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Media News & Moves for May

Posted on May 15, 2013 by | Leave a comment

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MEDIAware, PR Newswire’s Audience Research Department newsletter, features recent media news and job changes in the industry. Here is a sampling of this month’s edition:

Fort Lauderdale’s South Florida Sun Sentinel (http://www.sun-sentinel.com) won the prestitgious 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its outstanding series “Above the Law: Speeding Cops”.  The series led to numerous police officers being suspended and one who got fired for his excessive abuse of speed. Investigative Reporter Sally Kestin, Investigative Editor John Dahlburg and Database Editor John Maines were part of an entire team at the Sun Sentinel that worked on this series. You can read the winning series here: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/speeding-cops/

The Denver Post (http://www.denverpost.com) won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News with its coverage of the Aurora Movie Theater mass shooting last year.  The Pulitzer cited the Post’s use of social media, video and the written word in their winning coverage of the story. You can check out their winning coverage here: http://www.pulitzer.org/works/2013-Breaking-News-Reporting

The Alcohol Professor (http://AlcoholProfessor.com) is a new blog about liquor, spirits & ale. It was started by beverage connoisseur Adam Levy (https://twitter.com/AlcoholProfessr) who also founded the New York International Beverage Competitions. The sites main contact is Senior Editor-in-Chief Amanda Schuster (alcoholprofamanda@gmail.com).

Minneapolis’ Star Tribune (http://www.startribune.com) won two 2013 Pulitzer Prizes for Local News and Ediorial Cartooning. Glenn Howatt, Brad Schrade and Jeremy Olson won the Local News Pulitzer for their work on a series about the rise in infant deaths at Minnesota day-care centers. You can read that series here: http://www.startribune.com/local/150283965.html. And Steve Sack won the Editorial Cartooning award. You can view a bunch of his great political cartoons here: http://www.pulitzer.org/works/2013-Editorial-Cartooning

Columnist Daniel Ruth and Editorial Editor Tim Nickens won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for the Tampa Bay Times (http://www.tampabay.com). Their op-ed pieces and columns were a campaign that helped reverse a decision to take fluoridation out of the water system in the area. You can check out pieces of their work here: http://www.pulitzer.org/works/2013-Editorial-Writing

The New York Times has made its own crossover as for the first time ever, they have published an article in Spanish. “A Drug War Informer in No Man’s Land” will go down in NYT history.
You can read it in Spanish here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/us/mexico-dea-fugitive.html or in English here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/us/us-mexico-dea-informant.html?pagewanted=all 

Representing The New York Times in the category of Investigative Journalism, David Barstow (barstow@nytimes.com) and Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab were selected as Pulitzer Prize winners for their year and a half long project which centered on Walmart’s interests in Mexico. The journalists investigated the Multinational Retail Corporation’s use of coercion as a means to gain a competitive advantage in Mexico. Eventually, the exposé led to an investigation by the Justice Department into whether Walmart violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

A series of 10 articles which covered the business practices of Apple and other technology companies, won a group of journalists at The New York Times a Pulitzer Prize in the category of Explanatory Journalism. The series focused on the question of whether or not the United States could be considered a lucrative place for innovators to manufacture new products. Apple’s choice to employ cheaper manufacturers in China, passing over the opportunity to invest in the United States’ turbulent job market, was one example used in the series. The reporters included Keith Bradsher (https://twitter.com/KeithBradsher), David Barboza (barboza@nytimes.com), Charles Duhigg (duhigg@nytimes.com), David Kocieniewski (kocieniewski@nytimes.com), Steve Lohr (lohr@nytimes.com), John Markoff (https://twitter.com/markoff), David Segal, David Streitfeld (https://twitter.com/DavidStreitfeld), Hiroko Tabuchi (https://twitter.com/HirokoTabuchi), and Bill Vlasic (vlasic@nytimes.com).

The Pulitzer Prize in the category of International Reporting was given to David Barboza (https://twitter.com/DavidBarboza2), Shanghai Bureau Chief of The New York Times. Barboza composed a series of articles that focused on the overwhelming wealth which many of China’s top leaders have kept in hiding. According to Barboza, over the span of a year he “pieced together hundreds of names and a web of connections among more than 100 companies found in China’s official financial records.”

Sports Reporter for The New York Times John Branch (https://twitter.com/JohnBranchNYT) was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in the category of Feature Writing. Branch composed an article entitled “Snow Fall: the avalanche at Tunnel Creek,” about a fatal avalanche in the Washington Cascades. Branch combined text, online video and graphics to vividly illustrate what took place.

The Pilot newspaper in Southern Pines, N.C. is launching yet another magazine. It already publishes PineStraw and O. Henry. Now it adds Salt magazine to its line-up of cultural publications. As with the other magazines, Jim Dodson will head up Salt as Editor. The free, monthly magazine is scheduled to launch later this month with a distribution of 18,000.

Following up on a Charlotte, N.C. story previously reported on in MEDIAware, the FCC gave final approval on the sale of WYMT-TV and WJYZ-TV to Fox Television. With the ruling, the stations were free to hire more personnel. Lynda Grahl was chosen as VP of Finance and Jay Abbattista was added as VP of Sales. Both report to the previously hired GM Karen Adams. As a result of this purchase by Fox, another local Charlotte station, WCCB-TV, will switch affiliations from Fox to the CW this summer.

There have been two personnel changes at the Cooking Channel and Food Network. VP of Digital for Emerging Brands Mark Levine (mlevine@scrippsnetworks.com) has been promoted to VP of Programming and Multiplatform. And new to the stations is Todd Weiser, who was hired as VP of Programming and Development. He arrives from Animal Planet, where he was previously Director of Development.

After 21 years in print, The Rhinocerous Times (http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com) is now an endangered species. The publication originally had two editions: Greensboro and Charlotte. It folded the Charlotte edition back in 2008. Now with a growing debt, the Greensboro edition is closing as well. The website will remain but for how long is not known.

Culture Critic Philip Kendicott of The Washington Post won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. In one of the articles submitted for the award Philip examined the use of controversial photographs in the media. You can read the piece here: http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-12-27/entertainment/36016736_1_images-subway-track-pleasure

Aereo (https://www.aereo.com)has been hit with a copyright lawsuit by almost every major network trying to prevent Aereo from creating a free streaming of their content. This is something to keep an eye on, as it can change the way networks will distribute its content if Aereo wins the case.

KSL-TV, the Salt Lake City NBC affiliate, has announced on its Facebook page as well as its website that it will no longer air episodes of the network series “Hannibal.” This decision was made due to the extensive graphic nature of this show. The time slot will be replaced with a special edition of KSL 5 News at 9 pm. “Hannibal” is a TV show about serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a literary character created by author Thomas Harris and initially made famous by the movie “The Silence of the Lambs.”

