If the business journal in the town where you live invites you to attend a meeting at the paper where you’ll learn lots of tips on how to use the newspaper as a sales tool, you’d be crazy not to go.
Thanks to Publicity Hound Carol Rehak of Milwaukee, Wisconsin for tipping me off to the invitation she received from The Business Journal in Milwaukee, where I worked as an editor about 10 years ago. It invited her to a 45-minute meeting on March 14 with editor Mark Kass and execs from the advertising and circulation departments.
After sharing lots of tips on how to use the paper as a sales tool, they’ll probably do a softsell of some sort and try to hit you up for a subscription or an ad. But even so, Paul Furiga, former editor of The Pittsburgh Business Times and my guest during a teleseminar a few years ago called “How to Use Business Journals to Tell Your Story,” says attending meetings like these is a great way to learn more about the newspaper.
You might even find time to ask the editor questions about the kinds of stories his staff is covering. And it wouldn’t be unusual if they gave you a tour of the newsroom and introduced you to some of the reporters.
Business Journals have been used, particulalry by salespeople, as prospecting tools for years. These meetings are a smart move on the part of the paper. Other papers in the American Cities Business Journals chain are hosting similar sessions.
If you go, let me know what you learned.