I'm Ginny and I'm currently building my PR experience with Flaunt PR & Communications (Flaunt) as well as in my current employer - Barclays Capital (Barcap).
Two weeks back, I was tasked to organise a food-tasting session for one of our clients, The Eastern Restaurant - specializes in authentic Chinese cooking, and identify the right journalists/bloggers to invite. I was really excited initially but only to realize, I am ignorant of who are the prominent food journalists/bloggers!
Even though I was given some contacts to follow up on, most of them were unable to make it due to the festive holidays lurking around the corner. Suddenly I remembered my lecturer from PR Consultancy class had mentioned about getting a copy of the media contact list. Thankfully it came in handy at such crucial moment! Also, I tried keeping myself open-minded when reading newspaper, exploring food blogs and local favourite sites to read up on food reviews and whom the reviewers are.
Even though the food-tasting session did not come through this time round but I was really grateful to one food journalist who had a long list of MUST-DOs which, initially seem rather demanding. However, her being demanding has guided me to rethink on what are the elements of news and information that I can provide for before even approaching a journalist. What I had thought is newsy enough may not really be what the public finds interesting to read about. Keeping an open-mind helps in my learning curve in this exciting industry. Even though the food tasting session has been postponed, I look forward to the next one and will keep you all informed of the outcome!
In the meantime, have a great 2011!!
Best regards,
Ginny Chong
Curtin Singapore
4 comments:
Hi Ginny, I must salute you first of all for trying very hard and giving it your best shot! I used to read newspapers and magazines just for the sake of wanting to know what's going on. Now I find myself dissecting the different sections in a publication and remembering the type of stories written my different journalists. The PR industry is very small in Singapore and journalists remember the type of media releases sent to them. One thing that helped me (from making plenty of mistakes) is to read what stories the journos write, and make relevant links that would further interest them. Good luck!!
Pam
Hi Pamela,
Thank you for your encouragement.
I totally agree with you on finding the type of stories journalists like to write and their styles. All the best in your internship and hope to read more about your experience!
Cheers,
Ginny
Hi Ginny,
I agree as well as I find that's what I've been doing when I do media monitoring. Catergorizing journalists into their various beats really helps your success rate in pitching stories. Of course a media database doesn't hurt either. =)
Aaron
Hi Ginny, It's Sheila! I was your groupmate in PR 201!
This task of organising a food-tasting session must not have been an easy one to take on. Apart from lauding you for applying your knowledge of PR and requesting for a copy of the media contact list, I would also like to commend you for your optimism throughout this internship.
The amount of research you conducted tells me you put in a lot of effort to make sure this session kicked off well, even though it did not come through after all.
I hope you have continued to keep an open mind on your enriching PR journey.
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