Thor Valdmanis, a senior Wall Street reporter for USA Today, is a seven-year veteran of the Gannett daily that is now considered a major media vehicle after being derided for
years as "McPaper". Valdmanis covers investment banking, corporate finance and financial trends for USA Today, which has the largest daily newspaper circulation in the country
(2.1 million). He writes both spot and trend pieces, and his stories frequently run on the cover of the Money section. But Valdmanis' stock in trade goes well beyond Wall Street.
After the September 11 attacks, he was sent to the Middle East where he covered the war in Afghanistan as well as stories originating in Lebanon. He also filed stories from
Somalia, alleged to be a haven for Al Queda operatives.
Valdmanis' PR Bugaboos
- Being unfamiliar with USA Today's broad reach. As the most widely circulated newspaper in the country, Valdmanis is often miffed that PR pros don't know what content is
suitable for the newspaper's audience. "A lot of them don't do their homework," he says. "We're not The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal and that's something [PR] people
should people realize. We have a real commercial focus." - It's not a popularity contest. Valdmanis frowns upon PR execs who insist on having a meeting or a teleconference before granting him access to a source, and says he much
prefers to conduct interviews without any strings attached. "It so much better to be direct rather than try and create these social situations," Valdmanis says, adding: "If it's
somebody who's very difficult to get, that changes the equation." - Self-serving agendas. Valdmanis recalls a recent episode in which a PR exec offered him an exclusive interview with a top Wall Street lawyer about the M&A markets. There
were no ground rules set other than that the PR person would audit the Q&A. During the subsequent telephone interview Valdmanis asked the lawyer for his take on the recently
announced $1.4 billion global settlement on Wall Street spearheaded by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. The PR exec chimed in and, to Valdmanis' chagrin, abruptly ended
the interview. "The PR person thought he was defending the lawyer from saying anything damaging but there could have been ways to get around that," he says. "Instead, it was a
waste of 25 minutes."
What Works: The 30,000-foot view from the trees. "It's rare, but there are PR people who offer a perspective that's topical and not 100% self-serving for their client,"
Valdmanis says. "It's good to give that broader perspective [to reporters] rather than trying to hit a home run."