc camera and not a single shot turned out.

But that’s all it took.

“I love capturing the moment and shooting lifestyle and sports,” says Bering, account manager with PR Newswire. “These days I shoot a lot of pictures of my own kids and things they’re involved with.”

In college, Bering studied photography and graphic design at Oregon State University. Today, she keeps a photography site called Speed of Light Photography.

Bering grew up in San Diego and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. She’s been with PR Newswire for more than three years, supporting clients in their communications.

Most of her clients are located in Silicon Valley.

“We give them the tools to make sure their communications are as effective as possible,” Bering said. “My passion for my job comes from two major places. One is the ability to support my clients and help them try new and different ways to get their message out there, like last week when we supplied the platform for my client Trend Micro to do a live virtual press conference. Secondly, I like the opportunity to geek out about social media, content marketing, and SEO. My Twitter feed is full of my constant scouring of blogs and conferences.”

Bering’s clients include Facebook, Palo Alto Networks, Super Micro, Marvel Semiconductor, Netgear, Autonomy, and SunPower.

Chris Melching, a close friend and executive communications coach with Center Stage Group, says Bering has a contagious spirit.

“Natalie has a passion for life, and she takes a lot of risks,” Melching said. “She’s very bold with her ideas. People want to be with her; they want to work with her. Natalie is someone who I will follow her entire life. It’s so fun to watch her career evolve. I know she’s going places.”

The two go way back to when Melching was Bering’s yearbook teacher in the 7th grade.

To this day, Bering considers Melching one of her most influential advisors and the person who really helped her sales career.

There’s no such thing as an average work day for Bering. She said her goal is to really be an extension of a client’s team.

“When they’re at a crossroads, I want them to feel like they can pick up the phone and call me,” she said.

Personally, Bering is celebrating a major milestone this year.

She hit 10 years of remission from AML, a type of Leukemia.

“I was told I may not make it to 25 and that I would never have kids,” she said. “Now I am 35 with two amazing little people.”

Bering’s daughter is 6 and her son is almost 4. She also has a 12-year-old stepdaughter. Her husband is an elementary school principal.

Christine Cube is a media relations manager for PR Newswire and freelance writer. You can follow her @cpcube.