Workplace PR in WSJ & Bloomberg, FT's Future of Money, and CNN’s revolving door
Binge the Dahmer on Netflix this weekend and now having an existential crisis? Let these 30+ actionable PR opportunities from the week bring you back to reality.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING — PR FOR EMPLOYER BRAND:
Between layoffs and toxic chatter on Blind, employer branding has taken a hit. Now is the time to change up the narrative and get your employer NPS up with these new opportunities for all you culture, HR tech, and workplace PR people.
Bloomberg has launched Work Shift, a site covering the future of the workplace across four areas:
Work in Progress (recruitment, retention, return to office and the war for talent)
Modern Management (leadership and c-suite trends)
Future You (career stories)
Technology and Skills (automation, artificial intelligence and other technologies)
Want to get in touch? Editorial efforts are led by Nicole Bullock, Matthew Boyle, Arianne Cohen (we loved her ‘What I Wear to Work to Work’ Bloomberg column back in the day) and Jo Constantz.
Need guidance on what to pitch? Well, here’s what not to, which is actually a pretty helpful start.
On another HR-approved note, we’ve got a great new WSJ podcast opportunity for you. “As We Work” which covers everything from “workplace ghosting” to skipping college and going right into the workforce – and the best part: Erin is open to new ideas for the show!
Whatever you do, find a better spokesperson than the resident Toby Flenderson should you choose to pursue…
NEW AWARDS
Business Insider Rising Stars Lists
With interest rates at 6%, it has been a tough year for proptech… maybe your team could use a win! Enter: Business Insider’s Rising Stars in Real Estate. The application form is pretty simple. Just share a bit on accomplishments before 10/14. Note that there’s an “inverse president” situation going on here. Applicants must be under 35.
For our advertising and adtech friends, BI is also looking for Rising Stars on Madison Avenue, specifically: “early- and mid-career folks working behind the scenes to develop creative campaigns, using data in new ways, changing business practices, or challenging the traditional agency model.” Apply by 10/24.
Campaign US: is accepting nominations for their “2023 Agency of the Year” awards until 11/10. Note this award focuses on advertising agencies not PR, but for all you big “we do it all” agencies out there reading, maybe send this over to your ad department.
Financial Times: is looking for their ‘Fastest Growing Companies 2023’. This isn’t for all you “pre-revenue” startups out there. You’ll need to submit revenue of at least $1.5M in 2021 and $100K in 2018. Note that all companies in the “Americas” qualify, not just the US. The deadline isn’t until 12/15, so ya got some time here… but consider not leaving it until two weeks before Christmas.
PLACES TO PITCH
New information about The Information (how meta). Is The Information on your op-ed list? It wasn’t on ours, but perhaps it should be as Jessica Lessin just reflected on the nearly 70 contributors that have written since its launch. Side note: we’d love to get to a place where our heart rates no longer need to spike every time we get an inbound from The Information (ifkyk) … maybe this is our chance!
Bloomberg, looking for data. Any companies with access to CPG pricing data? If so, here’s your shot at a chance to become a trusted source for Bloomberg.
A new Financial Times newsletter. Last but certainly not least, the FT has a brand new fintech newsletter called “The Future of Money” with Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan and Imani Moise at the helm. We’ve subscribed and will be keeping an eye out for pitchable columns for all you neobanks, finance platforms, and investment tools out there looking to break through in FT.
MEDIA MOVES:
The CNN revolving door (and PR team) seems to be working overtime, following Brian Stelter’s shocking departure… *sips tea*
The crypto media landscape continues to grow, update ‘dem media lists.
Business Insider continues to do well, and is ramping up across the globe.
And the best of the rest, presented to you by the ever-shrinking job tenure average in media.
A DEBATE: TO STAFF OR NOT TO STAFF BRIEFINGS?
Last week, we sparked a debate when we brought up whether all press briefings should be staffed. Here were a few perspectives we loved from our comms network:
“I prefer to staff because it's much easier to fact check and clarify things before an interview runs if you actually heard what was said. However, I also think it depends highly on how good/well behaved an exec is and what outlet you're dealing with.” - Jessica Kleinman, Consultant, former SVP of Comms, Peloton
“I always staff. Unless it's purely off the record or a relationship-building exercise. Especially now we're public, and what is/isn't MNPI can be a lawsuit in the making… also when it's a VP speaking on a specialized topic, having someone on hand to deflect natural enquiries on stock price, growth estimates and so on…” - James Robinson, Director of Corporate Comms, Marqueta
“I'm still working to get rid of "bad" habits at my old job where I had to staff everything under the sun... Takes some getting used to. One thing I now do though is share the phone number and email of the interviewee with the journalist after the call and encourage them to reach out directly if they have any questions down the line. Feels like a decent middle ground. Then the relationship grows naturally.” - Alex Mack, Comms, Playground Global
“I’m a believer in staffing, but that's also in a large public company context. I don't think me sitting there really stops someone from saying something stupid, but it does help with follow ups, adjudicating disputes afterwards, and just keeping things running on time. I try to be as low key as possible about it. Sit off to the side, turn off camera, etc. That said, I differ from many colleagues over the years in that I don't record interviews.” - Sarah Bruning Meron, Lead Corporate Comms, IBM
“I always staff. I think it helps the CEO be able to say ‘hmm Lacey will have to check on that number’ or something like that, but I always have my video off while they chat and then take notes. I then share the notes with our internal marketing slack. I figure it's pretty lucky that I get to hear our execs speak about so many topics, I think the sound bites are helpful for other people in the department.” - Lacey Berrien, Director of PR, Klavio
TWEETS OF THE WEEK:
Apologies to anyone from Edelman, but this tweet from Propllr did.not.hold.back (and we do a love a snark, all in good shade!)
AP says no hyphen for Asian American, African American and other dual-heritage terms. When possible, refer to a person’s country of origin or follow the person’s preference. Such as: Filipino American or Indian American.
Marty makes a fair point when pitching responses to news of the day and thinking two steps ahead when pitching. If it’s the Figma acquisition, what will shareholder sentiment be at Adobe earnings in mid-October?
That feeling when a VC provides the oh-so-helpful advice to bring press releases ‘to life’ ….
A reminder to draw the line between “things we begrudgingly have to do for ego” and “thoughtful pushback so a spokesperson doesn’t embarrass themselves in front of Alex Konrad”
Good luck sharing your ads or influencer posts to validate your business.
Contrary to popular belief, it was actually not one of us that pitched VC predictions to Alex (shout out to the PR person ahead of the game).
An alternative (yet fair) take…
Is it time to ask your CMO for budget for an IRL media dinner, since everyone else is?
IG DMs have worked quite well for one of us, but if the tactic doesn’t spark at least one upset reporter tweet then it probably wasn’t that creative.
A succinct way of explaining why “startup PR” and “big company PR” are two completely different jobs with completely different skillsets.
We loathe pitching product news. How to get it out into the world? Blogs! Social! Ads! Product Hunt! Read: anything but media relations. (bc - who cares?)
BEFORE WE GO…
Comms is having a moment. Community is having a moment. Heck, this newsletter was built to build a community where we can help each other vs. in silos. We’re really proud to both be members of MixingBoard, a community of nearly 200 senior comms leaders who have come together to share our collective experience with others. We emerged from stealth this week in TechCrunch, where founder Sean Garrett shares more on how we can help. If you’re an organization looking for a sounding board of smart comms folks to help you navigate whatever moment you’re in – look no further.
We want to hear from you! Please support us by sharing this newsletter with a friend and following us on Twitter - Tanya Hayre Gillogley and Emilie Gerber.