by Administrator | Sep 12, 2018 | Blog
For several years now we all have lived in luxury, enjoying free content on the Internet that’s paid for through ads and data mining, with no paywall to contend with. But, as many prominent media outlets have noted, things are beginning to change.
Back in the early days of the Internet (and in the print media era of old), we as consumers paid for the content we wanted to read and watch. With the advent of Adblock Plus not to mention a reduction in advertising budgets many news websites and online magazines are going back to subscription business models, unable to maintain profits with optional “premium” services and banner ads alone.
What does this mean for those of us in media relations? It means we’re going to have to set expectations for our clients, educating them on the state of the media. Because like it or not, it does seem more paywalls are popping up, which means public relations and marketing plans have no choice but to adapt.
On its face, things may appear dire it’s hard to share content on social media and on a personal blog when a link appears behind a paywall. But, there are some positive takeaways to the coming “subscription era” of Internet journalism that could mean more meaningful placements, better quality leads, and superior content than what we’re getting now in the “free and open” era of Internet publication.
Subscribers Read and Readers are Your Target Audience
I’m a bit of a hipster. So, I still subscribe to a few print magazines. Since I don’t like my money to go to waste, I actually read those magazines, sometimes even cover-to-cover. I also subscribe to a couple newspapers online, and I check them every day, reading the content that’s relevant to me and subscribing directly to the RSS feeds of columns and writers I like the most.
The takeaway here is this: Those who pay for content are more likely to actually read it. Studies have shown most people don’t read the content on their social media feed, often sharing links without even clicking on them. I’ll argue that this is a product of the free content era, wherein the overabundance of choice has rendered us all lost in a sea of noise. While it may be nice to get a social media share or a link click, ultimately what does that really mean in terms of educating the public on your business, thought leaders, and relevant news?
If you ask me, the answer might be “not much.” Too often our metrics for success are superficial, measured in total number of social media shares, clicks, and engagements, even if those engagements are largely the result of bots and humans users who act like bots. But, if someone subscribes to a publication, they are more likely to actually do some reading, because they have a financial stake in supporting that content. That means more meaningful social media shares and readers who actually do you guessed it some reading. This translates to real discussion and genuine interest, not just some generic comment and a quick share that’s aimed at strictly producing numbers.
If someone subscribes to an online (or print) magazine, that means they are genuinely interested in the topic. Ideally, when it comes to a media interview or byline that you want read, your target audience is interested. The subscription era means more quality readers, even if the quantity of superficial shares and clicks is reduced.
Building Meaningful Relationships
It’s an unspoken truth of media relations backs need to be scratched, and sometimes your thoughtful expert source means less than the source from a company who bought an ad. It’s not fair and, quite frankly, it reduces the quality of the content journalists produce, but that’s the reality of for-profit media. Ads are how publications stay in business, at least for now.
As advertising budgets begin to dry up across the board, the “pay-for-play” approach to journalism is harder to navigate for companies looking to get coverage, particularly for smaller startups who are still working to expand and turn a profit.
A positive outcome to a subscription business model means ads will no longer determine who gets an interview, since the primary source of revenue would ideally be subscriptions. Further, “sponsored content” will no longer be a path to regular byline publication. Like in the days of old, sources will be judged based more on merits, and journalists will begin, once again, to seek the stories that are most interesting to them and their readers.
Much as how the subscription model means an increase in quality readers, the same holds true for the content journalists produce. For those in media relations, that means we can build meaningful relationships with journalists for the mutual benefit of providing sources, who in turn get their name and message into stories that are far more genuine than those produced under the guise of advertising.
While free content will likely persist long into the future, the trend seems to be that the best publications are going to put themselves behind a paywall before too long. This will bring challenges, particularly when it comes to sharing content on company blogs and in social media feeds. In time, content producers and social media users will undoubtedly adapt to these changes and find workarounds, since sharing is the key to more exposure. I think this problem will ultimately solve itself, though admittedly things won’t be as straightforward as they are presently.
