Mitch's Public Relations & Media Spotlight Podcast on Bylined Articles
By Mitch Leff
Mitch Leff is president of Leff & Associates (www.leffassociates.com) an Atlanta-based public relations agency. In addition to public relations services and media training, Leff also offers two public relations focused web sites:
• Mitch's Media Match (www.MitchsMediaMatch.com) is a new online service for Atlanta and Georgia-based media that matches their story assignments and story concepts with local sources and experts. FREE for journalists.
• Leff's Atlanta Media (www.LeffsAtlantaMedia.com) is an online resource featuring a comprehensive directory of Atlanta media, plus media relations guidelines and prepared templates for commonly used press materials.
***
This week's podcast is another two-parter. In the first section here, we're going to talk about bylined articles. Our "bonus" section is an interview with Doug Nodine with the Georgia News Network. So make sure you listen to the end!
So first off, what is a ‘bylined article'? You've probably heard the term, but might not be exactly sure what we're talking about. In general, any article with someone's name under the headline is a bylined article. What we're talking about here are articles that are contributed by people who are not regular staff writers for a publication. That's you!
You've seen a lot of bylined articles – although you might not have realized you were seeing them at the time. Business to Business magazine, Atlanta Woman, and the Atlanta Business Chronicle are few of the publications in Atlanta that accept contributed articles.
Not every publication accepts articles. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for example does not.
Bylined articles are great ways to establish your company and its executives as experts and "Thought Leaders" in your industry. Current and potential customers will be impressed when they see the articles and it can be a strong part of your overall marketing mix.
These articles are also a way to keep your name in the media if you have periods when you have little other news coming out of the company.
So you need to walk yourself through a few steps to get to that published article. First, you need to identify publications that take bylined articles and are of interest to you or of value to your business. There's really only one sure way to know if you're a good fit for a publication and it's fairly simple: Read it! Visit your local newsstand and load up on publications you want to target.
You might want all local Atlanta magazines, or you might be interested in magazines focusing on financial advice, human resources, technology ... you see the pattern. The key is to figure out what your customers and other target audiences read. You want to be "selling" to a receptive audience that might actually be interested in your product or your services.
Take your pile of magazines home and read through them, asking yourself these questions:
1) Does the magazine include bylined contributed articles? Of course, if the answer to this question is "no" then you can put that one on the recycle pile.
2) Are there topics you think you could write on? Hopefully, there are.
If the answers to those questions are both "yes" then you should proceed to our next step.
Now we need to figure out the guidelines for submitting articles. Sometimes these guidelines are noted in the magazine, but more often than not you'll need to go to their web site and look for a section simply called "writers guidelines." That'll tell you how long the article needs to be, what it should and should not include, specifics on how to submit your article and who to submit it to.
So now you need to decide what you want to write about. Look to your expertise and your company's business and start making a list of topics. Try and come up with a list of five to ten topics so you can offer the magazines several alternatives.
For example, one of my clients, Sanders Financial Management, has a great deal of expertise in investment counseling for women and for seniors ... among other areas. So we were able to help their CEO write articles on how people can protect the asset of their parents as they age (for Atlanta Woman), and what Atlantans should understand about international markets as they invest (for Business to Business).
The secret is simple: Write about what you know.
Once you've got your list of topics you need to start pitching your ideas to the magazines. You can grease the skids a little bit you looking at each magazine's editorial calendars and offering to write for a specific special issue. For example, if you're a staffing company, look for special sections or features on staffing, outsourcing, trends in hiring, etc.
We worked with a company a few years ago that specialized in long-term care insurance. We went through the insurance industry trade publications and found more than a dozen opportunities scattered throughout the year.
So now you've got your publications and your story ideas. Next thing to do is pitch your idea to the editor or staff person charged with taking submissions. I usually boil my article ideas down to a short abstract, a few lines that give my overall concept, and then bullet points that explain what the body of the article will cover.
Once your article concept has been submitted you wait for approval from the publication. Sometimes that happens in days, sometimes weeks or even months. Sometimes the editor will come back to you and ask you to tweak your subject or even write on something related but very different from what you'd submitted. It's important of course to be flexible and try to work with the magazine.
Once you get the go ahead to write, make sure you and editor are clear on the subject, the length of the article, and the deadline.
A few things to remember as you're writing. First, a bylined article is not an opportunity to write an article all about your company and its products. Do that and it's a sure way NOT to have your article published. The article should be issue-focused, not company specific. Write about trends in your industry or issues your customers and peers would be interested in. Use case studies as a way to illustrate your points.
Using research – either your own or from other sources – is an excellent addition to your article. You can also, depending on the writer guidelines, include quotes from other experts on the topic.
Give you readers good bulleted list of tips and "how to" suggestions. You can create sidebar boxes for additional data or background.
Many magazines won't even allow you to mention the name of your company in the body of the article. You will have the opportunity to note your name, title, company, email, and possibly your company's web site at the bottom of the article. You can usually order reprints of the article, which are excellent as inserts into you're your company's sales kits. These reprints can also be posted on your web site.
Stay tuned for our interview with Doug Nodine from the Georgia News Network.