KMOV-TV in St.Louis won the 2012 Investigative Reporters and Editors Award. Craig Cheatham and Jim Thomas won in the category of “Ware Zone: The Destruction of an All-American City.” Read more at http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/kmov-wfaa-win-ire-awards_b86802

Mike Herrera, Long-time New Orleans broadcaster, passed on April 6 at the age of 66. Herrera who for the last five years served as an engineer at WWL-TV previously worked as a staff announcer, Weathercaster and Producer/Director at WVUE-TV for more than four decades.

William Glaberson says farewell to The New York Times. His 25-year career at the newspaper came to a halt on April 26th. He most recently served as Court Reporter, throughout these 25 years he covered Guantanamo Bay and the Crown-Heights trail.

Highly respected Chicago Sun-Times Movie Critic Roger Ebert has passed away. Over the course of his expansive career, Ebert hosted various television programs such as “Sneak Previews”, “At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert”, “Siskel and Ebert and The Movies”, alongside Gene Siskel, and the series “Ebert & Roeper & the Movies”. He also produced his most recent show, “Ebert Presents: At the Movies”. Ebert was an author of more than 20 books and won a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

Nils Larsen has stepped down as CEO at the Tribune Company. He managed Tribune local stations, WGN America and WGN Radio. Jonathan Wax has been named Senior Vice President of scripted programming for WGN America. Wax currently serves as Vice President of drama development at Twentieth Century Fox, Inc.

Edible Milwaukee, a new magazine set to launch its May issue, will focus on the production, distribution and consumption of food in the greater Milwaukee area. The magazine reaches out to the local and regional food consumers and buyers who are zealous about food quality. Jen Ede will serve as Publisher and Editor for the quarterly. You may reach her at jen@ediblemilwaukee.com or http://ediblemilwaukee.com.

You can view the whole May issue of MEDIAware here: http://www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/mediaware/

And all of the Regional Updates here: http://www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/mediaware/May-2013-Updates-By-Region.html

You can also follow all of the latest media moves and news from PR Newswire’s Audience Research Department on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PRNmedia

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Media News & Moves for March

Posted on March 5, 2013 by | Leave a comment

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MEDIAware, PR Newswire’s Audience Research Department newsletter, features recent media news and job changes in the industry. Here is a sampling of this month’s edition:

Over the past few years Newsweek Global (https://twitter.com/Newsweek) has endured several foundational changes including a 50/50 partnership with The Daily Beast in 2008 and the groundbreaking announcement of plans to go digital late last year. With a new year and a new digital Newsweek and Daily Beast on the horizon Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown (https://twitter.com/TheTinaBeast) unveiled a new name — NewsBeast.

Beginning in March, readers will notice one notable Editor missing from the Vogue (https://twitter.com/voguemagazine) masthead. Managing Editor Laurie Jones announced that February 28th would be her last day with the mag. Before beginning her iconic tenure with Vogue, Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour was hired by Laurie Jones at New York Magazine. Later Wintour brought Jones over to Vogue where she would become Managing Editor.

The International Herald Tribune, the New York Times Company’s 125-year-old Paris-based newspaper is getting a name change. This Fall the paper will be known as The International New York Times. In addition, the brand change will combine forces between the New York Times website and the Tribune’s to create one international news site for the rest of the world outside of New York, You can check out the newspaper here: http://global.nytimes.com and https://twitter.com/iht.

Global pharmaceutical company SCRIP Intelligence (http://www.scripintelligence.com) names Brett Chase US Companies Editor. Chase was previously Deputy Managing Editor for Crain’s Chicago Business, Deputy Business Editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, health industry team Assignment Editor for Bloomberg News and Milwaukee Bureau Chief of the American Banker in Chicago. Contact Brett on Twitter at https://twitter.com/brettchase

A rash of television station re-designs have occurred this past month with three in the South being updated. WTVC-TV in Chattanooga, WXIA-TV in Atlanta and duopoly WDRB-TV/WMYO-TV in Louisville have all recently undergone renovations. WTVC-TV in TN now features a high definition set with LED color changing lights, large back-lit graphics and a 1×4 strip of monitors in the Weather Center With a rear projection screen.NBC affiliate WXIA now includes a new Gannett graphics package. Also, the set has color changing, frosted plexiglas and flat screen monitors including a large freestanding 3′ by 4′ monitor array. While construction on the set of the Louisville stations has just begun, it is scheduled to be expanded by 11,000 sq. ft. The existing facility dates back to 1980 and is too small for the station, which has grown considerably in that time.

Being a field reporter has its dangers. Just ask News 14 Carolina Reporter Caroline Vandergriff. Vandergriff was struck by a car while reporting on a story about severe weather in the area. While reporting from a major intersection in Charlotte where the traffic lights were out due to the storm, two cars collided after one lost control and struck Vandergriff. She was immediately taken via ambulance to the local hospital where she ended up staying for a week. She is back at work now.

Entertainment Weekly announced two veteran Contributors would bid farewell to the Time Inc. magazine. Senior Writer and Film Critic Lisa Schwarzbaum was the first to accept a buyout package earlier this month. Shortly after TV Critic Ken Tucker followed suit. Tucker was a member of the founding staff of the magazine in 1989. According to Adweek, the buyouts are a result of a 6% overall cutback set in place by publisher Time Inc.

WSB-TV in Atlanta is just one of the many companies in Georgia donating to the relief of tornado victims.After a tornado struck down in Bartow and Gordon counties, the ABC affiliate donated $50,000 to the Red Cross to help victims of the tornado, which spawned winds of more than 135mph. The epi-center of the storm was in Adairsville, Ga., where three fatalities were reported.

WKYT-TV in Lexington is adding another newscast to its line-up. The CBS affiliate will now air news 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. This makes two early afternoon newscasts in the market with WLEX-TV of NBC being the other. WKYT-TV’s news will be anchored  by DeAnn Stephens. She was re-hired specifically for the show. She can be emailed at deann.stephens@wkyt.com. Stephens also can be heard on WBUL-FM in the morning. A pioneer in Carolinas television passed away last month.

Reporter Jane Harrington-Smith passed away at the age of 62 from heart failure. Harrington made history as the first black female Reporter/Anchor at Winston-Salem, N.C. station WXII-TV in the turbulent 70s. She also hosted a weekly program called “Shades of Ebony.” She worked there for six years before moving to Indiana. She worked at WTHR-TV in Indianapolis, covering such big stories as the Mike Tyson rape trial in 1992. Harrington was a graduate of Fisk University in Nashville and a member of the Black Professional Journalists Association.

Last month, Reporter Ann Mercogliano (http://twitter.com/AnnMercogliano) departed WCBS and sister station WLNY-TV. This month she join joins WPIX-TV (http://pix11.com/) as a freelancer. She will be reporting both mornings and evenings when needed.

