Welcome Back

I'm ashamed to admit that I've been neglecting my blog. Fortunately, it's because I'm so busy with work these days that I just haven't had the time. I'm hoping to make more of an effort moving forward.

PR today has changed drastically from when I started in the business. I remember my first few months working at Dan Klores Associates (now Dan Klores Communications). We used to fax press releases! As an assistant, I would have to come in to work an hour earlier to put out a press release via fax so that it's in the newsroom before 9:00 a.m. 

That was way before e-mailing press releases were in vogue, and I welcome how far we've come technologically. Although, it was certainly a helpful social situation sharing one fax machine with other assistants sending out press releases. What a way to get us through the morning. 

These days, I just upload a press release to PRWeb and call my reps over at PRNewswire and set a time for the news to hit. I'm confident that these services will widely distribute the press releases before I even step up to the computer. And, unless I'm working with specific reporters/editors who request personalized e-mails with the news, I tend to sit back and just wait for the hits to keep coming. It usually does and, with an account at Burrelles/Luce and Lexis Nexis I'm in the clear. 

Back in 1998, if I knew there was a hit in a newspaper, I had to literally track down the hard copy, provide a credit card number, and wait for the clip to make its way to my tiny cubicle desk on 28th and Park Avenue South. Today, I just print out a scanned version of the clip for my clip book and then forward the same copy via e-mail to my clients.

Yes, technology today certainly helps a PR professional's life. That being said, I loved everything about learning the business when I did. It made me the professional I am today - scrappy, aggressive, goal oriented and driven. All the things you want when you hire a PR consultant.

Tribeca Film Festival

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Originally uploaded by kyralindsay.

Its been a while since my last post, a few months in fact, but the past couple of weeks have reminded me of my days working at Dan Klores Communications and I feel compelled to blog.

While starting up at DKC, I also spent three seasons working with the marketing department of The New York Rangers. My life, during the hockey season, was extremely hectic. I was working more house than ever, getting into the DKC offices by 8:30 am, working straight until 5:30 pm, before running to the Garden for the games. Typically, on game nights, I wouldn't get home before Midnight. But, as an avid hockey fan, I loved every single minute of it.

A few weeks ago, Jeorjie Ornstein (a friend and colleague) asked if I wanted to work as volunteer with the jury department of the Tribeca Film Festival. I inquired about the position, which was described as an experience that would truly utilize my PR background. After applying for the position with the coordinators of The Tribeca Film Festival's jury department, I was offered a position working with the jurors of the International Documentary Films.

When I heard that Ken Burns was serving on my jury, I was extremely excited. My jury, as a whole, was full of amazing individuals and I feel really lucky that I got to work with such an esteemed group of panelists. While I enjoyed getting to know Marc Levin, Oren Jacoby, Robert Drew and Ken Burns, the highlight of my experience was meeting Mark Cuban.

I have been an admirer of Mark Cuban for years, and will write more about my experience working with Mark in the next blog entry.

Another Year Older...

My friend Andrew Ponzoni, Manager, Public Relations and Communications for Dassault Falcon, and former mentor/supervisor from when I started my PR career, spent the past week gently reminding me to update my blog. Fortunately, I have been so busy with clients, new business, the media, and everything else this job entails, that I haven't had time to update my blog on a daily basis. While I know this doesn't make up for nearly a year of no writing, I hope the following 2005 Year End wrap up will suffice.


2005 started off with a bang with not one, but two, back-to-back appearances for my clients on CBS "The Early Show". In January, the kids from Wingspan Arts were on the program to promote the inaugural Children's Film Festival at Lincoln Center. The media exposure was a tremendous success and the event filled every single seat at Avery Fisher Hall! For Valentine's Day, a contingent of Date.com members braved a cold and misty Monday morning to try and meet the love of their lives on the Early Show. We celebrated with a great breakfast event at the Hard Rock Cafe and a couple of phone numbers were exchanged!

March featured another great event with the Wingspan Arts kids, as Time Out New York: Kids covered the inaugural fundraising event. Josh Lucas almost appeared as our guest actor in a reading by playwrite Stephen Belber. Unfortunately for us, Josh couldn't make it as he was preparing for his Broadway show. The actors in Michael Patrick King's play were fabulous and, with a silent and live auction with great items donated by Scholastic and DealSafari.com, we were able to raise 10% more than the previous year's event.

