Archive for media relations
Media Relations Tip #14: Don’t Ask for Guaranteed Coverage
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Here’s a new one, brought to the PR Buzzsaw’s attention via a Twitter exchange this morning:
Gus Sentementes, a reporter with The Sun in Baltimore, received an unusual request from a PR person who wanted a “100 percent guarantee” that Gus would write a story before he would be granted access to the company. No chance to judge its newsworthiness, no opportunity to see if they had anything interesting to say/show, not to mention what Gus’s editor would decide. Promise you’ll write a story first, and then you can sit down with the company reps. Otherwise it’s a waste of time!
Gus was likely as surprised as we were, and sent out a tweet to see what PR people who follow him on Twitter thought.
I tweeted that the PR person was either clueless about the media or did not have the ability to counsel his/her management team about what a bad idea it is, and that it will have negative repercussions for the company/brand down the road.
Gus confirmed in a subsequent post:
“I meet a lot of people and I have a long memory. Just b/c I don’t write about u now doesn’t mean I won’t in the future.”
Later, Gus tweeted how he responded:
“I said making a guarantee would be unethical and unrealistic. I haven’t heard back.”
If any PR people out there have ever requested a coverage guarantee, we’d love to hear your point of view. Has it ever worked? Maybe we can all learn something.
Craftsmen Developers LLC Selects Baltimore PR Firm for Awareness Campaign
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BALTIMORE, Md. (July 12, 2010) – Craftsmen Developers LLC, a residential and commercial land development firm, has selected Baltimore PR firm Sawmill Marketing Public Relations for a public relations campaign to increase awareness of the firm’s land development projects throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and its expertise and commitment to environmentally responsible green development.
The Baltimore-based PR and social media company is implementing a comprehensive public relations campaign that includes media and community relations programs and that will initially focus on Craftsmen Developers’ distinction of achieving the first National Association of Home Builders Research Center 4-Star Green Land Development Certification on the East Coast.
About Craftsmen Developers, LLC
Based in Glen Burnie, Md., Craftsmen Developers, LLC, founded in 2008 by CEO W. Dennis Gilligan, is one of the most experienced land developers in the Mid-Atlantic region, serving the real estate needs of residential home and commercial building industry clients with properties in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware. For more information, visit www.craftsmendevelopers.com
About Sawmill Marketing Public Relations
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations is a Baltimore PR firm and social media marketing communications agency established in 1995 specializing in the development and execution of marketing public relations programs as business development strategies for business-to-business, business-to-consumer and professional services clients. The Maryland public relations company specializes in social media, traditional media relations, media training, and crisis communications. For additional information, visit www.sawmillmarketing.com
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Media Training Tip #11: Company is Coming!
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In preparing for a visit from a member of the esteemed Fourth Estate, focusing on getting yourself ready with relevant talking points, answers to anticipated questions as well as a mock interview session or two are the obvious and right priorities.
However, you should regard this visit much as you would that of any VIP or a guest in your home. Make sure to communicate “Welcome” with a comfortable setting for the interview, appropriate refreshments, and check that the office areas are free of clutter and the restrooms are spotless. Simple but important.
An Insider’s View from Television Hill in Baltimore
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Here at Sawmill we take every opportunity to meet with decision-makers in the news business to learn how we can help them do their jobs. We recently heard from news and assignment desk sources at WJZ-TV, the CBS affiliate in Baltimore, who told us exactly what they’re looking for and how to reach them. We then took a quick tour of the studio with members of the Baltimore Public Relations Council. Here’s a behind-the-scenes (or should we say in-front-of-the-cameras) view, beginning with the Morning Edition desk, then sweeping left to the main news desk and finally the First Warning Weather center.
Maryland PR Firm Selected by GBAHC for Baltimore Public Relations Campaign
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BALTIMORE, Md. (March 8, 2010) – Greater Baltimore AHC, Inc., (GBAHC) has selected Baltimore PR firm Sawmill Marketing Public Relations for a public relations campaign to increase awareness of the firm’s development and property management expertise in affordable housing in the greater Baltimore area.
The Baltimore-based PR and social media company is implementing a comprehensive public relations campaign that includes media and community relations programs including the upcoming grand opening of the newly renovated, MonteVerde, a 301-unit affordable apartment home community for seniors and non-elderly people with disabilities in the lower Park Heights neighborhood of Baltimore.
About Greater Baltimore AHC, Inc.
