Every journalist (and police officer, for that matter) should start their investigative work with a Google search. They may find it’s all they need. You’ve probably read by now of the disappearance, reappearance and arrest of the former British prison officer John Darwin, who turned up at a police station this month saying he’d lost… Read More »
I’m no fan of bad, sloppy PR, and to me there’s nothing quite as sloppy as pitching a product to a journalist s/he has already written about. Do these people not have any records at all? Do they have no idea of what coverage their product has already received? I’ve been pitched two products in… Read More »
This is the latest despatch from Loose Wire Service, a sister service to this blog that provides newspapers and other print publications with a weekly column by yours truly. Rates are reasonable: Email me if you’re interested. Jeremy Wagstaff discusses how the Internet has redefined journalism and the emergence of “hyperlocal” news The Jakarta Post… Read More »
Good grammar is important, whether you’re pitching a story to a journalist or a scam to a dupe. Here are two examples: how not to and how to. First off, a PR pitch that endangers its credibility with an error in the subject line: And now, here’s an example of getting it right: A scam that not only… Read More »
When independent blogger Mary Jo Foley, who knows more about Microsoft than Microsoft does, interviewed the company’s new Corporate VP of its Searching and Advertising Group recently, she was told that Microsoft had recently launched an ad-funded version of Microsoft Works, the application suite you think will be a cheap alternative to Office but turns out not to… Read More »