Attend Business Journal parties, but don’t pitch

The Business Journal in Milwaukee hosts its annual Book of Lists party on January 19, and I’m kicking myself because I have a speaking engagement that night.

Similar parties will be held all across the U.S. by other papers in the American Cities Business Journals chain. They’re held to honor businesses, non-profits and organizations that have made it onto one of the weekly lists printed inside the newspaper. The paper compiles the lists and prints them inside a huge coffee table book called the Book of Lists, delivered free to subscribers and kept in the executive suites of top corporations all over the city.

The Business Journal here in Milwaukee spares no expense to honor those of us who have made it into the book. That includes me and my fellow consultants in The Summit Group, named as one of the top consulting firms.

If you’re invited to one of these parties, go. They’re one of the few chances you’ll have to schmooze with reporters and editors—and even the publisher.

Paul Furiga, a former editor of The Pittsburgh Business Times, says that whatever you do, this is not the night to pitch. Most reporters will be holding cocktail glasses, not notebooks. It’s a chance for them to attach your name to your face, so that when you call them again later this week or next to deliver your pitch, hopefully, they’ll remember who you are. Paul was my guest during a teleseminar a few years ago titled “How to Use Business Journals to Tell Your Story.”

Speaking of Pittsburgh, if you live in the Pittsburgh area and you want to know more about how to pitch business journalists, don’t miss hearing Lauren Lawley Head, editor of Pittsburgh Business Times; Steve Massey, business editor, Pittsburgh Post Gazette; and John Oravecz, business editor of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review from 7:30-9:30 a.m. on Thursday, January 26, at the Rivers Club in One Oxford Center downtown. It’s sponsored by the Pittsburgh chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.

Register here.