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MONICA- Rocks the House and Joel Madden Receives Nod from Lionel Richie and Charity Award at First Annual Noble Awards Event

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:00:00 +0000

The First Annual Noble Awards Event A Huge Success

The event honored Morgan Freeman - Lifetime Achievement Award

“It was a successful night, everyone who contributed and participated in the event came away with a warm feeling in their heart,” said Founder/Producer Janeen Mansour of The Noble Awards, held (Sunday, October 18^th) at The Beverly Hilton.

Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush hosted the first awards show, and he himself was also honored for his dedication as a board member and hustling fundraiser for the Lollipop Theater Network. They bring magic and movies currently in theaters to children confiened to hospitals nationwide due to chronic or life-threatening illnesses.Morgan Freeman was honored for his work with more than dozen charities. He thanked everyone for supporting him and for the Lifetime Achievement

Award. A dozen other celebs received recognition and a Noble Award for charity work.Despite being a little under the weather for running a Trianthalon in the name of charity Terri Hatcher accepted her award from Actor James Denton, America’s favorite plummer also on Desperate Housewives. Other celebs included Norman Lear, Lionel Richie, Laila Ali to name a few.

Nancy O'Dell, Joel Madden, Brett Ratner, Kenny Babyface Edmonds, and Annalynne McCord. There were some surprises, too like

America

’s Got Talent Nick Cannon as one of the presenters.

The awards were sculptured by Antonio Banderas the children at the Shriners Hospitals for Children with the guidance of The Art of Elysium volunteer/actor/sculptor David Grieco. Joel Madden said, “The artists at The Art of Elysium” should get an award, too.

Lionel Richie presents Joel Madden with Noble Award

Noble Awards Presenter Dennis Haysbert (Jonas Blane)
The first awards show came off without a hitch and the live music performances enhanced an inspiration evening. It was an evening of entertainment and celebration that honors charities, celebrities and the tremendous work that they do. ‘This event and movement should inspire the next generation to be noble throughout their lives,” said Mansour. One of the highlights of the musical performance that brought the house down was Monica, introduced by Bill Bush. Born and raised in Atlanta, Monica Denise Arnold is a talented R&B / pop singer, songwriter and actress. She became the youngest female artist ever to have two back-to-back No. 1 hits on Billboard's R&B singles chart.

Both songs from her three-times-platinum debut, “Miss Thang,” topped the Hot 100 chart and sold one million copies each. In 1998, “The Boy Is Mine” was released and had three consecutive No. 1 Billboard pop singles.

The title track with Brandy spent 13 weeks at No. 1 on the pop charts and eight weeks at No. 1 on the R&B listing. Additionally, the duet earned Monica a Grammy to add to her American Music, Soul Train and Billboard Awards.

The inaugural NOBLE AWARDS event, produced on behalf of the non-profit Celebrity Charity Awards Corporation, a 501c3, has a mission to unify the efforts of charities with celebrities, philanthropists, media and every day citizens to create
an effective forum for change and service.

Brian McKnight has earned himself a spot in contemporary music history. He has released 11 albums to date, 7 of them have gone platinum, with several going 2 and 3x platinum, and has sold over 20 Million albums worldwide. He just released a new album last month and perform one of his songs live. Brian McKnight (Video)Another of the highlights of the evening was eight-year old Emily Bear, who performaned live at the Noble Awards show. (Youtube)

8-year old Emily Bear – Pianist Emily Bear has only been playing piano for three years,

but at just eight years old, her accomplishments are inspiring and her talent is breathtaking. Classical, jazz and boogie come naturally to her. Emily’s songs were are all written and composed at age seven.

She performs a large list of classics and standards, and also composes her own magical songs. Giving and charity are very important to Emily and a portion of the proceeds from all CD sales are donated to charity foundations such as Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Ronald McDonald House Charities, and Children's Hospital, among others. Her latest CD "Always True" is now available in the Store. Her first three CDs, "Five Years Wise", "The Love In Us" and "Once Upon A Wish" are also available.Julio Iglesias Jr.also provided some soul soothing live singing at the event.

Julio Iglesias Jr. was born in Madrid,

Spain

to well-known singer, Julio Iglesias and Isabel Preysler. He moved to Miami, Florida at a very young age, a place he now considers home. The Lion’s King’s Timothy Mitchell also sang and played a powerful song on piano sounding much like Steve Wonder with a great stage band backing him up.

(Miss California pictured (L) Each year the Noble Awards will recognize and honor philanthropic organizations and the celebrities that make considerable contributions to them. This year’s honorees, who attended to accept their award included Nancy O’Dell for Best Buddies International, AnnaLynne McCord for The Blind Project, Teri Hatcher for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Brett Ratner for DoSomething.org, Billy Bush for Lollipop Theater Network, Whitney Burditt for Playing for Change, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds for Stand Up To Cancer, Laila Ali for Women’s Sport Foundation and a charity very close to my heart, The Art of Elysium honoring Joel Madden. Jennifer Howell, Founder of The Art of Elysium, presented this award to Joel Madden with Lionel Richie, Allison Beck and Stacey Price: “As both an artist and a father, Joel truly embodies a sincere passion for both music and children. It was evident in his beautiful and humble acceptance speech where he expressed his heartbreak at the thought of a child spending one second inside of a hospital.
A big emotional time of the evening occurred when his twin brother Benji (who has spent many days with The Art of Elysium teaching guitar and participating in music workshops) shared his love for his brother with a music dedication. Nicole Richie (who has also dedicated her talents to the charity) witness her affectionate father while he introduced Joel and thanked him for loving his daughter so much. The love, support and generosity that was shown by all members of Joel’s family are the true roots that can help take The Art of Elysium’s mission to every child that spends that terrifying one second in a hospital.” Creator Janeen Mansour was thrilled to see her dream come true.
“The goal of the Noble Awards was to highlight the charities there that night and celebrities that champion them," she said. "Our goal reached far beyond my expectations. The purpose of the Noble Awards is to create awareness and send out a call to action. I feel everyone in the room was inspired and moved and understood the message we were trying to convey. That message is to be a Noble.”
Humanity needs leaders like you (Be Noble and Take the Challenge (more)

(In photo on the left) Janeen Mansour with her husband Producer Ziad Batal (2nd from right) took all year to plan an idea that became a reality and a vision in Hollywood.

Photos by George S. Mc Quade III @MAYO Communications.com

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One of Hollywood's most known entertainment publicists wins a half dozen track medals

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:10:00 +0000

World senior winner of most track medals is Hollywood Publicist 91-year old Julian Myers, who promotes AmigoDay by winning six medals in one day at World Senior Meet in St. George, Utah

"AmigoDay: Just greet anyone anywhere, your way, any month's first Sunday"

Everyone has a shining light in their small circle of friends, mine happens to also be my Hollywood Mentor Julian Myers, who last year invited me to his 90th birthday, where he invited 390 of his closest friends to celebrate his own marathon-90-miles from San Diego To LA only to end on the same day as the LA Marathon in downtown LA. Myers is one of a few people who still has a few gimmicks up his entertainment publicity sleeve and he's not afraid to take the calculated risk that always pays off. Myers has a passion for friends, publicity, mentoring, teaching, running and most of all for living. He's a true entertainer and publicist. Myers is always entertaining, never a dull moment and always smiling radiating his energy that is infectious.

Co-founder of AmigoDay, Myers, recently competed in six track and field events (Oct. 06, 2009), in the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah. He won six medals, most won in any sport.
At a recent Halloween party over the weekend Julian Myers talks about his trip to Utah:

"I'm saluting this event, because it welcomes women and men from all over the world," explained Myers. "To show AmigoDay's admiration I participated in the Javelin throw, long jump, and four running competitions, the 50, 200, 800 and 3,000 meter races."
Six is the maximum number a woman or man is allowed to enter. Myers won the 3,000 Javelin and long-jump, and was second in the three other running. Six events are most anyone is permitted to enter in track and field.

Myers and his wife and partner, Patsy, trademarked AmigoDay six years ago, and have been promoting it ever since. They won't accept any personal contributions, but they believe some organizations or corporation will realize the potential of the concept and want to sponsor it in their own ways.

One of Myers' boosters is David Bowman, former actor in "Murder, She Wrote," "Dallas" and other TV series, who is now president of the international Assn. of Consulting Firms and runs to support him on Myers' Marathons in LA and Las Vegas. Myers has competed in 25 marathons all over the world and competes again on March 31st in LA. He'll warm up in the Vegas half-marathon before that on Dec. 6th.

Julian Myers career started with Marilyn Monroe, Gregor Peck, Bette Davis and James Stewart, but hasn't written a book on his career, yet. I think I would be the first buy his books and would enjoy publicizing it for him.

I first met Julian Myers when I was on the board of Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (EPPS). When I ran for president and was elected 2006, one board member wanted to replace him, because they thought he was too old. I told that board member, if Julian leaves the board I will resign or step down as EPPS president. "He's a Hollywood institution and valuable to our organization," I remember explaining to this less experience publicist. Myers remained on the board and he was always and remains an inspiration
in everything he has worked on. Keep trucking Julian, you bring energy and inspiration to the entertainment industry and publicity business.

By the way I should mention, the next time you feel like you've walked or jogged too far, consider this just for a moment and you'll be inspired to run more....Julian Myers tells me he still runs six miles every morning on the beach at age 91. We'll all be happy if we can just walked up hill at half his age.

Congratulations on this month's marathon in Utah and good luck in March!

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The Noble Awards - Spotlight Shines Bright On Celebs In Charity Work

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:27:00 +0000

TMZ’s Harvey Levin says Sheriff's Subpoena of his cell phone records in Mel Gibson case 'Outrageous and disgusting'

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:26:00 +0000

TMZ Founder Harvey Levin, a lawyer, a former People’s Court TV interviewer and investigative reporter at KCBS-TV said he plans to challenge what he claims was a civil rights violation. He told RTNA “the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department illegally obtained my cell phone records” in its probe of who leaked a report on Mel Gibson's 2006 drunken driving arrest, including written details of the actors actor's anti-Semitic conversation about Jews.

“When I found out what Mel Gibson did, what he said to the deputy, I started calling the Sheriff’s department, “Harvey Levin, founder of TMZ told a Radio TV News Association (RTNA) crowd (Monday, 10-20-09) at a UCLA-City News Service sponsored media workshop. “And what I got back was ‘it happened without incident,’ and when I started citing line and verse what I was told they (the Sheriff’s dept.) lied.” “I was also told that if you do the story, you will ruin your career, TMZ and you will never get over this.”

Levin also said then he found out that, “the deputy had been ordered to removed the information from the report, rewrite the report, and not include any of that.” Levin said he received a dozen phone calls and each time the sheriff’s office denied the report. “Then we got the four pages of the report that had been excised, and the reaction was, ‘we are submitting everything to the district attorney,’” Harvey said. “And when I asked what about the part ‘it happened without incident and you’re going to ruin your career,’ he repeated his line of submitting everything to the DA.”

The media workshop was about “Making and Breaking News, and the state of the news business 2009” and Levin actually was breaking news himself, and caught several panelists and journalists in the audience by surprise. All panelists, V.P. and News Director Jose Rios, KTTV-TV/KCOP-TV, Andy Ludlum, program director KNX/KFWB Radio news, vowed to support Levin’s battle, which he said violates the first amendment, and will “open a Pandora’s box,”

(left to right) Harvey Levin, TMZ founder; Kris Knutsen-Managing Editor, Local News Service and KNBC-TV; Jose Rios-V.P. and News Director, KTTV-TV and KCOP-TV; Andy Ludlum-Program Director, KNX 1070 Newsradio and KFWB NEWS/Talk 980 AM and Moderator Frank Mottek, host, KNX Business Hour, Los Angeles.
(photo by George Mc Quade)

Fox KTTA-TV station’s Jose Rios said, “This is not about new media, old media or traditional media, this is an attack on the media and the First Amendment, and I think its institutions like the Sheriff’s dept. sometimes do things that they probably later regret, but I think it is our job to call them on it when we find this behavior.”

KNX-KFWB’s Andy Ludlum when asked about the incident said, “I agree with everyone else, my question for Harvey is- do you feel you have received adequate support from the journalism community here in Los Angeles?

Levin replied, “I do. This is very new and we’ve spent the last week looking at things we kind of took for granted, so this really caught us off guard, we had no inkling of this, and it has taken a week just to get our bearings,” he said.

