The News Interview You See Might Actually Be a Paid-for-Promo

Beware.

The person you are seeing interviewed on TV might have paid for that spot.

It’s true.

There seems to be a new trend going on among local TV shows as well as cable news shows to sell interview spots to authors, speakers and business people for fees ranging from $900 to $4,500.

While this isn’t illegal, the practice is disturbing.

As a viewer, I expect the news directors and producers and reporters to carefully decide who they want to interview for their spot segments. These people should be interesting, newsworthy, and controversial or pass the general litmus test of “news.”

It could be hard news like a politician defending her views. It could be the head of a charity group talking about some feel-good event he is promoting, or anything in between.

They all have one thing in common: a news person felt they passed the test.

But there appears to be a pay-for-play element creeping into the news biz. Producers are actually asking potential guests to pony up a few hundred or thousand dollars to appear on their shows.

The spots are labeled as news, not advertising.

One of my clients says the producer told her this was part of a new trend called “branded entertainment.” There’s even a Wikipedia entry about this!

The producer said that infomercials aren’t working any longer, so this form of 5-minute interview tied to a news show is the new, bright shiny object that people are chasing after.

Another client said that he can get a contract to appear on a local TV show for 50 segments for $900 a pop.

Apparently, I’m the last person to know about this (or maybe you are). But the cat is out of the bag. TV stations want to make money and they are looking to guests to foot the bill.

What should you do?

First, remember that there still are legitimate TV shows that will be horrified to hear about this trend. I don’t think Oprah or Regis or Ellen or Piers will allow pay-for-play.

Second, I’m sure there are late-night talk shows that have always operated on a quid-pro-quo basis that allowed celebrities to come on to a show to promote their movies or their books. That’s where the commercial line begins to blur. But it’s been going on for a zillion years and isn’t about to stop.

That puts us back on point. What should you do if a producer from a real TV shows asks for money?

First, determine if this is a real show or not. There are lots of companies that claim to be TV shows that will film you for a fee and say they will air the episode. But they are frauds. Either they don’t air the show, or the show is viewed by a very small audience. It’s a scam.

Second, if the show is legit (as the above two cases with my clients show), then determine if you can win. Ask yourself: “Will the money I invest make me as much or more money?”

For example, if I pay $900 to appear on this show, will I sell $900 of books, consulting, coaching, speaking or products?

If the answer is “Yes,” then go for it. That’s what advertising is supposed to do.

But beware:
1. Don’t commit yourself to a long-term contract you can’t get out of. You might have good success in the beginning. But if the sales start to diminish, you could lose your shirt.
2. Make sure the show actually does reach your target audience. It is nice to be asked to be on a TV show in Sweden, but will that reach the people who can buy my your services?

3. Make sure the show airs at the prime time to reach your audience. Does your audience watch TV as they eat breakfast, or at 2 in the morning when they can’t sleep?

4. Make sure you get copies of the video to use in any way you want. You will want to get the most value you can out of this video. In addition, it will be much higher quality than anything you can do with your Mac and a green screen.

Once the interview airs, make sure you make the most of segments. For example:

1. Link to the videos from your website.

2. Publicize the fact you were on TV, especially if you signed a long-term contract and you are now the expert correspondent for the show on your specific topic.

Remember, not everyone sees every minute of every episode of every TV show (or newspaper for that matter). You must promote your appearances to the people who don’t watch TV or read newspapers or who happened to be working at the time the show aired.

The old newspaper editor in me cringes at the thought of paying to be on TV and the station not labeling this as a pay-for-play event. But they didn’t ask me for my opinion. I’m just showing you how to maximize your opportunities in this new age of media when all the rules seem to be changing.

The most effective way to get your message to the media is to target the most interested reporters and avoid the ones who aren’t interested.

Sounds simple, but you’d be surprised how often small businesses blast press releases and pitch letters to any and every reporter

BullsEye Publicity.com has the best press lists I've found

they happen to find on a generic media list. Reporters hate this. If you can personalize a pitch or target a press release, you’ll stand a much better chance of being quoted.

To make the best use of your time – and not waste a reporter’s time, here are 10 tips to selecting an effective media list.

