Join community leaders, nonprofit communicators and board members, mainstream and independent journalists, publishers, media experts and the general public to discuss getting our communities’ important stories told.
Come ready to sharpen your media relations and communications skills at workshops and panel discussions lead by the nation’s top media relations experts. You’ll meet journalists interested in your stories and network with peers.
Wondering why one of our keynoters appears to be a cartoon character?
Appearances are deceiving–this is one journalist who gets it:
You [newspapers] must learn to embrace your audiences, wherever they are. How will you do that? However you can.
… in the words of Daniel Honigmann, Colonel Tribune’s real-world representative.
Social-media addicts who follow the site Mashable will find this old news but for the rest of us, last week Colonel Tribune was the subject of a profile on the site when Stuart Foster interviewed the Colonel and Honigmann. Very instructive!
The tools of journalism have changed, but the strongest methods for gathering news are constant, Chicago Sun Times editor-in-chief Don Hayner said in his speech at the Lisagor awards banquet (Jane Hirt, Tribune editor, spoke as well).
“Even though bloggers and citizen journalists can piss me off, I certainly see their value,” Hayner said. “Of course we have to embrace the many ‘platform’ changes we’ve seen. But a lot of those changes are about delivery of news, not the finding of it.”
The former metro editor said the best way to gather news was still to assign full time reporters to the primary listening posts such as local government (He praised Sun Times city hall reporter Fran Spielman, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the event). Journalists cultivate sources daily and work with experienced editors coordinating the information, Hayner said.
“Think of it, platoons of reporters all marching to the tune of news,” Hayner said. “This, of course, is the newspaper model. And in varying ways it’s the TV and radio model. And you know what? IT’S MAGNIFICENT.”
Hear more from Don at CMW’s Making Media Connections conference this June.
report by Workshop intern Christopher Brinckerhoff from Hayner’s comments
I cross posted this at the npcommunicator blog
Pulling together a list of books for the bookseller’s table at Making Media Connections. Reams of reports on communications and other great resources are fresh and new:
- Simon Perazza drew my attention to this one from Arts Work Fund, for arts groups, here
- last fall’s evaluating communications guide under the auspices of the Communications Network by Edith Asibey here (you will need to scroll down to the 3rd item on the page),
- Ford Foundation’s GrantCraft is producing a report on strategic communications next month, too
But we don’t have much between covers on our field.
Since we are having a book seller at our conference who helpfully asked us–what kind of books would your attendees find useful? we did some brainstorming but I suspect we are missing a few gems. Read the rest of this entry »
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“Every story has a human element, but human interest stories are always the best way for readers to understand a problem because you put a face on it,” Southtown Star columnist Phil Kadner says. “Usually the best way to pitch it is the human element.”
Kadner, winner of multiple Lisagor awards for exemplary journalism from the Chicago Headline Club, a 2002 Studs Terkel Community Media Award and a presenter at this year’s Making Media Connections conference, says that even after more than 20 years of columns he still is surprised by how amazing people are at addressing dilemmas once they know where to go and who to reach out to: “If they’re given access to the right resources they can solve problems. People mobilize to the cause and can be very creative that way.”
Kadner’s advice for pitching stories is to keep it simple to start with. Focus on what’s the problem and how it impacts people. Facts can help demonstrate the importance of those individual stories, though.
“Also, if you can document a problem, that’s really important, because that substantiates it,” Kadner said. “Otherwise it’s just rumor and hearsay.” It’s worth taking the extra time to find both the story and the background information: “The people who give me the most good information to start with have the best chance of making my column.”
Meet Phil — and other columnists and journalists, social media experts, and peers — June 10-11!
–Interview and report by Workshop intern Christopher Brinckerhoff
Mariko Drouin of Chicago Metropolitan Area Education for Young Children has to lead a marketing workshop at their upcoming conference, and as folks who’ve come through our workshops often do, she checked in to get a little more information from us on how to polish her presentation.
Mariko Drouin has her organization on Facebook, Twitter, and more
She and I got to chatting about last year’s Making Media Connections, which Mariko attended, and she shared some of what she did as a result of what she learned last year. I asked her to write it up so we could show off her awesome skills:
Making Media Connections was extremely inspiring. I went back to the office and in a matter of months wrote a social media strategy, launched a Facebook fan page and online community, purchased a flip video for testimonials, and implemented Twitter at our annual conference! [GM note: great conference use of twitter, "whoever lost their blackberry, come down to the coat check to pick it up" albeit somewhat problematic, right? unless they have a laptop or a blackberry buddy, too] These tools have been very helpful to generate new customers and strengthen the relationship with existing ones. The conference helped me discover the power behind social media tools and was a great place to share ideas and connect with others who are challenged with the same nonprofit marketing issues.
Thanks, Mariko.
Registration for the “Advocate+Communicate=Change” 2009 Making Media Connections Conference is now open with the discounted early-bird rate. Save now, offer expires April 30, 2009.
Register Now
As we get ready for the 2009 Making Media Connections conference, we’d like to hear from you on how we can make this year the best we can. Email us at cmw@newstips.org.
If you are interested in sponsoring or tabling at the conference, please contact Diana Pando at diana@newstips.org or call 312-369-6400.
Join community leaders, nonprofit communicators and board members, mainstream and independent journalists, publishers, media experts and the general public to discuss getting our communities’ important stories told.
