I’ve wanted to write a journalism movies post for about two years now. I scrapped the idea the first time, because I was thinking more along the lines of writing a “best journalism movies” post. Even if I had succeeded…

If you work in media relations today, and you’re having a hard time getting coverage for your news, you’re doing something wrong. Journalists exist to write about news. If you have a legitimate news story, you shouldn’t have a hard time…

Networking is a topic near and dear to my heart. Every single opportunity I’ve had in my lifetime to date has been born out of a relationship initiated by me or someone else. You can probably say the same. In…

It’s that time of year again. No, not time to spring ahead… well, actually, it is time for that on Saturday, but I’m referring to the annual nerd pilgrimage to Austin for the mega conference SXSW Interactive (eh hem… Spring…

When I started this blog back in 2009, I wanted to vent about media relations. At the time, PR people were taking a lot of heat for spamming bloggers. It seemed like every day there was some story about a…

Journalistics has launched a new service called ExpertEngine. ExpertEngine will help journalists (eventually) quickly (and anonymously) search for, find and contact experts for the stories they are working on. Before I give you the full scoop (and the sign-up info),…

This is the third year I’ve written a “Top Journalistics Posts of the Year” post. The greatest hits meme is a little overdone, I know – but when you consider about half our readers are ‘new visitors’, a lot of…

What does your company do? Do you have a description you can send me? If marketing communications is a component of what you do, you know your “about us” paragraph is one of the most important weapons in your marketing…

Treat others as you want to be treated. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. And whatever you do, don’t cry over spilled milk. Proverbs, idioms and axioms can spice up your writing (and make conversations more interesting). But…

The physical presence of ears does not make you a good listener. Listening makes you good listener. If you’ve created a Twitter, Facebook or [insert your favorite social media] account for your brand, congratulations, you now have ears. Are you …

You’ll be the same in five years as you are today, except for the people you meet and the books you read. It’s a great quote from motivational speaker Charlie ‘Tremendous’ Jones. There’s a lot of wisdom in those words.…

Smile and dial gets a bad rep. I rarely hear the term used positively. You should know by now that I’m against annoying journalists, whether through PR spam or telemarkety phone pitches. If you’ve got a good story to pitch,…

For most recent graduates who studied journalism, the road ahead has been painted jagged, rough, and tiresome. Even worse, for many recent high school graduates entering into college, or veterans going back to school, this same journalism-major reputation has carried…

Do you ever feel like somebody’s watching you? Guess what? They are. If you post, tweet, check-in, poke, ping, plancast, forecast or otherwise share anything online, you’re putting it all out there for the world to see. The question is,…

Did you do an internship this summer? If so, congrats, you’re a smart cookie. Internships are 100% the #1 thing you’ll need on your resume to get that first job after college. The #2 thing you’ll need is proof you…

Infographics are taking the Web by storm. Not the infographics pioneered by USA Today to make the news more exciting for people that don’t like to read, but rather the so-long-you-need-to-scroll and so-darn-good-you-have-to-read-and-want-to-share kind. Infographics are out of control –…

I love to blog. I don’t do it for fame or fortune, I do it because thousands of you read my posts and many of you have told me one of our posts has helped you in one way or…

Today is my son’s last day of kindergarten. I had lunch with him for the last time of the school year yesterday (I’ve made an effort to do so on a regular basis since last August, when I first came…

It’s not easy to come up with fresh ideas all the time. Beyond the books you read and the people you meet, you need other ways to brainstorm new ideas (and keep track of them) over time. There’s a lot…

Facebook announced a new “Journalists on Facebook” Page yesterday, a new Facebook Page dedicated to helping journalists use Facebook as a reporting tool. My first reaction to this announcement was, didn’t they do that last fall? Yes, Facebook did launch…

I love the sensations a printed newspaper offers. The scent, the feel, the look of it. It’s part of the nostalgia that is print. Nostalgia? Yes, nostalgia. A printed newspaper is the way we used to read our news. For…

The next time you write a press release, give the reporter a reason NOT to delete your release, otherwise you might as well write “For Immediate Delete” in the subject line. I had originally planned to showcase great examples of…

There are a lot of brands out there searching for the secret to virality when it comes to online videos. They all want to find the next ad their ad could be like. Most fail miserably. Others clearly shouldn’t have…

While a lot of people in the media industry spent the past couple of years figuring out how to make old media business models work online, and media critics droned on about the death of newspapers and magazines, technology innovators…

Before you can effectively measure the results or return on investment (ROI) of you public relations programs, you have to know what you’re measuring. Review a bunch of PR plans and you’ll see a consistent them – great-sounding goals and…

The last Journalistics post of 2009 was the “Top 9 Posts of 2009.” It seems fitting that the last post of 2010 should be the Top 10 Posts of 2010, you know, keeping with tradition and all. Before I…

Marketers and PR professionals are facing an explosion in the quantity and diversity of influencers – the people with real and measurable impact on the decisions other people make. Social media has fueled the rise of influencers in all shapes…

In survey after survey, journalists consistently cite email as their preferred method of contact – provided the email pitch is relevant and targeted to the particular journalist that is. What other steps can you take to keep your email pitch…

Why do so many bloggers write rankings or list posts? Everywhere you look you see top 10 this or 15 ways to do that, the best new this or top tips for that. Why are rankings and list posts…

I’ve been down on news releases before on this blog, but only because I think there are better options for securing publicity. That doesn’t mean you should ditch news releases all together. There are other benefits to writing and distributing…

Would you build a house without blueprints? No, probably not. That would be a recipe for disaster. The same could be said for writing without an outline. An outline gives your writing structure and helps you organize your thoughts from…