What was the motive? “I don’t think the motive is relevant here, they could have whatever reason for doing this, but it does not justify what they did. I think they (Sheriff’s dept.) are upset that this particular document leaked, because it embarrassed them, because they lied all day, and it was particularly embarrassing because of that.”

Other panelist included Kris Knutsen-managing editor, Local News Service and KNBC-TV and Moderator Frank Mottek, host of KNX Business Hour. The leaking of a police report is not rare, because the story first leaked to the LA Times. Moderator Frank Mottek use the LAT Levin story to kick off the panel discussion.

Evolution of media and news distribution

“I think that for a generation that has already grown up a lot of what we have done has become irrelevant and isn’t because we haven’t done good work, but rather there is a different way of digesting material,” Levin observed in noting the new audiences are getting younger and younger. “The material can be the same, but treatment matters, which has been difficult for traditional media. If you look at what’s happened to newspapers, radio, television stations and news operations critically, how much have they changed fundamentally in 30 years?,” Levin asked. “For newspapers there weren’t such a thing as videos, or photo galleries, there wasn’t news on demand and there wasn’t the competition that there is now, and the options that people have. You can go forward and make the same argument for magazines, radio stations, TV stations and reality is things

have changed.”

Vice President and News Director Jose Rios agreed with Harvey and said, “the challenge is we are trying to change an existing structure of TV news.”And Program Director Andy Ludlum, who’s recent all news radio station went from news to a Newstalk format said, “We have staff we encourage to twitter our stories, because I think people like getting news bits from a reporter like Vicki Moore, than just KNX,” adding new media is good, however people will always listen to radio, because it offers intimacy that the Internet doesn’t,” he said.

“In five years it is pretty clear to me that things are going to move Online, because it is the way of digesting information and it is the way people want it,” said Levin. “It’s the gravity of things, it’s the speed of things, and it’s the ability to get it when you want it, the ability to blend media.” Levin also believes that Television will not look the same, and TV Online will not look the same, “because it is all evolutionary and Online is going to be very different as everyone at home will have one box that services the web, TV and it will be called something different and it will all be blended together. TV shows will be programmed differently along with everything else.”

The most interesting thing about producing Online right now said Levin is people will be looking at a whole new concept, and the big question will be, “How to we deliver programming, information, news in a way that honors or exploits?” The audiences are getting younger, the world has changed dramatically and the media has not,” explained Levin.

Radio TV News Assn. Media Workshop At Lenart Auditorium, Fowler Museum at UCLA

Sponsors:

Western States Petroleum Association

City News Service

UCLA

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Brian McKnight and Julio Iglesias, Jr., along with Emily Bear and Timothy Mitchum To Perform Live at First Annual Noble Awards in Beverly Hills Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:18:00 +0000

Teri Hatcher, Norman Lear, Lionel Richie, Laila Ali, Nancy O'Dell, Joel Madden, Brett Ratner, Kenny Babyface Edmonds, Billy Bush and Annalynne McCord

have been confirmed on star-studded list of celebrity humanitarians attending the red carpet and Noble Awards event this Sunday, Oct. 18th at the Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills.

Morgan Freeman is receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award and is also confirmed.
Brian McKnight is an American singer, songwriter, arranger, producer, and pop and R&B musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who can play nine instruments: piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums, percussions, trombone, tuba, French horn and trumpet. Brian McKnight has earned himself a spot in contemporary music history. He has released 11 albums to date, 7 of them have gone platinum, with several going 2 and 3x platinum, and has sold over 20 Million albums worldwide. He just released a new album last month. Brian McKnight (Video)

8-year old Emily Bear - One of the youngest if not the world’s youngest composer, who played at the White House will perform live Sunday at Beverly Hilton during the two hour Noble Awards show.

Emily was the youngest solo performer in the history of the Ravinia Festival, has performed with many well known musicians, appeared on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" five times and performed at the White House. See Events for more info and Galleries for photos and videos.

Julio Iglesias Jr. - Dejame volar

Julio Iglesias Jr. was born in Madrid,

Spain

to well-known singer, Julio Iglesias and Isabel Preysler. He moved to Miami, Florida at a very young age, a place he now considers home. Although he has spent his whole life surrounded by music, his own personal journey into the music industry didn't begin until the late 90's when he released his first album in English titled "Under My Eyes" with Epic Records. With the desire to go back to his roots and reestablish himself, the budding musician searched for new territory to conquer. Julio chose to sing in Spanish and the result is the mind-expanding Tercera Dimension.

Timothy Mitchum from his Across the Universe preforming part of "Let it Be" with Carol Woods

The two-hour event, hosted by Access Hollywood’s very own Billy Bush, seeks to annually honor up to a dozen charities and celebrities who actively support them, elevating awareness of these organizations and the impact of their work.

Celebrities who will accept awards on behalf of the charities being honored include Laila Ali (Women’s Sports Foundation), Bush (Lollipop Theater Network), Kenny Edmonds (Stand Up to Cancer), Teri Hatcher (Childrens Hospital Los Angeles), Norman Lear (Playing for Change), Joel Madden (The Art of Elysium), Annalynne McCord (The Blind Project), Access Hollywood’s Nancy O’Dell (Best Buddies), Eva Longoria Parker (Padres Contra El Cancer) and Brett Ratner (DoSomething.org).

The Blind Project, The Lollipop Theater Network, Padres Contra El Cancer and Playing for Change will be honored along with six other previously announced charities.

During the ceremony, each will be presented with an award sculpture, designed by Antonio Banderas, with personal touches added by children who participated in The Art of Elysium workshop at the Shriner’s Hospital for Children. Brian McKnight and Julio Iglesias, Jr., along with Emily Bear and Timothy Mitchum will provide live musical performances throughout the evening.
“We are delighted to present these eleven distinguished charities and their celebrity supporters with the inaugural Noble Award,” said Janeen Mansour, creator and executive producer of the Noble Awards. “We hope this will inspire a revolution for giving not only in Hollywood, but globally.”

For more information, please visit www.thenobleawards.org .

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Hollywood's Finest Turn Spotlight Around On Their Community Leaders With Noble Awards On Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:44:00 +0000

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Noble Awards Announces Five New Nominees - Eva Longoria and Morgan Freeman confirmed as attending star-studded event

Eva Longoria

Parker (Padres Contra El Cancer)

Eva Longoria Parker (Padres Contra El Cancer) is among Celebs who will receive awards on behalf of the charities being honored include Laila Ali (Women’s Sports Foundation), Bush (Lollipop Theater Network), Kenny Edmonds (Stand Up to Cancer), Teri Hatcher (Childrens Hospital Los Angeles), Norman Lear (Playing for Change), Joel Madden (The Art of Elysium), Annalynne McCord (The Blind Project), Access Hollywood’s Nancy O’Dell (Best Buddies) and Brett Ratner (DoSomething.org).

The five new award honorees released today for the inaugural Noble Awards this Sunday (10-18-09), at the Beverly Hilton Hotel include: The Blind Project, The Lollipop Theater Network, Padres Contra El Cancer and Playing for Change. They'll be honored along with six other charities announced earlier. Additionally, Academy Award-winning Actor, Morgan Freeman will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for his involvement in more than dozen charities.

The two-hour event, hosted by Access Hollywood’s very own Billy Bush, will honor up to a dozen charities and celebrities who actively support them annually, boosting awareness of these organizations and the work they do. During the ceremony, each will be presented with an award sculpture, designed by Antonio Banderas, with personal touches added by children who participated in The Art of Elysium workshop at the Shriner’s Hospital for Children. Brian McKnight and Julio Iglesias, Jr., along with Emily Bear and Timothy Mitchum will provide live musical performances throughout the evening. “We are delighted to present these eleven distinguished charities and their celebrity supporters with the inaugural Noble Award,” said TV Celebrity Anchor Janeen Mansour, creator and executive producer of the Noble Awards. “With the presentation of the Noble Awards, our goal is to turn the spotlight back onto these celebrities and charities to provide recognition, to educate, to inspire, and to encourage even more support from the Hollywood community and the public at large,” explained Mansour. Morgan Freeman will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for his tireless work and dedication to over a dozen non-profits. SPONSORS:Official partners for the 2009 Noble Awards include 7-Eleven which will launch their Cup with a Cause program at the event featuring celebrity designed coffee cups at 7-Eleven retail locations nationwide. Rumblefish Jewelry will design a jewelry line based on The Noble Awards and Be a Noble, where a percentage of sales will be donated to Noble charities. Look to the Stars which will work year round with the Noble Awards to promote philanthropy in Hollywood. Additional partners include: EIF/iParticipate, The Hollywood Reporter, Audi, Participant Media and Takepart.com, One Hope Wine, The Beverly Hilton, Mobile Cause, Rosenthal and GoodSearch. The film industry has the Oscars, television has the Emmys and the music industry has the Grammy Awards. Now, the charity community and its most dedicated Hollywood supporters have The Noble Awards. More information is at www.thenobleawards.org. Humanity needs leaders like you (Be Noble and Take the Challenge) MAYO Communications: "We Don't Guarantee media, we just get it!" ™ MAYO PR - "We don't guarantee media, we just get it!"

TV and News Movers and Shakers Huddle at UCLA Campus Monday

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:49:00 +0000

Harvey Levin, TMZ

Radio TV News Assn. (RTNA) of Southern California Presents:
A media workshop

PANEL MEMBERS:

Andy Ludlum-Program Director, KNX 1070 Newsradio and KFWB NEWS/Talk 980

Jose Rios-VP and News Director, KTTV-TV and KCOP-TV

Kris Knutsen-Managing Editor, Local News Service and KNBC-TV

MODERATOR: Frank Mottek

WHEN: Monday, October 19th, 2009
Hors d’Oeuvres Reception: 6:00 - 7:00 PM

Program: 7:00- 8:30 PM
Dessert Reception: 8:30-9:15 PM

WHERE: Lenart Auditorium, Fowler Museum at UCLA

PARKING: Convenient parking in Lot 4 on the UCLA campus.
Enter UCLA from Sunset Blvd. at Westwood Plaza. Drive ahead to the Parking Information Booth in Lot 4.

PARKING COST: $10 - Automated pay stations accept $1 and $5 bills and credit cards.

ADMISSION COST: General Admission - $20 Students - $10 UCLA Students and Faculty - FREE Reserve your place by calling RTNA: 562-987-4545

SPONSORS

Western States Petroleum Association
City News Service
UCLA

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LA Times Launches theEnvelope.com with more voices, images and stories

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:52:00 +0000

-->

(l to r ) Greg Braxton, Rachel Abramowitz, Geoff Boucher, Sallie Hofmeister, Lisa Fung, Elena Howe, Patrick K. Day

By George McQuade

West Coast Correspondent

Several hundred mostly Los Angeles Times writers, editors and staffers from LAT packed into a launched party on the top floor of a swank West Hollywood Hotel to launched theenvelope.com and awards season coverage.

“When we launched the Envelope a couple of years ago, we didn’t have as much video, we didn’t have as much breaking news and mainly covered Hollywood events and film festivals with all the guilds,” said Associate Editor Patrick Kevin Day. “We now have a lot more voices and videos.”

TheEnvelope.com, which is billed as the "ultimate awards site," has helped the Los Angeles Times to significantly broaden its coverage of the entertainment business over the past year,” according to Film Critic Betsy Sharkey, formerly the editor.

The new editor is Sally Hofmeister, who introduced additional writers and staffers at this week’s (10-05-09) launch party.

The Envelope's purpose, according to promotional materials, is to raise awareness of award contenders, drive box office numbers, boost DVD sales, influence voting considerations of Academy and guild members and target consumers.

The Envelope receives five million visitors during the off season and much higher numbers during the high season – between November and February. It features interactive photo galleries, video clips of red carpet coverage, celebrity podcasts, blogs and a "Buzzmeter."

This writer asked Day how new media has impacted coverage in the weekly printed version of Envelope and the Online version.

“I think speed is the biggest thing,” said Day. “We have a host of competition from various websites trying into the entertainment awards area, so we have to keep an eye on them constantly and we can’t fall down at any point and be at the top of our game.”

"Don't call me, email works best, because I work out of my home literally blogging all day," said Elizabeth Snead, contributing editor of The Envelope. “I don’t go to as many mixers and late night parties as before, because now I have people I can send to them, so just being here is a rare thing for me.

