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Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

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by Andrew Tellijohn
October 2005

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Upsize Primer: Internet marketing

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Dear Informer


You can glean competitors’
price info honorably,
Informer learns

jwright@thinkgreer.com; www.thinkgreer.com

MEDIA RELATIONS

DEAR INFORMER: A colleague heard you speak about how to become a media darling, and I missed it. Can you reprise the information?

DEAR FLATTERER: The Informer is thrilled that you asked! (And she swears she did not make up this request. She will also tell you hilarious anecdotes about her adorable children, but only if you ask urgently.)

Her alter-ego, Upsize Editor Beth Ewen, gives these top 10 tips when she talks to groups about how to get the business press to cover their firms.

No. 1. Build up trust with editors and reporters over the long haul. This is the most important issue, to be trustworthy, because all journalists live in fear that they will get something wrong or be duped by a source. Always tell the truth. I and every other journalist will eventually find out if you don’t, and we will be very skittish about talking to you again.

No. 2. Recognize that there are about five jobs in journalism and everybody just trades them. Word does get around about the relative trustworthiness of sources, often very directly when staff members go to new organizations, often in higher positions than before. On the positive side, everybody takes their best sources with them when they move to a new newsroom.

No. 3. Never blow off a reporter because you think the publication isn’t important enough. It is almost guaranteed that the reporter at Cable Access Podunk USA whom you decline to call back will one day be in charge of booking the Oprah show.

No. 4. Always build relationships with the people who have the quota. At every publication or radio or TV show there are lots and lots of people desperate for a good story, but they are likely NOT the top editors or the executive producers. (Upsize Minnesota excluded, because although I sit at the very top of the one-person editorial staff, I also have a quota.) It’s easy to identify the people who need to file a certain number of stories each week or day or hour: Look at or listen for their bylines, and look at the section editors or line producers.

No. 5. Read the publications and listen to the broadcasts where you want to be. It’s so easy to find out what publications and individuals are interested in; you just have to read, watch or listen to them. There are probably six people total in the world who actually do this, so you’ll stand out if you’re one of them.

No. 6. Choose a few publications or shows, and focus exclusively on them. Did you know there are nearly 300 magazines published in Minnesota alone? There is something out there for every story, but you can’t possibly follow the tip above if you don’t choose and focus.

No. 7. It never hurts to compliment (sincerely) a reporter or editor. Most reporters are convinced that they’re toiling in obscurity, that nobody reads what they’re writing, that they’re going to get yelled at for getting something wrong, and so a sincere e-mail or phone call from a source commenting specifically about something they’ve written is balm. They like to pretend they don’t care, but every reporter’s cubicle is going to have the three thank-you notes they’ve ever received in their lives tacked up for all to see. Don’t send gifts, though, because most of them are banned anyway and they make us feel cheap.

No. 8. Get quoted and published, any way and anywhere you can. This is especially important today with the rise of Google. The first thing that I and every reporter does when we get an assignment is Google it. Then we see who’s been quoted on the subject and we call them. Why do you think the same people get quoted all the time? Write an op-ed piece, contribute a how-to article, offer to speak at a meeting so you’re at least listed in the calendar, enter a business contest. (Hint: nominations are open right now for the Upsize Lifeline Awards; check dev.divistack.com)

No. 9. Embrace the chaos that is the news business. Choosing what gets into a publication is highly subjective. Each person has his or her own system for choosing stories, although to call some of these methods a system is stretching it. If you’re looking for a magical formula or scientific system you will be frustrated. Recognize that if one thing doesn’t get attention, try again and keep trying. You will eventually break through.

No. 10. Realize that it’s our story, not yours. This is an important truth for philosophical reasons. The press is protected in our society so that it’s free to report without influence by government. It’s also an important truth for practical reasons. You’re not going to get a copy of my story in advance. You don’t get to dictate who should be in the picture. You don’t get to decide what to include and what to leave out. If you pay the writer and photographer and editor and printer and Post Office, then you get to choose all those things. If I as the publisher pay for all those elements, you don’t. Violating this principle at best makes journalists cranky and at worst causes them to drop you as a source because you’re too much trouble.

Bonus tip: If you get attention from someone in the news media, TALK.  You would probably be surprised at the number of people who go to great lengths to get coverage, even paying PR firms fat monthly retainers and printing expensive media kits, and then when they finally do they decline to comment for whatever reason.

Reporters have the attention spans of gnats, and they’re always on deadline. If you won’t talk, if you won’t give important details like company revenue, if you deflect the question to someone else who’s in China, while you are explaining your well-thought-out reason the reporter is already speed-dialing someone who will.

Beth Ewen, Upsize Minnesota: 612.920.0701, ext. 11; bewen@upsizemag.com; dev.divistack.com