Ken Tonning, the President and General Manager at Tampa’s WTSP-TV announced he will retire in July. Before joining the station in 2008, Tonning worked for stations including KUSA-TV in Denver and WXIA-TV in Atlanta where he was the Sales Manager. Beginning his career in 1974, he was credited for altering traditional journalism and pushing the envelope of newscast reporting. http://www.wfla.com/story/21058646/gm-of-st-pete-tv-station-to-retire-in-july

In a strange twist, Orlando’s WKMG-TV hires the son of an Anchor at a competing news station. Justin Warmoth joined WKMG as a News Reporter with the blessing of his father Greg Warmoth who is the Anchor for Orlando’s WFTV-TV. Surely journalism runs in the genes of this family. http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2013/02/wkmg-hires-son-of-wftv-anchor-greg-warmoth.html

The Web Producer at WFOR-TV, Dave Game has passed away. Dave was only 57 and leaves a long legacy in the industry. Game, a veteran journalist, came to WFOR in 1985 where he served as a General Assignment Reporter, Investigative Producer and Reporter. He is accredited with creating one of the first broadcasting websites in South Florida for WFOR. http://miami.cbslocal.com/2013/02/06/longtime-cbs-miami-web-producer-dave-game-dies-at-57/

WTVT-TV Channel 13’s Andy Johnson has left the Fox TV station after over three decades with the company. Johnson joined the station in 1979. A native of Tampa as well, the low key retired Meteorologist has not spoken on his plans hereafter. http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/media/content/wtvt-ch-13-forecaster-andy-johnson-leaves-air-today-after-33-years-marking-low-profile-depar

Journalist Mike Guy (http://twitter.com/MrMikeGuy) has stepped down as Editor-in-Chief of The Fix.com. He still regularly contributes to Playboy Magazine and Wenner Medias Men’s Journal. He will also continue to be the Editor-in-Chief of Hopper.com. Thrillist (http://twitter.com/Thrillist)features off-the-beaten-path activities, restaurants and products found around the world. The website is easily accessed by each city; a total of 21 are featured, including New York, London and Miami. The site managers are looking to add more cities to explore in the near future.

London’s Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk) is opening a new Washington, D.C. office and it will be headed by David Martosko (http://www.twitter.com/EditMeDavid). Martosko was the Executive Editor at The Daily Caller. Martosko’s new title will be U.S. Political Editor.

You can view the whole March issue of MEDIAware here: http://www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/mediaware/%20

And all of the Regional Updates here: http://www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/mediaware/March2013UpdatesByRegion.html

You can also follow all of the latest media moves and news from PR Newswire’s Audience Research Department on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PRNmedia

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Marie Claire Magazine: Pitching Tips & Overview from Editor-in-Chief Trish Halpin

Posted on February 6, 2013 by | 2 Comments
Trish Halpin and Justine Southall of Marie Claire magazine, at PR Newswire's recent "Meet the Media" event in London.

Trish Halpin and Justine Southall of Marie Claire magazine, at PR Newswire’s recent “Meet the Media” event in London.

If there’s one place a fashion brand wants to get featured, it’s Marie Claire, the largest fashion magazine in the UK with a total reach of over 2 million women, online and in print. So when Marie Claire UK Editor-in-Chief Trish Halpin starts to reveal how her journalists decide what goes in each edition, a lot of PR ears prick up.

At another of PR Newswire’s glamorous Meet the Media events, suitably located in the Victorian ballroom of central London’s 8 Northumberland Avenue, Trish Halpin and Marie Claire Publishing Director Justine Southall made a lot of people in fashion PR very excited, with a typically polished presentation and a few tips for grabbing their attention.

Marie Claire’s journalists receive thousands of beauty products a year, which may sound like a dream come true, but actually leaves them with a daily struggle to justify featuring an exciting new lipstick, say, while leaving an eyeliner in unheralded obscurity.

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Trish Halpin, Editor in Chief of Marie Claire UK, address the Meet the Media audience at 8 Northumberland Avenue in London.

Trish Halpin believes it is up to PR companies to make a journalist’s life a lot easier – for the benefit of all parties – and she gave the audience her dos and don’ts that can make the difference between a new product making it into the magazine or making straight it in to the ‘deleted items’ folder.

So, how do you attract the attention of a busy Marie Claire journalist? Here is what Trish Halpin had to say:

Do!

 •  Learn Your titles

Make sure you know why you are pitching to a Marie Claire journalist and not someone from Elle or Glamour.  To know that, you must understand how each title is different and what is unique about each brand. Familiarise yourself with each feature and pitch your product for specific pages of the magazine.

• Anticipate questions

Know your products inside out and try to predict what a journalist might ask you, because they are going to ask you a lot of questions. Don’t make them lose interest by not having the information they need.

• Think of fun ways to draw attention to your brand

The best example that got huge amounts of tweeting from the Marie Claire team was a plus sized lingerie brand that sent in a bag of breakfast baps along with some plus size bras that they wanted featured.  The team just loved it and thought it was really funny that they all got a big breakfast bap. It was entertaining and they all tweeted about it. It brightened up their day and the lingerie went into the magazine.

• Include prices & telephone numbers

Please don’t make any more work for the journalist. You may think they will call you to ask for all the details they need, but not having them in the first place may turn them off the whole idea. Get them everything they need from the beginning.

• Exclusive content

It should go without saying that if Marie Claire is offered the chance to feature exclusive content such as case studies, expert insight, or a celebrity feature, they don’t expect to see it in another magazine in the same month. In the long run, one quality long term relationship is better than two that are short lived.

Don’t!

 • Cold call or ask for features lists
You must make sure you know who is responsible for each section. Phoning up and saying “Can I speak to somebody who deals with homes?” is hopeless.  You need the name of the person you want.

For example, if you have a tanning product, call up the beauty desk and say, “I see that you did a tanning story last June.  Will you be doing one this June?  What will the angle be?”  Don’t just say, “Give me a list of what you’re doing”.  It’s not going to happen.  You need to do your research.

• Send too many emails
Don’t send too many emails, because journalists will just stop looking at them.  “As soon as you see it come into your inbox you just press delete, because if you get something every single day, you just haven’t got the time to look at it. It’s better to target one or two really good specific emails at the right people from the beginning.”

• Send pictures as attachments
Don’t send pictures as attachments.  Have them in the body of the text, again because the journalist is not going to spend the time downloading it. If they have to download an image, a journalist might not even read your email, but if they see something in the body of an email and think “that looks really nice”, then they will read it.

• Send redundant press kits
Marie Claire have got four people in the beauty department, but they don’t all need a press kit each.  Redundant kits are a waste of your money and it wastes a lot of packaging.  Again, target the right person.

• Underestimate the power of cake!

There is nothing that gets a magazine team more excited than being sent some cake.  It’s a brilliant way into a magazine because journalists, like the rest of us, become very excitable when presented with free cake. They will take a photo of it, they will tweet it, they will boast about it, and they’ll remember it.

Add  power and precision to your pitching with Agility, PR Newswire’s unique media targeting, monitoring & distribution platform.  Identify and target key media and bloggers; uncover what is being said about your brand as it happens; and engage these influential people in real-time via traditional and social channels.