Sure, it may seem strange now to imagine an Internet where all content isn’t free, but it’s coming. And there are positive aspects to this transformation that could benefit everyone involved in the media placement chain, from thought leaders to journalists and those of us in between. One thing is for certain, it’s best to embrace this future instead of combatting it because those who are prepared will be best equipped to navigate the changing landscape and find success. One thing is for certain: Subscription models do not signal the end of journalism, which means media relations will continue to play an important role in earning placements.
by Matt Schlossberg | Sep 5, 2018 | Blog
Nothing fills me with existential dread like sitting down to write a media pitch.
Give me the sweet relief of an 800-word byline ghostwritten under a soul-crushing deadline. Bury me under the gigabyte of bone-dry peer-reviewed research I need to complete an immensely complex white paper. Let me spend eight hours hacking through a labyrinthine approval process just to get sign off on 400-word “new hire” press release.
Anything I do in the PR world is easier than convincing a stressed out and overworked journalist with a trigger finger on the junk file that my story is worth telling and doing it in under 100 very concise and very compelling words.
Below are what I believe to be the essentials of a good pitch, broken out by its main components. Following this advice is not going to guarantee a media hit for your client, but it will dramatically increase your chances.
The Subject Line. It’s true that many maybe even most pitches live or die based on the subject line, but that doesn’t mean you should panic and resort to dumb gimmicks in a bid to win a journalist’s attention. Expending way too many precious words to support a style of writing funny, hyperbolic or scare-quotes clever you can’t pull off wastes everyone’s time.
Think of it this way: The subject line is your pitch reduced to its simplest form. For that reason, I prefer to write my subject lines last. Good pitch writing usually leaves a lot of tasty leftovers that just couldn’t be fit into the final revision an interesting turn of phrase and a good word choice or two that didn’t make the cut can usually be repurposed into an effective Subject Line. If you feel you are really rusty, cut-and-paste your entire pitch, then slowly whittle it to its most essential elements.
The Opening Sentence. When I was a journalist, I was often surprised at the amount of “throat-clearing” in the pitches I received. I’m not a captive audience, dude! Into the trash you go!
If you have done your due diligence carefully researching the outlets and reporters that would be a good fit for your story you can avoid kicking off your story roughly 30 seconds after the newly formed Earth cooled.
Strategies will vary based on the story you are trying to tell, but I have had the most luck just telling the reporter what I want and why they should care: “Hey, [JOURNALIST], I’ve read your coverage on [TOPIC.] This [STORY] for [THESE REASONS] would be useful to your readers.”
If it sounds prosaic, that’s because it is. But by eliminating the throat-clearing, you can simply and honestly convey a.) your knowledge of the reporter; b.) your familiarity with how they have covered their beat; and c.) why your story is relevant to that coverage.
The Body. Most posts filed in the “pitching advice” genre emphasize the importance of brevity. And they’re right! Unfortunately, this can be taken to an extreme. A good pitch will offer a solid framework that the reporter can use to build the rest of the story. Use you pitch to cover the journalistic bases who, what, when, where, why and how. Add relevant links to your pitch to your sources LinkedIn profiles, evidence supporting your pitch idea and/or interesting industry trends, for example. Statistics relevant to a pitch help to ground it in reality. If you’re speaking about an end-user, be sure to provide specific numbers on the improvements they saw from using a solution. The more specifics, the better.
The Closer. A pitch should contain a clear call to action near the end, asking a reporter to specifically consider an interview or byline. A reporter may not be ready for this story right now, but politely ask them to keep you in mind for the future. Second, don’t be afraid to briefly offer to help a reporter with their coverage now and into the future. Many opportunities arise from relationship-building that starts with a single pitch. Lastly, always thank a reporter for their time.
Final Advice
Almost as important as knowing how to write a good pitch is to know when you don’t have anything to pitch. Not everything a client does is a story or warrants legitimate coverage.
