PRSA Phoenix Media Happy Hour Recap

On Tuesday, Bre and I attended the latest media happy hour hosted by PRSA Phoenix. This event was hosted at O.H.S.O. Brewery in Paradise Valley, and even though it’s June, it was still perfectly comfortable out, especially with the shade and the fans that O.H.S.O. provided.
The media people in attendance were Tyson Milanovich of ABC 15, Stina Sieg of KJZZ, and Lisa Fuller-Magee of azfamily and CBS 5. Given the atmosphere, and that O.H.S.O. is a pretty popular dinner spot, it was a bit loud and difficult to hear the panelists. But with some quick thinking by PRSA Phoenix board member Diane Smith, we decided to do a sort of speed dating, where each of the media people spoke to seven to 10 people at once and then moved on to the next group. This allowed us to ask every question we had when it comes to pitching them. I actually think I preferred this method as opposed to the typical panel!
Some of the key takeaways from the event were:

• TV producers can get 600 emails per day. Your subject line needs to stand out and you need to say what your pitch is about in the first sentence of your email. THEN provide the details.
• Don’t pitch multiple people at a station. Send it to one person and if they’re not the right person, they’ll forward it to the correct one.
• Morning TV producers are out of the station by 11 a.m. or noon. If you want them to see your pitch the day you send it, you need to email them during their hours, which are not normal business hours.
• When sending a pitch, ask yourself, “do their viewers/listeners NEED this?” Because only when the answer is yes are you going to be invited for a segment.
• Don’t send really long pitches, and don’t send wildly non-local ones.
• Tell the producer if your pitch is an exclusive. It makes a difference. And they follow the other stations, so they’ll know if the pitch they’re getting is something that’s been done before.

And they gave out their email at the end of the event, so if you want to pitch them, they are: tyson.milanovich@abc15.com, ssieg@kjzz.org and lisa.magee@azfamily.com.
Overall, I think it was a great event. Besides learning more about the media, I got to meet some new PR people as well as see some faces I already knew. Looking forward to the next one!