Author Andrew Woodall is an operations manager for PR Newswire Europe, and is based in London.

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Media News and Moves for February

Posted on February 5, 2013 by | Leave a comment

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MEDIAware, PR Newswire’s Audience Research Department newsletter, features recent media news and job changes in the industry. Here is a sampling of this month’s edition:

Time Inc. (http://www.timeinc.com), publisher of Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, People and In Style announced that they would be laying off 500 employees across the world. These cuts include 250 jobs in New York which accounts for 6% of its workforce. Among those cut was Health Editor-in-Chief Ellen Kunes. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes and Time Inc. CEO Laura Lang‘s put the layoffs in motion after Time Inc. saw a 6% decrease in revenue in the third quarter of 2012. The culprit of the layoffs was a revenue shortage caused by the drops in print advertisments and magazine subscriptions.

Al-Jazeera (http://www.aljazeera.com and https://twitter.com/ajenglish) purchased Current TV (http://current.com) for $500 million. Current TV was former U.S. Vice President Al Gore’s startup vehicle designed to provide news analysis, politics and commentary. This purchase puts Al-Jazeera into nine times the amount of homes it was reaching previously.

The Boston Globe could be up for sale again. The New York Times Company tried selling the paper three years ago but was unsuccessful in finding a deal. The possibility of selling the paper was revisited again last year although CEO Janet Robinson wanted to wait in hopes that the launch of the Globe’s new pay wall would improve its sales.

Univision has renamed and rebranded their Telefutura network. It is now named Unimas. http://tv.univision.com/unimas/

This month The New York Times (http://twitter.com/nytimes) announced major changes to its masthead with several top veterans accepting buyout packages. Among those saying their final good byes to the paper are Assistant Managing Editor Jim Roberts, Sports Editor Joe Sexton, and Culture Editor Jon Landon. The buyout packages were developed as a way to avoid major layoffs and did alleviate the bulk of the necessary budget cuts. Editor Jill Abramson (abramson@nytimes.com) (https://twitter.com/JillAbramson) expressed sincere gratitude to all those who will be bidding the paper farewell. Now that the NYT’s shake-up at the top has come to an end, expect several familiar names at the paper to take on new and increasing responsibilities.

Boston’s Phoenix Media WFXN-FM has been sold to Clear Channel Communications. Only the signal has been sold, Phoenix Media will keep its call letters. The station consisted of 21 employees. Most of the employees’ have left except for Program Director Paul Driscoll and Promotions Director Mike Snow.

The Crossover (https://twitter.com/crossover) is a brand new show which premiered on January 26th on the NBC Sports Network. The show is hosted by Michelle Beadle (https://twitter.com/MichelleDBeadle) and Dave Briggs (https://twitter.com/DaveBriggsTV). Beadle is a former ESPN SportsNation host and Briggs is a former “Fox & Friends” host. The show features sports news, pop culture and social media news.

The Financial Times (http://www.ft.com and https://twitter.com/FinancialTimes) is planning to cut 25 jobs via either buyouts or layoffs. Editor Lionel Barber believes this will save up to $2 million a year. He also hopes to add 10 new staffers to the digital side of their operation.

SiriusXM Satellite Radio (http://www.siriusxm.com) added two million new subscribers in 2012. They now have 23.9 million subscribers tuning in daily.

The Tribune Company has emerged from bankruptcy. After restructuring, the company is anticipated to trade its newspaper assets and focus on its 23 television stations, including WGN America. Peter Liguori has been named CEO of Tribune Company. He will manage the Tribune Broadcasting Company network and the company’s publishing and digital operations. Liguori most recently served as COO at Discovery Communications.

There’s a new publication in Miami, Florida. NEW YOU magazine (http://www.newyoumedia.com) is a quarterly magazine dedicated to helping women find the latest anti-aging methods and technologies. Ruchel Louis Coetzee (ruchel@newyoumedia.com) is the Editor. Follow NEW YOU on Twitter at http://twitter.com/NewYouMedia

Earlier this month, Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leive (cynthia_leive@condenast.com) (https://twitter.com/cindi_leive) announced the addition of Ying Chu (ying_chu@condenast.com) (https://twitter.com/yingchunyc) to the Glamour (http://twitter.com/glamourmag) masthead as the new Executive Beauty Editor. Chu comes to the magazine after a stint as Marie Claire‘s Beauty and Health Editor for several years.

The Washington Times (http://www.washingtontimes.com and https://twitter.com/washtimes) started the year with at least 20 layoffs including Sports Reporter Patrick Stevens (https://twitter.com/D1scourse). Executive Editor David Jackson had announced in November that there could be layoffs and there were in January.

Joanna Coles (https://twitter.com/JoannaColes), who just recently took over as Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan magazine (http://www.cosmopolitan.com/ and https://twitter.com/Cosmopolitan and https://www.facebook.com/Cosmopolitan) made an exciting announcement earlier this month. The magazine will be featured on an upcoming reality show on CBS called, “The Job” (http://www.cbs.com/shows/the-job/ and https://twitter.com/TheJobCBS). Coles is no stranger to the TV world as she had a recurring mentor role on the hit show, “Project Runway” while she was Editor-in-Chief at Marie Claire. “The Job” will air on Fridays at 8pm ET in February and Cosmopolitan will be featured on its second episode airing on February 15th. Five contestants will compete for an editorial assistant position at Cosmopolitan.

The Star-Ledger (http://www.nj.com/starledger/) recently announced a large-scale layoff of 34 employees including 18 from the newsroom. The layoffs were due to financial hardships and the effects of Hurricane Sandy. The paper is also considering outsourcing the printing and packaging of the paper. The following link is provided for additional information on this story: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/star-ledger_announces_layoffs.html. The Star-Ledger can be followed on Twitter: https://twitter.com/starledger and on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/Star.Ledger.

After a short prime time career WNYW-TV’s (http://twitter.com/myfoxny) Greg Kelly (http://twitter.com/gregkellyfox5) will be returning to “Good Day New York” as Co-Anchor with Rosanna Scotto (http://twitter.com/rosannascotto). The network announced that Kelly would Anchor the 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. newscast just a few months ago while veteran Dave Price (http://twitter.com/DavePriceTV) returned to the network taking over Kelly’s open morning spot alongside Scotto. However, in an unexpected turn of events Price will once again depart from the network allowing for the return of Kelly. Additionally, current early morning Anchor Steve Lacy will be filling in during Kelly’s prime time spots.

ESPN all-pro Sports Reporter Rachel Nichols (https://twitter.com/Rachel__Nichols) has traded teams and is headed to CNN (Cable News Network) to become a Sports Anchor/Reporter there.

