You have a fabulous story that you know is worthy of news coverage. But your client wants coverage on a very specific - and very lofty - news magazine. How do you score the
coveted air time? John Hellerman of Hellerman Communications shares his solution: injecting a little healthy competition, not just among programs, but among individual producers
on a single show.
An attorney client of Hellerman Communications was representing the widow of a prisoner who had died during a prison riot. The attorney was suing the D.C. Department of
Corrections as well as Corrections Corporation of America, the private contractor running the prison that had housed the deceased.
It was a shocking story: The man, a minimum security prisoner, was incorrectly placed among high security felons and had been stabbed and beaten to death by a fellow inmate.
The prison allegedly had accepted high-risk inmates in violation of its contract with the District of Columbia in order to boost profits. These inmates were scattered among medium
and minimum security prisoners at the facility. A prison expert likened the practice to "putting cats in the same room as mice."
Hellerman Communications had already gained coverage in papers like The Washington Post and The New York Times. But this was a classic news magazine show story. Hellerman knew
"Dateline," "20/20" and "60 Minutes" would likely be interested, but the client was set on "60 Minutes." "As far as having a policy impact, there is no better show on the air,"
Hellerman says.
Unfortunately, "Dateline" was the first to call, and news magazines like their exclusives. "Dateline" offered to do the story, tease it on other episodes and re-run it on
MSNBC.
In a last-ditch effort to satisfy the client, Hellerman wrote up the pitch, including clips of print coverage, and faxed it to the "60 Minutes" newsroom. "This meant it would
be a free for all," Hellerman says. "Whichever producer was in, interested and called me would get it." He got a call in 10 minutes and several minutes later received another
bite. Since two producers were interested, he was even able to negotiate terms a bit. And although Hellerman withheld the widow of the slain inmate from "Dateline," producers were
still so interested that they ran a negative piece on Corrections Corporation of America, as well.
(Contact: Hellerman, 202/966-5253, [email protected])