Category: Uncategorized

How to get your press release noticed

So you have a press release and want someone to actually pay attention to it.

After noting a fine internship with the Philadelphia Business Journal, I thought I might offer some advice I got there. Through that internship, I dealt with thousands of press releases, so let me help you out.

The publicity world is in the midst of plenty of conversations about bypassing media, trying direct-to-consumers press releases, but many criticize the practice.

 It’s not the purpose of public relations, they say. The point is to persuade media to tell their story.

If you’re in that camp, here are some thoughts about getting through to newspapers, journals, magazines and others through press releases.

Continue reading How to get your press release noticed

Failed post for BNet

I have been pretty active developing my blogging skills. No, seriously, there are blogging skills.

So, when I saw that BNet, an online business news site launched in 2007 by CNet Networks, was looking for bloggers, I wanted to give it a go. I’ve been in talks with some folks there, who wanted me to start with some trial posts. Trouble is, I’m in Europe.

I did get one done before I left. However, it seems I missed their focus a bit. I got an e-mail from one of BNet’s editors yesterday, thanking me for posting but telling me the following:

We tend to avoid pieces about stock and commodities prices. Were more interested in the goings on inside Energy companies.

Backpacking in Europe these days keeps me a little busy, so I’ll try to figure this out when I return.

After the jump check what I submitted.

Continue reading Failed post for BNet

Graduation speech column for The Temple News that never ran

At my desk in the newsroom of The Temple News after graduating and cleaned out May 21, 2008.
At my desk in the newsroom of The Temple News after graduating and cleaned out May 21, 2008.

In April I wrote a piece to run in the commentary section of The Temple News but never ran it. My last column was an open letter to the university’s President Ann Weaver Hart. Since last week I shared video of my commencement address, on which this column focuses, I thought I would share the column that never was.

By Christopher Wink | April 18, 2008 | The Temple News (never ran)

I am your commencement speaker.

A committee of professors and administrators have decided that I am serviceable enough to represent my 4,000 fellow graduates on Temple University May 22 commencement ceremony. I will speak to you, our families and our friends, more than 8,000 people in the Liacouras Center.

But, I, too, have sat through graduation speeches of little note and boring memory. I want this to be yours as well.

Continue reading Graduation speech column for The Temple News that never ran

Harrisburg, Pa. the city: Statistics and such

I finished a post-graduate internship in Harrisburg, Pa. at the end of last month.

I learned a great deal working for the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association, including much far outside the world of journalism and even the capitol: Harrisburg the city.

Like many state capitals – particularly one of states as large as Pennsylvania – Harrisburg might be best described as Washington D.C. lite. It a city with a large business class of professionals – all of whom are there for government and most of whom do not live in the city of 47,000.

Continue reading Harrisburg, Pa. the city: Statistics and such

Patriot-News: Pennsylvania Cable Network breakout box

I had a story on the Pennsylvnia Cable Network (PCN) in the Patriot-News two weeks ago. Here is some extra information that didn’t make it into the Sunday story.

  • More than 10 million Pennsylvanians in 3.3. million homes on 150 cable systems can watch PCN.
  • PCN has a $4.5 million operating budget and a 34-person staff.
  • PCN is funded entirely by the participating Pennsylvania cable TV companies, private underwriting and a small sales operation. PCN receives no state or federal funds.
  • In February 2004, PCN opened its renovated and drastically enlarged Camp Hill headquarters – a 21,000-square-foot office, studio and technical facility that works in partnership with single-person bureaus in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to cover the entire Commonwealth.
    Continue reading Patriot-News: Pennsylvania Cable Network breakout box

The new Facebook bumbles on

From EverybodySucksButUs.com

Even if I am just a couple months into my Facebook life, I believe it is fair to say there is lots of complaint against its new version – beyond just common resistance to change. I’ve jumped into things with Facebook – and MySpace for that matter – so I think I’ve got a sense of how obsessively people take their social networking.

Recently I posted a collection of the most widespread and best articulated rails against the new form. That post on why the new Facebook sucks is just a small matter.

After that post, I was invited to join a Facebook group called People agains the New Facebook System – with more than 100,000 members. There are others here, here, here, and here – I’m sure there are more.

I got a comment on my post mentioning one could revert back to the old version – which I did. There was a delay in the rollout, but now – there’s no going back, the new version is the only version.

Does any of that actually matter? Any thoughts?

Someone who doesn't know me actually used my reporting

Ostensibly, journalists write for others.

So I get really excited when readers respond to what I write. That can go further when someone uses my reporting for broader purposes. A common rag on newspapers and most media is that their reporting isn’t in-depth enough. Of course, the response is that one can’t track trends without daily coverage.

It feels great to be reminded that that isn’t a lie.

Continue reading Someone who doesn't know me actually used my reporting