"I WANT THE WALL STREET JOURNAL!!!"

I get this demand from clients at least twice a year. We always try to explain that the process of getting that kind of coverage is not simple, short or based on a news announcement or event. But listening to a presentation by Gordon Crovitz, the WSJ publisher, in Atlanta recently finally gave me some validation.



Crovitz said the way it works is that the Dow Jones gets news out first, then WSJ.com kicks in, then the print story provides context and context only. That's what he said.



Dow Jones does run press releases, but they don't ever cover all the news releases as breaking news. What they are loking for is significant financial news. We're talking billions of dollars here. Once there is a significant trend being reported by Dow Jones, then the WSJ.com will start picking up stories. The WSJ print editors read what comes in from WSJ.com, as well as what is being reported on the larger issue in other publications in the trades and determines if the trend is big enough to warrants coverage. This process could take weeks, months, even years.



That's the way it works. So if you want to get into the Wall Street Journal, be a significant part of a trend that is worth billions of dollars, get other people to talk about your participation in the trend and wit for the phone call.



Like I keep saying, PR is a process, not a tactic.

Comments

  1. PeterCheshamNovember 4, 2007 at 6:07 PM

    Well said, brother...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Loring WirbelNovember 6, 2007 at 2:40 AM

    It astonishes me that in the 21st century, there are still executives out there from a little venture-funded startup giving us yet another VOIP gateway, WLAN chip, social-network software suite, whatever, who think that the WSJ would consider them for page 2 print coverage. You'd think at some point, the delusions of grandeur would be kicked in the teeth by hard-core reality.

    ReplyDelete

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