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It doesn't get much better than landing coverage in The New York
Times, and Lynette Holloway, East Coast music industry reporter, is
opening new avenues for pitching material.
Holloway, whose last beat was education, says the music industry
is a whole lot more fun. But fundamentally, "if you can believe
it," it's not all that different from education, she says. "It's
dealing with people." She even goes so far as to say that getting
an interview with J.Lo's management is like getting through to a
local school board superintendent.
Holloway says her coverage of the back end of the music business
is something slightly new and different for The Times. She's
targeting it at the New York Times reader, of course, but also
feels that it may draw new readers "who may not have been reading
The Times for music news in the past."
Content/Contacts
Holloway covers the business behind the music, not the music
itself. For example, a recent piece on Jennifer Lopez examined what
factors are driving the super-diva's career - the marketing and
promotions behind her work. She also looked at the marketing behind
Whitney Houston's most recent release.
She covers topics that touch on politics - like Internet piracy
- and other issues, as long as they're related to East Coast
music.
Contact her at holloway@nytimes.com,
212/556-1353 or 212/556-1282 (fax).
Pitch Tips
Holloway welcomes emails and phone calls, although she'll accept
faxes as well. She enjoys her interaction with the PR community,
saying that she's been lucky to work with many people in the music
industry who have helped her to reach the people she needs to
reach.
Her only complaint: the many, many pitches for new,
up-and-coming artists. "That's a little hard, because I'm not a
critic. My beat is the music industry. I get a lot of pitches for
profiles, and I'm looking for trends in the industry."
Comments
Be prepared to work with a dogged reporter. Holloway has been
with The Times for 10 years, and her four years on the education
beat taught her a lot about how to get what she wants out of an
interview. She knows how to work her way around gatekeepers, and
she says CEOs of the large companies in the music business are much
like politicians: "You have to be able work with people and sort
through all the information."
Call her on Mondays and Tuesdays; by Wednesday, her stories are
usually set, and Thursdays are her deadline days.
In The Pipeline
Holloway is interested right now in what companies are doing to
raise marketshare in a down economy. She's finding many in the
music business are reluctant to discuss just how much their
marketshare has dropped. She'll continue to monitor various
companies and how they make their artists successful.
She's also interested in trends pieces like one another section
of the paper recently ran on how young artists like Avril Lavigne
and Michelle Branch are supplanting Britney Spears and Christina
Aguilera. And she's been reading a lot about country music. "It's a
huge trend, and I'm going to keep my eye on that."