One of the very best electronic newsletters I receive is by Rick Frishman of Planned TV Arts in New York City. Rick is an expert in promoting books and authors to the media. His firm organizes media tours and I’ve worked with them several times over the past 15 or 20 years, always with great results.

 Since of of my agency’s core competencies is media relations, I was particularly interested in Rick’s list of the “Fifteen Things the Media Loves.”  I am reprinting his list with permission and attribution to Rick. If you are interested in improving your media pitching skills, I encourage you to subscribe to his newsletter, too. You won’t regret it.

Fifteen Things the Media Loves–

“Reporters are like alligators. You don’t have to love them, you don’t necessarily have to like them. But you do have to feed them.”

–Anonymous Continue Reading »

Back in May of 1993, I went through the Maine raft guide training course at Northern Outdoors in The Forks, Maine. It was an odd thing to do for a new mom….my son Craig had been born just 8 months before. Somehow in my Type A mind, I didn’t want motherhood to change me. In hindsight I should have welcomed the change, but back then I was thinking that in my role as the PR person for Northern Outdoors Adventure Resort, I needed to become a Registered Maine Guide. Luckily my husband, mother, and in-laws understood my obsession and supported me by helping take care of Craig. Continue Reading »

Nicole Ouellette, who is one of the faithful readers (and commenters) on this blog, is working on organizing a network of Maine blogs and bloggers on her blog at Breaking Even. I think it’s a terrific idea to get all the Maine bloggers organized to communicate together and to help each other out.  Here’s a shout-out to Nicole!

I learned about the power of networks around the turn of the century. Continue Reading »

I received an e-mail this morning from my friend Meredith Strang Burgess, who is a state legislator in Maine’s House of Representatives and the owner of Burgess Advertising in Portland. She was encouraging her friends to go to a window company’s website and vote for the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse as their favorite lighthouse. The one with the most votes wins all new windows.

Since I have a fondness for the Pemaquid Lighthouse because my family used to visit Pemaquid Point every summer when I was growing up, Meredith’s message caught my eye.  This lighthouse is also pictured on the face of the Maine quarter, along with the Schooner Victory Chimes. The Victory Chimes was one of my first clients when I launched my agency in 1991, and when it was selected to be on the Maine quarter, we organized the launch ceremony for the introduction of the quarter to the public. So there are many reasons that I have an affinity for the Pemaquid Lighthouse! Continue Reading »