You can view the whole February January issue of MEDIAware here: http://www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/mediaware/

And all of the Regional Updates here: http://www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/mediaware/February2013UpdatesByRegion.html

You can also follow all of the latest media moves and news from PR Newswire’s Audience Research Department on Twitter at: twitter.com/PRNmedia

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Media Moves & News for November

Posted on November 8, 2012 by | Leave a comment

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MEDIAware, PR Newswire’s Audience Research Department newsletter, featuring media news and job changes in the last month, is now available. Here is a sampling of this month’s edition:

Newsweek (http://www.thedailybeast.com/content/newsweek.html)announced it will cease printing with its last issue on Dec. 31st. Newsweek will be an online publication only in 2013. Newsweek estimates that its been losing $40 million annually on the print edition. Layoffs are expected in the transition. The new online product will be called “Newsweek Global”. Some Newsweek articles will continue to be available on The Daily Beast (http://www.thedailybeast.com) free website run by the same company. Newsweek began in 1933 and competed and battled with Time magazine to provide readers with the top weekly news stories in the newsweekly magazine business. The magazine peaked in 1991 with 3.3 million readers and was down to 1.5 million at the midway point this year. The lack of advertising dollars for a national weekly losing readers played a part in the demise as well.

It’s stormy weather for employees of The Weather Channel (http://www.weather.com) lately as approximately seven percent were laid off last month. The Atlanta-based company, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, had to lay off employees as part of a restructuring. The restructuring affected about 75-80 people. The last such layoff was in 2008 after NBCUniversal acquired a controlling share of the company. Meteorologists Jeff Morrow and Adam Berg were among those out.

The Seattle Times (http://seattletimes.com) reported on its own employees protest against the company, following the company’s controversial decision to purchase a full-page ad supporting the Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna. More than 100 Seattle Times news staffers – including reporters, photographers, columnists, artists, editors and online news producers – signed a letter protesting the Times Co’s decision to sponsor newspaper ads supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate McKenna and a statewide referendum for legalized gay marriage. The employees cited threats to the paper’s credibility and neutrality as reasons for the protest.

Anderson Live (http://www.andersoncooper.com), Anderson Cooper’s daytime talk show, will not return for a third season. The program will run until Summer of 2013 completing its second season. You can still see Anderson Cooper on his CNN program “Anderson Cooper 360″ (http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/).

After Newsweek announced its move to digital earlier this month, popular Senior Correspondent Peter J. Boyer makes a major move. The former New Yorker and Vanity Fair Staff Writer has been named the new Editor-at-Large of Fox News. The new hire was named by Fox News CEO Roger Ailes in a statement to his staff, describing Boyer as a “talented and insightful journalist.”

Former “CBS This Morning” Co-host Erica Hill has joined NBC’s “Weekend Today” as its new Co-host. Hill will host on Saturdays and Sundays beside Lester Holt. In addition to her new Co-hosting duties she will be a national correspondent for NBC News reporting on “Today” and “NBC Nightly News”.

Comedian Adam Carolla has joined Fox News Channel (http://www.foxnews.com) as a Contributor mainly on “The O’Reilly Factor” program (http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/index.html). Carolla is set to appear each Monday on the show to comment on political and social issues. In addition to appearing on “The O’Reilly Factor” he will make appearances on other Fox News Shows. You can also see Carolla on his daily podcast show “The Adam Carolla Show” (http://adamcarolla.com).

As countless publications continue to take major hits due to the economic recession Condé Nast Corporation (http://www.condenast.com) announces several cutbacks. Eight editorial staffers and three business staffers were laid off at Self Magazine as part of Condé Nast’s 2013 budget cuts. According to New York Post, reports state that each title under the major publishing house must cutback by an estimated 5%. Although the cutbacks are said to continue within the coming months, large brands such as Vanity Fair and The New Yorker may escape staff reductions this time around. However, other powerful names were not so lucky, such as Susan Portnoy (Vice President Media Relations for Digital and Corporate Communications), most commonly known for her involvement in New York’s annual Fashion’s Night Out.

LANG (http://www.langnews.com) which include the Los Angeles Daily News, the Torrance Daily Breeze and seven other papers has taken the obvious next step into becoming a regional news operation with an emphasis more on digital and less on geographical. Carolina Garcia will take over as Managing Editor of digital news for all LANG papers.

The Chicago Sun-Times (http://www.suntimes.com) has announced the hiring of Actress and Author Jenny McCarthy as Columnist. Ask Jenny will appear in the newspaper’s Splash section, and her blog will run Monday through Friday at splash.suntimes.com. The column will focus on and answer questions about love, sex, parenting, friendship, fitness and duties of a single mother.

Wired (http://www.wired.com) is bringing advertisers and the blogging community together by running ad-sponsored blogs. http://www.adweek.com/news/press/wired-bringing-advertisers-and-its-blogs-closer-together-136211

The Los Angeles Times (http://www.latimes.com) circulation figures are showing an increase due to paid digital subscriptions: http://www.laobserved.com/biz/2012/10/digital_helps_lat_ga.php

Meteorologists Dick Albert of WCVB-TV (http://www.wcvb.com) in Needham, MA and Steve Cascione of WLNE-TV (http://www.abc6.com) in Providence, RI are teaming up to create a weather-focused online forum called SkyWatchers (http://skywatchers.me) which is set to launch by the end of this year. SkyWatchers will be a platform for weather lovers to connect with and share information about all things weather. They are tweeting: https://twitter.com/skywchrs

The Press of Atlantic City (http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com) powered on through Hurricane Sandy and printed 24-page editions on Tuesday Oct. 30 &  Wednesday Oct.31st.

You can view the whole October issue of MEDIAware here: http://www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/mediaware/

And all of the Regional Updates here: http://www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/mediaware/November2012AgilityUpdatesByRegion.html

You can also follow all of the latest media moves and news from PR Newswire’s Audience Research Department on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PRNmedia

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4 Keys to the Successful Digital PR Pitch

Posted on September 25, 2012 by | 5 Comments

The key to garnering digital exposure for your messages? Easy. Don’t handicap your messages by ignoring all the different ways your intended targets might use the content you publish. Make it easy and intuitive for people to share your messages with their networks.

I’m active on LinkedIn, and it’s not unusual for me to hear from a recruiter every now and then.  Last week, one sent me a note about an interesting sounding job.  While I had zero interest in the gig, I know others in my social networks might be interested.  So, instead of ignoring this message, I responded to the recruiter, asking if she had any publicly-available information so I could share it with my network.

She sent me an attachment. 

This reminded me of an exchange we had once with a heavy hitter editor from one of our sister company’s leading technology magazines.  When asked what his PR pet peeve was, he had a ready answer.   Email pitches that didn’t include a URL that he could tweet, link to and share.

Consider how your audience will use the content you share. 

In both cases, the people contacting the targets (the recruiter contacting me, and a PR person contacting the editor) either don’t understand or aren’t considering what behaviors their communications inspire.    The recruiter assumed that when I said “share with my network” that I was talking about e-mail.  The PR person is assuming that the outcome is going to be traditional media pick up in the form of a print story.