This is where client management comes into play. Capturing inbound interview requests the sweet, sweet nectar of media relations is a long and painstaking process of developing a trusted relationship mostly over electronic devices.
Pitching writing is both an art and science which is part of the reason why creating them can be frustrating. Bad pitches are the kudzu of the public relations world, choking out good stories beneath an oppressive monoculture of bad faith and even worse writing. The problem is so pervasive that entire websites and Twitter feeds are dedicated to terrible pitches. However, devoting your energies to the right components of a pitch will ensure a greater level of success.
by admin | Aug 23, 2018 | News
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., August 23, 2018 Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare and healthcare information technology public relations and marketing agency, announced today that Morgan Lewis Jr. has joined the agency as Senior Writer. An award-winning healthcare journalist and experienced public relations professional, Lewis will create a wide variety of PR content for the agency’s healthcare/healthcare IT clients.
Lewis brings 20 years of journalism and PR writing experience, focused almost exclusively on business and healthcare. He most recently served as Senior Copywriter at MERGE Atlanta, formerly Dodge Communications, an integrated healthcare PR and marketing communications agency. As Senior Copywriter, Lewis created ghostwritten bylined thought leadership articles, white papers, case studies, blog posts, website copy and other pieces of strategic PR and marketing content for dozens of healthcare and healthcare IT clients over four years.
Before joining MERGE Atlanta, Lewis was an independent healthcare and healthcare IT writer creating content for several PR agency clients, as well as crafting his own bylined articles that appeared in publications such as Medscape, Physicians Practice, Managed Healthcare Executive, Medical Economics and Chiropractic Economics. Lewis previously served as Senior Editor at Medical Economics, where he focused on healthcare IT, and won three writing awards from the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors (ASHPE), including two Gold Awards.
Agency CEO Jodi Amendola said: “Morgan’s knowledge and experience as a healthcare journalist and PR copywriter will be tremendous assets to our growing team and expanding list of diverse clients. Morgan is not only an exceptional writer, but he is also a strategic collaborator who understands how to engagingly share clients messages amidst a rapidly changing industry.”
Lewis holds a bachelor’s degree in English-Journalism from Miami University of Ohio.
Media Contact: Marcia Rhodes | mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com
by admin | Aug 7, 2018 | News
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. August 7, 2018 Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare and health IT public relations and marketing agency, announced today its selection as the agency of record for Kaufman Hall, a leading provider of management consulting services, enterprise performance management and decision support software.
Amendola won the business after a competitive agency review process. It will provide strategic counsel, media relations and content development for Kaufman Hall’s three industry sectors, healthcare, financial institutions and higher education. The agency will build upon Kaufman Hall’s stellar brand reputation in these industries for its software and management consulting services.
“At its core, Kaufman Hall solves complex business problems for its clients. In a similar vein, we require a communications agency that not only understands the complexities and nuances of what we do but also can bring big ideas to the table and execute on them,” said Rob Kunzler, chief marketing officer of Kaufman Hall. “Amendola’s experienced team has demonstrated its ability to deliver value and its commitment to working closely with us to form a trusted, long-term partnership.”
“We’re excited to partner with Kaufman Hall, which has been helping executives to navigate rapid market changes in healthcare, finance and higher education for more than 30 years,” said Jodi Amendola, chief executive officer of Amendola Communications. “The company has built its reputation on consulting, performance improvement technologies, and data and analytics” and even more importantly, on its strong customer base of top-tier organizations that rely on its counsel and expertise.
Our collaboration will help to further elevate Kaufman Hall’s thought leaders profiles among journalists, prospective clients and key stakeholders across industries.”
About Kaufman Hall
Kaufman Hall provides software and management consulting to help organizations realize sustained success amid changing market conditions. Since 1985, Kaufman Hall has been a trusted advisor to boards and executive management teams, helping them incorporate proven methods into their strategic planning and financial management processes, and quantify the financial impact of their plans and strategic decisions to consistently achieve their goals.
