PR Firm Stacks Former Security Editors

I almost feel sorry for manufacturers here. In a contest between PR agencies and manufacturers, it's hard for me to choose :)

Certainly, this will make it even tough for manufacturers to get coverage, though I think trade mag coverage is overrated anyway. When we first started, I wrote a bunch of articles and was cited by the magazines regularly until I realized that the impact was nil and hardly anyone read them.

That said, here are a few ways for manufacturers to get the word out:

• Buy email blasts: The best part of a magazine is their email list. While rarely do people go to trade magazine websites (since they have little new / interesting content), many people will read emails (it might only be 5% or 10% of the list but with 20,000+ emails on a list that is still 1,000 to 2,000 unique reads). Similarly, do a webinar as it comes with a series of dedicated email blasts.
• Pay an integrator to blog / promote you: This is the MxInstaller model and he's done a great job of proselytizing them. Unlike trade editors or PR people who are typically clueless, and integrator can make far more credible arguments.
• Do your own blog: Most manufacturer blogs are terrible but here's an example of a great one.

Or you can put Compass PR on retainer for thousands a month and have them get you into websites hardly anyone reads.

I have talked to numerous manufacturers about this point over the years. It varies somewhat by magazine,and it is generally not a straight pay for play. However, manufacturers routinely talk about the explicit pressure to buy ads from magazines that feature them or let them 'contribute' articles.

One thing manufacturers can do to help trade magazine editors is write things for them. One of the dirty little secrets of trade mags is how many things are ghostwritten by PR people and then attributed to manufacturer executives or editors. Mags have limited staffs and limited expertise so you don't always have to pay with money, you can do it with work.

Carlton has his own stories...

" One of the dirty little secrets of trade mags is how many things are ghostwritten by PR people and then attributed to manufacturer executives or editors."

Yes, this does happen quite often. There was exactly one instance of someone trying to hang my name on something I didn't write. Not sure where that person works now.

Brian, you are spot on when you say if you submit articles that need little editing to trade mags that they are more likely to get in. I don't think there is a lot distinction between what is disguised marketing or not though. If it's free content and the copy is clean, I think there is a good chance it gets in.

This is the power of having a PR team with strong connections to a trade magazine in three (real-life) examples:

• A magazine is ready to go to print. A manufacturer's PR person calls the editor-in-chief to place an article in the upcoming issue arguing the topic is time sensitive and that they are giving you the exclusive because "they have worked with you before." Stories written by other contributors get pushed to a different section of the magazine or to another issue altogether to make space.
• A magazine publishes a story about a lawsuit involving one of its biggest advertisers and a sexual assault. The PR team for the advertiser calls the magazine and reminds the editors how much the company spends in ads and threatens to pull some. Because the PR person has known the editor-in-chief for years, a backroom deal is negotiated. The magazine agrees to take down the article and publish a marketing piece, penned by the PR team and to do an interview with the VP of the company for a future article.
• A PR person has a good relationship with a trade magazine editor-in-chief so come trade shows, they can promise most of their clients meetings with the magazine. The magazine says it books meetings with companies on a first come, first serve basis, but if the PR agency comes first with 10-15 clients, they have effectively booked 90 percent of the meeting slots with that magazine. This looks great to the agency's clients, great to the editor-in-chief to scout potential advertisers, and not so great to other companies who have been trying for years to sit down with an editor.