Elizabeth Snead is the former fashion editor and entertainment writer for USA Today prefers "10 days advance notice of story pitches," since she covers three events a night. "I might not get back to you right away, but I do read my emails," she said.

For almost two years now, Snead has been writing for the http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag blog. She focuses on news, celebs, awards, politics and pop culture.

A tip: don't pitch a hodge-podge of clients to The Envelope. "We're looking for a window into the lifestyle of a person so exclusives are given much more consideration," said Snead.

The LAT re-launched The Envelope to make it "more accessible to our users and the industry," said its former senior producer Joseph Kapsch. He is now a producer of the Zap2it.com site of entertainment videos.

The site is broken down into sections on awards and includes photos, features and anything to do with the awards show in the subsections.

For example there are sections with videos and celebrity images on VH1's Hip Hop Honors, 2009 'VH1 Divas' Arrivals, 2009 Latin Grammy Awards Nominees, 2009 ALMA Awards Arrivals and Red Carpet Rewind: 2009 Primetime Emmy Awards.

"There is Academy news and breaking news on the site. We've created these multimedia models on each page for photos. We also host podcasts of nominees or anyone associated with the awards show," said Kapsch, who is now working for Zap2.it.com, as editorial director.

Kapsch was the former managing editor of AccessHollywood.com, as well as a producer of TV sites at ABC, NBC, Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment and Viacom.

Lisa Fung has been named Online arts & entertainment editor for the Los Angeles Times.

An L.A. Times veteran, Fung has been with the paper for more than 20 years and has overseen its arts and culture coverage for the past nine, including classical music, dance, opera, theater and architecture. In her time at the newspaper she also helped launch the national edition, and worked in Metro and Business before joining the Calendar staff in 2000.

In this expanded role, she will oversee the paper’s multimedia coverage of all arts and entertainment, including Calendar, The Envelope and Company Town, as well as more than a dozen latimes.com blogs, according to an L.A. Times report.

As far as pitching the writers and editors, all say email pitches are preferred. 'The Envelope' Contacts:

Sallie Hofmeister, Editor Sallie.Hofmeister@latimes.com

Elena Howe, Editor, theenvelope.com Elena.howe@latimes.com

Betsy Sharkey

film critic

Betsy.sharkey@latimes.com

Elizabeth Snead

contributing editor

Elizabeth.snead@gmail.com

Patrick Kevin Day Patrick.day@latimes.com

Joseph Kapsch

Zap2it.com

Joseph.Kapsch@latimes.com

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Independent Journalists Discuss How To Pitch Stories and Clients For Powerful Media Placement

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:10:00 +0000

Independent Editors and writers say
“read the trades, and know what
you are pitching"

George

Mc Quade
West Coast
Bureau Chief

“What helps me the most when pitching my clients, which are mostly celebrity driven, is to know the magazine you want me to pitch to and understand their needs and give me a story tat is focus directly toward what that magazine reports on,” said Scott Huver, a full-time freelance writer/reporter for both print and on-camera. Huver was amongst an Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (EPPS) media workshop at the International Cinematographers Local 600 auditorium, Hollywood, CA (Sept. 19, 2009).

------------------------------------------------------------

It’s all about trust
between a publicist and working
member of the press said Independent
Journalist Janice Littlejohn and Scott Huver.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Huver’s primary clients include People Magazine/People.com, TV Guide Magazine, InStyle, Los Angeles Confidential, Giant Magazine, ComingSoon.net and Fandango.com. “I get a lot of generic pitches that I can’t really do anything with, because I don’t know how to spin it until I get more information. Everyone has a very select and specific editorial viewpoint.”

“I like stories on writers such as screenwriters or fiction,” explained Debra Eckerling, who has freelanced for more than 10 years and has written for local, national, trade and online publications, with a specialty in entertainment and lifestyle. She is the eZine editor for StoryLink.com and has her own writers website, where she interviews authors twice a week and provides additional content for writers. “I too, like interesting stories. It’s great if its current, but I’m also aware that maybe a book came out a month ago, but it’s something people need to know about.”

Eckerling has also freelanced for iMedia Connection, Only Child, The Jewish Journal and Script magazine among others. She is the co-host of Mediabistro.com parties, an excellent resource for publicists as well as writers from New York, to San Francisco to Hollywood, CA.

“I do features in front of the book, profiles and a lot of behind the scenes,” said Libby Slate, who covers the performing arts, television and other forms of entertainment for Performances magazine, the Orange County Performing Arts Center and the Television Academy’s award-winning Emmy magazine as well as the Academy websites emmys.tv and emmys.com. “I’m not always interested in the star of a movie, show or play, but the most interesting story.”

Slate has written nearly 300 articles for the Los Angeles Times. Her credits include TV Guide, Hollywood Reporter Magazine, Disney Magazine, Soap Opera Digest, Los Angeles and Skating, the U.S. Figure Skating Assn.’s magazine.

“I do a lot on what production designers are doing,” said Slate, who recently wrote a story on the Tonight Show set. “I also did a story on the set of Doll House, so it’s not the technical aspect like editing, but it’s the artistic part of the craft.”

“I’m always pitching, because that’s my paycheck,” said Freelancer Susan L. Hornik, who contributes to Good Housekeeping, First for Women, Modern Bridge, Your Prom, Stylehive, Twist, Maxim, MomLogic, Canada’s Inside e and CBS’s Watch to name a few.

Hornik said, “Things are not always in front of you (referring to a story) so you have to stay ahead of the game, even if it means new media like Twitter, because you never know who will be your next boss.” Hornik says magazines are paying more attention to their websites, so she has to think out of the “proverbial box.” For example, during intermission she inquired about receipts from the snack bar. “Intermission bars and snacks were bringing $1 million a year. I found it to be a fascinating story,” she noted.

“I get my best interviews in the restrooms,” said Sue Facter. For the past three decades, Factor has been interviewing celebs, first in New York and then in LA. Factor current writes for: NY Daily News, Liz Smith, Star Ledger, Women’s Day Australia and her work has appeared in USA Today, People LA Times, NY Post and Entertainment Weekly. Her newest column is called the Travel Factor and will soon appear in JoynnyJet.com. And she was George Clooney’s publicist.

“Know your publication,” said Janice Rhosalle Littlejohn, a freelance journalist specializing in entertainment, media, lifestyle and culture. Her work appears regularly in Multichannel News, TV Guide Magazine and Emmy magazine. She has also done work for The Associated Press, the LA Times,

USA

today, In Style, Essence and other publications. “I am actually flattered if a publicist calls and knows what I write about.” Littlejohn said she doesn’t like cold pitches. “I don’t mind a phone pitch, but not harassing call,” adding “most editors and writers don’t like the cold calls anymore.” “I often get calls from publicists saying, ‘I have this wonderful client.’ “Well, they all are, but tell me what’s so great about them, and why they would be appropriate for whatever publication I write for.”

Littlejohn said she did a lot of behind the scenes work for The Associated Press. “However, with the unfortunate thing about the economic downturn as I guess we call it today is AP is no longer using freelance work. Media Bistro has good events, where writers and editors talk about movement, where people are and who’s laying off whom from NY to Los Angeles. It is important to keep up with the stuff, because my editors are moving from place to place and they take us with them,” she said.

“I look for the celebrity client,” said Facter. “It could be a charity, and you would be surprised to see how much your client is connected to a celebrity, even if they’re not a celebrity as they have some spokesman, so I also look for the story that no one has talk about and anything involving a celebrity. Underneath the temple is more gold, you just have to look for it.”
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EPPS Media Workshop Moderator Flo Selfman emphasizes the importance of building good relationships with independent journalists, which spells major media placement.

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“The publicist knows more about the celebrity than almost anyone,” said Moderator Flo Selfman, owner of Selfman & Others Pro. Flo has handled celebrities, theatre and arts events, and book and author tours for more than 20 years. “They know more than the celebrity’s manager,” said Selfman. ‘You have an arsenal of material in your head, and you can keep coming up with another piece of information or another angle, and pretty soon the writer is going to say, ‘Yea, let’s go with that one.”

EPPS & ICG Local 600 Sponsored Media Workshop
“It’s important to know the bylines of the writers you are pitching, because most of them, especially now, are freelancing. All the panelists prefer email pitches.

Scott Huver: thehuve@aol.com

Janice Rhosalle Littlejohn: ladyofthepress@aol.com

Debra Eckerling: decker@cs.com

Libby Slate: libSlate@aol.com

Susan L. Hornik: slh2346@aol.com

Sue Facter: Usascooper@aol.com

Flo Selfman: floself@aol.com

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Carol Rowen, CEO of ITEP Featured in Sunday's Los Angeles Times

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:45:00 +0000

Carol Rowen was inspired by the Port of LA -- latimes.com

latimes.com — Her gig: Founder and chief executive of International Trade Education Programs Inc. of Glendale, a 10-year-old nonprofit that educates high school students about the maritime industry and encourages them to seek careers in trade, transportation, logistics and related professions. www.itepinc.org or http://itepinc.wordpress.com/. An inspiration. More...

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“Evening Before Evictions?” - Industry Members to Rally at MPTF “Evening Before” The Emmys© Event

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:47:00 +0000

Entertainment community, residents and families to call for a dedicated fundraising campaign to save the “Nursing Home to the Stars”

(Images courtesy of Savng The Lives of Our Own)

Los Angeles — Despite its mission to ―"Take Care of Our Own," the Motion Picture Television Fund is refusing to direct any portion of the monies raised at a lavish fundraising gala tomorrow night (Sturday, Sept. 19, 2009), to save its long-term care facility, also known as the ―"Nursing Home to the Stars," leaving close to 70 elderly and infirm residents at risk of deadly transfer trauma.

Concerned members of SAG, Teamsters Local 399, AFTRA, the WGA, DGA, IATSE and others will gather tomorrow night for a candlelight vigil outside the extravagant party to bring attention to the impending closure, now announced for Thanksgiving, and to inform attendees that the funds they’ll be donating that night will NOT go directly towards keeping the nursing home open.

The remaining elderly and infirm residents and their families continue to be subjected to the emotional and physical trauma of forced relocation. Melody Sherwood’s mother, Kay Meyer, 94, ― "is in a panic believing she’s going to be thrown out because she personally owes 10 million dollars." "Sherwood, a retired studio worker, continues, ―She always believed that this was going to be her Home for life."

Who: Members of SAG, Teamsters Local 399, AFTRA, WGA, DGA, IATSE and other concerned union and community members

When: 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Where: Century Park

1940-2000 block of Century Park East
(between Constellation and Olympic Blvd.)
Century City, CA 90067

Saving the Lives of Our Own is a grass-roots coalition of Entertainment Industry workers, long-term care residents, their families and community members. Our mission is to keep the MPTF long-term care facility open, to stop the evictions of its elderly residents and to ensure that the MPTF promise of “Taking Care Of Our Own” remains unbroken – now and for future generations.
www.savingthelivesofourown.org

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Warrior Records and Chad Smith Pound Out a Drum Solo Contest

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:52:00 +0000

: Chat Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats Now Available at Best Buy.

Warrior Records Announced today drum enthusiasts and musicians are encouraged to enter in the drum solo contest. Click on Warrior Records Logo to see some of the entries so far…and for a little inspiration from Chat Smith, hear his awesome drum solos..

: Warrior Records (click on logo)

Let people know about the contest by copying and pasting the banner code below onto your page!

Are you a drummer? Do you think you have what it takes??? Then enter the Chad Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats Drum Solo Contest! Drummers from around the world are encouraged to submit videos of their best drum solos. 3 lucky winners will be chosen by the band: Drummer extraordinaire Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chickenfoot), guitar star Jeff Kollman, multi-faceted keyboardist Ed Roth, and Motor City bass ace Kevin Chown.

First prize

The First Place Winner will receive a personal phone call from Chad and the The First Place Winner will receive a personal phone call from Chad and the Meatbats to talk about your winning solo and drumming techniques. You will also win a Pearl Chad Smith Signature 5-piece Shell Pack (MSRP $1,100), with the kick personally autographed by Chad Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats, a Bombastic Meatbats T-Shirt and CD. Shell pack features 22″x18″ Bass, 12″x9″ Tom, 14″x14″ Floor Tom, 16″x16″ Floor Tom, and 14″x5″ Signature Snare. This is a limited-edition killer that gives up the funk!

