A Newspaper Article about Newspaper Articles
Benjamin Lewis '01
Issue date: 4/6/00 Section: Features
- Page 1 of 1
In the past month, reporters from the New York Times, LA Times, and USA Today have visited the school. Michelle C. Berry, Johnson's Communications and Media Relations Officer has been working with reporters from these and other newspapers in an effort to increase press coverage of our school.
Encouraging reporters to call on examples from Johnson is an interesting task and a number of techniques are being used to help build relationships with reporters and newspapers. Recently, the efficacy of press release usage from any type of organization has dropped, mainly because of Internet technologies. One solution is for our school to contact reporters directly, often by email, and Michelle has helped to build relationships with a number of key media professionals that regularly write stories about business school activities.
There are many other ways that reporters find topics about our school worthy of press coverage. Occasionally, newspaper staff will contact the school directly from our World Wide Web page, which has useful resources in the "News & Ideas" section for interested parties including information about faculty experts and general facts and figures about the school.
Specific requests for stories also come to the school via expert search engines including BznetUSA and Profnet, services, which match media requests to experts willing to be quoted in very specific fields. These Internet services are essential for modern public relations management. Furthermore, we work with a public relations firm and the Cornell News Service to push particular stories.
The New York Times visitation this month is an interesting case on how building a relationship with reporters can pay off in the long term. After a report was published about a slump in MBA applications at many business schools (Johnson's application numbers actually increased and was not mentioned in the article) Michelle contacted the reporter to encourage him to write about us in a positive light, and to also invite him to visit our campus. The reporter came to Sage Hall and met with a number of students, the dean, faculty, and toured the facilities and was able to see first hand the unique successes at our school. This relationship building should pay off in future reports about business schools published in the New York Times.
Citations in big newspapers are especially important because these days, smaller newspaper, magazines, radio stations, and TV shows regularly scan newspapers like USA Today to find current topics worthy of reporting. Once published in USA Today, a chain reaction often occurs and many other media representatives will report on the article. Much like how this newspaper article is reporting on other newspaper articles!
Lastly, students and faculty can help build the brand name of the Johnson School in newspapers by writing letters to the editor. Most recently, Denise Dahlhoff's letter to the Financial Times was published in the March 28th issue of the newspaper. Key email addresses to send comments include letters.editor@ft.com, letter.editor@edit.wsj.com, and letters@nytimes.com. If your letter is published, after you brag to all your friends, please let Michelle C. Berry (mcb45@cornell.edu) know so she can log a citation.
Encouraging reporters to call on examples from Johnson is an interesting task and a number of techniques are being used to help build relationships with reporters and newspapers. Recently, the efficacy of press release usage from any type of organization has dropped, mainly because of Internet technologies. One solution is for our school to contact reporters directly, often by email, and Michelle has helped to build relationships with a number of key media professionals that regularly write stories about business school activities.
There are many other ways that reporters find topics about our school worthy of press coverage. Occasionally, newspaper staff will contact the school directly from our World Wide Web page, which has useful resources in the "News & Ideas" section for interested parties including information about faculty experts and general facts and figures about the school.
Specific requests for stories also come to the school via expert search engines including BznetUSA and Profnet, services, which match media requests to experts willing to be quoted in very specific fields. These Internet services are essential for modern public relations management. Furthermore, we work with a public relations firm and the Cornell News Service to push particular stories.
The New York Times visitation this month is an interesting case on how building a relationship with reporters can pay off in the long term. After a report was published about a slump in MBA applications at many business schools (Johnson's application numbers actually increased and was not mentioned in the article) Michelle contacted the reporter to encourage him to write about us in a positive light, and to also invite him to visit our campus. The reporter came to Sage Hall and met with a number of students, the dean, faculty, and toured the facilities and was able to see first hand the unique successes at our school. This relationship building should pay off in future reports about business schools published in the New York Times.
Citations in big newspapers are especially important because these days, smaller newspaper, magazines, radio stations, and TV shows regularly scan newspapers like USA Today to find current topics worthy of reporting. Once published in USA Today, a chain reaction often occurs and many other media representatives will report on the article. Much like how this newspaper article is reporting on other newspaper articles!
Lastly, students and faculty can help build the brand name of the Johnson School in newspapers by writing letters to the editor. Most recently, Denise Dahlhoff's letter to the Financial Times was published in the March 28th issue of the newspaper. Key email addresses to send comments include letters.editor@ft.com, letter.editor@edit.wsj.com, and letters@nytimes.com. If your letter is published, after you brag to all your friends, please let Michelle C. Berry (mcb45@cornell.edu) know so she can log a citation.