“You need to make it clear to your client that you are really not in control of the news, I’m not in control of the news and we can only do so much,” explained Executive Editor Elizabeth Guider, Variety and Daily Variety reminded several hundred publicists at a recent (3-17-05) PR Newswire and Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (EPPS) sponsored media workshop at the Wyndham Bel Age Hotel, Hollywood, CA.  “News is what someone somewhere wants to press, everything else is advertising. Deep down we’re all journalists, but we also have space to fill, features to fill up, and there are a lot of people out there that know a lot that we don’t know and obviously we want to reach out to those people making the news. You folks help do it that, but never ever believe that we are all on the same side when it comes to exclusives. I’ve had publicists call me up and say ‘the story did not run, why I thought we were friends.’ We’re covering it, but we’re not in it.  Even when we look at a news release, we are going to look beyond and say ‘what’s the subtext’ of this release.” Email is the best way to pitch to Variety.

“We are a weekly, but we fill up fast, so the sooner the better you can contact us for stories and a month ahead of time is great,” said Editor Jamie Painter Young, Back Stage West, a publication that targets working actors and beginning actors. “Any news about the unions, entertainment or anything that would be interesting to an actor is what we're interested in. One of the areas I’m in charge of and expanding is television coverage, including the awards season, because a lot of Jamie Painter Young, Back Stage West   our readers are voters from the
Screen Actors Guild. Over the summer months we put on a series of events where we have actors like Jim Carry and Jeff Bridges come speak and its free to our readers and we get pretty good response.

Last February Back Stage West just launched a new quarterly magazine called “Action.”

“I’ve been with the paper for quite awhile and things we wouldn’t have cover 10 years ago are now part of our day-to-day coverage,” said International General Manager John Burman, Hollywood Reporter.

John Burman, Hollywood Reporter

“Things like gaming, branding, and lifestyle stuff. It gives Publicists a lot more opportunities now to work with us. However, you really need to read and understand our paper and its evolution.”

 
Tom Gilbert, Television Week

“I agree, you should familiarize yourself with our weekly publication,” said Executive Editor Tom Gilbert, Television Week. “Be aware of our deadlines (Thursday and Fridays), know who you’re calling, when you are calling and make your pitches early in the week. If you have a breaking story that you’re going to give to the dailies, if you could wait until Friday, so we could participate in the break on Monday morning, which will also give you better placement. We always welcome exclusives and we will work on them with you in advance. I find a lot of my time is wasted dealing with stories, emails and phone calls that don’t apply to what we do.”

 
Gilbert, Guider and Marguiles 

“It’s about film making and we are particularly interested in stories about actors who are creating vehicles for themselves to act in,” said Young. “Either they are writing those screen plays, directing and or producing. We’re also interested in actors who are making a transition into other areas of film making. We are interested in any stories that an actor or director might find interesting.” Young says her publications are also interested in technology, especially pertaining to how actors can make a film. The next issue comes out in June 2005.

“The coverage of entertainment stories has become so competitive and has created many more opportunities for your client now with the Internet,” said Deputy Editor Lee Margulies, Los Angeles Times Daily Calendar, who has see a landslide of changes at the Los Angeles Times over the last 28 years. “Our coverage has become much more news oriented in recent years. You’ll see a lot less features about individual stars and shows, partly because that kind of story is available on TV and in the weekly magazines. On the news side we have a lot more competition from the trades. “It never used to bother us is a story was in the trades and we got it later. But now with the advent of the Web, what they have is up and available to the public in the same news cycle that we’re dealing with, so it’s a whole different world.

“Read the publication and know what kind of stories we’re doing these days. It gives you a better idea of what your chances are for a particular pitch. We still do some features, but you should know that the odds are not as great. I oversee ‘Quick Takes’ that are short little news items, which are little news stories.  Email is the best method of pitch us, but follow-up with a call if you haven’t heard anything,” Margulies said.

“Entertainment is a huge fabric of Los Angeles, therefore many of our clients are interested in those stories,” said Lori Streifler, editor, City News Services (CNS), which serves more than 200 media outlets in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties. “We actually have a CNS Budget, which is different from our General News Budget of upcoming events, and there is also a weekly CNS Budget which gives you a double shot of getting attention for your item.

“We have a wide range of clients from Spanish Language newspapers to big wire services that take our stories. Fax and email pitches are fine, but no attachments please.

Sending us 10 copies or duplicates of your upcoming events doesn’t make us not want to cover it anymore, but you only need one sent and we may or may not use it. Try to get it to us in plenty of time before your event,” she said.

“CNS has another services for events where they will send out a crew to the event, video tape it and provide a copy of the event with interviews. For example, we covered the PRISM awards, which you pay for,” explained Streifler.  

John Burman can be reached at: jburman@hollywoodreporter.com; Tom Gilbert at: tgilbert@crain.com; Elizabeth guider at: eguider@reedbusiness.com; Lee Marguilies at: Lee.Margulies@LATimes.com; Lori streifler at: citynews@pacbell.net and Jamie Painter Youngat: jpainter@backstage.com.