GBAHC is part of AHC Inc., headquartered in Arlington, VA. It is a private, non-profit developer of affordable housing in the mid-Atlantic region that has been providing quality homes for low- and moderate-income families since 1975. GBAHC, located at 1501 St. Paul Street, has been in the greater Baltimore region since 2002. It currently has developed five properties offering approximately 1,000 affordable apartments. For more information, visit http://www GBAHC.org.
About Sawmill Marketing Public Relations
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations is a Baltimore PR firm and social media marketing communications agency established in 1995 specializing in the development and execution of marketing public relations programs as business development strategies for business-to-business, business-to-consumer and professional services clients. The Maryland public relations company specializes in social media, traditional media relations, media training, and crisis communications. For additional information, visit www.sawmillmarketing.com
2010 Winter Games Recall Our PR Work at Salt Lake
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Ok, it’s corny but conducting media relations during any Olympic Games is unlike any other professional experience we’ve undertaken and being glued to the tube these past two weeks brings much of it back into sharp focus.
Sawmill handled media relations for a luxury inn and resort that was also home to many of the cross country and biathlon teams competing in the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. The intensity began to build two months before the start of the games and continued to the end of the closing ceremony. The only time we left the property during the three weeks we were on site was to drive into a nearby town to do laundry.
We spent our days and nights servicing the needs and requests of the who’s who of international major media — from The Today Show that arrived on site @ 1 a.m. to be ready for Al Roker to do his weather segments from the property 6-1/2 hours later to The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, Ski Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune and countless international media outlets doing live remotes throughout each night.
Our job, of course, was to get every media outlet possible to the property and to then assist them in every way once they arrived. A steady dose of adrenalin was a constant and important companion.
There was a consistent and, in many ways, unparalleled level of professionalism between us and every reporter, producer, 
camera crew, sound truck driver that we worked with.
During these past two weeks, as we’ve reminisced about the good old days of the 2002 Winter Games, we’ve wondered how the impact of social media — as well the dramatic change in the number, size and financial health of traditional media outlets in the past eight years — has affected, if at all, the professionalism among media outlets and the PR community at the 2010 Winter Games.
We welcome your comments and anecdotes.
In the January 25 edition of The New Yorker, Ken Auletta’s Annals of Communications column provides a fascinating glimpse into the role the Internet (the author refers to it as the “third party”) is playing in how the White House press corps covers the President and, in turn, how the White House works with the media.
He reminds us that only six years ago, when George W. Bush was finishing his first term, there was no Facebook, Twitter or YouTube and that regional newspapers as well as television stations were profitable enterprises.
To whet your appetite for reading the column, Auletta describes a typical working day for NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd who, when his day is over, will have done eight to sixteen interviews for NBC and MSNBC (grassy area where he stands with the White House in the background is nicknamed Pebble Beach) PLUS eight to 10 tweets or Facebook pos
tings and three to five blog entries. Whew! Todd says he is “compelled to do more reporting on my Blackberry.”
The column also describes that Politico.com “is the most prominent face of new media at the White House.” In existence since 2006, the site draws more than three million unique visitors each month, making it the ninth-largest newspaper online. While traditional media have curtailed their travel budgets, Politico.com has had a reporter on nearly every one of the President’s domestic and overseas trips.
Finally, the column also details the relationship the President and his Administration have with the media and 
the impact Obama believes the Internet has on its coverage. He told Bob Schieffer on a recent CBS “Face the Nation” show that “…what is different today is that the twenty-four hour news cycle and cable television and blogs and all this, they focus on the most extreme elements on both sides. They can’t get enough of conflict. It’s catnip for the media right now.”
Regardless of your politics, or if you are a journalist, PR professional or some other occupation, the article is a good read and offers glimpses into a world most of us will never be a part of firsthand.
‘Guide to Baltimore Media on Twitter’ Marks 1st Year
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Today is the one-year anniversary of the “Sawmill Guide to Baltimore Media on Twitter.” What started in 2009 as a simple listing of a handful of 
media on Twitter has grown to a list of 210, with WJZ’s Marty Bass (below) and WBAL Radio’s Rob Lang (left) as two of the names added this New Year’s morning.
You can scroll through the names and follow by clicking on the link on the Sawmill home page (upper right corner). If you’d like to follow all 210 as a single list – a great way to see what they are collectively
tweeting about – click here for the list created by Jeff.
And as always, if you come across any new names or changes we should know about, send us the news and we’ll update the guide right away.
