When I called my sister on New Year’s Eve to wish her a happy new year, I asked her what everybody was doing.
“The geezers are upstairs watching TV and Tim is in the basement with his buddies playing poker,” she said.
Tim is my nephew. He and his buddies are 16.
Back when I was a kid, the geezers were in our basement playing poker, and the kids were upstairs watching the tube.
Poker is everywhere these days, from coffee shops to junior high cafeterias. The media go ga-ga over anything related to poker, and this is an ideal time to pitch this story.
Do employees play poker during their lunch hour in your cafeteria? Are there poker clubs at your high school or college? Do you belong to a neighborhood poker group? Do people play poker at the neighborhood YMCA or restaurant? Do you watch poker tournaments on TV? Do you wear sunglasses when you play?
While searching the Internet for poker stories, I found a USA Today article . It discusses the poker epidemic and the resulting concerns that students are getting hooked on this form of legalized gambling.
I also found another USA Today story from several weeks ago that explains how Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, both of whom are crazy about bridge and play it in tournaments and online, are investing $1 million to start a program to teach contract bridge in junior high schools. They want the game of bridge, usually played by geezers, to become even more popular than poker among youngsters because it teaches intellectual development and teamwork.
If you play bridge, you’re automatically the local angle to this national story. When pitching, mention the Gates/Buffett tie-in. Tell the media whether you like the idea of bringing this into the schools. Discuss in interviews why you play bridge and the skills it has helped you develop. If you’re a geezer, does bridge help keep your mind sharp? Consider writing an opinion column or a letter to the editor about poker or bridge. Don’t forget to pitch columnists who write on youth or lifestyle issues.
Pitching columnists is just one of 19 “rules of the road” for Publicity Hounds, suggested by a panel of journalists that met in New York in October. They included reporters from The Wall Street Journal, Family Circle and NY1, New York’s cable station. The tips are included in the January/February issue of The Publicity Hound subscription newsletter.