Media Relations

When House Democrats began their sit-in on June 22 to force a vote on a gun-control bill before the House of Representatives begins a scheduled vacation recess, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) put the legislative body into recess, which meant the cameras and microphones were switched off. Soon afterward, C-SPAN began broadcasting Periscope and Facebook Live feeds of the sit-in shot by various House Democrats.

With the emphasis on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, video and other forms of digital marketing, the basics of writing, editing and media training can get overlooked. In truth, as someone responsible for brand communications, your remit includes all this and more. Being asked to personify the brand you represent by speaking with groups or participating in a one-on-one interview with media, or preparing executives or spokespeople to do so, remain critical to communications. With this in mind, Melissa Baratta, SVP at Affect, a NY-based agency, shares tips for effective interviewing.

It’s telling that, in the war between blog mogul and tech tycoon, the most substantive discussion is taking place in the pages of “The Gray Lady.” The Times, for many, is still the number one place to go to learn the facts or let the facts be known.

Portraits in the hallway. Your team. Resumes. The About Us page on your website. When you look closely at the things and people you’re surrounded by every day at work, do you get the sense… Continued

We’re not being political—that’s not our role—but we got a good laugh from stories that surfaced late last week about presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump allegedly posing as his own publicist. Since we write about the profession, we were amused.

More and more, brands are realizing that audiences (especially young audiences) are spending a lot of time on YouTube, and that the video platform’s influential content creators are perhaps the best target for their media relations efforts. Consumers aged 13-24 spend more time watching YouTube than TV, it has been reported—the former seems more promising in the ROI department.

Budweiser has long liked to think itself an essential part of the American identity. In recent years the company hasn’t shied from proclaiming itself as such. In a continuation of the beer’s patriotic branding, Anheuser-Busch InBev announced its boldest move yet: Budweiser will be removing the brand name from its cans and bottles, and rebranding the beer simply as “America.”

The Week in PR

Many local or purely trade news stories have national hooks. Here is a 10-step method to gaining national exposure for your local story by taking it to Washington, D.C., and perhaps NY City.

During an election year, it can seem like the news cycles are constantly dominated by tawdry political scandals, controversial sound bites and mountains of op-eds and think pieces. How’s a PR pro supposed to grab headlines in a positive way amid massive election coverage?