Straight from the horse’s mouth, almost
June 16th, 2010 by Joanna DiTrapano
So what’s it like to be a business editor at a newspaper these days, with slimmer budgets but more news to cover than ever?
The Publicity Club of New England held a panel discussion of regional business editors to hear their likes and gripes – and to find out what works and what doesn’t when trying to secure your clients in these highly sought after publications.

The panel was moderated by Tina Cassidy, VP of Soloman McCown & Company, and consisted of the Boston Business Journal’s Eric Convey, The Boston Globe’s Shirley Leung and the Boston Herald’s Frank Quaratiello. The competition among these publications was clear but despite this, or perhaps because of it, the dynamic among them was great – engaging, entertaining and most importantly, helpful to us PR folks.
Here are some highlights:
* Wait for the no *
According to Leung, even if a reporter likes your story it’s almost guaranteed not to be published if they realized you’ve pitched multiple people.
If you don’t hear back from someone in one department, wait for them to say “no” before pitching another department within the same publication. If you must move on to another reporter before you get the “no”, be transparent with the next person you pitch – letting them know you reached out to someone already.
* Phone calls and beyond *
We were all dying to know about follow up calls, and basically what we learned is that every reporter is different. Here’s how it breaks down with these three –
Globe: Leung likes follow up calls, especially after timely pitches
Herald: Quaratiello won’t let you off the phone if he likes your story (but beware if he asks you to send him an email).
BBJ: Convey says not to even bother with phone calls (understandably so, according to Convey he wouldn’t be able to get any work done if he took every call)
* Twitter and Social Media *
Globe: Leung’s staff is adapting to twitter more and more and they have a specific person to keep up their Facebook page with events, postings stories, contests etc.
Leung realizes that social media drives traffic and amazingly, is about #4 out of the top ten facets that do so.
Herald: Quaratiello doesn’t really use Twitter and doubts much of his staff does either. Although, they will check Facebook to get photos to support any crimes/incidents.
BBJ: Twitter is very important to them and an important factor in driving traffic to their site/specific stories. Some of you might recognize one of their biggest cheerleaders, @lvanderpool
One thing they all seem to hate is mass pitching! When it comes to quality vs. quantity, quality always wins.
What are some pitching faux pas you’ve come across (or dare I say tried yourself)?
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