Second Prize

The Second Place Winner will receive a Pearl Chad Smith Signature 14″x5″ Snare Drum (MSRP $469), which will be autographed by Chad Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats and a Bombastic Meatbats T-Shirt and CD.

Third Prize

The Third Place Winner will receive a Chad Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats autographed CD and T-Shirt.

For mobile contest winner notification and Chad Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats updates:

Also join the Meatbats on:

How to Enter:

All drum solos are judged by online video entries that are posted only to . The entire length of your YouTube video must consist of only your drum solo (don’t ask us to scroll 3 minutes into your video to see your slammin’ solo). There may be no additional instruments playing in the video, only you drumming. Prepare your solos to be a minimum of one (1) minute in length / there is no maximum length (it’s all about how good it is, not how long). Make your solo hot, fresh, and show us your best techniques regardless of genre.

To enter your submission, enter all of the following information (all fields are required or your entry will not be added). Please ensure that your YouTube video is able to be embedded, otherwise your entry will not be accepted. Submissions will be accepted until midnight on 10/19/09. Winners will be announced on this page on 10/26/09:

First Name:
Last Name:
Email:
YouTube Link (include http://www.):
City:
State / Province:
Zip Code:
Country:
Subscribe to ArtistDirect newsletter.

By submitting your entry you agree to the contest’s // Terms and Conditions .

For a little inspiration, here are a couple solos from Chad:


Chad Smith	Chad Smith	Chad Smith
Los Angeles, CA, USA	Los Angeles, CA, USA	Los Angeles, CA, USA

Raymand Harper
London, England, UK

Chris Robbins
Warren, Michigan, USA

Anton Olsson
Gothenburg, V�strag�taland, Sweden

Florian Ricke
Sundern, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

Donta Holt
Manor, TX, United States

Rafael Dolinski
Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

thomas devic
bordeaux, aquitaine, France

Cosmin Cadar
Cluj-Napoca, Cluj, Romania

J.D. Hall
Stanville, Kentucky, USA

Carlos Rios
San Juan, PR, USA

Timothy DiDuro
geneva, NY, USA

George Bous
Harwich, MA, USA

Mike Gryciuk
Caledon, Ontario, Canada

Jeff Grindstaff
Pueblo, Colorado, USA

Ian Chouinard
Nashua, NH, United States

Justin Hopkins
Oriskany Falls, NY, USA

Clint Short
Los Angeles , California, USA

Barry Connors
Cambridge, Ontario, Canada

Robert Radke, Jr.
Highland Park, Illinois, USA

Pontus Gillgren
V�nersborg, V�stra G�taland, Sweden

Jake Kindon
Walsall, Europe, England

Mike Gryciuk
Caledon, Ontario, Canada

Konstantin Sherbakov
Maloyaroslavetc, Kaluzkaya oblast, Russia

simon hinton
christchurch, south island, new zealand

Dani Clemente
Badalona, Barcelona, Spain

Elijah Oguma
Waialua, Hawaii, United States

Jeffrey Kramer
Almere, Flevoland, The Netherlands

James Mozina
North Palm Beach, Miami, Miami, United States

Marcello Rocchi
Rome, Rome, Italy

Francois Lalibert�
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Francois Laliberte
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Zack Weinstein
Antioch, IL, USA

Frankie Defilippis
Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada

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Hollywood Entertainment Writer and Legend Has Died -Army Archerd, 87.

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:06:00 +0000

Hollywood Legend –Army Archer has died

By George S. Mc Quade III, West Coast Bureau Chief

Entertainment publicists and Hollywood have lost a legend.

87-year old Army Archerd, who worked at Daily Variety for more than five decades as one of the most respected columnist died Tuesday (9-08-09) in Los Angeles. He died of a rare form of mesothelioma cancer according to the publication he worked for 52 years. The cancer reportedly was due to his exposure to asbestos in during WWII in the Navy.

Patsy and Julian Myers (VOA photo)

In 2005, the Variety Columnist hosted an Entertainment Pubicists Professional Society (EPPS) “Legends of PR on Nov. 9, 2005 Archer moderated a panel of publicity legends including Jay Bernstein, Julian Myers, Jerry Pam, Chuck Panama, Walter Seltzer, Lee Solters and Arthur Wilde on changes in Hollywood. Army Archerd was the ideal person to moderate the panel said the EPPS president.

Showbiz Reporter Archerd was one of the first writers to report on AIDS linked to Rock Hudson, even though the actor's publicists and managers denied it, while Hudson was undergoing treatment for AIDS. Archer was also a star interviewer on the Academy Awards red carpet.

“He set high standards in Hollywood,” said 90-year old Publicist Julian Myers, LA. “Archer used to come by every Friday at Fox Studios and come away with a unique story every time.”

Myers and his wife Patsy were good friends of the family, too. “I saw him a couple of months ago at the Disney Center and that night he called me to tell me his wife had a stroke, but he appeared to be in good health,” observed Myers.

Archer started covering entertainment in 1945, and began the "Just for Variety" column in 1953. His last column ran on Sept. 1, 2005, and he continued contributing to the paper and writing a blog for Variety.com until July 27 according to published reports. He appeared as himself in more than 100 movies/TV shows.

“He was in his 20’s when he worked for the LA Express, which was even before the LA Examiner newspaper,” said Myers. “He was a real gentleman, a many of integrity, quality and a great friend, who attended my 90^th birthday, despite the LA Marathon traffic he had to fight. Archerd will be missed, and was really a legend in his own field in Hollywood.”

According to Variety, Archerd was, “also a strong proponent of Jewish causes. When Michael Jackson’s ‘History’ album came out in 1995, Archerd criticized Jackson for a song in which he used the words "Jew me/Sue me" and "Kike me." A few days later, Jackson called the columnist to reveal that he would re-record the song according to Variety.

Archer was also popular on radio and TV shows on KNX, KABC, KDAY and KNX-TV. Archerd was the first journalist ever to be honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Archerd is survived by his wife, actress Selma Archerd, a son, Evan, two stepsons Richard Rosenblum and James Rosenblum and five grandchildren. A daughter, Amanda, died in 2008.

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Newspaper Editors Say, “Breaking News is Premium, the workload is harder and New Media has an Influence on Stories published”

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 23:31:00 +0000

Standing room only at a PRSA-LA Sponsored Business Editors media workshop in downtown Los Angeles

By George S. McQuade III
West Coast Bureau Chief
www.odwyerpr.com

While they did not agree that the economy would get better or the recession would bottom out soon, newspaper business editors, weekly business editors and trade panelists said, “email pitches are best” for PR pros and they do accept news releases. The PRSA-LA and LA Area Chamber of Commerce sponsored media workshop this week (Wed., 8-12-09) included editors and reporters from some of the most influential SoCal publications. It was a standing-room only event.

Since the recession and economy is top of mind in every industry, some of the questions that surfaced at the workshop included: “Do you want the glimmer of hope pitches or just the bad news? And what is the next big story in business or banking news?”

“Breaking news is a premium, and everyone is doing it,” said Business Editor John Corrigan, Los Angeles Times. “We are interested in the economy, recovery, but we are also interested in many other issues. We’re also interested in the digital revolution, the social networking; we’re interested in how people are saving money more now and how they are changing their purchasing habits. We are definitely interested in health care and health care reform. We try to have a mix of stories everyday on different issues. Clearly the overall economy is a big story, but there are a lot other good stories out there.”

“If you have experts, who are willing to talk about something like the Bernie Madoff fraud case, we want to know, because often times our stories end up on A-1,” said Corrigan. “We often will get emails from law firms or publicist representing them saying we have a former SEC attorney or a white collar crime expert who can offer guidance, which is really helpful to a reporter on deadline.” Corrigan prefers email pitches and admitted that heavy and top emails might influence stories covered and its placement.

---------------------------------------------------

Newspaper editors do NOT shape public policy say LA Times and LA News Daily News Business Editors

The Times has two reporters dedicated to writing breaking news in the morning. If it is company earnings, “a short story will be posted Online right away and longer story follows,” he said. “The workload has gotten harder, because reporters are writing one version for the web and another for print most of the time. A lot of our stories end up on A-1, because the economy is so important.”

The Los Angeles Daily News is looking for recovery and glimmer of hope stories according to longtime Business Editor Greg Wilcox. “I newsroom works a little differently than the Times, especially in the Business section. Years ago we used to have reporters on various beats. Today, we have an assistant city editor, who’s in charge of business, and then we have the business staff and that’s me.”

“Everyone knows what tough times it has been, and our paper has gone through some changes,” explained Wilcox.

“We don’t have stand alone business section anymore. We have one page or sometimes a page and half. Best way to pitch is to send an email, but follow up phone calls don’t really help, especially when you do the whole pitch in a phone call and leave the phone number at the back end.

Since I am the only business editor I’m really busy focusing on local news stories that impact the San Fernando Valley (two million residents). We do some trend pieces, but now the size of the paper and the size of the staff that’s gotten harder to do,” said Wilcox.

American Banker Reporter Kate Berry said, “I doesn’t know if there is a glimmer of hope” and contends it will get worse before it gets better adding, “Sources from the mortgage industry and banking dispute that. The next big story is how all the banks are going to take the losses on foreclosures coming down the road.

If you ad up the loss for each foreclosure, they would then have to go back to the government for another bailout.”

Berry later said she is open to all story ideas to hear what people have to say. “It is completely unrealistic for a reporter on deadline to engage new sources who are being pitched to you by a PR person, because you’re not going to use them. You just go to the sources, who are specific to that area,” she said. Berry advised that it is a good idea to send early on that you have a great source in say “receivership” and it would be for a big story coming up. “As a trade publication we march to different drummer, we cover stories newspapers may not care about, but the industry does. It is mostly national news.”

“We used to have an editor and four staff reporters at the Business Press,” said Chris H. Sieroty, a contributing writer. “Now it is an editor, researcher and four contributing writers due to the economy, the staff is cut out and they’re all considered contributors.”

Sieroty writes about real estate, government and politics for Riverside and San Bernadino County areas. For example he is currently “working on a foreign trade piece that Riverside County is trying to fund its respective trade zone and they are having an argument with Washington DC over who should pay for it.” He prefers email pitches.

Sierorty, who has been at the Business Press weekly for five years said they operate much like a daily newspaper with the Internet. “My day starts at 5:30 a.m., because I am talking to an editor at another publication in Washington DC. In terms of the Business Press I start reading press releases sent to me at 6:00 a.m.

We do enjoy receiving them, especially when they come from real estate agencies about transactions taking place. I am always open (to PR Pros) phone calls and emails telling me about your business and clients,” he said. “I can’t promise I will write about it, but I will listen and maybe keep your contact for a future story down the road.”

(Mark Madler, SFVBJ and Rick Clough, LABJ)

Los Angeles Business Journal (LABJ), which has nine reporters covering various business beats and prefers LA County stories, but will consider companies out of state doing business here. Staff Reporter Rick Clough, Los Angeles Business Journal told the standing room only crowd, “Most of our stories come from reporters pitching on Tuesday for a two weeks in advance, except when one of our four editors notices a trend. Our deadlines are on Thursday for the following week’s issue.”

LABJ has a web editor, whose day begins at 7:00 a.m. and often breaking news is done on the web. We are open to pitches, and email is the best way to do it. “For a paper like ours that has a fairly rigid structure with a lot of regular features, there are lots of different types of stories each reporter will do. Most of the pitches I get are profile or publicists gunning for that 1,000 a word front page story. However, it is great to get pitches for those special sections, so if you are familiar with the LABJ, and say this story would make a good feature for that section it would really get my attention.”

The San Fernando Valley Business Journal, although the smallest among the publications represented cover a wide area of Los Angeles County according Staff Report Mark Madler. They have an editor and three full time reporters. “My day starts at 8:30 a.m. and lasts until 6:00 p.m. “I do take story ideas from press releases, but generally come up with my own story ideas from sources I’ve developed. I do prefer email pitches,” he said.

Writer emails: John.Corrigan@latimes.com; Greg.Wilcox@dailynews.com; Kate.Berry@sourcemedia.com; Rclough@labusinessjournal.com; chrissieroty@gmail.com and MMadler@sfvbj.com;

MAYO PR - "We don't guarantee media, we just get it!"