April/May were spent with three new clients added to my current roster. DealSafari.com, a great website offering brand named items at discount prices; LiquidXS.com, a B2B exchange for overstock items and Cook with Class, a wonderful company run by Chef Rob Endelman who brings cooking instruction in people's homes. Combined wtih some great press for Date.com, the spring really paved the way for a hot summer!

June/July/August were just incredible. I expanded my client offerings and started working with a completely new industry. Shane Reilly or Shane Reilly, Inc. is an extremely talented, driven and capable Interior Designer. Her mission: to find, rent, design, decorate, furnish and finish an apartment at the luxury One Beacon Court in under a month. The end results - gorgeous. Through Shane, I met wonderful editors and reporters such as Jason Kontos, Wendy Goodman at New York Magazine and Annie Block at Interior Design Magazine. While our work together was merely for a few months, focused primarily on the One Beacon Court project, I loved the industry and am looking forward to adding additional interior designers/companies to my roster.

September/October and November featured a number of shared clients with Ilya Welfeld of Welfeld Public Relations Consulting, Inc. And, while I can't disclose what I did with these clients, I can say that working with Ilya Welfeld has been an absolute career highlight for me. Ilya and I have similar backgrounds and very similar work ethics. Like a well oiled machine, we compliment each other and our clients have only reaped the benefits. The results were immediate, impacted the bottom line, and left us with very happy, and satisfied, clients.

December has been a great month for another new client of mine, this time, I've entered the restaurant/bar industry. Bogart's, located at 99 Park Avenue (39th and Park) is a great tapas bar/restaurant. With an extremely talented new Executive Chef from Markt, and a tapas menu that would make your mouth water, this speakeasy has been extremely popular with the Wall Street jet set. The Daily News has already covered the bar twice, and on Friday, December 23rd, a recipe from Chef Joseph Roldan appeared in the Food section.

January is shaping up to be an extremely busy month for all of my clients. From Date.com, gearing up for our biggest holiday season with Valentine's Day, to Cook with Class, who has great at home recipes to make sticking to a healthier diet as a New Year's Resolution fun and EASY!

My New Year's Resolution is to update this blog a little bit more frequently, and here's hoping my next update will be before December 2006!

Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year to all!

THE WEBSITE IS LIVE!!

My website has finally gone live! Make sure you check it out at www.sbkpr.com!

Thanks for Chris and Andrew at Wundermind for their creative brilliance on the website!

Celebrity Challenge and The Non-Profit World

Its been a while since I initially posted. Fortunately, the reason for my lack of updates has been an influx of work during February. Nevertheless, that's still no excuse for neglecting this blog.

In less than 24 hours, my non-profit client will hold their annual fundraising benefit. Dubbed the Arts2Life Gala, the event will raise money to fund all Wingspan Arts programs. An extremely worthy - and essential - organization, Wingspan Arts is dedicated to providing high quality arts education programs for school-aged children. Personally, I could have benefitted from a Wingspan Arts type of organization while going through middle/high school. I don't believe that each and every child is a "student" and it's nice to show kids that, through a creative outlet, they have options in selecting future careers.

Michael Patrick King of Sex and the City fame, along with playwright Stephen Belber, both wrote original new works to be performed during the event. Both are absolutely brilliant pieces. At the eleventh hour to ask a celebrity to perform both plays.
Unfortunately, that meant I spent more than a week crafting letters, faxing over requests, and dealing with absolutely rude assistants (for those publicists who make their assistants do the dirty work).

My efforts were not in vain as Josh Lucas, poised to star in "The Glass Menagerie" on Broadway, agreed to perform Stephen Belber's piece. Unfortunately, after he agreed, he learned that he was needed in a performance on Broadway and had to cancel last minute. We were extremely disappointed, but very appreciative that an actor of his magnitude had agreed to be involved with the event. With three days left until our curtain opened, I was back at square one.

And that's when I had an absolutely awful encounter with a C-list celebrity publicist who literally had a meltdown when I followed up on the initial request. Rather than rehash the awful experience - I'd love to hear how other public relations professionals deal with celebrity publicists (a breed unlike any other in our industry).

Welcome to Media Impressions

Welcome to Media Impressions, my weblog about the PR industry.

To find out more about me, please visit my website:

   

SBK Public Relations

These pages will serve as a forum for everything from industry scandals to tools of the trade. Check back often as I will hold Q&A's with various members of the industry, hopefully some of my famous Dan Klores alumni will be willing to go on the record!

First topic: The correct way to determine Media Impressions and Comparative Advertising Value.