Rostrum Communications - A London PR Company

Writing an opinion piece

This second in our occasional series of tips on ‘traditional’ PR techniques looks at writing an opinion piece for a trade publication.

1. First, pitch your idea. Most editors will expect a 3-4 line synopsis covering why you think the article is timely and relevant to their readership. Your synopsis should pose more questions than it answers.

2. Agree wordcounts and delivery times with the editor. At this stage, you can also check where copyright is assigned following publication, and confirm what rights you have to use/reprint the piece after it’s published.

3. Write your ‘essay plan’. A good structure will drastically increase your chances of writing a good article. A basic essay plan could look something like this…

a. Intro
b. Explore the issue
c. Present a range of potential solutions
d. Give your view on which solution might work best
e. Conclude/future-gazing

4. Write your article. Link the paragraphs with phrases like ‘as a result’, ‘consequently’ to make the piece flow. Hedge your bets – you don’t want a lone aggressive phrase to be lifted from your article and re-quoted out of context. Phrases like ‘we might expect’ are useful for toning down your punchier points. Always, always remember George Orwell’s ‘Six Rules’ of writing, as they’ve never been bettered.

5. Send your article to the editor on time, with interesting photography (if you have any) and ask them to confirm receipt, and to send you a link/hard copy when the article is published. Think about how you can maximise the exposure of the article – sending it to prospects, including it in an email newsletter, posting it on your corporate blog, etc. Finally, sit back and bask in your glory.

This rocks - day two for new client Quostar and they’re on CNBC talking about the Blackberry ban in Middle East http://tinyurl.com/2fysofl

With all the buzz around social media and digital channels, some of the PR tactics that have been around for a while might seem a bit old-fashioned. But they’re still relevant. Let’s look at meeting journalists for a coffee or a lunch.

Why should you meet journalists?
1. to build relationships
2. to find out what they cover, and how they work
3. to get quoted in their articles
4. to see if you can contribute to their publication

What are the rules for success?
1. Know who you’re meeting & why
2. Read up on them - find out what they cover and try to understand their style
3. Have something interesting to say - about big picture issues as well as just what’s happening at your organisation
4. Be nice to them - but remember they are a journalist and you should assume you’re ‘on the record’. A simple rule is - if you don’t want to see it appear in print/online tomorrow morning - don’t say it!
5. follow-up. If they ask you to send a photo - send it! Availability and reliability are key to good relations with the media…

Next time we’ll cover writing contributed articles for trade magazines.

- Mark

This is great from a Director magazine piece on monetising Twitter…

Is Twitter starting to cannibalise its own ecosystem? Some in the industry seem to think so. Responding to Twitter’s decision to limit third-party advertising apps, US angel investor Chris Dixon tweeted: “Twitter is like a drunk guy with an uzi killing partners left and right”. He later added: “Expect investment in ecosystem to drop significantly.”

If you want to get quoted in the media, speak like Chris Dixon does. That’s seriously good quote. Or just hire us and we’ll come up with lines as good as that or better.

BBC London 94.9

Esther Stanhope, BBC London’s Breakfast Show Producer is now on maternity leave.  Kim Davis is now the best person to contact regarding all queries relating to the Breakfast Show.

Source: Gorkana

Reputation: Are management consultancies a threat to PR? - http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/features/1002720/Reputation-management-consultancies-threat-PR/ 

Published: Wednesday, 21 April 2010, 13:12pm, Gorkana News

Corporate PR agency, Rostrum Communications, has been appointed by ISIWIS, a global document management company, to promote the company to the UK and Benelux media.
Mark Houlding, Rostrum’s managing director, will lead the account, with support from Chris Tuite and Chris Decroix.

“We’re delighted to be working on this assignment for ISIWIS – their offering is unique in the market, so we expect strong interest in ISIWIS content,” said Mark. “The initial focus for the campaign is brand profile and customer acquisition in targeted verticals including finance, insurance, real estate and legal with further roll-outs and territories planned for later in 2010.”

“It is important for us to have a PR partner that has the expertise to support the core objectives of the business,” added Mark. “I believe we’ve found that partner and we’re very much looking forward to working with the Rostrum Communications team as we aggressively launch this exciting offering”.

The campaign will focus on business, IT and trade media in the Benelux region and the Uk and is being managed out of London.

Great coverage from the Daily Telegraph for our prepaid MasterCard client Kalixa… http://tinyurl.com/yd5qooz

This year’s awards, sponsored by British Gas, has been announced. They are as follows:

Consumer Journalist of the Year:
Tony Hetherington (The Mail on Sunday)
Paul Lewis (BBC Moneybox)
Harry Wallop (The Daily Telegraph)

Business Journalist of the Year:
Alex Brummer (Daily Mail)
Iain Dey (The Sunday Times)
Andrew Hill (Financial Times)

Broadcasting Journalist of the Year:
Peter Allen (BBC Radio 5 Live)
Alex Crawford (Sky News)
Bill Neely (ITN)

Daily Newspaper of the Year:
Daily Mail
The Daily Telegraph
Financial Times

Sunday Newspaper of the Year:
The Mail on Sunday
News of the World
The Sunday Times

All winners will be announced at the LPC Awards lunch, taking place on Thursday 29th April at Claridges.

Wall Street Journal Europe
William Lyons, who joined The Wall Street Journal Europe in January, is now responsible for The Monday Interview.

BBC Business and Economics Unit
Helen Ffitch, Senior Producer for the BBC Business & Economics Planning Unit, has returned from maternity leave.

The Insurance Insider
Adam McNestrie, previously a Staff Writer at FM World, has now started as a Reporter for The Insurance Insider.

Investors Chronicle
Consumer finance weekly Investors Chronicle is celebrating its 150th anniversary by revamping its logo, in print and online at www.investorschronicle.co.uk. The logo now incorporates the numbers 1, 5 and 0 in the title (1nve5t0rs Chronicle) with the strapline “150 years of trusted advice and tips”. The title hopes to generate new subscriptions by offering more varied content, including a new weekly property section and repositioned funds section.

Money Management
Gareth Shaw, former Senior Staff Writer at Money Management, has been promoted to Supplements Editor.