Actress Sol Romero To Attend First Music Film Festival In Downtown Los Angeles

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:29:00 +0000

Actress and Model Sol Romero plans to attend the Downtown Film Festival — L.A. and The GRAMMY Museum at L.A. LIVE

Actress Sol Romero seen here at The Ugly Truth Premiere plans to attend Downtown Film Festival in August.

Los Angeles, CA – “This is the first ever Music Film Festival with seven nights, seven artists and seven films, that’s going to keep us hopping from one exciting event to another,” said Actress Sol Romero, who has recently completed a movie with Mel Gibson, “The Edge of Darkness,” directed by Martin Campbell. "I heard that Luke Wilson will be coming and I look forward to meeting him and many others stars," she said.

The Screening events will include live performances, filmmaker and artist questions and answer sessions and after screening parties.

The first-ever music film festival at the Museum will run seven consecutive nights during the film festival, Saturday, Aug. 15 through Friday, August 21.

Each night will present a different film in the Museum’s 200-seat Sound Stage auditorium, located near the corner of Figueroa and Olympic in downtown’s South Park district. Many of the film programs. Ticket prices are $15 for single programs and $100 for the series.

“This film series perfectly reflects The GRAMMY Museum’s mission to celebrate the enduring legacies of all forms of music. From classic rock to rap, Latin jazz to new wave, the series has a film for virtually every musical taste,” said Museum Executive Director Bob Santelli.

“Music fans will love seeing their favorite artists in The GRAMMY Museum’s Sound Stage. It’s very intimate, more like being in someone’s living room but with state-of-the-art sound and great sight lines,” said Greg Ptacek, the film festival’s director.

The series begins with Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple’s no-holds-barred look at the phenomenon of Woodstock in its various incarnations from the 1969 rock concert to its subsequent iterations. The film screening coincides with the 40th anniversary of the original concert and the Museum’s own Woodstock public programming.

Subsequent programs include an evening with Devo’s Jerry Casale (bass/keyboardist) and Devo-tee avant-garde filmmaker and music video pioneer Bruce Conner as they present Devonia 1976, 1978, 2009; and, the Los Angeles premieres of two critically-acclaimed documentary features, In Search of Beethoven and Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison.

Also screening are the Los Angeles premiere of Still Bill, documenting the celebrated singer-songwriter Bill Withers; Poncho At Montreux, showcasing the Latin jazz master, who will perform live following the screening, and the world premiere of Dirty: One Word Can Change The World, which is about one of the founding members of the influential rap group Wu-Tang Clan with members of Brooklyn Zu performing live afterward.

Sol Romero

“As a singer myself working on a new album, I have a great appreciation for music and music artists,” said Romero, who sings soprano and is in a recording studio this month.

Additional live performances and celebrity artist appearances as well as after-screening parties will be announced up until the start of the series; check the festival website (www.dffla.com) for details. The complete program series schedule is below.

Published reports say “The Jackson 5 in Africa” — a film of rare footage documenting the Jackson 5 during their 1974 tour in Senegal — will be the centerpiece of the Closing Night Gala for the 2009 Downtown Film Festival-L.A. on Aug. 22. Tickets for the film will go on sale Aug. 1. Narrated by actor Robert Hooks, the film opens with the Jackson 5 being greeted by a group of dancers and drummers at the airport. The camera follows Michael Jackson and the family cinema-verité style on their first-ever visit to Africa, including live footage of their visit to an African market, classic live footage of the group spontaneously performing “Hum Along and Dance,” and footage of the Jackson 5 performing on stage before a packed, standing-room-only audience at the height of their career in the mid-1970s. I

• Libros Revolución/Revolution Books will present a screening and discussion of “Revolution: Why It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All About” on Aug. 8, 7 p.m., at Papa West Dinner Club, 4336 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles. The film is from a 2003 talk delivered by Revolutionary Communist Party Chairman Bob Avakian, which breaks down the very nature of the society we live in and how humanity has come to a time where a radically different society is possible.

Saturday, August 15, 7:30 pm
MY GENERATION
2000 USA 103 minutes

The definitive =2 0 documentary of Woodstock ‘69,’94 and ‘99 concerts, including behind-the-scenes logistics and promotions planning, and the concert’s effect on the residents of the host town of Saugerties, New York. A picture emerges of two generations acting in remarkably different ways, but expressing the same longing for togetherness in a world of uncertainty and violence.

Writer, Director, Producer: Barbara Koppel
Director: Tom Haneke
Producer: Michael Lang
Executive Producer: Allen Newman, Jeff Rowland
Cinematographer: Tom Hurwitz
Cast: Aerosmith, Joe Cocker, David Crosby, Sheryl Crow, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, Melissa Ethridge, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Michael Lang, Moby, Keith Moon, Graham Nash, Carlos Santana, John Sebastian, Steven Tyler, The Who

Sunday, August 16, 7:30 pm
DEVONIA
1976, 1978, 2009 USA

Formed in Akron, Ohio, in 1974, De vo too k its name from their concept of “de-evolution”-the idea that instead of evolving, mankind has actually regressed, as evidenced by the dysfunction and herd mentality of American society. Mark Mothersbaugh will be present to introduce Bruce Conner’s 4-minute experimental film with Devo, Mongoloid and two Devo music videos:The Complete Truth About De-Evolution and the premiere screening of Don’t Shoot (I’m a Man).

Monday, August 17, 7:30 pm
IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN
2009 UK 138 minutes

The first truly comprehensive feature length cinema documentary ever made about Beethoven features a who’s who of performers and experts, who reveal new insights into this legendary composer. Interviewees include Gianandrea Noseda, Sir Roger Norrington, Riccardo Chailly, Claudio Abbado, Fabio Luisi, Frans Brüggen, Ronald Brautigam, Hélène Grimaud, Vadim Repin, Janine Jansen, Paul Lewis, Lars Vogt, and Emanuel Ax. With over 60 live performances. The film is narrated by Juliet Stevenson and young RSC actor David Dawson.

Director, Producer: Phil Grabsky
Cast: Leif Ove Andsnes, Emanual Ax, Giovanni Biette, Jonathan Bliss, Ronald Brautigam, Riccardo Chailly, Sir Roger Norrington, Barry Cooper, Jonathan Del Mar, Louis Langree, Vadim Repin, Ilona Schmielm, Phil Grabsky

Tuesday, August 18, 7:30 pm
JOHNNY CASH AT FOLSOM PRISON
2008=2 0US A 87 minutes

Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison remains one of the greatest live albums ever made, and the man himself one of America’s greatest troubadours. Cash also was a tireless and passionate advocate for prison reform. Forty years later, the album still resonates today with a rawness and authenticity that few recordings have ever achieved. This film will expose a lesser known “Man in Black” through an exciting, visually compelling examination of this histori c concert.

Director, Producer, Cinematographer: Bestor Cram
Co-Producers: Peter Reichenbach, Louise Rosen
Writer: Michael Streissguth
Cinematographer: Miguelangel Aponte-Rios
Cast: Gene Beley, Jim Brown, John Carter Cash, Johnny Cash, Rosanne Cash, Merle Haggard, Jimmy Tittle

Wednesday, August 19, 7:30 pm
STILL BILL
2009 USA 78 minutes

Best known for “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Lean on Me,” Bill Withers topped the charts, and then stopped performing in 1985. The makers of Still Bill wanted to know why. Combining old performances and intense interviews with Withers, the film reveals how the artist started as a musician relatively late in life. After careers in the Navy and assembling airplane toilets, he eventually won three Grammys. But facing the pressure from record execs to promote himself, he retreated into his Hollywood mansion and stopped making music. Now, with his children grown, he is ready to beg in again, on his own terms. Even at 70 years old, as he sits on his porch and describes his goals, it’s evident that Bill Withers is oblivious to fame and still happy about it.

Directors: Damani Baker, Alex Vlack
Producers: Damani Baker, John Fine, Alex Vlack
Executive Producers: Alex Vlack, Andrew Jackerman
Cinematographers: Damani Baker, Jon Fine, Ed Marritz
Cast: Bill Withers, Corn el West, Tavis Smiley, Jim James, Angelique Kidjo

Thursday, August 20, 7:30 pm
PONCHO AT MONTREUX
2004 USA 86 minutes

The Montreux Jazz Festival has seen an incredible array of performers take to the stage over the years. So when it came to celebrating the 30th anniversary of Concord Records, it seemed appropriate that one of their leading lights, Poncho Sanchez, should take to the stage at the festival. Bringing his own inimitable brand of Latin jazz to the festival, Sanchez delights the crowd with some of his signature tunes. A highly appropriate tribute to a label that has produced some historic music, Sanchez pours all his energy into his performance, working his way through songs such as “Watermelon Man,” “One Mint Julep,” “Conmigo,” and many others.

Producer: John Burk
Cinematographer/Editor: Duane Conder
Cast: Poncho Sanchez, Edward James Olmos, Duane Conder

Friday, August 21, 7: 3020pm
DIRTY: ONE WORD CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
2009 USA 55 minutes

This is a personal tribute by the filmmaker to one of the most enigmatic, controversial and tragic figures in hip-hop music history, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, or just ODB for those in the know. During his years with the legendary Wu-Tang Clan, he became famous for his slurred, half-sung, half-rapped delivery of bizarre lyrics, which personified the raw, unadulterated and innovative style of the group. His own solo career was at once celebrated and fraught with legal troubles and eventually, his death by overdose. Featuring members of the Wu-Tang Clan, the Brooklyn Zu and many others, this film celebrates the life of a genius madman who lived life without any breaks.

Director, Producer, Cinematographer: Rasion Allah
Cast: Ghostface, Meth, RZA, Raekwon, Masta Killa, ODB’s parents, Rasion Allah

The 2009 Downtown Film Festival will be held in venues throughout downtown L.A. More information at www.dffla.com. Rock ‘N Fish restaurant (www.rocknfishlalive.com) at L.A. Live! will be hosting three after-screening parties during the series; details to be announced.

Who: Films featuring Beethoven, Johnny Cash, Devo, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Poncho Sanchez, Bill Withers and the artists of the Woodstock concerts, plus live musical sets by select featured artists and Q&As with artists and filmmakers.

What: 2009 Downtown Film Festival &mdash L.A.’s Music Film Series at The GRAMMY Museum at L.A. Live!

When: A ugust 15 – August 21, 2009. All Screenings Times: 7:30 pm

Where: The GRAMMY Museum

800 W. Olympic Blvd. (corner of Figueroa St.)

Los Angeles, CA 90015 213.765.6800

How Much? Tickets: $15 for single program; $100 for series (available only online). All advanced series tickets go on sale beginning August 1st at www.dffla.com

More Info: www.dffla.com or www.grammymuseum.org

DIRTY: ONE WORD CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
2009 USA 55 minutes

This is a personal tribute by the filmmaker to one of the most enigmatic, controversial and tragic figures in hip-hop music history, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, or just ODB for those in the know. During his years with the legendary Wu-Tang Clan, he became famous for his slurred, half-sung, half-rapped delivery of bizarre lyrics, which personified the raw, unadulterated and innovative style of the group. His own solo career was at once celebrated and fraught with legal troubles and eventually, his death by overdose. Featuring members of the Wu-Tang Clan, the Brooklyn Zu and many others, this film celebrates the life of a genius madman who lived life without any breaks.

Director, Producer, Cinematographer: Rasion Allah
Cast: Ghostface, Meth, RZA, Raekwon, Masta Killa, ODB’s parents, Rasion Allah

The 2009 Downtown Film Festival will be held in venues throughout downtown L.A. More information at www.dffla.com. Rock ‘N Fish restaurant (www.rocknfishlalive.com) at L.A. Live! will be hosting three after-screening parties during the series; details to be announced.

What: 2009 Downtown Film Festival &mdash L.A.’s Music Film Series at The GRAMMY Museum at L.A. Live!

When: A ugust 15 – August 21, 2009. All Screenings Times: 7:30 pm

Where: The GRAMMY Museum

800 W. Olympic Blvd. (corner of Figueroa St.)

Los Angeles, CA 90015

213.765.6800

How Much? Tickets: $15 for single program; $100 for series (available only online). All advanced series tickets go on sale beginning August 1st at www.dffla.com

More Info: www.dffla.com or www.grammymuseum.org

MAYO PR - "We don't guarantee media, we just get it!"

