Just because you have a Guerrilla P.R. approach doesn’t mean you don’t belong in Newsweek. You simply have to “nationalize” your pitch. If you recall the section on pitching, I urged you to create variations on your pitch to apply to different media. For national magazines, you have to broaden your concept.
To use the Youth Center as an example, instead of pitching the magazines on the reduction of crime in the area, I would stress how America can turn its troubled youth around with the right mix of compassion and dedication and the value of volunteering for the community’s good. You get the picture.
Keep in mind that many well-known magazines occasionally run special issues (also called one-shots), such as Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit edition and Entertainment Weekly’s summer movie issue. Some are far more esoteric or accessible than those. When you speak with editors, find out if any such specials are being planned. You might fit in. Much more than newspapers, magazines are graphics conscious. Editors agonize over who or what goes on the cover, while teams of designers labor over each issue’s layout. As we saw with Vanity Fair’s celebrated cover of the nude and pregnant Demi Moore, this obsession is understandable. It was estimated that a picture of Princess Diana when she was alive would add $1 million to the value of the issue of any magazine that featured it on its cover. That’s power. Keep this in mind when you pitch.
Not that you’ll have any impact on layout, but if the writer or editor senses your awareness, you’ll gain stature. Don’t be afraid to offer suggestions here and there on ways to illustrate your story. They may not accept them, but they’ll respect your involvement.
Phoning is not as effective as writing when contacting magazines. Not all writers are on staff. Many are freelancers whom you can’t reach by phone anyway, but they can always receive forwarded mail. Fire off some letters to writers you find particularly intriguing. Not every newspaper article has its writer credited, but practically all magazine pieces have an accompanying byline. All writers have editors, and all magazines have mastheads, so it’s pretty easy to figure out whom to contact.
Obviously, e-mail is quicker and more efficient, but getting e-mail addresses for specific editors or reporters on a magazine can sometimes be difficult. Try calling the magazine’s editorial office, or if you can find a pattern for the way the company handles e-mail addresses (many simply make it first initial last name @ publication.com for every staffer), try sending it out that way.
Also be aware that most magazines now have Web content, and it’s not always the same as what’s in the traditional paper edition. If you strike out with the magazine itself, try seeing if the related Web site might not be interested in your story.
Weekly tabloids catering to individual communities have slightly different requirements. Though they don’t encompass the global scope of Time, they often emphasize analysis, investigative reporting, and expanding the range of local stories. So if you want a meaty feature, you have to present to them a bigger picture. Say you own a small business in a revitalized area of your community. Suggest a round-up story idea focusing on the rebirth of the local economy, using your shop as an example.
Magazines can frustrate you. Because of limited space and their paranoia about what goes in, you may find yourself up against a wall much of the time. But keep trying. A good magazine lends credibility to a project. The writers tend to write at a higher level than their newspaper counterparts, primarily because they have more time to turn in their pieces. Besides, most magazines, in order to be profitable, usually enjoy a far wider circulation than almost any metropolitan daily paper. Even if circulation isn’t great, magazines get passed around. Statistics show that the average copy of a magazine reaches 4.8 readers. The moral is this: do your best to make magazines a part of your G.P.R. diet.
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FROM THE GUERRILLA P.R. FILE
Columbia University research fellow Harold Zullow made the papers across America with his unusual sociological studies. Zullow theorized that the pop charts are good predictors of the overall direction of the national economy. The thesis states that either pessimistic songs or truly awful songs make it to No. 1 just before an economic downturn. His proof: “Escape (The Pina Colada Song),” “Keep On Truckin’,” and “The One That You Love,” all utter treacle, and each hit the top spot just before a recession. Just goes to show that if you concoct a weird-enough theory, you’ll attract the media like a moth to a flame.
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Other Print Possibilities
The world of print journalism doesn’t end with the daily paper, the trade publication, and the weekly edition of People. Entire forests are devoured every year to feed our insatiable appetite for print. As a Guerrilla publicist, your M.O. is to cover every base, especially those the pros tend to downplay.
If you live in a college town, there’s probably a college paper on campus. They’re usually student-run; and you’ll find college kids enthusiastic and open to new ideas (unlike their jaded counterparts at the daily). True, most of the articles are campus oriented, but once in a while they jump on atypical stories. If you can tie in your story to an issue on campus, or if you can relate your business to the college (if you’re a “townie”), you might find a friendly ear in the campus newspaper office. They are by nature very accessible, so give your college paper editor a call.
Don’t neglect community ethnic newspapers. There are hundreds of important newspapers across America that serve the African-American community, such as the L.A. Sentinel and New York’s Amsterdam News. Obviously, these papers cater to the needs of their readership, but they are almost always open to important stories, interesting sidebars, or announcements. Spanish-language papers, like El Diario in New York and La Opinion in L.A., all have English-speaking staff reporters who will cover your story if it has merit for their readership. You can reach a vast audience by tapping into these kinds of papers. Organizations and businesses distribute in-house newsletters and are often open to outside stories. Check with large companies in your area to see which have such a program. Also, every pastime has a specialty publication (they’re called “buff books”) to call its own, e.g., Car & Driver, Ski, House Beautiful. Do you fit in with any of them?
