As
an author or publisher you care about the news media because you know it is
through our media that we have the best chance to sell books. The mass media
offers an unmatched influence. However, the media is changing greatly, so the
question arises: Who are the influencers and how do we influence them?
Citizen
consumers are indeed exposed to a greater choice in media. It’s around them
24/7 and instantaneously. And the media doesn’t just come and go -- it gets
shared, replayed, reviewed, and downloaded repeatedly. So much comes at us so
fast, from news to entertainment, fact to fiction, and data to misinformation.
The lines blur between advertising and journalism. Our gatekeepers are absent
or overwhelmed or compromised. There are no filters to what one can access.
To
influence the media, you’ll need to understand where it stands today. I like
what the new managing editor of TIME just wrote, as she became the
publication’s first female managing editor:
“It’s
no secret that the media have fragmented in recent years, the audiences have
been split into tribes and that more and more people get their news from even
narrower outlets. But I believe there is still a national, indeed global,
hunger for authoritative voices that speak to the country and the world, ask
sharp questions, tell hard truths, go where others can’t turn a light on the
people whose influence you feel even if you’ve never heard their names.”
I
also agree with what the NY Times wrote recently:
“The
digital evolution has democratized information and created two way platforms,”
Mr. (Ken) Avletta said. “But news rooms have 30% less reporting on city halls
and 40% of the local news is dominated by traffic, weather, and sports.”
"Mr.
Avletta also expressed disappointment that “by now, 15, 20 years into the web,
there are fewer indigenous news entities online than he had anticipated, saying
that the “commentary and aggregation supplied by so many web sites is not
sufficient replacement for journalistic reportage.”
So
how can we impact those who have an impact?
1.
You
still need a good, strong story idea, qualified expert source, luck, and good
timing.
2.
You
still need to target that pitch to the demographics of the particular media
outlet’s followers.
3.
It’ll
still take persistence, creativity, and connections to break through the
clutter.
So
the only thing that’s changed is the number of media outlets. Their needs have
diversified, and their individual influence is smaller than it used to be. So
you need to do more of the same -- and then some. You’ll need to spend more time
researching the key players in the sphere you hope to influence. The details,
personalization, and geography attached to a story play an increasingly bigger
role in determining coverage.
The
media landscape is a connect-the-dots industry. There are so many tiny dots
littering the landscape. Follow the 80-20 rule -- 80% of your efforts should go
towards influencing the media outlets that hold the most eyeballs and ears; the
rest of your time can be spent chasing the smaller outlets that collectively
make up a smaller but still significant portion.
Put
your best foot forward, even if it means wearing shoes of a different size.
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog
are his alone and not that of his employer, the nation’s largest book promoter.
You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He
feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2013
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