National Night Out with the Men In Blue

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:08:00 +0000

Senior Lead Officer Jose Maldonado, LAPD

National Night Out a

Huge Success For

Los Angeles & LAPD

There were booths galore, but more importantly lots of local LAPD officers, the men in blue keeping our streets safe on hand to meet neighbors face to face in a calm, festive atomospher at Warner Center. The four-hour event was part of the National Night out.

There was plenty of barbeques, information booths on law enforcement services, BlockWatch Newsletters and a chance to meet LAPD Senior Lead officers in person. LA Council Dennis Zine, who is a former LAPD Sergeant and officer for more than two decades was no where to be found, but he had nice booth of sponsorship. His staff said, "he is expected at any time."

National Night Out in LA

Law enforcement agencies throughout Southern California will hold National Night Out events this afternoon and tonight to promote neighborhood-based crime prevention programs.

In L.A. County, the Sheriff's Department is planning to hold more than 30 events from Altadena to South El Monte. In Hawaiian Gardens, which has been hard hit by gang violence, residents, police and city leaders will participate a Community Peace Walk and barbecue. And in Long Beach, potlucks, celebrations and children's games are on tap.

Robin Greely & Karen Avance
Volunteer Horse Patrols

Check the websites of your local police departments for more information on how you can get involved in community police work and BlockWatch volunteer service.

The National Night Out campaign is sponsored by the National Assn. of Town Watch, a nonprofit that helps develop and promote law enforcement-affiliated crime and drug prevention programs. This will be the 26th annual National Night Out.

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LAEDC Report Says U.S., California and Southern California Recession to Hit Bottom by Year-End, Recovery Starts in 2010

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:31:00 +0000

(l-r Bill Allen, CEO & Pres., LAEDC, Lloyd Greif, Chair, LAEDC, Frank Mottek, KNX Business Hour, Nancy Sidhu, chief economist, Jack Kyser, founding economist, Kyser Research Center and John Burns, Real Estate Consulting. (photo by George S. Mc Quade III

There are negative trends in most business sectors. Some key industries--fashion, entertainment and aerospace--facing changed business models. Federal stimulus funding starting to arrive in Southern California.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) July 22, 2009 -- The 2009-2010 "Mid-Year Economic Forecast & Industry Outlook" from the Kyser Center for Economic Research at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) sees difficult times continuing for the nation, the state and Southern California through the rest of 2009 and into 2010.

"We think the economy is nearing bottom this summer, so the current economic news looks terrible," said Nancy D. Sidhu, Ph.D., the LAEDC's Chief Economist. "This recession officially began in December 2007 and looks like it will be the deepest downturn since the recession of 1981-1982."

Overall, the LAEDC Forecast projects the U.S. economy will shrink by 2.7 percent during 2009 and grow modestly--by 1.7 percent--in 2010. Inflation is unlikely to be a problem in the near term, declining by

0.8 percent in 2009. "The auto and housing industries are experiencing real difficulties," observed Sidhu. Only 9.9 million light vehicles are expected to be sold during 2009, compared with 16.1 million sold during 2007; this has driven two of the "Detroit Three" and many suppliers to bankruptcy.

The nation's housing sector has been shrinking for more than three years now, but it looks like the bottom is near. About 530,000 housing starts are projected for 2009, compared with the recent high of nearly 2.1 million starts in 2005.

Business investment spending and U.S. exports also are declining. Federal government spending is the only sector that is growing. Federal stimulus funds are finally beginning to appear in Southern California and their impact will grow through the rest of 2009 and 2010.

"The news on the employment front will reflect all this weakness, with U.S. average nonfarm employment dropping by 5.4 million jobs during 2009," added Sidhu. The unemployment rate will average 9.3 percent during the year, and will run up to 10.4 percent in 2010. These are the highest jobless rates since 1982.

"At mid-year 2009, California too is in a serious recession, and the economic news during 2009 has been dismal," continued Sidhu. The state's economic downturn also should hit bottom by the end of 2009, but the recovery will be moderate at best. The state's non-farm employment will fall by 4.6 percent or by 694,100 jobs in 2009, while the unemployment rate will average a painful 11.6 percent.

California's housing industry is in a very depressed state, especially in the inland areas. The number of housing permits issued in California during 2009 will slide down to just 37,000 units, compared with the recent high of 212,960 units permitted in 2004. The resale housing segment continues to see large numbers of foreclosed properties and short-sales hitting the market.

The state's retail sector is also being hammered, with sales expected to decline by 12.0 percent in 2009, following sales declines in both 2007 and 2008. Retail stores of all types will continue to close throughout the forecast period. Sidhu noted that auto dealers have been especially hard hit, and recycling these sites will be a challenge.

"The five Southern California metro areas are struggling in 2009," said Jack Kyser, founding economist of the Kyser Center for Economic Research. "Job losses will continue in construction, manufacturing, retailing and leisure and hospitality services."

Measured by percentage declines in non-farm jobs, the Riverside-San Bernardino area and Ventura County are feeling the most pain, and will record employment declines of 6.7 percent and 5.1 percent respectively. Orange County should see employment drop by 4.8 percent, while Los Angeles County should record a decline of 4.1 percent. San Diego County will see a 3.8 percent loss in non-farm jobs.

New homebuilding in the region will hit new lows. The best example is the Riverside-San Bernardino area, where fewer than 5,000 new units will be permitted in 2009, compared with the recent high of 52,696 units in 2004. The homebuilding industry in Ventura County also will be scraping bottom in 2009, with just 275 units permitted compared with 4,516 units in 2005.

The nonresidential real estate market is also troubled. Funding for new projects or loan roll-overs is extremely difficult to obtain, and some office and retail developments could well go into foreclosure. Reuse of the latter is going to be difficult given the glut of retail space.

"Almost all major Southern California industries are struggling during 2009," continued Kyser. "Worse, in some cases entire business models are changing." One example is apparel manufacturing, where the number of potential customers for local garment producers is shrinking due to store closings, while many firms rely on CIT for financing.

Another is the motion picture/TV production industry. On the TV side of the business, the audience for the broadcast networks is shrinking and cost containment is a major concern. As to feature film production, while the box office is running at record levels, California's incentives for the film industry were late in coming, and it's not yet clear whether they will be sufficient to stem the continued erosion of in-state feature film production. "This is not good news for below-the-line workers or the multitude of small suppliers to the industry," said Kyser.

International trade activity at the region's ports and airports will continue to decline. Container activity at the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex peaked back in 2006 when 15.76 million TEUs were handled. In 2009, the forecast is for 12.2 million TEUs to be moved, and the impact of this decline has rippled out to longshoremen, truck drivers and the industrial real estate markets throughout the entire metropolitan area.

The local aerospace industry is confronting its own challenges in 2009-2010. Defense spending is set to slow, while commercial aircraft production is declining outright as profit-starved airlines reduce orders.

This report includes a look at the economic situation in twelve sub-county economic areas of Los Angeles. Measured by the number of jobs lost in 2009, the areas most severely impacted by the current recession are: Santa Clarita (which will lose 6,000 jobs), North Gateway and East L.A./Eagle Rock (both expected to lose 5,300 jobs).

Sub-areas losing the fewest jobs will be: the San Fernando Valley (down by 1,700 jobs in 2009); South Bay/LAX (losing 2,400 jobs); the San Gabriel Valley (down by 2,500 jobs); Central L.A./Downtown (losing 2,600 jobs); and the Westside (down by 2,700 jobs). Manufacturing is quite important to several of these sub-areas, including the San Gabriel Valley, South LA, East LA/Eagle Rock and the North Gateway region.

About the LAEDC:
The LAEDC, the region's premier business leadership organization, is a private, non-profit organization established in 1981 under section 501(C) (3). Its mission is to attract, retain, and grow business and jobs for the regions of Los Angeles County. Since 1996, the LAEDC has helped retain or attract more than 152,000 jobs, providing $7.5 billion in direct economic impact from salaries and $128 million in annual tax revenue benefit to local governments and education in Los Angeles County. Visitwww.laedc.org or call (888) 4-LAEDC-1.

Editors: The Mid Year Forecast and Industry Outlook study results will be posted athttp://laedc.org/newsroom/Midyear-2009-07.pdf and www.MayoCommunications.com/home.htm (12:01 AM Wed). Media please call George McQuade for advanced copy or link 818-340-5300 or 818-618-9229 or email: Publicity(at)MayoCommunications(dot)com.

MAYO PR - "We don't guarantee media, we just get it!"

Entertainment Publicists Speak Out on Social Media Measurement How PR Pros Can Brand and Buzz on Twitter, Facebook and Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:13:00 +0000

EPPS Summer Mixer Cools Off At
Poolside in Hollywood

By George S. McQuade III
West Coast Bureau Chief

When you hear 90-year Entertainment Publicists Julian Myers in Hollywood talk about the importance new media, it makes you feel happy you are headed in the right direction or if you’re not, what you are missing. Myers was amongst several hundred Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (EPPS) members attending a Summer Mixer at the Skybar, Mondrian Hotel, West Hollywood, CA this week (7-16-09).

Season A. Skuro, PR, TECHNICOLOR
with Julian Myers

“Well, I enjoyed the Old Testament very much, and it’s nice new reading,” said Julian Myers, Myers PR, who used to wake up Actress Marilyn Monroe to go to celebrity events in Hollywood after partying all night. “I’ve been around for awhile, but after 2,000 years, I think I know new media quite well and I look forward to reading about more new media I heard about the other day- the Gettysburg Address.”

Myers admitted that he and other Hollywood publicists have lagged behind in new media, but like journalists who cover his clients, he said “the basic concepts of publicity are always the same. Be honest, and think of new ways to make first yourself, second your client famous.”

Myers also said, “It’s exciting to quickly get an online buzz, but the big question is how do you measure it? What are you supporters saying about your or opposition in the blogosphere?”

“New media is definitely helping, but the only problem with new media,” said independent publicists Glenn Anderson, “it takes so much time to keep up and keep all of those Linked-In, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter sites up to day. You spend more time tweeting and Facebooking than time needed for your clients.”

Glen Anderson with Skybar Waitress Clare Porter

“New media definitely has it’s time and place,” said Tiffany Victoria Bradshaw, Marketing Consultant. “A lot of people still don’t quite understand it the way they should. They often think it takes the place of traditional marketing Efforts.
I feel, because I’m kind of old school in marketing, not because I am old, but I still appreciate traditional marketing. Let’s make sure we have identified your target market, make sure you have a good 30 second networking pitch, and make sure you have a good sales presentation. All these still apply, market research, etc, regardless of new media, so you can not just skip over that,” said Bradsaw.

“I’m a little behind the times with the new media,” said PR Pro Ellen Giurleo. “I’ve been resisting getting on Facebook, because it will take all this time, but all the people I’ve talk to tell me and I know I have to do it, or at least get a business page up. Probably not a personal page though,” she said.

“Oddly enough, I was spending a lot of time on Twitter today learning how to do it,” said TV Guide’s Chad Sandhas. “I’m only 34 and I feel like I am catching up so new media I think is scary for all of us.”

“I have to agree with Chad,” said Eileen Salmas, PhotoStamps.com. “I don’t Twitter, I don’t text, and I’ navigating around Facebook and Linked-In. I’m trying to figure out how to use it for the company, but that’s not really my job. It’s a little bit daunting.”

Motion Picture & TV Fund Stirs Controversy

The EPPS mixer was sponsored by the International Cinematographers Union ICG Local 600 and on behalf of Motion Picture & TV Fund (MPTF), which is scheduled to close its hospital and end its acute long term care unit due “a $10 million loss,” at the end of 2009.

“We are an 89 year old charity in Hollywood, created by Hollywood for Hollywood and it takes care of people who have fallen on hard times,” said Ken Scherer, director, MPTF. “Everyone thinks that everyone in Hollywood makes $20 million dollars, which is simply not true, and so we provide financial assistance, medical care and all kinds of support including retirement care.”

In his speech to EPPS members he said, “We didn’t do a very good job in PR,” and later told this writer, “We have some people onboard doing new media and everything.” Additionally, Scherer said he “got involved while successfully starving as a TV producer, and was called to run the foundation, which raises the money for the MPTF, I was happy to take the job.”

Even Jeffery Katzenberg, principal partner of DreamWorks L.L.C. and Co-founder, DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. came out to help brand and promote the nonprofit.

Longtime Publicist Julian Myers was upset that Katzenberg failed to take questions after talking about the Moton Picture & TV Fund organization.

