Kevin “The Doog” Dugan and Richard Laermer hop on to give me down low of media relations and the Bad Pitch Blog on The Rundown. As always, The Rundown is my weekly LIVE podcast featuring an analysis or summary of something by a knowledgeable person – and me – hosted on BlogTalkRadio.
We’ll be discussing media relations in both tradition and new mediums, the bad pitches that arise, the breaking point for journalists and the good PR pros left holding the broken pieces of our industry.
And we’ll be doing it without so much hyperbole, I hope. I’ve painstakingly researched my guests by clipping bios from other sites. They are:
Kevin Dugan, director of marketing communications for FRCH Design Worldwide. Prior to this, he spent eight years with HSR Business to Business—a full-service marketing communications agency. The last 15 years have found Kevin Dugan managing public relations efforts everywhere from the factory floor to the boardroom for some of the biggest business to business brands. Hooked on the internet since 1995 (wth?), Dugan created Strategic Public Relations in July of 2002 and Fast Company magazine selected him to post at their blog, FC Now in 2004 and 2005. An accredited professional through PRSA, Kevin’s work helped earn Silver and Bronze Anvil awards from PRSA and an award from PR Week.
Richard Laermer, an expert in marketing and media – so he says – and a former magazine and newspaper journalist. Author of Full Frontal PR, trendSpotting, and four other nonfiction collectibles. He’s CEO, RLM pr, an agency that practices gospel of Punk, has consulted for Fujifilm, Barnes & Noble, Consumer Reports, Time Inc., Discovery Health Channel, plus lots of grateful people, co-hosted critically-acclaimed, ratings-challenged TLC program Taking Care of Business. Hobbies include: rewriting his bio and judging a book by its covers.
The Rundown airs on Tuesdays at 1:30pm Eastern. Because it’s live, your calls are welcome. Call in live at (646) 716-8329 or send me your text or audio comments before the show and I’ll play them. The archives will be available at my BlogTalkRadio host page or by subscribing to the show’s RSS feed or at iTunes.
Listen to the Archive from BlogTalkRadio:
Filed under: media relations, The Rundown | Tagged: bad pitch blog, Kevin Dugan, Richard Laermer |
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Luke Armour - Digital Marketing and Public Relations Observations, Commentary, Frivolity 
Oooh, I’ll definitely have to tune in live for this one so I can properly heckle “The Doog.”
Great, Sarah. Looking forward to seeing you in the chat room. Call in, heckle, be free.
As I’m listening to this show on the issue of neglecting the fundamentals in PR, it’s like there should be a book PR for Dummies (yes there is one). I enjoyed the show. I think the problem we face as communication professionals is going over the same fundamentals; it’s like kindergarten repeated for 20 years.
So the Marketing Sherpa newsletter I got today was just a laugher especially since I thought Marketing Sherpa was talking to marketers with a level of some experience. The title of the article that got me going was How to Pitch Information Week. I clicked on it thinking I’m going to get insight into what some reporters are looking for, juicy insights like xxx reporter reads the Bad Pitch Blog and looks for angles about how IT people get along with other departments yada yada. Instead I’ll give you just a sample of the first couple of tips 1) Familiarize yourself with the magazine, 2) Don’t Send Attachments, and in a classic contradiction 3) If you do send powerpoints limit it to 5 slides.
You can see the entire piece here This newsletter is available until November 23 at this link http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30206
Usually I like Marketing Sherpa, but this is the kind of thing that contributes to PR’s image problem. Ha, there is an irony for you the PR industry has an image problem, that’s rich.
Perhaps the newsletter was written for CEOs of small companies or IT consultants looking to do their own PR, but that’s where I wish those “PR on the cheap” folks would do what I think Richard said in your show, “go work at Starbucks.” Amen to that. The pay is probably the same.
The Doog and Richard – wonderful work we are regular readers in our office.
Sorry I missed this live show, but I did have dinner at BlogWorld with Alan Levy and John Havens so that counts for something.
All the best.
Albert,
Excellent comment.
I think part of what you’re describing has to do with the fact that anyone, I mean anyone, can put up a shingle and start providing PR services for clients. There are accreditation processes for certain organizations like IABC and PRSA, but these are NOT mandatory. And I’m not advocating we begin credentialing everyone who wants to do PR. That said, I think that has a lot to do with our bad image. So no matter how much education we provide to our industry, it’s the people outside that core that continue to plague the industry.
And of course, mistakes made by the core get pounced on by PR critics faster than the British Royalty by the paparazzi.
The Marketing Sherpa article is a conundrum. Maybe it is for do-it-yourselfers. It may be cyclical, but maybe these same folk looking to do it themselves have only heard bad things or had bad experiences with PR representatives.
It boils down to this: The people who want to improve the image of PR have to help police the industry themselves, and that’s why the Bad Pitch blog is so important. It targets the core, the do-it-yourselfers, the industry rogues AND the watchdogs and journalists who can see we’re TRYING to make a difference. Kudos to them. We should all do our part.
Thanks for stopping by, Albert.
Oh, you’re one up on me, I’VE never even had dinner with Alan Levy or John Havens!