DWPub Sporadic

Buying Max Clifford

Having stumbled across the BBC Children in Need online auction I couldn't resist bidding for this photo of my most famous customer, celebrity PR supremo Max Clifford. I'm looking forward to finding a suitably prominent place for it at the Daryl Group HQ.

Media through the prism of future generations

I did a guest seminar today for University of Brighton English degree students who had chosen a journalism module.

It was fascinating to get some feedback from the students about their media consumption habits, so much so I decided to throw together a bit of a survey.

Here are the results:

42% buy newspapers at  least once a week
58% regularly watch video/TV on a computer
17% often browse the internet on their mobile phone
100% have a profile on a social networking site

OK - so 12 students isn't a very representative sample, but the results are interesting nonetheless.

I was suprised at the number of students who buy newspapers, but then again these are students who are interested in the media, so you'd expect some of them to buy newspapers.

More significant was the number who regularly watch internet TV - nearly two-thirds. Chatting to them, it was clear that the group could see the benefits of being able watch what the wanted and when they wanted online with things like the BBC's iPlayer and Channel 4's 4oD.

The number of them who browsed the internet using their phones was surprisingly low, but one in five is still significant and I would imagine this increasing rapidly as the post-iPhone devices, which make browsing so much easier, become ubiquitous.

The social networking thing is probably the most powerful message. 100% participation in social networking gives you an idea of how savvy this generation is when it comes to consuming and taking part in digital media.

Filtering journalist enquires by media type

This was inspired by feedback from Response Source subscribers and enables you to get a better idea of the type of media outlet each journalist is working on, or - if you prefer - filter enquiries by media type.

For example, if you want ‘trade press’ but not ‘consumer press’ you can choose not to receive the latter.

The full list of Response Source media types is:

• National Newspaper / Current Affairs
• Regional Newspaper
• Trade Press / Professional Journal
• Consumer Press
• Radio and Television
• Website, Blog, Online
• Event, Trade Show, Exhibition
• Unspecified, or none of the above

This filtering option is in addition to filtering by ‘enquiry type’ which we introduced earlier in the year.
The full list of Response Source enquiry types is:

• request for information for an article
• request for review products
• request for spokesperson or expert
• request for competition prize or reader offer
• request for personal case study
• request for information from a PR

Here’s an example of how both filtering options can work for you:

If you only deal with trade and national press and are only interested in enquiries relating to information for articles or requests for spokespeople, you could opt to only receive ‘National Newspaper / Current Affairs’ and ‘Trade Press / Professional Journal’ from the media types list and ‘request for information for an article’ and ‘request for spokesperson or expert’ from the enquiry types list. This would improve the overall relevancy of enquiries landing in your inbox.

To filter the Response Source enquiries you receive by any of the options above please call us on 0845 370 7777 or email admin@dwpub.com.

Click here for more information on subscribing to Response Source.

Links to freelance journalist profiles

Several clients have told me Response Source is not only a great way to get media coverage leads but is also useful for keeping tabs on what the freelance journalist community is up to.

We also have nearly 5,000 freelance journalists maintaining detailed profiles in our Freelance Journalist Directory. Many of these journalists use Response Source for sourcing editorial contributions from the PR community.

So we've brought these two things together. Response Source emails from members of the Freelance Journalist Directory now include a link to each journalist's public profile on www.journalistdirectory.com (see mine).

The benefit is being able to rapidly view valuable background material on the journalist making an enquiry, including specialist areas covered, biography and picture (if available).

Response Source users don’t need a subscription to the Freelance Journalist Directory to view the profile links from Response Source enquiries (though if you do have a subscription you will be able to see additional information and be able to use the full search function).

We’ve had some fantastic feedback on this already - with one person describing it as a ‘great innovation’.

As ever we are always looking to enhance our services and like to do this based on user feedback so if you have any ideas or comments please let us know.

Search agency promotes 'fantastic' PR results

Just received a bit of email marketing from a search agency called Top Position, highlighting how it achieved great media coverage for the The Legal Deed Service.

Top Position describes how it identified the story, wrote the press release then distributed it to journalists - with a 'fantastic result'.

Isn't that what PR agencies do?

Did I say I told you so? See my whitepaper on search vs PR (written 18 months ago but still as relevant as ever).