Many churches, mosques, Buddhist temples, and synagogues have newsletters, too. If you’re a member, perhaps there’s a way to contribute a piece to your in-house publication. Write a letter to the editor of the newsletter, or submit a short piece on how your project is helping the congregation. Think political. Your local or state Democratic, Republican, or third-party committee probably has a publication. Once again, you may be able to create a piece that relates your project to your political activities.
Last Word on Print
It’s said we’re becoming a nation of illiterates. Fewer and fewer people read anymore. Daily papers are dropping like flies; SAT scores are down; kids know more about the latest Pink video than what’s happening in the Middle East. The future looks bleak.
But our society remains glued together by the printed word. Our institutions, our economy, and our entire society are welded to the written word. As high-minded as that sounds, it most definitely trickles down to the Guerrilla P.R. level. If you were to get on TV and not in print, you wouldn’t last. The account of our civilization ultimately will be told in the written record, not the video, even in the short term.
Think about it: television reaches a huge audience, but it’s fleeting. You’re on for a five-minute spot on the local news, and then you’re gone. Even people using TiVo to record the news are probably not going to save your appearance (with the possible exception of your mom, who will be too proud to delete it). But print will last. It will be archived, probably on the publication’s Web site, and findable with very little effort for the foreseeable future. Don’t disrespect print because it’s “so yesterday.” It’s also “so tomorrow.”
I placed my chapter on print before the one on TV because I believe it to be the most important. Yes, you will be seen by more people
if you appear on TV, and perhaps your project will gain a greater lift from a guest shot on Oprah than from a piece in the New York Times. But perception is reality. If you are canonized by a New York Times article you will have achieved a level of legitimacy far greater than any TV stint can deliver. Go for it all, but by all means, go for print.
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GUERRILLA P.R. COMMANDO: Angelyne
She’s as much a part of the Los Angeles landscape as the Capitol Records Tower and the Hollywood Sign. For nearly twenty-five years, billboards of the pouty-lipped, platinum blonde Angelyne, perched atop her pink Corvette, dotted the boulevards and byways of the city, creating a pop culture heroine the likes of which we haven’t seen before. Most people have wondered who the hell she is, but over time, the ubiquitous billboards of “the girl on the Corvette” have become a true Southern California icon.
The Angelyne mystique arose out of L.A.’s preoccupation with fame and image. For no reason other than her striking appearance on the billboards, Angelyne became a symbol of L.A.’s fast-lane mentality. Her fame has spread throughout the world, though most people aren’t quite sure who she is or what she does. Many would guess the doe-eyed vixen to be a first-class bimbo. They should guess again.
Angelyne happens to be a supremely intelligent businesswoman who is wise in the ways of self-promotion and Guerrilla P.R. Without ever hiring a publicist, she turned herself into a permanent part of the city’s persona. But how?
“I’m a rebel,” she told me, “very much into being original. I detest clichés.” The former rock singer claims a lifelong devotion to achieving celebrity. “When I was three I knew I would never feel right until I became famous,” she says. “Fame made me feel more normal.” To achieve her goal, Angelyne embarked on a campaign to get her image before the public.
“I started with posters,” she recalls, “then bus shelters. Next, we put out small billboards, then larger ones. We finally painted my picture on a ten-story wall at Hollywood and Vine. After that, the media were all over me.” Angelyne estimates she gained $10 million in free publicity because of the massive media exposure from the billboards. Her posters included her management phone number, which hasn’t stopped ringing since Day One.
Thanks to her innovation and perseverance, Angelyne’s movie and personal appearance career has taken off, more than paying for the cost of the billboard campaign. Her chief advice to others hoping to entice the media: “I relate to the media the same way I relate to men. Never touch anybody. Tease them until they come to you. I have never had to call anybody for anything. They called me.”
As special as she feels herself to be, Angelyne is convinced everybody has within him or her the makings of a star. “We can become free agents unto ourselves,” she says. “In the future, I think everyone will be able to make the most of their artistic side.”
Angelyne has certainly made the most of her abilities. She won the fame she wanted and paid nary a penny for the media exposure. Today, she’s probably having the last laugh. That’s life in the big city.
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8
Second Salvo:
Electronic Media
Local [TV] news has always been more ukelele than symphony.
—Howard Rosenberg, L.A. Times
Television
In the past fifteen years, the “vast wasteland” has gotten a whole lot vaster. The proliferation of digital TV opened up grand new vistas for viewers, with more choices available now than were ever imagined just a few years ago. CNN, Fox, MTV, and HBO have taken their place at the table of mega-profits alongside the shrinking networks, while public access and UHF channels continue to mushroom. Consider how many Emmy Awards have been won by cable stations in the past five years. In 2006, broadcast networks made a comeback in the Primetime Emmy Awards to win more in one evening (all awards considered, including technical ones) than cable networks. The broadcast networks (defined that year as ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, WB, and PBS) won fifty-two of the awards handed out by the Television Academy that night. Which was more than were won by cable stations: they took home fifty-one.
