By edith on 09-14-2009

Meet Sue Kwon, Emmy Award Winning Journalist of CBS 5, ConsumerWatch reporter for CBS 5 Eyewitness News and host of Bay Sunday.

A couple months, we had the great pleasure to meet with Sue Kwon, Emmy Award Winning Journalist, ConsumerWatch reporter for CBS 5 Eyewitness News and host of Bay Sunday. Prior to coming to CBS 5, she served as the high-tech reporter for KRON. Sue covers emerging technology, Silicon Valley companies, stock market developments, and economic trends.

Sue is a Bay Area native and an active member of the Asian American Journalists Association. She has won three AAJA National Awards for News Reporting. The National Federation of Press Women honored Sue with First Place Reporting Awards in 2002-2005. She has also received a 2007 Emmy Award, 2005 Emmy Award, 2004 Peninsula Press Club Award, International Communicator Crystal Awards of Excellence, and recognition as an Association of Women Journalists Vivian Castelberry Finalist.

Sue knows what Local TV News Media is looking for.  She shared some of her insight in pitching local TV News Media and get your business ready.

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With the media landscape changing, businesses need to approach the media differently. The media industry has new tools, outlets, restrictions, and needs. Companies that understand it all, will be best prepared to spread their message.

Here are a few tips when it comes to broadcast news coverage. Keep in mind that our material is produced for the newscasts as well as our website. The material is also shared with affiliate stations around the country. We use Twitter and mobile applications as well. Local TV news is a lot more far-reaching. So, a positive appearance can go a long way. At the same time, a mistake or bad appearance can be hard to fix!

1) The Pitch:

Answer the question “What makes my company or product relevant?” Structure your pitch or message based on current trends or a hot topic. You will be more likely to get a bite from reporters looking for a business to “hook” or “peg” to a larger issue.

For example, you know the Obama Health Care plan is a hot topic and covered on many news outlets. If your business is creating software that could contribute to streamlining health care costs, structure your press release to reflect how the company addresses the bigger issue.

2)The Art of Pitching:

• Identify and speak to your audience.
• Decide what’s best for your purposes – tv, magazine, print, internet, blog?
• Don’t be a spammer. Select specific beat reporters who might cover your particular industry.
• Don’t call during deadline hours, i.e. right before the 5p news.
• If your pitch is regarding an event, send it about a week before. Then follow up 2 or 3 days before the event as well as day-of.
• Always give a thoughtful pitch, not a high-pressure hard-sell.
• The more one-on-one relationships you can build with reporters, the better response you’ll get.
• Don’t bother sending cutesy gifts or expensive vnr’s (video news releases). We can’t really do anything with them.

3)Be Camera Ready: :

• Make sure the person who will be interviewed on-camera is clear on what the story is going to be about.
• Have them practice speaking in full sentences. Don’t be too rehearsed, but be focused on the topic.
• Narrow stripes or stark white look bad on camera.
• If your company looks like a generic workerbee office, get portable signage made that can be brought into a conference room or set up at a cubicle desk. Otherwise, let people and things be “natural.”
• Have a list of local customers ready that the reporter can include in the story. (No relatives or paid spokespeople.)

To meet Sue Kwon in person, come and join us at BizTechDay 2009 on October 22-23.

About edith

Edith Yeung is the Founder of BizTechDay and SFentrepreneur. She is also a lecturer at UC Berkeley International Program and committee member of the San Francisco Small Business Week. She has previously worked with AT&T Wireless, Oracle, Siebel, Autodesk, Cisco Systems, Symantec, American Management Systems (AMS), Telstra Australia, Matav Hungary Telecom and Taiwan Semi-Conductor.

One Response to “How to Pitch Local TV News Media & Be Camera Ready”

1. Lois Wong Says:
   November 4th, 2009 at 5:31 pm

   Hi Sue,
   I met you at biz tech. Where are the pitch videos that we did at the CBS booth. I did one on face painting and haven’t heard a peep.
   Lois

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