Myers told this writer he had a lot of questions and said, “There is no reason to abandon the residents of the Motion Picture Country homed. NONE! The hundreds of us who, love our industry will back annual shows at the Coliseum (100,000 capacity), where our wonderful caring stars will perform to keep the dreams of us who have worked all our lives in Hollywood alive. Yes, Barbara Streisand, Dick Van Dyke, Julie Andrews, Tony Bennett, great comics and new stars will gladly appear.”

Myers also noted that he was, “contributing to this fund before Mr. Katzenberg was born (1950) literally, and I know how it is in hearts of countless colleagues. There are hundreds of thousands of people, men and women who have worked in Hollywood all of their lives and had the dream that if necessary ‘Hollywood would take care of its own’,” said Myers. Myers also won the door prize of the 2009 O’Dwyer Director of PR firms.

If you want to donate or help out the Motion Picture & TV Fund 818-876-1900 or visit: www.MPTVFund.org.

MAYO PR - "We don't guarantee media, we just get it!"

Michael Jackson's Last Show On Earth

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:57:00 +0000

A Live Event For a Dead Superstar Costs Taxpayers $5 Million Dollars

“This has gotten to the point, where AEG needs to step up to the plate and pay for the costs of Michael Jackson’s Memorial,” Los Angeles City Councilman DennisZine said shortly after the event at Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles.

Michael Jackson - LIFE image

From a publicity standpoint the numbers are still being tallied, but when all three networks, cable networks Fox and CNN broadcast the event live without sponsorship the lost could amount to millions of dollars. This is probably the most positive publicity Michael Jackson has received in his entire lifetime, even more than the 55 tour dates he was rehearsing for at Staples, video of which was shown during the live world telecast at Staples.

There was not news conference or news release needed, just a twitter or two, which alsowas over capacity from people tweeting inside and outside the event.

For the City of LA, $500 million in the red and sending employees home early on Fridays it was expensive. According to Zine the Swat Team and those who work anti terrorism were all called in for the media circus. Zine a former LAPD sergeant for several decades also noted that the freeways were shutdown impacting businesses and commuters to downtown Los Angeles and to and from the Forest Lawn Cemetery, where it all began at 8:00 AM.

All the major networks put out the best LAPD message over the airwaves, “the best seat in the house is on your couch at home.” True. 17,000 plus people were issued lottery tickets, but many stayed home for the best seat in the house. So did this writer.

Overall, the ceremony was outstanding, the most dead air ever witnessed at a concert memorial, so quiet you could hear the air conditioners whirling.

Most of the people inside the Staples who spoke harped on the same theme that Michael Jackson brought the worldtogether with songs like, “I will be there, we are the world,” and so on. The music and speeches were inspirational and moving from Smokey Robinson, Berry Gordy, who got the largest standing ovation when he said, “Michael was the greatest entertainer ever.”

Usher, Stevie Wonder and even Reverend Al Sharpton was more low key, and on key with the same theme.

“I just want you children to know there was nothing strange about your Daddy, but there were a lot of strange things your Daddy had to deal with,” said Rev. Sharpton.

There is always light at the end of the gloomy economic tunnel. In this case, one Holiday Inn hotel manager said after AEG announced the memorial to be held across the street from his Inn, 195 rooms sold out. Elsewhere, hotels did well, too and some estimatesrange from $3 to $4 million from those keeping track of the figures.

Tomorrow’s headlines will probably read

“King of Pop Saluted in Emotional Memorial.”

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Publicity in Sports, Music and Book Publishing – Sky’s The Limit Say EPPS Workshop Panelists

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 05:14:00 +0000

(L-R) Janette Bax, Seth Burton, Flo Selfman and Howard Brodwin at EPPS workshop in Hollywood)

About 75 entertainment publicists huddled in Hollywood at the International Cinematographers Union Local 600 auditorium to learn about “word of mouth, social media, networking and how to use the web” with the traditional publicity tactics. The breakfast media workshop was sponsored by the Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (EPPS), LA Chapter. The Panelists

Everyone’s Blogging
“When we had a mixer a year ago January in downtown LA, Jack O’Dwyer’s George (Mc Quade) was going around with his tape recorder asking everyone what they thought about blogs. My comment at that time was, ‘the jury is still out.’ Before the ink was dry on the magazine, blogs went from iffy, to something we can’t do without,” said PR Consultant Flo Selfman, proofreader/copyeditor, president, IWOSC iwosc.org.

=====================================================================

======================================================================

One of the books Selfman is working on right now, “The Wicked Wit of The West” by the late Screenwriter Irving Brecher, who died at age 98 a few months ago continues to live Online thanks to the Internet. “It is so amazing. What happened is the gentleman died just before the book came out. So the younger co writer was doing all of the publicity, but Irving Brecher died in November, so he was in all of the year-end wrap-ups in the blogs. Some of them even mention the book before it came out and it was completely done on the Internet.

Policing the Internet is “Tough”
“We use our website primarily as our news source,” said EPPS Panelist Seth Burton, asst. director of Communications, Los Angeles Clippers. “There’s just not enough space in newspapers, if you follow the LA Times Sports section for example. It is more like a sports pamphlet than sports section of the paper these days. For some reason its all about the Lakers (victory) parade. So if anything happens we have to get it out there on our own. We post video on our website, audio interviews along with new media like Twitter.

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace – No space for control
“We have had a number of fake Twitter accounts and we are dealing with one right now about our coach. And recently there was a fake Twitter player’s account, where the activities were reported in the LA Times. A fake player had requested a trade on a Twitter account that was not true,” said Burton. “A lot of NBA players are on Twitter, twittering about everything. We also use FaceBook to drive traffic to our website. We offer a lot of tickets and programs through the new media platforms to give fans a sense of ownership that drives them there.”

=====================================================================

Burton, who started working as a sports reporter for a couple of newspapers on the East Coast, moved into the media relations at the Washington Redskins. He also worked for the Galaxy soccer team before joining the Clippers.

“The Internet is one of the primary ways to get the word out,” said Janette Baxa, director of Publicity, Nederlandar Concerts. Baxa, who made the transition from a record label to music and concert publicity said, “We also employ the Facebooks, the Twitters and MySpaces of the world. For me it is very important for all the bloggers from Perez Hilton to LAist.com, LosAngeles.com, and who would of thought I would be email Perez Hilton. ========================================================

====================================================================

A lot of writes and editors have turned to the web as well, so I have establish more relationships with them Online in getting the word out on my shows. The great thing about pitching Online, they can turn it around right away and post it, obviously one of the great advantages. We still rely on advertising, but again it is selective. Where it used to be a full page, it is now a strip, she said.”

Hard to Keep Up with New Media

“We are doing it right by getting it out there on the websites, but it is hard sometimes to keep up with,” said Moderator, Madelyn Hammon, Madelyn Hammond & Associates, who said when she inquired about an event involving the cast and crew of Saving Grace (her favorite TV show) occurred when she called and asked ‘why it wasn’t posted somewhere?’, they said, ‘well, we posted it on our website.’”

“Everybody is writing a blog, it’s true. And there are some magnificent writers doing a blog. The blogs that I come in contact with has excellent research and writing. There is much dedication to their topics and a lot of write about Hollywood history, and where the author Rosenfeld finds them he’ll send a comment, I’ll send a comment and it just keeps going. They call it viral marketing, but it is still like the pebble in the stream. You start something, then someone else tells somebody else and the circles keep getting bigger and bigger. And what you hope is that it will inspire someone to actually go out and purchase the book or products,” Selfman.

Added Hammond, “Anyone can write a book, but Online it’s about selling books, about getting people to attend games or to buy concert tickets.”

“I think one of the greatest things about Internet is not having all the technology, but how it is used and how it works,” said Howard Brodwin, managing director, Team Marketing Systems. “It has really forced everybody from the biggest of companies all the way down to the most local of businesses to be as upfront and transparent as possible about who you are, and what you do, as possible. If you’re trying to get out into the publicity world, there has always been that question of spin. And these days if you are trying to spin something, whether something is going to happen at a concert or somebody is getting traded or not traded and something is going on with whatever you are promoting that information gets transmitted immediately and you can’t get it back. There is something new (technology) that is coming that will allow you to resend your emails that you have already sent out.”

==================================================================

===================================================================

“The good thing about what word of mouth provides now is you are forced to get it right when you’re getting your message out, because you know as soon as it gets out there it’s going to spread virally. The same goes for when you are uncomfortable with the situation like the Twitter incident, you have to get out in front of that message as fast as possible to notify people with the correct information. The good news is now we have all of those channels to get that information out there.”

===================================================================

====================================================================

Brodwin, when asked about which sites are best said, “Depending upon the target audience, but it is better to have five really good blog or websites to target than blasting 500.”

To contact the EPPS panelists or if you have a question they prefer you contact them via email:

Janette Baxa, janette@nederlander.com; Howard Brodwin, hkb@teammarketingsystems.com; Seth Burton, sburton@clippers.com, Flo Selfman, floself@aol.com and Madelyn Hammon, Madelyn@madelynhammond.com.

Feel free to follow us for news
on www.twitter.com/mayopr

MAYO Communications:
"We Don't Guarantee Media, We Just Get It!"™

65th Anniversary of D-Day Celebrated on Film

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:34:00 +0000

Buy this DVD and $5 for each
sold benefits disabled Vets.

Film Review
By Steve Shepherd

65th Anniversary -
The Americans On D-Day

"The Americans on D-Day" is a compact and concise examination of the United States' part in the June 6, 1945, Allied invasion of Normandy.

Considering the enormity of the actual D-Day undertaking it might sound hopeless to present a comprehensive account in a documentary with a running time of 44 minutes, but producer-director Richard Lanni has come up with a well organized documentary that provides a clear outline of the events of D-Day, punctuated along the way with a somewhat more detailed account of specific moments in the battle that turned the tide of World War II in Europe.

The film benefits immensely from the presence of Ellwood von Seibold as host-narrator-tour guide. Donning authentic military uniform and accessories – down to the "pineapple" style hand grenade hanging from his utility webbing – von Seibold shares a wealth of knowledge on the subject, presenting it with an elegance that provides an effective counterpoint to the brutality that is, after all, at the center of the D-Day story.

"The Americans on D-Day" strikes a tone appropriate to the nature of D-Day, offering a matter-of-fact account that acknowledges the powerful emotional component of its subject matter while stopping short of romanticizing or idealizing an event that was as bloody and brutal as it was essential to the Allies' success in Europe.

The production deftly blends archival footage and stills with contemporary footage. Early on, we see black-and-white images of U.S. forces, including Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower – as we hear audio of Ike's sendoff to the D-Day forces.

"You are about to embark upon a great crusade," he tells them. "The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. You will bring about the destruction of the German war machine.

"We will accept nothing less than full victory"

The film then goes on to function as a battlefield tour, offering close-ups of German fortifications along the beaches of Normandy, arms – including the MG-42, a heavy machine gun that could fired upwards of 1,200 rounds per minute – and bridges and structures that played key roles in the Allie invasion.

Interviews with both U.S. and German veterans of the operation provide further personal insight into the significance of D-Day and its human toll.

Many of the images presented in "The Americans on D-Day" will be familiar to those who have seen the feature film "Saving Private Ryan," the TV miniseries "Band of Brothers," or any number of other filmed projects that touch on D-Day.

The DVD package has extras including the film's trailer, a making-of feature, a segment on weapons training, another on uniforms and a collection of stills.
Sphere: Related Content

===================================================================
Editors note: If you would like a copy of Americans of D-Day to review at your publication or media news website contact:
MAYO Communications 818-340-5300
or send request by email.

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Remembering Our Heroes this Memorial Day

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Mon, 25 May 2009 00:14:00 +0000

A Great Father's Day Gift
www.TheAmericansOnDDay.com

Real Time 65th Anniversary memories on Film The Americans On D Day.

American Legion Endorses and Posts The Americans On D-Day Film Link

The American Legion Post 43, Hollywood, CA, board of directors voted to endorse and post a link on its home page for the film: The Americans On D-Day.

The link on the American Legion homepage (Links) is located at:

http://www.hollywoodpost43.org/v2.0/main.asp?p=links

For every DVD sold on this site, $5 will be donated to paralyzed veterans of California.

The film premiered last month at the Post 43 auditorium, where stars of the film, including
Ellwood von Seibold autographed posters and spoke with Film Director Richard D. Lanni, WW2 Reflections, Dublin, Ireland.

