Posts Tagged ‘Media’

Journalists Using TwitterI’m what you would classify as a Twitter observer – I look but I don’t touch. In response to my inactivity, I’m frequently told by digital experts “use it or lose it,” but I like my omnipresent view of the Twittersphere. It comes in handy to quickly ascertain the score of a game or the cause of train delays.

In the vein of self improvement, I’ve been asking myself what more could I do on Twitter? One obvious answer is engaging with journalists. Which lead me to my next questions – how do journalists use Twitter?

With the help of my colleague Cary Ruterman, I conducted an unscientific, but telling, audit of reporters’ social media habits. We spoke with journalists from print, online, broadcast and wire outlets and all of them focused on finance (that is kind of what we are known for here at Prosek).

Here is what we asked and found...

How do you use Twitter (professionally, for your reporting)?
All our respondents utilize it in almost in the same way: to monitor news, to connect with sources and to see what the industry and competitors alike are "talking about."

That seems like a lot to rely on Twitter for. How does it really impact you reporting?
Almost all reporters audited consider Twitter to be a key, daily source for reporting with one describing Twitter an “essential resource.” One reluctant reporter admitted that “it is becoming more useful to a degree.”

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Jordyn Wieber at the Summer Olympics 2012

We’ve all seen the many shots of Jordyn Wieber bursting into tears when she heard that teammates Gabrielle Douglas and Aly Raisman would be moving on to the all-around gymnastics finals at the 2012 London Olympics without her. A New York Times editorial by Frank Bruni likened the media sensationalism to “the Real Housewives of the Uneven Parallel Bars” and called the coverage “melodramatic, voyeuristic and borderline sadistic.” I think Mr. Bruni is being a bit melodramatic himself, but he does have a point. Representing America is a lot of pressure to put on teenagers, especially when they've been gearing up for those few minutes of qualification time virtually their entire lives.

A heartbreaking loss is something that all athletes deal with at some point, but that doesn’t mean the gracious loser communications playbook comes easily. Wasn’t that how any 17-year old whose dreams have just been crushed would react? I’ve seen teenagers react more emotionally to getting a B- on a science test. And they didn’t immediately have to deal with the press pit that Jordyn did.

And even when Jordyn pushed past the media, trying to pull herself together, they caught up with her pressing for an interview. I was so impressed by how she pulled herself together and hit all the right talking points, despite her clear emotional distress. It takes a real presence of mind to remember to be appreciative of the opportunity, happy for teammates, and excited for what comes next, all while fighting back tears.

Jordyn’s statement to NBC was: "It's a little bit of a disappointment. It's always been a dream of mine to compete in the all-around at the Olympics and shoot for that gold medal. I'm really proud of Aly and Gabby both and I'm happy that they both made it to the all-around and I'm glad that I'll be able to help the team out in team finals."

While these messages may have been slipped to her in advance by a team of communications professionals, we all know how critical delivery is. She hit all the right points and didn’t stray out of bounds. She should get a PR medal for handling this devastating situation so well. And who knows, maybe those tears - not to mention the gold medal performance she turned in yesterday in the team finals - will turn into endorsements down the road. America loves a good story. End of Story

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Are quote reviews making our politicians sound (even more) boring? Regardless of who you’re voting for in 2012, it’s pretty clear that we’re not getting much information from either side of the aisle that isn’t flat or clearly watered down. This weekend The New York Times pulled the curtains back on an issue that we PR people (and our clients) deal with on a daily basis. It’s something that takes the color out of the articles we read about the upcoming election. It is, quote checking and review.

To those unfamiliar with the process, this is the act of dangling a juicy bit (or actually, in many cases, a not so juicy bit) of information in front of a reporter and then allowing them to write about it only after they’ve agreed to let us “tweak” the language they pull from the ensuing interview. In theory, changes are only made to quotes or sentences that are factually incorrect, but you can imagine that there are cases when whole paragraphs end up rewritten by communications teams or the source themselves. You can also imagine that the reporter on the other end of the line or email chain is not thrilled. But it happens and it’s also part of the reason why public relations professionals exist. We can help mediate between our clients and the media to ensure that if and when these changes are made, they’re as fair as possible and both parties are content.

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As PR professionals, we have become accustomed to changes in the media landscape, including the consolidation of media and the shifts of reporters from one news organization to another.

However, over the last few months, we have noticed a particular isolated shift among personal finance reporters, which we thought might be useful to view as a top 10 list. Below is our list of top 10 personal finance reporter changes we’ve noted over the last few months. Please consider the list more of an “informational draft pick list” versus a “Jay Leno list,” or you will be sorely disappointed!

Top 10 Personal Finance/Investing/Wealth Management Moves and Changes:

  1. Mary Pilon moves from The Wall Street Journal (personal finance) to The New York Times’ sports desk.
  2. Reuters: Jilian Mincer moves from Dow Jones/SmartMoney (a personal finance veteran at the shop) to the Reuters personal finance team. Jessica Toonkel has joined Reuters as a reporter on the wealth management team. She was most recently a reporter at InvestmentNews. Jessica will be covering issues related to the sale of retirement products, mutual funds, and other products sold through brokers and investment advisors. Jed Horowitz has been appointed a senior correspondent at Reuters. He previously served as a financial companies editor at Reuters, building coverage of retail brokerage and leading an initiative in wealth management. Suzanne Barlyn has joined the wealth management team at Reuters covering compliance, regulatory and oversight developments affecting financial advisers.  She was previously the “compliance watch” columnist at Dow Jones and a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal.
  3. AOL Daily Finance: Catherine New is now a real estate and personal finance staff writer. Sheryl Nance-Nash has been named a staff writer at AOL Daily Finance. She has previously written for Money. Laura Rowley has joined AOL DailyFinance as a senior writer covering retirement, money and happiness and other personal finance topics. Rowley had been a columnist for Yahoo! Finance since 2005, is a former reporter and producer for CNN Business News and author of five business books.
  4. Stan Rosenberg, a special writer who covers public finance and municipal bonds at Dow Jones Newswires, is retiring from DJN but will remain open to freelance assignments and / or blogging about those areas. His last day at Dow Jones will be June 30.
    Read the rest of our "Top 10" after the jump.
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