Cahners Television Group
245 W. 17th St.
New York, New York
Phone: 212/645-0067
FAX: 212/337-7198
http://www.TVinsite.com
TVinsite is a PR professional's dream come true. The month-old portal makes pitching 50 times easier by pulling together the most important information from Cahners business
Information television-industry publications.
By plugging in one URL, PR people quickly link with editors from one of several publications -- Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News, Cablevision, Multichannel News
International, Television Europe and Television Latin America. The site is a hit among industry heads, who go there to find out the top goods first, without having to thumb through
eight magazines.
Content/Contacts
"Up until this January, each of those individual, print publications had its own Webzine," says Marianne Paskowski, group editorial director for Multichannel News and the
Cahners Television Group, where all TVinsite's content is derived. "What we thought would be cool would be to take all these publications and create a product where people can go
for all their cable, broadcasting interactive TV and new media needs."
Commission regulation, broadband company layoffs, high-speed innovations with Internet technology and Napster updates.
TVinsite's home page links to each of the publications. Click on the desired pub, and find the "Contact Us" link, which each page has. This will put you on a new page complete
with the names of all the editors, their phone numbers, their email addresses, and often, their beats.
At Cahners, email addresses begin with the first letter of a person's first name, plus the last name, @cahners.com. For example, Broadcast ing
& Cable's Deputy Editor Stephen McClellan's e-mail address is [email protected].
A few sections on TVinsite.com are Web exclusives. If you want your high-profile business client to appear in one of those, contact Paskowski through e-mail ([email protected]).
Pitch Tips
It's no surprise these high-tech writers and editors prefer email above all other pitching methods, but phone calls (and yes, even faxes) are acceptable. Links to these
individual numbers are available on TVinsite.com.
However, editors are unlikely to even bother with snail mail, so don't even think about calling with one of those phone calls that begins, "Hi, did you receive the media kit we
sent you last week?"
And why would you mail something? In two or three clicks, you can have your press release sent. Attachments are fine. Keep in mind, editors are primarily interested in breaking
news.
"That's our bread and butter, that's our pride and joy, that's why people come to us," Paskowski says.
Comments
Don't forget to keep in mind the Television Group's target audience of television execs who run TV stations and cable TV networks, satellite services and new media; or, the
companies that supply programming software or equipment for those executives.
Editors will stop dead in their tracks when you offer them an exclusive on a hot news event. The pitching method is pretty self-explanatory.
"Get on the phone and say, 'I've got an exclusive.' That tends to snap us out of comas," Paskowski says.
And make sure your pitch is specific. Editors will likely ignore a pitch that says "News Alert" and favor the one that gets to the point, saying something like, "Motorola Rolls
Out 3 Million Set-Top Boxes."
"My top pet peeve is the phone call from somebody who isn't prepared, who doesn't know my business," Paskowski says. "You would think it would be clear to people that our
publications are pretty much TV. I get pitches from people trying to promote houseware products."