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Edit Forum Network – Frequently Asked Questions for Journalists
A: As part of the Edit Forum Network, you realize the following benefits:
A: The flagship product from PRSourceCode, LLC, Edit Forum is a Web-based service that facilitates proactive, focused interaction among PR professionals and key technology-focused media outlets. Edit Forum services are designed to minimize the amount of repetitive feature inquiry calls that your editorial team receives from PR professionals. A representative from PRSourceCode contacts your publication to obtain the feature focus, deadline, and writer for your editorial features. PRSourceCode publishes this information to its subscriber network, and PR professionals then know whether or not they need to contact your writers with pitches. Think of us as your "Editorial Agent." Q: Why should my publication care about being a member of the Edit Forum Network? A: By publishing your feature information through Edit Forum, your publication proactively reaches hundreds of PR professionals through a single outlet. Your editorial team can concentrate on preparing articles, rather than dealing with the barrage of redundant first inquiry PR calls and subsequently weeding through irrelevant pitches. Additionally, Edit Forum empowers you to dynamically change your editorial calendar mid-year and communicate changes directly to the interested PR community. Q: What does PRSourceCode know about my publication’s editorial calendar? A: We have gone through your editorial calendar and tracked every feature listed. From that point, we tagged those features to at least one of our major technology categories or verticals. The categories are below:
A: Most reporter contact information is widely available via mastheads or media databases such as MediaMap and Press Access. However, if you are hesitant to have your or your reporter's contact information distributed, we would suggest offering only an e-mail address as the means of communication. Q: Does this service take the place of proactive pitching by PR professionals on behalf of their clients? A: Edit Forum does not replace proactive pitches related to news, trends, customer stories, etc. Rather, Edit Forum replaces repetitive inquiries regarding features listed on your publication’s editorial calendar. For instance, if you have a feature slated for March on “Security”, that topic is so wide open that PR professionals will inundate you with calls requesting clarification. Will you be covering Network Security? Homeland Security? VPNs? Firewalls? The possibilities are endless. Because the items listed on most editorial calendars are so vague, PR people need to repeatedly contact the publication reference each issue to clarify the focus. The result: these calls interrupt your editorial team’s valuable time, and many of these calls end up being irrelevant. After all, if my company sells VPNs, and your reporter has stated she will be covering firewall tools only, we aren’t going to be interested in pitching your reporters. Q: Why would PR professionals go through PRSourceCode rather than calling on editorial opportunities themselves? A: If Edit Forum can provide accurate, detailed information to PR practitioners, then our subscriber base immediately knows whether they should contact your reporters directly with more information. As such, our service does not replace direct contact with reporters. It does, however, help PR pros to target the RIGHT opportunities – increasing the likelihood that they will be viewed by your publication as a value-add resource, rather than a nuisance. Importantly, because we narrowcast relevant opportunities, we empower your editorial staff to manage more “relevant” PR calls and avoid spending time with “irrelevant” inquiries. Q: Will membership in the Edit Forum Network compete with my publication’s relationship with wire services? A: There is no competition between PRSourceCode and any of the wires - and it in no way should affect any other group with which you have an existing relationship. PRSourceCode is not a wire service. Nor are we an editorial calendar clearinghouse. We independently gather editorial calendars, then at the appropriate time, contact each publication to obtain more information on the focus. We push information on relevant editorial features to our paid subscriber base. Any information uncovered by other PR practitioners or other services is completely outside of this relationship and completely unrelated. Q: Is there a fee to become a member in the Edit Forum Network? There is no fee for publications to become a part of the Edit Forum Network. Q: What are the benefits to listing my publication on the PRSourceCode.com site? A: The listing of publications on PRSourceCode.com is designed to show the PR community the depth and breadth of publications we track. The link to each publication’s website helps visitors understand what the publication is, its audience, etc., in case the visitor is unfamiliar with the publication. It is not intended to link to publications' editorial calendars. As you can appreciate, we strongly recommend that our subscribers read the target publication before attempting to pitch a story. Q: Why should my publication put the Edit Forum Network logo on our editorial calendar? A: The appearance of the Edit Forum Network logo on your editorial calendar is a sign to the PR community that PRSourceCode is keeping in continual contact with your publication and is tracking all potential opportunities. The link back to PRSourceCode allows PR professionals to understand the full spectrum of publications included in the service. Q: What if our editorial calendar is constantly in flux? A: The Edit Forum Network empowers you to make real-time adjustments to your editorial calendar without losing or confusing the vendor/PR community. We allow you to insure that the vested communities remain up to date on any feature changes that you may make midcourse in the year. For example, when you created your editorial calendar in October, perhaps you planned to feature “Multimedia/ Video Conferencing” in your August 15th issue. However, as planning for that issue approached, you realized that “Security” was more timely and relevant. Under this scenario, we alert subscribers in our “Video Conferencing/Streaming/Multimedia/ VoIP/Convergence” category that the focus has been changed to security. Of note, we would also alert our “Security” category subscribers to the new feature. In addition to optimizing editorial efficiency, membership in the Edit Forum Network allows you to narrowcast specific information about your publication to a wider audience, allowing you to generate more potential sales leads. Q: Why should I be involved in PRSourceCode’s “Lunch with the Editors” webinar series? A: Via PRSourceCode’s “Lunch with the Editors” Webinar Series, publications within the Edit Forum Network have the opportunity to showcase their editorial preferences directly to PR professionals. These industry-leading influencers gather for intimate webinar discussions to disclose information on readership, topics of most importance, marketplace trends, reporter requirements, and editorial calendar changes. PR practitioners will have insight as to how to approach each individual publication and pitch their company or client. Publications will narrowcast crucial editorial details to the interested PR community. The result is a win-win synergy that provides journalists with more relevant, qualified, and useful information from PR professionals and the resources they represent. Q: How much time do I have to commit for developing the webinar content? A: PRSourceCode will work with your publication to secure the best time and date for your webinar. To keep with the lunchtime feel, we’d prefer that we schedule each webinar around noontime. Once the date and time is set, PRSourceCode will provide a presentation template, as to alleviate as much of the editorial staff burden as possible. We’ll then work with you to tailor the presentation to your publication’s particular needs and goals. We’d anticipate each webinar to take place in about an hour, but time would need to be allotted for both set-up and wrap-up. Q: How will PRSourceCode solicit webinar attendees? A: PRSourceCode anticipates a hearty response for each webinar as far as attendees, as each Edit Forum Network member publication has a plethora of PR professionals who want to get their clients mentioned on its pages. We're planning to market the webinar directly to our opt-in subscriber base which includes both PR firms and marketing departments in technology companies. Such folks are often directly involved in the advertising allocations for their corporation, so the more exposure to their target publication’s editorial direction, the better. PRSourceCode further encourages each publication to share its PR contact lists; as such, attendance could be significantly higher. |
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