Answering the old question “What’s on tonight?” isn’t so simple anymore.
For the Guerrilla P.R. strategist, TV is essential. TV is power; if you get yourself on the tube, power passes to your hands, and success in your efforts is almost guaranteed. Yet, despite the many similarities among the various media, TV is a breed unto itself. For one thing, a newspaper exists in the realm of space, TV in the realm of time. One involves imagination, the other image. Even on talking-head news shows like Face the Nation, the image is what counts. The congressman rambling on about third-quarter housing starts may be a womanizing blowhard, but if he looks and sounds good up there, his most important message—“Reelect me!”—comes through loud and convincingly.
Because of TV’s time constraints, practically every moment on the tube is scripted down to the millisecond. TV is not so much a marketplace of ideas as it is a big show. Even news programs—local and national—are just shows. To make it on the air, your project must become part of the show, a part people will want to watch. If not, no matter how deserving you may be, the only TV you’ll appear on is the one in the department store with the camcorder trained on you. Yes, you can upload a video of yourself to YouTube, but even then, you’ll have to promote it to get it seen. Unless you’re doing something unbelievably unique (and probably damaging to your image), even YouTube is going to be too large a medium to tackle on your own. You need to be seen on legitimate television to gain credibility.
To be part of the show, you have to know how TV works. For Guerrilla P.R. purposes, let’s divide the medium into its constituent parts:
News. This includes everything from Brian Williams to the goofy weatherman on Channel 6. News programming has diversified greatly over the last twenty years. The advent of CNN and Fox News, the expansion of local news, cable, and a plethora of prime-time shows originating with the network news divisions (like 60 Minutes, Dateline, and 20/20) have dramatically increased the broadcast hours devoted to news. News is also what happens on the local cable access channel, the local PBS affiliate, and the local station’s five o’clock newscast. It is the time when television is, at least on the surface, trying to inform.
Public affairs. Although public affairs programming has decreased since F.C.C. deregulation in the 1980s, it still constitutes an important outlet for varying points of view on issues of public interest. Most network affiliates in major markets have their own Sunday newsmakers shows, which usually cover local political subjects. And again, local stations, cable affiliates, and basically anyone with a digital video camera and a question can be considered a “public affairs” program these days. Never rule out any outlet unless you are required to pay for the airtime, or if there’s no chance your message will be relevant to the program involved.
Infotainment. These shows, more than any other, have flourished in the past few years. There are two types: the town meeting and the simulated news show. The town meeting variety started with Phil Donahue back in the seventies, featuring a charismatic host and an inquisitive studio audience. Now we’ve got Oprah, Ellen, and Jerry Springer, to name a few. They cover two basic catch-all themes: real life and Hollywood. You’ll tune in to find either Will Smith pushing his new movie or three recovering alcoholic Satan worshippers in love with the same paraplegic transsexual. Like I said: real life. Sim-news shows are among the most reviled and most watched in the country: A Current Affair, Hard Copy, Inside Edition, and Entertainment Tonight are among the best known. These shows thrive on sensationalism. Sex, scandal, and sin are their stock-in-trade. But once in a while they cover more wholesome subjects…like you, perhaps. They’re not easy to book, especially if you’re not incredibly outrageous, but they’re worth a thought.
Morning shows. NBC’s Today is the granddaddy of morning shows. CBS and ABC have This Morning and Good Morning America. Nationally syndicated shows like Live with Regis and Kelly—as well as
the many local outlets such as Good Day New York, Home, and Today in Minneapolis—provide invaluable exposure opportunities. All stories that run on these types of outlets have some national or universal significance.
TV is a much bigger deal than print. A newspaper reporter need bring along only a pad and a pencil, sometimes a tape recorder, to ensure accuracy. On the other hand, a TV news crew includes a reporter, a sound technician, a camera operator, a producer, and a driver, often of a van equipped to cover anything from a cat up a tree to a foreign invasion. An appearance on the set of a news broadcast or talk show involves dozens of people, from makeup artists to assistant directors to videotape editors. In a word, TV is complicated.
TV news, like print, has an inflated sense of journalistic scruples. Though few news stars have come up in the realm of hard-nosed print reporting, TV journalists like to believe they represent the same grand tradition of news coverage as, say, the Washington Post. Despite a few isolated instances where that is indeed the case, basically comparing the two is just silly. Television news, particularly on the local level, is a show, and print journalism, even in the sleazier daily tabloids, involves reporting more than it does glamour. You’ll rarely see a male newspaper reporter wearing makeup.
With the average report lasting somewhere around a minute, local TV news is a sham. It’s sports, weather, and the nightly murder and fire report. It’s headlines read by ex-beauty queens and pretty boys, and woe to him or her who doesn’t look the part. There’s little analysis or in-depth reporting; and come sweeps month, we’re likely to be deluged with five-part series on lesbian nuns or fifty ways to tell if your wife is cheating on you (ten a day for five days).
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