1. Is it correct? Make sure the information is correct. It won’t help you to find that there are misspellings, wrong phone numbers or other errors.
2. Is it up to date? Sounds simple, but you’d be surprised at how many sites on the Internet sell outdated information. Ensure that the information is updated at least every quarter. There’s a lot of turnover in the media. An old list is a worthless list.
3. Does it contain complete information? A list should have name, title, publication or media outlet, email, phone and street address at a bare minimum. Give bonus points if the list shows you what topics the reporter covers in detail. For example, buying a list of reporters interested in women’s issues is a start, but how will you know if the reporter is interested in women’s politics, women’s health issues or women’s family and relationship issues? There’s a big difference! Give bonus points to a list that has relevant data, such as links to articles the reporter has written. A good list provider would have personal information about the reporter’s focus and slant so you know what angle to take. You won’t get this from a bare-bones list. You want a full-featured database.
4. Sortable. Ask for the list on a spreadsheet so you can sort on any number of fields, such as city and state, or type of publication. This can be useful if you are going to be in a new city and want to target the media there.
5. Informs you of the type of media outlet. You’d pitch a TV station differently than a print reporter, so make sure the list has this kind of information available. Today, you’d want a list that identifies print, TV, Radio and online media.
6. Contains website address. Every media outlet has a website today. You can research the reporters and the media by going to the website so you know exactly what they cover and how they cover it. Doing this research will help you pitch your story more effectively.
7. Circulation figures for print publications. This number will help you identify the market leaders ands the smaller players.
8. International contacts. The world is shrinking today. If your product or service can be of use to people around the world, then you should contact reporters at other countries.
9. Language spoken. If you stick to the U.S. media, this won’t be as important, but if you pitch international reporters, some will speak English and some will not. In fact, some international media do have correspondents in the US who speak English. Those would be the ones you might want to target.
10. Preferred contact method. How does a reporter want to be contacted? By email? By phone? By fax? By regular mail? Knowing this answer will help you get on their good side!

If you ask these questions before you buy a media list, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and confusion. And you will have a better chance to get the coverage you seek.

I’ve created a new business unit that sells media lists. You can find great lists at BullsEyePublicity.com

Want to learn how to pitch reporters effectively? Download my special report “REVEALED: The Quick And Easy Way To Get Publicity From Reporters And Bloggers Through Social Media And Press Releases!” http://www.bullseyepublicity.com/reporters/ For the most up-to-date, full-featured media database available, please visit www.BullsEyePublicity.com

This article can be reprinted on your webiste or ezine.

Reporters are always looking for news. A new report shows they want to receive press releases by email.

The new report by Bulldog Reporter and TEKGROUP International shows an overwhelming majority of journalists—79.4%—prefer to receive information about corporate, not-for-profit and government news by e-mail.

Here are five ways to make your press release stand out.

1. Target the media carefully. Reporters love press releases that are in their subject area. They go bonkers when they receive press releases that are not targeted for them. So before you send a press release, make sure it is suitable for that reporter.
2. Use a headline that indicates the press release is targeted. If the headline isn’t arresting, the reporter might not read the rest.
3. Put all the good information up front. Remember, this isn’t a mystery novel. Reporters don’t want to find out who-done-it on the last page. Put the important information in the first two paragraphs.
4. Put relevant links back to your website. A press release should be only 400-700 words. That means it is hard to tell the whole story. You have to omit secondary information. Put that info on your website so reporters can get as much info as the need.
5. Put links to photos, line art and surveys. Reporters might need this info. But artwork can take up a lot of space in email and some email systems might reject large files. That means you can’t put those art elements in the press release. Put them on your website instead and include links so reporters can find the information easily.

If you follow this advice, you’ll stand a better chance of having reporters read your press releases.

Do you need a list of reporters in your subject area? BullsEyePublicity.com maintains the most comprehensive and up-to-date media data bases for the US and International Reporters. For information, go to www.BullsEyePublicity.com For a special report on “The Quick And Easy Way To Get Publicity From Reporters And Bloggers Through Social Media And Press Releases!” go to http://www.bullseyepublicity.com/reporters/ Dan Janal is a thought leader, speaker coach and consultant on the topics of publicity and Internet Marketing.

This article can be reprinted on your blog, ezine or website.

Hundred of reporters are now using Twitter to find news and new sources.

Here are two ways to find reporters:

1. go to Twitter

2. Click on "Find people"

3. Click on "Find on Twitter"

4. Type the person’s name

Yes, it is that simple!

Here’s another way.

There’s a compiled list of journalists and media at this site:

http://sn.im/journalist  [twitteringjournalists_pbwiki_com]

It’s very useful!

Good luck — and follow me on Twitter www.twitter.com/prleads or @prleads