LT Public Relations

A quick blog post to say thank you to Arwa Jumkawala–the “Roving Reporter” from TMMPDX for attending last week’s LT Public Relations “Buzz on a Budget” PR workshop.

We appreciated the positive coverage.  Click here for the story.

Our next workshop is Thursday, March 4th at LT Public Relations’ office (930 NW 14th Suite 280) in Portland’s Pearl District.  Once again, LT Public Relations will donate all proceeds for the next three months from the PR workshop to the Haiti relief efforts (through Mercy Corps).

 

LT Public Relations attended this morning’s (1/20/10) Portland Business Alliance “Forum” on the topic of, “The Future of Portland’s Media Industry.”  Here’s a brief blog recap.

The breakfast forum had five panelists from a range of different Portland-based media to discuss how the media industry is reacting to technology changes and what the future looks like for news outlets.

Moderated by Kerry Tymchuk of Conkling, Fiskum and McCormick, the media panel included:

• Richard Meeker, Willamette Week
• Steve Clark, Portland Tribune and Community Newspapers 
• Morgan Holm, Vice President, News & Public Affairs, Oregon Public Broadcasting
• DJ Wilson, General Manager, KGW
• Bob Proffitt, President/COO Alpha Broadcasting

The well-attended breakfast forum attracted Portland business professionals of all types, not just us PR folks. Now more than ever, businesses are curious about the media landscape and what to expect from them moving forward. 

Topics and questions ranged from:

• What keeps you up at night?
• How has social media changed the media strategy?
• How do businesses work with the media?
• The future of paying (or not paying) for online content

The panel discussion was not very long, but a few key take-aways we heard were:

• Twitter is the single most effective tool to report breaking news.
• Reporters appreciate the news release, but they don’t report on them.  They need real business stories and real trends.
• Most of the media outlets have thousands of followers, but they need to do a better job to provide important, relevant content to the followers.
• “Don’t become your own journalist”…It’s ok to Tweet and blog, but leave credible reporting to the professional journalists and reporters of the media outlets.
• There are great business stories in Oregon…and we’re very interested in hearing from businesses and the business trends.
• “We don’t have deep contacts within the Portland business community, but want to further cultivate those relationships”
• How much is content worth to newpaper readers?  People will pay for if the content is worthy…
• Instant information has a boundry…it still needs credible reporting behind it.

The breakfast forum was enjoyable and valuable, as it is always important for us PR folks to “Meet the Press.”

For the past two years (2008 and 2009), LT Public Relations has played an integral role for many financial institutions (e.g. banks, credit unions, financial advisors, etc.) in what we call “defensive PR.”  That is, the majority of the communication that has been disseminated to the target audiences and media has incorporate a defensive tone or a justification to why things are bleak (e.g. the extraordinary economic environment, FDIC, etc.).

Well, enough is enough. 

No more excuses.

It’s time to take the defense off the field.  The defense is tired. 2010 is the year to play offense or “offensive” PR.

Time to score some positive points.

Time to tell the positive stories of the financial institutions and how they can help their customers/members…because that’s why they exist, right?

Need help building your offense and getting your defense off the field?

Contact Coach LT PR at pr@ltpublicrelations.com