April 15, 2010
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How do reporters find experts & great interviews in the 21st Century?
It's not enough-- has never been enough-- to just make a few phone calls, read a press release, and bang out the story. Good journalists spend a lot of time going to parties and meetings and conferences, hoping to meet the right people... they spend a lot of time digging up background information and trying to check facts for accuracy... they spend a lot of time driving and walking and ringing doorbells and going through security checkpoints and shaking hands so they can personally meet and talk with people of all kinds who might make newsworthy stories, events or perspectives, or who are affected by those things.
But in the 21st Century, the journalist/blogger/freelance writer has another tool, amazingly helpful and simple and powerful... and you can be part of it.
This tool is called HARO, an acronym for Help A Reporter Out. It is basically a site and an email distribution list run by marketing guru Peter Shankman, and today is only its second anniversary of existence.
If you have ever wanted a peek (just a peek-- there's much to newsrooms and freelance writing that you won't see from here) behind the journalistic curtain, sign up and see what it's like. You may eventually find yourself interviewed or quoted in an article, book, TV or radio show, but please stick to the ground rules, always. There are only five (er, nine?) of them. You can always unsubscribe when you're tired of it. I'm not tired of it yet!
"Get sourced, get quoted, get famous: http://helpareporter.com"
