Thanks to Publicity Hound Paul Furiga for pointing out the special section on trends in the November 21 Wall Street Journal. It’s worth a trek to your local library to check it out.
The paper tracked trends in 10 industries: retail, radio, utilities, housing, groceries, delivery services, advertising, the security industry, venture capital and steel.
Publicity Hounds will find several interesting trends in the radio category. For example, the number of commercial stations broadcasting in Spanish climbed to 708 this year from 665 last year and 427 in 1995. Radio stations are also experimenting with talk shows or even entire programming lineups aimed at women, with the idea of pulling in more radio advertisers that go after the coveted mommy demographic. Listeners will also notice that many radio hosts are forming membership clubs, such as the “Friday Night Girls” club formed by Delilah Rene, whose nationally syndicated show features love songs mixed with uplifting stories from listeners.
Use the section to identify trends in your own industry or industries you are targeting for more business. Then create a short, catchy pitch that weaves in statistics about trends related to the story idea—a sure way to catch the media’s attention. Raleigh Pinskey, a wizard at creating memorable pitches, shows you how to do it on the CD or electronic transcript titled “How to Create the Perfect 30-Second Pitch.” It comes with a list of Raleigh’s 26 ways to reel in the media with hooks. You can download it and be reading it as soon as your order has been approved.