By letting these assumptions drive their communications strategies, both miss out on significant opportunities for exposure.   For public relations especially, the lessons are important:

  • When you’re targeting media and influencers, take the time to research and understand how their beats and responsibilities have changed.   Most journalists who write for a print publication are also creating digital content and sharing content in social networks.  Even if your story doesn’t make the print publication, exposure on the outlet’s digital channels can be immensely valuable (and may reach an even larger audience!)
  • Tailor your pitches accordingly.  The e-mail pitch that includes the press release pasted into the body of the email (and then attached for good measure!) is dead.

Here are four keys to ensuring your PR pitch isn’t out of step with the realities of today’s news rooms, social networks and the blogosphere:

  1. Provide links to digital assets (images, videos, infographics) in your pitch.
  2. Include links  to the story and other information the journalist can reference and share.
  3. Structure your pitches and press releases with tweeting in mind.  The headline needs to be a perfect tweet.  Highlight key themes with paragraph subheads (in bold so they’re easy to see) that are also perfect tweets.   Call out key facts in a bulleted list.
  4. Ensure the URLs you provide render well when shared on Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and LinkedIn, rather than displaying HTML gobbledygook to users of those networks.

In other words, make it dead easy for journalists, bloggers and other influencers  to share your story with their respective social networks.  Decisions to share and tweet content are made in fleeting seconds.  Don’t handicap your messages by ignoring all the different ways your intended targets might use the content you publish.

In the case of the recruiter, I actually took the time to send her a note explaining the problem with the attachment, and noting that if her firm wanted to recruit social media candidates, they needed to run a social-friendly recruitment campaign.   She replied, saying that she agreed, but that her boss did things “the old way.”  In this interaction is one more lesson for us all – it’s up to all communicators to ensure their organizations are in step with their audiences.  The up side of doing so is clear – your communications are more likely to be successful.  The down side is equally clear – your communications are more likely to be irrelevant.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

 

 

 

Image courtesy of Flickr member Donna Sullivan Thomson.

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September Media Moves

Posted on September 12, 2012 by | Leave a comment

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PR Newswire’s Audience Research Department continually updates our Agility Influencer Targeting global media database, with more than 700,000 journalist and blogger contacts.

The MEDIAware newsletter, published by the team each month and featuring media news and job changes in the last month, is now available. Here is a sampling of this month’s edition:

Anderson Cooper‘s daytime talk show has been renamed “Anderson Live”. (http://www.andersoncooper.com) The second season will feature rotating guest hosts and will be filmed live. His first guest will be singer/actress Beyonce.

Reed Elsevier, parent company of Hollywood trade paper, Variety has accepted a multimillion dollar bid from Avenue Capital to purchase the longstanding entertainment trade paper. Avenue Capital is the parent company of the The National Enquirer.

Check out Miabella Magazine (http://www.miabellamag.com), a new magazine out of South Florida spearheaded by Editor-in-Chief Gina Villani Addison (editor@miabellamag.com) (https://twitter.com/MIABELLAMag). Miabella is a bi-monthly magazine geared towards young women ages 14-21. The focus of the magazine is to provide help and guidance in gaining a positive self-image.

The new owners of the Orange County Register (http://www.ocregister.com) has approved 25 newsroom positions, including Movie & Resturant Critics, Business Editor and Auto Reviewer.

NS: Modern Luxury for the North Shore is set to launch in October. The publication will navigate the North Shore area of Chicago, highlighting the local businesses and personalities. Elaine Doremus (edoremus@modernluxury.com) (https://twitter.com/NSEditorinChief) will serve as Editor-in-Chief. For additional information visit: http://www.modernluxury.com/ns.

KXTV-TV (http://www.news10.net) in Sacramento, CA has launched a new weekend morning broadcast, which will be anchored by Kate Larsen. Follow the station on Twitter at http://twitter.com/News10_CA.

The Los Angeles News Group (LANG) has appointed Gene Warnick to the position of Sports Editor, which will expand his duties to oversee sports for all of the LANG newspapers. LANG newspapers include the Los Angeles Daily News, Daily Breeze, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, San Bernardino Sun, Redlands Daily Facts, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News and the Whittier Daily News.

Good Morning America (https://twitter.com/GMA) Host Robin Roberts (https://twitter.com/RobinRoberts) said goodbye Thursday, August 30th as she is taking medical leave to undergo a bone marrow transplant from her sister. Roberts announced in June that she has Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a rare blood disorder that affects bone marrow. It was then announced there will be a series of guest hosts in her absence such as Oprah Winfrey, Kelly Ripa, Barbara Walters, Katie Couric and more surprise guests.

Live! with Kelly (http://dadt.com/live/) has announced ex-football player Michael Strahan will be Kelly Ripa‘s new Co-Host beginning September 4th. Strahan was one of 59 co-hosts who had sat next to Ripa during the past nine months after Regis Philbin left the show. He is expected to also continue his co-hosting job on Fox NFL Sunday.

Highlights Hello (http://www.highlights.com/highlights-hello-magazine-for-kids) is a new publication from the Highlights for Kids crew that is ramping up for a January debut. This pub targets toddler up to age 2 and parents with reading and picture activities and advice from pediatricians and other children’s experts. Christine French-Cully is the Editor: eds@highlights-corp.com

The Red and Black (and Blue?), the University of Georgia newspaper, is now run by Adviser Ed Morales, who is in charge of all editorial content. Editor-in Chief Polina Marinova and the staff of this student-run newspaper have quit in protest of the university’s decision to oversee the Red and Black (http://www.redandblack.com).

The Birmingham News is going through many changes. The new publisher, Alabama Media Group, has dropped the paper from a daily to a three-day per week publishing schedule. It will now be printed on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The paper will still be updated on its shared website, http://www.al.com/al.com,  which includes The Birmingham News, Huntsville Times and Press-Register in Mobile.

You can read the full September MEDIAware Newsletter here:
www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/medi…

And check out all of the Audience Research Group’s Updates by Region here:
http://www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/mediaware/SeptemberAugust2012AgilityUpdatesbyRegion.html

Follow all of the latest media moves and news from PR Newswire’s Audience Research Department on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PRNmedia

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July Media Moves

Posted on July 10, 2012 by | Leave a comment

PR Newswire’s Audience Research Department continually updates our Agility Influencer Targeting contact database. The MEDIAware newsletter, published by the team each month and featuring media news and job changes in the last month, is now available. Here is a sampling of this month’s edition:

Ann Curry Co-Host of NBC’s The Today Show (today.msnbc.msn.com/) announced her departure on Thursday, June 28th. She shifted into the Co-Host role last June after Meredith Vieira left the show. Recently, The Today Show has experienced a drop in ratings giving their rival at ABC’s Good Morning America ample opportunity to take over the number one spot for morning show ratings. Curry will remain at NBC and head a new team that will cover stories from around the globe. She will anchor prime-time specials and report for The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, Rock Center, Dateline and MSNBC, collectively. Her replacement is Savannah Guthrie. Guthrie was the Co-Host of the 9 o’clock hour of The Today Show and frequently filled in for Curry. She began her new co-host role Friday, June 29th. You can watch Curry’s departing words here: tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=739524

