The only thing certain is change — especially in the newspaper and magazine scene. Yesterday Tiger Oak Publications announced that it is acquiring Washington CEO magazine. The press release said, “We made the decision in these challenging economic times that the best way to preserve a voice was by merging CEO into Seattle Business. The Tiger Oak people are publishing professionals with enough size and experience that they can take a business magazine to the next level. We think the business community and in particular our advertisers will be well served by this merger.”
In other news, if you are subscribing to Help a Reporter and benefiting from the great media leads, consider posting a query to support your own writing needs. I posted a query yesterday to ask for the revealing comments clients often share when seeking the services of a publicist. I received dozens of remarkable and memorable replies from generous PR practitioners from all across the nation. With those great contributions, I crafted my next Puget Sound Business Journal “Media Savvy” column that should bring plenty of grins. To follow are a few of the comments that weren’t quite right for the column, but entertaining to read nonetheless:
From Jeff Finkelstein of Customer Paradigm:
“I was hiring a project manager for our interactive agency, Customer Paradigm, and had a candidate tell me that the reason he left his last job was that ‘he made a mistake on a client project, which resulted in a $100 million lawsuit against the firm and was let go shortly after that.’ I told him “Thank you very much for your time!'”
From Rachel Sentes of OutRight Communications:
“…in trying to settle an invoice for completed work with a client, the response we received was, ‘I don’t have any money at the moment and I’m actually looking for work. Do you have any openings at your firm?'”
From Sabrina Sumsion of Spotlight Publicity:
“I received a web inquiry that said, ‘this is a life changeing fictional novel that talks about a topic that i can’t discuss because i can’t give away my idea because i can’t aford to copy right my book. Theres tyos in the manuscrypt but it doesn’t interfere in the story. it hasn’t been publeshed yet. can you publesh my book?’ I didn’t reply to this inquiry.”
Sometimes, potential clients or hires reveal a lot when they make their approach to engage your services. The important thing is to take note of the messages and take care in the reply. Not every opportunity to engage is the right opportunity to advance your business. When the Puget Sound Business Journal “Media Savvy” column is “live” I’ll let you know so you can read all the other great one-liners to avoid when seeking to engage a publicist.
