Shaping Your Story for Maximum Placement

For me, after 30 years of sniffing, I can smell a good story as easily as I can a barbecuing steak from a block away.

My nose has made me a good living for 30-plus years. Writing monthly columns for business magazines left me to unearth hidden nuggets in the dry-as-dirt Federal Register, to take a prominent example, and excavate, polish and turn a technically-written (nearly incomprehensible) bone into a provocative piece of news for a magazine client, whose readers couldn't find that story anywhere else, much less in a rival publication. That is what I can do for you. What that means is that I paste back my ears and dig into your products, services and whatever other corporate scents you wave in front of my nose and I find "your story, " one that would be deemed newsworthy by a trade publication, newspaper, website which is read by an audience you want to reach.

Whether you already have a topic in mind, or you want my advice on what might be your most "salable" stories, I come into your company, dig into your operations and help you refine "your stories." Then I turn them into feature articles which, after you approve, I market to magazines you also approve of in advance.

Here, frankly, is the key part of the process: the finished story is not about you; it is about your clients. It is through your clients, communities, employees or whoever is your target audience that I tell your story. You pre-select clients for me to interview and clear my path.

Lastly, I find a "news angle" amidst my interviews and research with both your people and your clients. This is important if I am to place your story; the topic has to be newsworthy or else an editor will turn up his or her nose. Not only must your story be newsworthy, it should also resonate with what is going on in your industry. Throughout this process, I use the judgment, reporting, researching, writing, editing and media intelligence skills I have developed over 30 years.