Citing business and technology's inseparability, current venture markets, and the omnipresence of the Internet, Redherring.com editor and columnist Rafe Needleman offered mixed tidings to a recent gathering of Silicon Valley PR executives.
The good news is that Needleman and other journalists at his parent company, The Red Herring, are bullish on tech-inspired business products, plans, and people, and are dedicated to chronicling the Net economy's continued boom.
The bad news? "We're swamped," Needleman admits. "We can address two to three interesting issues a day. Most calls and emails [to PR execs] go unanswered. There's just not enough time in our day."
The disclosure came as no surprise to the group attending the forum,sponsored by Business Wire. As businesses proliferate in the new economy, so have business publications, with publicists scrambling to get clients' logos on their screens and pages.
Since its arrival in 1993, Red Herring magazine has positioned itself as one of the best, balancing an interest in technology with a larger focus on business models. An online presence and events-promotion division followed; a TV show launches in September on ZDTV. All divisions are dedicated to covering the dynamic growth of electronic business.
Relaunched in January, Redherring. com provides news, investment and venture capital analysis, attracting its core audience from predominantly male VCs, CEOs, entrepreneurs, industry executives, and individual investors - affluent and educated readers with advanced degrees, most of them ages 25-44.
And there are many: Red Herring magazine's readership of 145,000 pales in contrast to Redherring.com's hundreds of thousands of hits; Needleman's daily column, "Catch of the Day," is emailed to over 150,000 subscribers alone.
Admittedly, cracking either the Red Herring or Redherring.com - like getting into Fast Company, Forbes, Wired, Business 2.0, Upside, and most other business magazines - can be a PR executive's nightmare. An 11-year veteran of e-journalism, Needleman's advice was succinct: "If you have a story, pitch it to the right person.
"Tell us what the company or the product does, who it is speaking to. We love information-rich press releases, but stories about Intel and Microsoft are boring; we want to know what independent companies are up to. There is no business the Internet economy doesn't touch."
Think your client or its CEO is too small for Redherring.com? Think again: "We will meet with executives," Needleman says. "I get plenty of ideas for "Catch of the Day" from face-to-face contacts made during interviews. Try to time your meeting with a news hook - something our readers will notice. We love finding young, fresh, unfunded companies - though if they're covered in our pages, they won't be unfunded for long," he says.
Needleman cites TheStreet. com, Wall Street Journal, and weekly Industry Standard as Red Herring's fiercest competitors. He sees his publication as highly analytical and poised as a less-traditional editorial voice, delivering its daily and "minute-ly" news from Silicon Valley and the world.
"We're looking for scoops of perception," he offered by way of pitching the busy magazine, "not of fact. The tech world isn't about products, it's about innovations."
Rafe Needleman can be reached at 415/865-2277; [email protected]