Just as former L.A. Laker Magic Johnson aspired to greatness on the basketball court, he is now hoping for the same success with his new venture – a cable network called “Aspire” (www.aspire.tv). The network is based in Atlanta (more specifically College Park) and was started in conjunction with gmc TV (Gospel Music Television). Programming includes a mix of family-friendly movies, films, documentaries, comedy and music as well a two-hour block of original, independent black features. The only specific programs mentioned, but not confirmed at press time were “Soul Train” and “I Spy.” Johnson has already lined up a number of exclusive, advertising deals with national brands such as Coca Cola, Wal-Mart, Nationwide Insurance, L’Oreal and Chrysler. Aspire’s direct competition includes the already existing minority-oriented entities of BET, Bounce (also in Atlanta), TV One and Centric. Twitter at twitter.com/tvASPIRE or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AspireTV.

A KATU-TV news helicopter helped Portland police arrest a suspected bank robber on June 20th. The suspect allegedly robbed a bank in Washington and drove across state lines into Oregon. Police on the ground lost sight of the suspect, but were able to relocate him by watching KATU while communicating with the station’s assignment desk about the location chase.

Heads up DC political journalists: Politico (www.politico.com/)is expanding and is looking to add 20 people to its editorial staff. The success of their Politico Pro paid service has spawned this need for more quality content.

Check out Hudson Reporter’s newest magazine - 07030. Hoboken’s newest semiannual lifestyle magazine ((www.hudsonreporter.com/pages/07030_hobok…), covers everything from celebrities to food and all in between. The magazine will offer regular highlighted features of “How We Work” and “How We Live” aspects of Hoboken. Kate Rounds is the Editor-in-Chief and can be reached at 07030@hudsonreporter.com.

The G. Gordon Liddy Show will go off the air at the end of July. G. Gordon Liddy, who is 81, is retiring from the show but will still be a Commentator on the Radio America network. Replacing G. Gordon in the 10:00 a.m. – Noon spot on Radio America will be Economics talker Peter Schiff (twitter.com/PeterSchiff). G. Gordon was part of the Watergate scandal in the Nixon administration who had five operatives break into the Democratic headquarters. The break-in led to the demise of President Nixon and was captured in the movie and film “All The President’s Men” written by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Washington Post Reporters at the time. G. Gordon spent over four years in prison for his part in the break-in, but he came back and became an expert on how things really work in politics, defense and at the White House.

CBS affiliate KBAK-TV in Bakersfield, CA took a unique approach in an effort to fill an open reporter position by conducting an on-air job interview. No word yet on who was chosen for the position.

We are sad to announce that Howie Chizek, a mainstay in Ohio radio has passed away. Howie died while on a trip taking underprivileged youths to Disney World. Howie has been in radio for 34 years and was still working at his show on WNIR-FM in Akron before his death. Howie was also the Cleveland Cavaliers Public Address Announcer at one time when they played in Richfield, Ohio.

U-T San Diego is following the lead of the Los Angeles Times by launching a pay wall. Non-subscription users will be required to participate in an online or print subscription after 15 monthly article views.

Congratulations to WATE-TV, Channel 6 in Knoxville, TN for winning two 2012 Edward R. Murrow awards. One was in the category of Best Use of Video in a small market. The other was for Best Video News Series in a small market with its piece on “Mission to Africa.”

Charlotte area residents will be familiar with the new afternoon drive team at WBT-AM/FM. Brad Krantz previously teamed with Richard Spires on WBT as recently as 2003. Now he’s back and teaming with Britt Whitmire. Whitmire arrives from various North Carolina stations including WPTF-AM and WSJS-AM. Their Facebook page is www.facebook.com/bradandbritt.

CNN International has launched a new program. “CNN Newsroom International” focuses on – what else? – international news and events. It is hosted by Suzanne Malveaux along with Hala Gorani, Michael Holmes and Richard Quest. The show airs 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. weekdays.

MSNBC debuted its new program called “The Cycle” on June 25th. (twitter.com/thecyclemsnbc) It airs weekdays at 3:00 p.m. EST. It is an ensemble show featuring four hosts that include conservative commentator S.E. Cupp, author Toure, Salon.com writer Steve Kornacki and former Congressional candidate Krystal Ball. All hosts will appear on every episode with each person taking turns heading the discussions. “The Cycle” is replacing “The Dylan Ratigan” show which aired its last episode on June 22nd after Ratigan decided not to renew his expiring contract with MSNBC.

Artnet Magazine has ceased publication after 16 years. It was the first online art magazine to exist. Unfortunately, the magazine was never able to make a profit. There are plans for its archives to be available on Artnet.com. Its Editors: Walter Robinson, Rachel Corbett and Emily Nathan are currently looking for new opportunities.

There is now an official Fox News lifestyle online magazine titled “Fox News Magazine” (twitter.com/foxnewsmagazine). The magazine covers love, style, beauty, nutrition, décor and celebrities. There is also a deal tracker Twitter page (twitter.com/foxmagdeals) offering the latest discounts on top brands exclusively for its readers. The magazine can be viewed on all platforms including phone, tablet, laptop and desktop. Don’t forget to visit the Facebook (www.facebook.com/FoxNewsMagazine), Twitter and Pinterest (pinterest.com/foxnewsmagazine/) pages today!

Los Angeles Times Business Reporter Ken Bensinger wins the prestigious Loeb Award, business journalism’s highest honor. Bensinger received the award for a three-part series that he wrote on the ruthless used-car business called “Wheels of Fortune”. www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-award-201…

You can read the full July MEDIAware Newsletter here:
www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/medi…

And check out all of the Audience Research Group’s Updates by Region here:
www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/medi…

Follow all of the latest media moves and news from PR Newswire’s Audience Research Department on Twitter at: twitter.com/PRNmedia

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Inside PR Newswire: Sara Campbell, Senior Audience Researcher

Posted on June 19, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Welcome to Inside PR Newswire, a series that provides a special look into the people that make up PR Newswire. We’ll share their stories about what they do, how they arrived at PR Newswire, and a little about themselves as individuals when they’re not at work.

Sara Campbell is a senior audience researcher at PR Newswire. So Sara, tell us — what do you do?

As a senior audience researcher, I am responsible for updating media contacts for the New York metro region. I have also taken the lead training several employees during their transition from Targeting Services to the Audience Research team. Our Global Media Database has over 500,000 global media contacts.

How did you end up at PR Newswire?

