Today at an event attended by public relations professionals, iconic technology journalist and Author Brad Stone gave advice on pitching Bloomberg News. He manages a team of journalists there.
He also just published a book called Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire.
He added that previously Bloomberg focused only on public companies; that has changed.
He was asked by the event moderator if he missed in-person events like conferences. He said yes, he has, and not having them has been a challenge. For example, he misses hallway conversations.
Here are seven tips he offered when pitching Bloomberg:
- Be persistent.
- Offer something interesting and impactful that a reporter doesn’t already know.
- Don’t be sensitive about hard questions.
- Finding the right reporter is key.
- Don’t try too hard when you know you don’t have the goods.
- Don’t sell too hard.
- Sometimes a pitch is successful just by chance.
In summary, please keep these tips in mind and simply think before you shoot an email off to Bloomberg. You might be surprised at what you accomplish if your timing and message is well thought out.
On a final note, are you aware of a unique part of the Bloomberg business, the tech side? The company employs thousands of technologists who define, architect, build and deploy complete systems to fulfill the needs of financial market participants globally.
I’m a curious person by nature and when a friend who also does PR brought up Bloomberg Tech the other day I wanted to know more so I checked it out online. I used to think of Bloomberg as mostly an editorial operation. It’s not.
[The orange cup and pink notebook photo is from Canva Pro.]
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Michelle McIntyre is a Silicon Valley PR consultant and IBM vet. @FromMichelle on Twitter. Thanks PRSA-SV team for scheduling Brad Stone as a Friday Forum speaker.
––––––––––– MMC ––––––––––––– Michelle McIntyre Communications 