How I Pick Stories For My Blog, How Your Company Can Get More Exposure
I’m often asked by companies how I pick and choose what news I write about on the blog, which topics I am most interested in covering and how they can get more exposure within my editorial. That’s a great question to ask and while I have detailed this in a blog post before, it’s been a few years, so it’s a good time for me to answer the question again.
For starters, unlike many media folks and analysts who are annoyed by pitches, I’m not. You can contact me at any time via email or phone (917-523-4562) as I reply to every pitch I get. The topic you are pitching may not be a fit for what I cover, or I may not have enough expertise to write about it, but I will always reply. I know many others in the industry feel “annoyed” by all the pitches, or press releases they are sent, but I’m not. Any real analyst understands that is part of the job and they should welcome the pitches.
When it comes to covering news and stories, the sad fact is that I simply don’t have enough time in the day/week to cover all the news I want to. Unlike those whose only job is blogging, my blog is just one of the many full-time jobs I have. I still have to plan shows for StreamingMedia.com, do work as an analyst at Frost & Sullivan, answer all the inbound calls and email from content owners and vendors looking for help, make introductions to others, speak to other members of the media for their stories as work with VCs and those on Wall Street. So much news I see, or stories I want to write about, I simply never have the time to get to. I’m also not interested in doing a “me too” story. If you can read about it on another blog or news site, and I don’t have a different/unique angle to bring to it, simply re-hashing what others have said isn’t valuable. So I’m also always trying to cover topics that aren’t as mainstream, or things others may not have provided any business insight into.
So just because I didn’t cover your news, that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. Case in point, I thought the news by Brightcove in April about their new OTT offering was very interesting, especially since they listed the cost for the service, which most never do. I planned to do a blog post about it, and yet two months later, it’s still on my to do list. Another one would be a story I need to do on IBM and just how big of a player they are going to be in this space, and I haven’t gotten to that one yet either. I also need to get posts up about Fastly, Netflix’s spend with AWS, Ooyala, CDN Pricing, NPAW, and highlights from a report on HEVC. There are many more like this, great stories that want to write, but I simply can get to all of them. I only have so many hours in the day/week that I can dedicate to writing. So if I don’t do a story about your news, don’t take it personal.
But what makes it easier for me to get a post online, it to send me some background in an email. I need more than just a press release, that’s a good start, but think of all the questions I am going to ask you about, that the press release does not answer. That’s the info I am looking for. Questions, comments, want to bounce ideas off me for stories, contact me anytime.