#FollowFriday – Media Relations Resources

“Journalism is the first rough draft of history.”

-Philip L Graham, Publisher, Washington Post

I had several conversations this week about how Communications Directors and other media relations folks can use Twitter to interact with the printed press.   Interesting topic for a few reasons:

1. All indications are that the printed press is of the dying breed;
2. Using a 2.0 tool to connect with 1.0 media seems like an oxymoron;
3. New media communications is about getting information out quickly, and interactions surrounding it.  Print offers neither.

My colleagues and I stopped using news wires, primarily because of the cost associated with their services.  The same effort that it takes to write a press release and submit it through news wires can easily be used to broadcast yourself by serving as your own news service.

Communications needs have changed, as well.  I find more value in the interaction and feedback with our constituents on our blogs and social networks (primarily Facebook).

All this said, many journalists are adopting 2.0 tools in order to save their 1.0 business. Just this week, the New York Times appointed Jennifer Preston (@NYT_JenPreston) the New York Times’ first Social Media Editor.  Both the Times and Washington Post are doing a great job using new media and multimedia tools, and creating unique content using free resources such as Google maps and API calls.

So how do you find the reporters/journalists that best fit your communications needs?  Try these resources.  (If you have other ones, let us know by leaving a comment!)

• @muckrack – Muck Rack is the best repository of journalists that I’ve seen so far.  You can sort by beat, news outlet, or even recent tweeted photos.
• @wefollow – We Follow is a user-powered Twitter directory where Twitterers self-identify their areas of interest or affiliation through tags.  It’s not as easy to search by beat or outlet as Muck Rack, but you may find some unusual suspects here.
• Media on Twitter – In addition to U.S. journalists, Media on Twitter has lists of journalists and news media Twitter accounts in Australia, Canada, France, India, Malta, Mexica, Russia, South Africa, Thailand and the UK.

By the way, if you’re a major newspaper needing a Social Media Editor, tweet me @sherrymain.  I’m interested… and interesting!