The film also premiered in Normandy in the French Version. Howard Manoian, of the 82nd Airborne, who's interviews in the battle tour film, will be honored by the French Government,
June 6, 2009 with a medal of Valor. This year marks the 65th Anniversary of D-Day.

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Film Awards Can Add a Big Boost To Your Publicity

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Fri, 22 May 2009 06:47:00 +0000

By George S. Mc Quade III,
West Coast Bureau Chief
www.Odwyerpr.com, NY

“I believe it started at the Cannes Festival, but Slumdog Millionaire is a good example of how a little film with eight Oscars, received 87 other awards and 27 additional nominations can go a long way with a little buzz at the film festivals,” said Moderator Hallace Davids, senior vice president, Special Events, Universal Pictures. Davids joined an Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (EPPS) panel on film festivals and the publicity they can generate.

Film awards have become an increasingly important part of movie campaigns, particularly for independent productions. About 75 EPPS members and publicist learned how to explore new business opportunities for small films at the International Cinematographers Group Union Local 600 sponsored event.

“There are many film festivals such as Toronto, Canada, Tribecca to LA Film festivals are major markets, but Santa Barbara and Palm Springs film festivals are another push on the awards circuits where directors, writers and producers are given awards, “said Davids. “There’s a film festival in almost every city of the Universe,” explained Davids.

“The first film festival I ever attended was in 1963, Sebastian Film Festival with Columbia Pictures at the time,” said Leonard Morpurgo, vice president, Murray Weissman & Associates. Morpurgo just penned a new book entitled, “Of Kings and Queens and Movie Stars,” available for $16.95 at Amazon.com. “For more than 40 years I’ve traveled the world as an international film publicist, acting as father confessor, whipping boy, friend-and sometimes enemy to Hollywood celebrities.”

“My most recent film festival, a couple of weeks ago was at the Newport Beach Film Festival, where we represented a small picture called ‘Follow the Prophet,’ which is looking for distribution. It is extremely hard for any film. We got a little, but I think it might become video on demand, maybe television, maybe theatrical, but don’t tell my clients I said that. I have been involved in award as well as film festivals. In fact we were talking about the film ‘Crash’ for Lions gate at Murray Weisman & Associates. One reason it was successful was because it came from behind. At the film festivals it was Brokeback, Brokeback, and Crash.”

“However, this year is was the other way around. We were on the film team of ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,’ which got a lot of buzz and had 13 nominations. And then this damn ‘Slumdog’ came along and took it all away from us. It was the opposite of what happened last year,” he said.

“A lot of these films end up self distributing, and go on video on demand (VOD - cable) and Online viewing,” said Alice Zou, account executive mPRm Public Relations, who has handled such films as Atonement and The Visitor for theatrical distribution and festivals.” “We’re are seeing more and more independent films head to VOD, Online viewing and DVD distribution is becoming more and more popular among independent films.”

“Film festivals don’t make a lot of money, and they do it because they love it, but it is really about relationships and a lot of prayer,” said Tanya Kersey, founder/executive directory, Hollywood Black Film Festival. “Universal and Showtime used to be huge sponsors, but festivals are struggling and many are going into debt. General Motors (which recently filed for bankruptcy) used to support Women in Film.”

Kersey is celebrating her 10^th anniversary of managing an annual film festival market to buy and sell films that has been billed as the “Black Sundance” film festival. It draws big celebrities such as Forest Whittaker, Sidney Poitier and Densel Washington. Nearly 100 Film Screenings (features, shorts, student, documentary, animation, music video) occur annually in Beverly Hills. The conference also features 20+ workshops, panel and roundtable discussions with around 100 speakers.

“Filmmakers use the festival to really get their films out there to let the industry know about them. They look for agents, managers and other production deals. The studios use them to build additional buzz and the films are written and directed by African American filmmakers in a competitive program,’ said Kersey. She also noted that have been a lot of filmmakers, who are non-black, but have films that are black-themed and enter by invitational programs The Hollywood Black Film festival runs five days in June (June 2-7) in Beverly Hills, CA.

“Different films have different reasons to be in these film festivals,” said Davids. “Since I work at Universal Pictures, we don’t have a lot of movies for the film festivals, because we have big popcorn movies that are not looking to go under the microscope of the film festival. If a movie goes to a film festival that is not well received, it can kill movie. If the movie goes there looking for distribution, breaks out into distribution it’s on its way,” she said.

Morpurgo recommended the “Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide (Paperback) by Chris Gore (Author), who is more widely known as someone who writes about film and has been making films since he was a kid he said in his book that sells for $14.95 also on Amazon.com. Morpurgo has traveled the world from California to Cannes for more than three decades with many of the greatest movie stars and celebrities of those decades. The London born author and publicist gives touching, funny and insightful stories about such legends as Cary Grant, Steve McQueen, the Duke of Windsor, Charlton Heston, Warren Beatty, Nicolas Cage, Leslie Caron, Peter O’Toole, Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir Alec Guinness to name a few.

“A publicists helps maneuver the waters filmmakers, and build up buzz for first time filmmakers who are going out to the festival circuit,” said David Magdael, David Magdael & Associates, who works mostly independent films and documentaries and runs the film festival circuit as much as other publicists.

“Every film festival is a little bit different, and every film is different, so we try to tailor what our attack and strategy is in working with the sales team and producers. I personally like to get into the head of the filmmaker –why did he or she make this film- what are their expectations. Documentaries and independent films are not having a theatrical life right now, so the question always comes up, ‘what do you want, what do you see,” because the documentaries are not making money at the theatrical level at the moment. Back in the old days it was ‘Fahrenheit 9-ll, ‘Super Size Me’ and others. It was a different time, and now it has changed, so those days are all gone. We work from the beginning from the time they get accepted into a film festival and sometimes through to the theatrical following.

Sundance is such a crazy festival, and it’s more of a marathon than it is a sprint. And you’re there for nine days with these newbies and it is just managing a lot of those expectations and making sure they are okay and working together with the sales team. You must make sure that the right people see the film, and that the trade reviewers see it in the right context, whether it be with an audience screening or press and industry screening. Several years ago we stood back and watch how the audience responded to ‘Super size me’ and we were turning away 250 at the door,” said Madge.

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Film Writers Cuttng Back On Coverage

noreply@blogger.com (George S. Mc Quade III) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:55:00 +0000

Carl Diorio talks to PR
Pros after EPPS event

Recession Forces Industry
Publications To Do More
With Less Say Editors

By George S. Mc Quade III
West Coast Bureau Chief

Most reporters, editors and
writers are doing two jobs

“The most significant changes in what I do on a daily basis, like any business, we are being asked to more with less,” said Carl DiOrio, deputy film editor, The Hollywood Reporter. “They don’t want to hear what’s not possible, it is just circumstances that are just a given.” DiOrio’s message was echoed by Panelists Josh Dickey, deputy entertainment editor, Associated Press and CEO and Co-Founder Michael Stroud, iHollywood Forum, Inc. /Freelance Journalist at an Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (EPPS) workshop at ICG local 600, Hollywood, CA. It was moderated by Joe Schlosser, senior vice president, Communications, NBC-Universal Television Studio-Distribution.

Carl DiOrio, Hollywood Reporter

“What used to be considered a skeleton staff is now covering the entire entertainment waterfront,” explained DiOrio. “For example I have added DVD beats to my coverage and luckily I had a couple of years experience in working that area for another publication.”

“The downsizing of publications of all sorts, which has certainly hit the trades, once again just this week at our competitor (Variety), where I used to call home is feeling the cuts,” said DiOrio. “Whenever someone cuts a beat at one of the trades, it allows them to lower the bar down the street and if you see that the mainstream press is an extension of what we prioritize in our entertainment coverage, there is deterioration in the flow of information out of it.”

“The layoffs at the entertainment trades such as Variety, Hollywood Reporter and LA Times have created a new demand for freelance journalists,” said Michael Stroud. “It is not something desirable, but it’s a reality. I have spent the last six or seven years as CEO of a conference company and we have been hit hard as well by the recession. The first thing to go in a recession is marketing and people regard trade shows as an integral part of their marketing.”

iHollywood has two shows at the National Assn. of Broadcasters (NAB) that focuses on digital Hollywood issues and trends entitled, Advertising Innovation Summit and Mobile Entertainment Summit, which are co-producers of the NAB event.

“As the conference business falls back somewhat, suddenly there’s this big industry demand for writing, and I am getting a growing number of calls, which is actually is a good thing as I wanted to write more.” Stroud is no stranger to the business and witnessed the rise and fall ofdot.coms while writing for Red Herring magazine in San Jose, CA. “ You can’t support yourself as a freelance writer, so I’m not giving up my day job.”

Michael Stroud, freelance Journalist

Stroud predicted that some newspaper and trade publications will disappear in 10-20 years due to Online editions. Stroud, who writes for Hollywood Reporter is working on a “digital power issue.” He contributes to NewTV.com and the newly launched TheWrap.com, which covers Hollywood’s TV, movie and media. “So if you have an extremely powerful and digital pitch, I have done 15 profiles so far for the May Issue, I could use 10 more stories.”

Lots of major changes in industry

“It has been an enormous year of pain at the AP, and I think the recession simply accelerated,” said Josh Dickey, deputy entertainment editor, The Associated Press. “The AP has made it not secret that it is changing from a provider of print content to newspapers, to a provider of digital content to everyone but newspapers.”

The AP stills serves 3,500 newspapers across the world, which is still a big part of its revenue base, but it is not the main part anymore according to Dickey.

“The big assumption people make about the AP is it is the way to get your story into the newspaper across the world,” explained Dickey. “That’s just a smart part of what we do, or a fifth of the total operations. AP Television has become a massive part of our effort. We are not repurposing a lot of the reporting that’s being done for AP radio, AP Television and to also serve the print reports, which today is called ‘text’, which I prefer to call it news. So we are driving news reports through whatever communication format we are using.”

Dickey noted that AP used to be divided into TV, radio, graphics, photos and print sections doing their own thing. As we are a business-to-business model, most business would take that content and package it as they saw fit.

A one man band – wave of the future

“Now what’s happening is all of those departments are starting to mingle,” note Dickey. “We have video journalists who are now learning to write the wire. We have print journalists, who are learning to cut audio for the audio wire and radio packages. Pretty soon they’ll be picking up video cameras. I think that the deeper future shows us journalists it’s not just speaking all the languages but knowing all the platforms. The smart college student right now is taking classes in all of these different things, not pigeon-holing themselves in any of them (skills).”

Josh Dickey, Associated Press Dep. Film Editor

Reporters lose sleep over
demanding deadlines

AP’s Dickey admits he finds himself reading emails at 2:00 in the morning just to play catch up with the job and bombardment of information coming to his beat. “My day-to-day responsibilities changed just a few days ago, and they took the deputy title off, and put interim for the time being. We lost Jeannette Adams in New York when she left the company creating a vacuum for me, so I am doing two jobs. I’m tap dancing more and sleeping less. First thing I do when I get into the office is ramp up training on new platforms, and all of our journalists around the globe have to do the same to be able to do each other’s jobs.”

“We never sleep, you are never off deadline when you have the website and something breaks at 10:00 at night they kind of want you to write it up and get it posted as quickly as possible before you go to sleep. News hole or no news hole you do have a way of getting things out and that’s a good thing,” said DiOrio.

“There is going to be things that fall through the cracks in coverage. The news hole is shrinking. If you do not have the advertising support, how much news you can cram into the book is going to be less. As a practical matter less is covered,” said DiOrio.

One huge surprise story that was posted Online, after it aired one week after
Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent 2009 Episode 1 – Saturday, April 11^th. Boyle became an overnight sensation when everyone thought she was destined to be voted off the show of Britain’s Got Talent, until she sang on stage. A Youtube version earned more than 44 million visitors Online. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY)
“I would love to have 60 people in Britain watching YouTube all the time,” said Dickey. “That was an amazing story that took us all by surprise and got legs worldwide.”

All of the writer panelists said they prefer an email pitch, and it you do not hear back from them a follow-up call might be in order. To contact them the writers:

Joshy Dickey, Associated Press: JDickey@ap.org; Carl DiOrio, Dep. Film Editor, The Hollywood Reporter: cdiorio@hollywoodreporter.com and Michael Stroud, iHollywood Forum, Inc., Freelance Journalist: Michael@ihollywood.com.

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