In 2008, I met PR Newswire’s account manager Kelly Fuller at the PRSA Northeast District Conference in Rochester, N.Y., while I was working at a PR agency. In January 2009, I wanted to move down to the New York area to continue my career growth, and I reached out to Kelly for help. She told me about the Audience Researcher position at PR Newswire and I applied. I got the job offer and moved down to Hoboken one week later so I could commute to PR Newswire’s Jersey City office. Kelly even helped me move, and we continue to be great friends to this day.

What does a typical workday look like for you?

I am constantly juggling different tasks. I’m responsible for updating any and all media changes in the New York metro region, and then I tweet these updates on our Twitter page (@PRNmedia).

My position also includes handling client projects and requests. Our team is currently helping clients transition to PR Newswire’s new Agility platform, which allows our clients to target, monitor and engage with traditional and social media from one platform.

Additionally, I write for the Audience Research group’s monthly newsletter for clients, MEDIAware; and I occasionally assist our MultiVu Media Relations team with writing national alerts for satellite and radio media tours.

How large is your team?

The Audience Research team has 16 researchers based in the U.S., with an additional 12 researchers based in Mexico. We also have a team of researchers abroad. The U.S. and Mexico teams are led by Director of Data Services Jeff Veasey.

What has changed since you started working at PR Newswire? What’s stayed the same?

One of the biggest changes I continue to see is how journalists and PR professionals are using social media to engage with one another more. Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites are continuing to grow. Journalists and PR professionals are using these platforms to communicate, share stories and pitch ideas. As a media researcher, I try to collect as much data from these social networks to help our clients better connect with the media. We also use social media to strengthen our relationships with clients and journalists directly.

The one thing that continues to stay the same is the way our Media Research team collaborates to complete tasks and ensure that we are providing the best service to clients.

What’s the most fun part?

The most fun part of my job is the colleagues that I work with. We have great team chemistry and it is a pleasure to work with all of them. We work cohesively to complete projects and update our data, ensuring that our clients are receiving the most accurate information. Our team has seasoned audience researchers with many years of experience at PR Newswire; they continue to inspire and motivate me to grow professionally.

What do you do when you are not working?

When I am not working, I am most likely dancing! I have been a dancer since age 3 and it is a true passion of mine. I just finished two years as an NFL cheerleader — it was the most incredible experience! I felt so fortunate to have the opportunity to dance on Sundays on the sidelines and do charity events in the community. I hope to be able to continue to perform or take dance classes.

I also enjoy traveling. My sister and I traveled to London and Paris last April. The picture above is me in front of Victoria Palace at Piccadilly Circus in London, before seeing the musical “Billy Elliot.” I hope to continue to travel the world and see new places.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

In 10 years, I hope I’ll have continued to grow my career in the communications/media industry. I also hope I’ll be sharing my love of dance by either teaching or coaching.
Written by Grace Lavigne, senior editor of ProfNet, a PR Newswire service that helps journalists connect with expert sources. To read more from Grace, check out her blog on ProfNet Connect.

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June Media Moves

Posted on June 5, 2012 by | Leave a comment

MEDIAware, PR Newswire’s Audience Research Department newsletter, featuring media news and job changes in the last month, is now available. Here is a sampling of this month’s edition:

Advance Publications and Newhouse Newspapers recently announced four major papers will discontinue daily publication and staff cuts will be made in an effort to cut costs and focus on online content. The Times-Picayune (http://www.nola.com/t-p/) in News Orleans, The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times and the Press-Register, all in Alabama, will be published three days a week on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. With this change New Orleans becomes the largest city in the U.S. without a daily published newspaper.

Quartz is coming from the Atlantic Media group. Quartz is a business publication designed for tablets, smart phones and all digital formats. It is tentatively scheduled to begin late this year with former Wall Street Journal-ist Kevin Delaney as Editor-in-Chief and Chris Batty as the Publisher. Former Economist Media Editor Gideon Lichfield is in charge of news content. Zach Seward has also been hired as Senior Editor. The web site is: http://qz.com and they will be tweeting: https://twitter.com/quartznews.

Beth Macy, a Reporter at The Roanoke Times, is taking a year sabbatical from the newspaper to concentrate on a book titled “Factory Man” based on articles she wrote earlier this year on the battle to fight China furniture imports by furniture company leader John D. Bassett III. You can read her series here: http://www.roanoke.com/multimedia/pickingup/still-making-it-in-america/ Beth also tweets here: https://twitter.com/papergirlmacy

Larry Platt has resigned as Editor at the Philadelphia Daily News. He lasted 16 months. Before this brief stint Platt was Editor of Philadelphia Magazine. This has opened the door for Michael Days (mdays@phillynews.com) to return as Editor. Michael had been working as Managing Editor at sister publication The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philly.com includes content from both newspapers: http://www.philly.com

Washington Times (http://www.washingtontimes.com) Columnist Arnaud de Borchgrave has taken leave after being accused of plagiarism. His weekly columns also appear on UPI (http://www.upi.com). Check out the whole story here: http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/05/22/washington-times-columnist-arnaud-de-borchgrave-takes-leave-amid-plagiarism-probe/

The sports team recently lost their roster spots at USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com). Horse Racing veteran Reporter Tom Pedulla, Sports Blogger Tom Weir, Basketball Reporter J. Michael Falgoust, Auto Reporter Gary Graves Sports Biz Media Reporter Michael McCarthy were all let go.

Katie Couric is the new Host of “Katie’s Take”, a weekly digital program on Yahoo. (http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/katies-take-abc-news/) “Katie’s Take” covers topics including wellness, parenting, nutrition and health.  Couric will also be hosting a new syndicated daytime talk show called “Katie”. The show is set to premiere on September 10th and will be distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television. Couric and Jeff Zucker are the Executive Producers.  You can follow Katie on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/katiecouric or facebook at  http://www.facebook.com/katieshow

It’s not over until the Fat Lady Sings: Talk about fast work — less than a day after the Metropolitan Opera Guild announced it would no longer include reviews of Metropolitan Opera productions in its magazine, Opera News (http://www.operanews.com), the readership spoke. And now the reviews will remain. The Opera News was born in May 1936 and remains a healthy monthly with more than 100,000 subscribers. The Metropolitan Opera Guild is an affiliate of the Metropolitan Opera but has different leadership.  They also “sing” about opera here: https://twitter.com/operanews

He has been on CBS. He has been on NBC. Now Bryant Gumbel will be on ABC as he guest hosts on “Live! With Kelly” in early June. Gumbel will appear on the program on the 4th and 5th. Since Regis Philbin’s retirement, the show has had a revolving door of guest co-hosts. The network has yet to decide on a permanent replacement for Philbin.

The Boston Globe could be up for sale again. The New York Times Company tried selling the paper three years ago but was unsuccessful in finding a deal. The possibility of selling the paper was revisited again last year, although, CEO Janet Robinson wanted to wait in hopes that the launch of the Globe’s new pay wall would improve its sales.

You can view the whole June Issue here: http://www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/mediaware/ And all the latest media changes by region here: http://www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/mediaware/June2012AgilityUpdatesbyRegion.html

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