PR 101: Get to Know a Reporter using Google Bylines
Doing your own PR? One of the first things you’ve probably been told is to “know the reporter you’re pitching,” – and if so, you’re listening to the right people. Of course, this goes a lot further than simply knowing someone’s “beat” as defined in some database. You’ll want to actually read what they’ve written lately. But what do you do if you’re not already familiar with a writer or the media landscape you’re working in; or need to research a writer who writes for a number of different outlets? If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, you likely don’t have the budget to pay for expensive research tools that we use in an agency environment. But the truth is, there are plenty of low, or no-cost ways to do some basic research on the writer(s) you’re after. In the end, taking the time to know writers and what they’re writing about *right now* (and armed with this information, pitching a story angle that works for them) will mean the difference between getting clips for your company or being ignored (or worse) by the media.
Use Google “Byline” search to find a chronological, up-to-the-minute index of articles written by an author.
On either Google News or Google Blog Search , search for:
Author:”Author Name Here”
Inserting the reporter’s name in the quotes, as you can see below.
As usual with Google search results, there are some toggles on the left you can apply – Sorted by Relevance, Sorted by Date, and some options for recency. Now it is just up to you to go read, and get to know, the writer you plan on pitching. And after doing so, ask yourself, “would this reporter really be interested in our story?”. If the answer is no, figure out a way to craft the story in a different way that seems more appropriate for the writer in question. Having trouble? Drop me a line at timothy.williams@dimepr.com with your pitch and the name of the writer. If I’m not too busy, I’ll try to help. If I am too busy, I’ll let you know. Either way I won’t ask you for a penny. Why, you ask? Because bad, poorly-planned pitches are bad for all of us, and for the industry as a whole.
Don’t Know Who to Pitch?
Check out PR MatchPoint, a relatively new service which matches your pitch to journalists based on relevance to stories they’ve recently written. This is a far better method of finding unfamiliar writers to pitch your story to than simply creating lists based on “beats” from the big database suppliers. It is also extremely affordable even for do-it-yourselfers – the service costs just $75/month on a credit card, and there is no contract involved.