###
By Mitch Leff
Mitch Leff is president of Leff & Associates (www.leffassociates.com) an Atlanta-based public relations agency. In addition to public relations services and media training, Leff also offers two public relations focused web sites:
• Mitch's Media Match (www.MitchsMediaMatch.com) is a new online service for Atlanta and Georgia-based media that matches their story assignments and story concepts with local sources and experts. FREE for journalists.
• Leff's Atlanta Media (www.LeffsAtlantaMedia.com) is an online resource featuring a comprehensive directory of Atlanta media, plus media relations guidelines and prepared templates for commonly used press materials.
***
This week's podcast is another two-parter. In the first section here, we're going to talk about bylined articles. Our "bonus" section is an interview with Doug Nodine with the Georgia News Network. So make sure you listen to the end!
So first off, what is a ‘bylined article'? You've probably heard the term, but might not be exactly sure what we're talking about. In general, any article with someone's name under the headline is a bylined article. What we're talking about here are articles that are contributed by people who are not regular staff writers for a publication. That's you!
You've seen a lot of bylined articles – although you might not have realized you were seeing them at the time. Business to Business magazine, Atlanta Woman, and the Atlanta Business Chronicle are few of the publications in Atlanta that accept contributed articles.
Not every publication accepts articles. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for example does not.
Bylined articles are great ways to establish your company and its executives as experts and "Thought Leaders" in your industry. Current and potential customers will be impressed when they see the articles and it can be a strong part of your overall marketing mix.
These articles are also a way to keep your name in the media if you have periods when you have little other news coming out of the company.
So you need to walk yourself through a few steps to get to that published article. First, you need to identify publications that take bylined articles and are of interest to you or of value to your business. There's really only one sure way to know if you're a good fit for a publication and it's fairly simple: Read it! Visit your local newsstand and load up on publications you want to target.
You might want all local Atlanta magazines, or you might be interested in magazines focusing on financial advice, human resources, technology ... you see the pattern. The key is to figure out what your customers and other target audiences read. You want to be "selling" to a receptive audience that might actually be interested in your product or your services.
Take your pile of magazines home and read through them, asking yourself these questions:
1) Does the magazine include bylined contributed articles? Of course, if the answer to this question is "no" then you can put that one on the recycle pile.
2) Are there topics you think you could write on? Hopefully, there are.
If the answers to those questions are both "yes" then you should proceed to our next step.
Now we need to figure out the guidelines for submitting articles. Sometimes these guidelines are noted in the magazine, but more often than not you'll need to go to their web site and look for a section simply called "writers guidelines." That'll tell you how long the article needs to be, what it should and should not include, specifics on how to submit your article and who to submit it to.
So now you need to decide what you want to write about. Look to your expertise and your company's business and start making a list of topics. Try and come up with a list of five to ten topics so you can offer the magazines several alternatives.
For example, one of my clients, Sanders Financial Management, has a great deal of expertise in investment counseling for women and for seniors ... among other areas. So we were able to help their CEO write articles on how people can protect the asset of their parents as they age (for Atlanta Woman), and what Atlantans should understand about international markets as they invest (for Business to Business).
The secret is simple: Write about what you know.
Once you've got your list of topics you need to start pitching your ideas to the magazines. You can grease the skids a little bit you looking at each magazine's editorial calendars and offering to write for a specific special issue. For example, if you're a staffing company, look for special sections or features on staffing, outsourcing, trends in hiring, etc.
We worked with a company a few years ago that specialized in long-term care insurance. We went through the insurance industry trade publications and found more than a dozen opportunities scattered throughout the year.
So now you've got your publications and your story ideas. Next thing to do is pitch your idea to the editor or staff person charged with taking submissions. I usually boil my article ideas down to a short abstract, a few lines that give my overall concept, and then bullet points that explain what the body of the article will cover.
Once your article concept has been submitted you wait for approval from the publication. Sometimes that happens in days, sometimes weeks or even months. Sometimes the editor will come back to you and ask you to tweak your subject or even write on something related but very different from what you'd submitted. It's important of course to be flexible and try to work with the magazine.
Once you get the go ahead to write, make sure you and editor are clear on the subject, the length of the article, and the deadline.
A few things to remember as you're writing. First, a bylined article is not an opportunity to write an article all about your company and its products. Do that and it's a sure way NOT to have your article published. The article should be issue-focused, not company specific. Write about trends in your industry or issues your customers and peers would be interested in. Use case studies as a way to illustrate your points.
Using research – either your own or from other sources – is an excellent addition to your article. You can also, depending on the writer guidelines, include quotes from other experts on the topic.
Give you readers good bulleted list of tips and "how to" suggestions. You can create sidebar boxes for additional data or background.
Many magazines won't even allow you to mention the name of your company in the body of the article. You will have the opportunity to note your name, title, company, email, and possibly your company's web site at the bottom of the article. You can usually order reprints of the article, which are excellent as inserts into you're your company's sales kits. These reprints can also be posted on your web site.
Stay tuned for our interview with Doug Nodine from the Georgia News Network.
###