Kaufman Hall services use a rigorous, disciplined, and structured approach that is based on the principles of corporate finance. The breadth and integration of Kaufman Hall advisory services are unparalleled, encompassing strategy; performance improvement; financial and capital planning; cost transformation; treasury and capital markets management; and mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and joint ventures.
Kaufman Hall software includes the Axiom Suite, providing sophisticated, flexible performance management solutions that empower finance professionals to analyze results, model the future, and optimize organizational decision making. Solutions for long-range planning, budgeting and forecasting, performance reporting, capital planning, and cost accounting deliver decision support, reporting, and analytics within an integrated software platform. Kaufman Hall’s Peak Software empowers healthcare organizations with clinical benchmarks, data, and analytics to provide a higher quality of care for optimized performance and improved patient outcomes.
Media Contact: Marcia Rhodes | mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com
by Linda Healan | Jun 13, 2018 | Blog
Recently, I heard someone speak about Integrity and the importance of having it in all aspects of your life. It might sound like a simple concept, but when someone, especially someone in a leadership or advisory role, doesn’t apply integrity in their life, there seems to be a great deal of fall-out. And let’s face it: it can be news-making in the worst conceivable way.
Integrity is “a firm adherence to a code of especially moral or ethical values; soundness of character; honesty or a state of being whole.” Another definition is a “concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes.” I like to define it as always doing the right thing when nobody is looking.
I began thinking about how essential integrity is in business and certainly as a part of public relations. When we as PR people are responsible for building our clients brands and reputations, integrity is most certainly an important attribute. To support this belief, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) has developed a Code of Ethics as part of its commitment to integrity and expects its members to adhere to this Code.
There are many examples of how important integrity can be in public relations. Here are just a few examples of where I find integrity to be especially critical:
With our clients
It is our role as PR practitioners to advocate on behalf of our clients and advise them on what is in their best interests. Sometimes those interests contradict what we know to be right or perhaps goes against our own best business interests. This is where integrity is essential.
PR practitioners tend to be people pleasers. We want to make our clients happy. However, our clients engage us to provide more than just a service, they retain us as advisors who get results. Sometimes saying “No” and explaining why a client request is not in their best interest is part of our role.
With the media
I have heard two theories throughout my career. The first was “He who has the gold, makes the rules.” The other was, “Clients change. It’s your relationship with the media that you need to hold sacred.” I personally adhere to the second theory.
Don’t misunderstand, I truly value my clients; but they generally hire me because I can obtain coverage for them in the press. Honesty, providing accurate information, meeting deadlines, and pitching appropriate information to the press is the foundation for a great relationship with the media. What good am I to any client (present or future) if I have burned a bridge with one of the key healthcare editors at a tier one publication because I conducted myself unethically or if I have a reputation for supporting fake news?
Within our profession
Of course, we should treat each other with fairness, respect and pursue honest competition. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. As we seek to impress clients, build new business and grow profits, it is sometimes too easy to drift away from doing the right thing.
I could share multiple examples of backstabbing, bad-mouthing, and undermining colleagues that I have witnessed throughout my career. But more frequently, I get to see colleagues supporting each other, providing meaningful honest feedback, helping peers to grow and learn new skills, and working as a team towards success and to support our clients communications goals.
There is a truth in six degrees of separation. It is a big, wide world, but the PR community can be small, and reputations follow us. At the end of the day, all we have is our reputations which rely heavily on the integrity we exhibit consistently.
In the time that I have been with Amendola Communications, I have seen the highest levels of integrity demonstrated from management, to the account teams and with the administrative staff. Not only are my colleagues extremely knowledgeable and talented, but they consistently work in the best interests and to the highest standards for our clients, our media contacts, with each other, and the profession as a whole. I’m pleased to say that I work in an environment where complete integrity is one of the agency’s four key principles.
The trust of clients, colleagues, the public, the media and the wider community is fundamental in maintaining a positive reputation in the PR industry. The subject of integrity might not seem the most interesting of topics, but it’s often misunderstood and something that we could all give more thought to.
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