The one thing Morning Brew’s Nora Ali wants you to include in every podcast pitch
We're serving up details on two agencies that got blocked by journos, the skinny on Business Insider’s Most Transformative 100 CEOs, and of course, lots of “personal news” from media
Tanya + Emilie here with our 6th newsletter! Share your feedback and hot PR tips with us on Twitter. But before you do go any further, subscribe and tell all your #PRpals.
Let’s dig in. To link a past media hit in pitches or not? One of us has gotten chastised for doing this but the other is all about it (when done strategically), so we don’t know the right answer. Business Casual podcast host Nora Ali advises PR people to always include links to past guest appearances in a podcast pitch. Listing their qualifications or what makes them interesting isn’t aren’t enough – the host wants to know if they have the X factor! The energy! The passion!
Of course either way, we’d never link to something on the exact same subject or from a competing publication – but we want to know what you think…
In other news, NYT has launched a new podcast called Hard Fork, and no it’s not referring to what one of us wishes she had while eating a salad last week. It’s a new show by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton that aims to explore “stories from the bleeding edge of tech.” So comms people in deep tech, generative AI, or robotics, this may be worth adding to your media targets list.
Ok, moving to the ‘block and blast’ of the week (we just made that term up). Not one but two PR agencies were blocked and blasted by journos on Twitter. The callouts are harsh so we won’t judge too soon (and one of us sent a cringey pitch 12+ years ago that landed in Gawker when Gawker was a thing). The takeaway - pitching generic holidays like ‘cyber security awareness’ month doesn't work. Media don’t cover corporate-made holidays.
And then we saw Walker + Sands sent 591 pitches. Kudos for the effort (we can respect the hustle), but also a lesson in reading the room - we suggest a read receipt and redirect.
Turns out it can go both ways. Reminder y’all, make sure the email for press releases actually goes to an inbox!
The Conference Circuit
WSJ Future of Everything is accepting submissions for speaking proposals for their May 2023 event. The bar is supes high and the form is simple, so let’s all vow to not spam the editors with proposals that check the box (but that deep down we know won’t get accepted). A good place to start is by checking out the themes. After that, here’s the form to be considered, and bonus tip! Introducing the new editor (former workplace writer Kathyrn Dill!) overseeing speaker selection. We did the digging and YOU ARE VERY WELCOME.
Mobile World Congress: Daydreaming of a stimulating chat on the metaverse over paella? This is your event. Apply now to become a speaker at as they’re seeking submissions for folks to lead the debate on 5G, IoT and the metaverse. Here’s the submission - applications due October 21.
Transform: If your target audience includes HR people, you know HR Transform. It’s the “cool kid” of HR tech conferences, if you will. Well guess what – it just got even cooler and rebranded as just “Transform.” You know, one word – like “Cher” or “Madonna.” Anyway, we digress. It takes place March 2023 (in Vegas, obviously). While there’s no hard deadline, apply to speak here. At the risk of miscategorizing an update, we’ll also put their corresponding awards submission form right here for cohesiveness. This isn’t for vendors, but instead recognizes stellar company culture across a range of really specific categories (think: “hybrid work policy of the year”).
Now Accepting Nominations
Venture Capital Journal is seeking nominations for its annual ‘Rising Stars’ list. Yes, a VC award that’s not the Midas List? deadline is November 1, 2023 and you can nominate more than one person (under 40) at the same firm (although you can also nominate limited partners, advisory firms and service providers (such as attorneys, bankers and placement agents) within the venture world.)
Digiday is seeking nominations for Future Leaders across brand, agency, tech provider, and publisher people. This isn’t for your c-suite execs, it’s for the “up and comers.” There’s also categories specific to the beauty, wellness, and fashion categories through their sister site Glossy. Apply by 11/4 if you’re ballin’ on a budget, or 1/20 if you just got fresh funding and want to enjoy the holidays first.
Business Insider is accepting nominations for a lot of stuff…
To start, transformative CEOs of 2022. The deadline isn’t totally clear, but it seems like it might be 11/1. The submission form is also set to private as of now, but we’ve reached out to Shana so be sure to check back soon. Other BI lists on our radar.
The publication is also looking for nominations for their Leading Livestreaming Startups in 2022, submitted by October 21. Twitch’s PR team, we got you covered here.
Last but not least, they’re also accepting nominations for the “top athlete creators and media personalities in 2022.” One of us still wears their “go sports” tee shirt to every vaguely athletic event they’re invited to, so apologies for the lack of witty sports comments, but be sure to submit all the team players that scored goals on TikTok this year!
Inc Magazine just opened up entries for the Inc Regional awards. While perhaps it’s a nice win for small businesses with over $1M in revenue that might not qualify for other awards, with over 5000 winners we wouldn’t put this one at the top of your list. If you beg to differ, submit by November 11.
NY Women of Fintech is accepting nominations for, you guessed it, NY women working in fintech. Just fill out a simple form and apply by November 1.
San Francisco Business Journal is seeking nominations for its 2023 ‘Best Places to Work’. There are a lot of awards this week so just check the website yourself if you want to apply, jeez we can’t do everything around here.
“Some Personal News" (aka Media Moves)
We’re noticing a trend: top media outlets have been doubling down on big healthcare and crypto hires. There is an opportunity for your sources in those spaces to get to know journos, explain what’s over-hyped, under-reported and an opportunity to be an off and on the record expert source.
Let’s get into it.
Attention hims & hers PR teams, do you subscribe to our newsletter? One Medical, what about you? If so, here are your healthcare media list updates custom curated just for you. If not, what’s stopping you!?
An eclectic duo media moves at the WSJ…
And FT…
Without further ado, the best of the rest!
Sadly, we’re also seeing a lot cryptic departures without a clear idea of where these esteemed journos are headed next. Don’t worry, we’re on it and ready to report when we find out (and if you know them, offer to help make intros whether it’s to other writers or PR agencies!)
Tweets of the week
Fundraise announcement you’re trying to land in TechCrunch? May want to hold off before pitching this week!
To embargo or not? We’re bullish, once we have locked in the exclusive and only to the right journo.
Melia asked, we are shaking our heads yes in agreement. No more Zoom media interviews y’all. We’ve slowly been transitioning camera off for media interviews and deferring to reporter/client, but praise be - we like working from the couch in our sweats
Cosmo shared some hot tips for pitching stories and products, focused on entertainment (books, movies, and albums).
We get it Semafor, you’re (almost) here and you’ll be launching lots of newsletters. Maybe we’ve subliminally been covering them because of the vast amount of ads we’ve been targeted. Anyway, just launch already.
Are we the only ones that take this as implicit validation to pitch four times?
BRB as we send this to every client asking whether getting one TechCrunch story is “worth the effort.”
Reminder: we’re in the only industry where it’s acceptable to publicly declare that you have a Slack channel to shame the people you work with on a regular basis. Stay strong out there!
WSJ decided to make a TikTok focused specifically on career advice. 100 PR points to the first person to pitch a TikTok idea to them – though with 5,000 followers your time may be better spent elsewhere.
Some positivity for a (rare!) and positive feedback about us that’s not from our moms:
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