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Chicago Bureaus
(Nov. 13, 2002 PCC Monthly Luncheon)
Providing a Heads-Up on Pending Stories Scores
Points with Chicago Bureau Chiefs
By Sue Masaracchia
Public Information Officer
Deerfield Park District
Bureau chiefs were the “main
course” for the PCC November luncheon at Magiannos.
The session, moderated by PR Week’s bureau chief John
Frank, featured Greg McCune of Reuters, Jennifer
Waters of CBS Marketwatch and Roy Wiley of Navistar
(who provided a PR perspective).
Greg
McCune
Want to make an instance enemy of
Reuter’s Midwest bureau chief, Greg McCune?
Mispronounce Reuters--“The company name is Reuters
(Roy-ters), not Rooters”. While acknowledging that
many people access Reuters through the Internet, a PR
professional should know how to correctly pronounce
the name.
Based in Chicago, McCune has
degrees in agricultural journalism and international
studies, and is responsible for a 14-state area and
supervises roughly 40 reporters and editors in
Chicago, Detroit and Kansas City. Having worked in
Britain, Belgium and Canada, he has covered financial
markets, currencies and commodities.
The structure of Reuters, which
covers mainly publicly traded companies, is divided
along industry lines. Chicago’s reporters cover a
number of industries nationwide, including airlines,
retail, food, heavy industry, telecommunications and
others. However, McCune urged PR professionals to
pitch first to him. If necessary, he will refer it to
another reporter elsewhere when appropriate. He
prefers being pitched by e-mail. “The telephone is hit
or miss unless the story is urgent or time sensitive,”
said McCune. “You are speaking in minutes and seconds
when you are talking about the pressure you are under
to get a story out [at Reuters].”
To address the audience’s
interests, McCune offered his list of 10 rules, drawn
from the experience of reporters:
1. Put the news at the top of the
release. He explained that, although a basic rule, it
is not followed often enough.
2. Don’t use jargon like medical,
technical or legal terms! Instead, use simpler,
generally understandable language.
3. Know whom you are dealing with.
Find out who is writing what by reading industry
-specific bylines. Most stories have e-mail links or
addresses at the end of them. Typically, reporters can
be reached by e-mailing them at first name.last
4. Don’t pester us or call.
5. Reuter’s has a love interest
with executives, hosting a newsmaker luncheon series
and inviting companies we cover to come in. McCune
cautions PR people to be aware of their timing; if a
story they are pitching relates to one in the news,
they’ll want to talk to you!
6. Be clear in earnings releases.
Include the following information: opening earnings,
before and after changes, net earnings per share and
comparative figures. The best thing to submit is a one
liner on earnings followed by a descriptive paragraph.
Make sure the contact phone number
is at the bottom of the release and the person who
belongs to that number is accessible.
7. McCune would much prefer to
talk to a person who can be quoted or who can provide
a “no comment,” than to someone who cannot give
informed answers.
8. Do not leak information or be
secretive; it’s illegal to do so and will come out.
9. However, although he respects
reasonable story embargoes, McCune loves to get an
indirect “heads up” on big stories by someone
suggesting, “I wouldn’t plan to leave early today. .
..” hinting that a story of interest might be about to
appear. He looks for features and success stories.
10. Don’t mispronounce Reuters.
(repeated for effect).
Jennifer
Waters, CBSMarketWatch
Jennifer Waters of CBSMarketWatch
agrees, “A heads up is huge for us too,” she said,
urging PR people to “always tell the truth. If you
don’t, you risk a loss of credibility.”
This is especially important in
that CBSMarketWatch is online and real time and uses
fewer reporters than Reuters. “We are more like a
paper than an Internet site but we love breaking
news.”
Writing for the Internet and
reporting for various CBS radio stations, Waters also
co-hosts “Dr. J and the Traders” –a syndicated
business talk radio show aired weekdays, although her
reporting focuses on the airlines (a greater emphasis
since the September 11th attacks), commercial real
estate, technology, restaurants, food and sports as a
business.
Bylines are linked with direct
e-mail links to the five reporters who cover a variety
of stories. Often times stories are covered by
whomever is the most free, rather than by beat.
CBSMarketWatch covers who is moving the market,
including indexes like the American Exchange, Standard
and Poor’s, showing what is happening as news.
For example, when the Iraq news
hit, the markets responded, she said and
CBSMarketWatch was responsive to what the markets,
which are reactionary, did.
The organization of CBSMarketWatch
is straightforward. The latest news is the Headline
News. The Market Pulse is one or two paragraphs based
on headlines and, if appropriate, separated into a
bigger story. Due Diligence is an indepth look at a
company, its financials, whether or not it is selling
and what’s driving its profits.
“We are doing more news and the
market reaction to it,” said Waters. “Our columnists
are both in-house and external. Look at our site to
tell who they are.” “Stock Pickers” is the most highly
read section for which CBSMarketWatch begs for
information. It covers the top stock picks and why,
told in a short story of about eight paragraphs.
Although recently celebrating its
fifth anniversary, CBSMarketWatch still considers
itself a fledgling media outlet doing targeted news.
“We’ve come a long way – with 10 million a month using
us, including a membership base of 470,000 members –
and gaining 75,000 a month!” said Waters. “Besides our
net site, our ‘.com radio network’ has 15 million
listeners.” Its weekend television show airs out of
New York and San Francisco.
With an audience of largely
traders of investors, Waters focuses on publicly-held
companies. She is also interested in quirky small
business stories. She urges people to remember that
they are sending news releases, not press releases.
“We are the story behind the numbers,” she said, “but
we need the numbers.”
Roy Wiley, Navistar
A former Chicago Sun-Times
reporter and editor, Roy Wiley is a veteran public
relations executive with a keen understanding of media
needs and expectations, especially bureaus. Currently
serving as manager of external communications for
Navistar International Corporation, he oversees
strategy and execution of all external corporate
communications for the company, including news
releases, media relations and financial
communications.
Navistar, a century-old company,
is the largest truck information center in the United
States. Its portfolio system allows ticker symbols for
stocks to follow target prices; the symbol will flash
when it comes up, telling the investor, ‘Your stock is
selling at $xxx’
Wiley indicated that an often
overlooked courtesy is calling back.
However, all too often, people
don’t want to discuss the topic. As a result, Wiley
urges, “Don’t just call me when you want something.”
He also advises that instead of saying, “No comment,
indicate that you cannot comment for proprietary or
legal reasons. They’ll do the story anyway but will
say the source is unavailable for comment.” “Our
coverage has expanded a lot this year by making
executives accessible to the press,” he said. “It
should be the CEO and CFO, company leaders who are
talking to the press.”
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