Lauren Horwtiz is a Senior Content Director for Informa, writing primarily for IoT World Today. Prior to her role at Informa, Lauren was Managing Editor of Cisco.com and Senior Executive Editor in the Business Applications and Architecture group at TechTarget. With over 20 years of experience in the digital publishing industry under her belt, Lauren has an extensive knowledge of digital trends. She joins ConnectThe2 to discuss her favorite aspects of covering IoT, the upsides and downsides of PR pitches, the future of smart environments and more.

Quotes

• “I spent many years of my career trying to really cultivate that roster of smart, tech-savvy freelancers who either really understand technology or they’re good writers. And certainly the technologists, the IT pros that we use for stories are also sometimes our sources for comments.” (11:20-11:52)

• “I like to think of IoT Today as always offering in some of our longer stories still that opportunity to cover the waterfront and really hear from different sources on a topic and do a state of the nation. It’s very labor-intensive….in media, we’re moving at a faster pace now, so investing resources in one story gets harder and harder, but I still think it’s the best way to do a story.” (16:15-16:43)

• “I think PR people spend a lot of time writing really lengthy pitches, but actually they’d be better served not spending so much time on the prose and really distilling the information down, so that it’s really efficiently presented for people who are getting 50, 60, 100 pitches a day.” (21:28-21:48)

• “When you look at some of the smart environments that are being built right now, they’re often for residential and corporate use combined, there’s a lot of mixed use stuff happening, and we’re just looking at a whole different way of living and working, often in tandem.” (23:01-23:25)

Links

https://www.iotworldtoday.com/2021/03/11/digital-twins-in-health-already-helping-in-disease-treatment/

https://tmt.knect365.com/iot-world/

https://www.iotworldtoday.com/event/iot-world-2021/

Learn more about Connect2 Communications

Website: https://www.connect2comm.com/

Podcast home page: https://www.connect2comm.com/podcast

Twitter handle: @Connect2_Comm

Instagram handle: @connect2_comm

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/connect2-communications

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Connect2-Communications

Advice from professionals can go a long way. Today’s retrospective episode of ConnectThe2 features accounts from six of the reporters that hosts Rich and Millie have interviewed on past episodes. Each reporter answers one of the age-old questions in the PR world: what makes an effective and persuasive pitch? Tune in to hear these seasoned professionals give their unique takes on how PR people should approach contacting, pitching, and hooking reporters and analysts.

Quotes

• “Telling the right story at the right time can change everything.” - Millie (1:40-1:44)

• “Never call me. Let me repeat that. Never use the phone.” (5:08-5:14) - Lydia Dishman

• “An essay is not required to introduce a press release.” (6:36-6:38) - Ray Le Maistre

• “The other thing I would say these days is there is definitely an outreach from the industry to journalists, whenever there is a fuel element included, that is a lot more attractive to the journalist community.” (8:15-8:24) - Ray Le Maistre

• “I think the most frustration comes when people aren't doing their homework and they don't know why they are pitching to somebody.” (9:28-9:33) - Scott Raynovich

• “You know, we were joking before about, as you said, kind of that idea of, I guess online stalking. But that is very much something that does go in line with some of these pitches to a point that it gets a little uncomfortable when people like are reading your twitter feed and trying to find out personal information about you. It's something that is absolutely the wrong direction.” (10:56-11:17) - Brian Heater

Learn more about Connect2 Communications:

Website: https://www.connect2comm.com/

Podcast home page: https://www.connect2comm.com/podcast

Twitter handle: @Connect2_Comm

Instagram handle: @connect2_comm

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/connect2-communications

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Connect2-Communications

Sky Lebron is a Morning News Anchor and Multimedia Producer for WUFT News in Gainesville, FL. Sky is also a regular contributor to NPR’s Morning Edition. Over the years, Sky has worked with just about every medium, from radio to newspaper to TV. He joins ConnectThe2 to discuss his diverse experiences in journalism, how to find a reliable expert source, what makes a quality interview, and more.

Quotes

• “Throughout my college career, I really developed a love for radio and audio...I just always found that medium more intimate than the other experiences. With the newspaper side of things, you can’t really get the punch, the emotion from a specific soundbite.” (2:25-2:55)

• “The other thing I always wish I could add to more stories is more perspectives, specifically with minority communities. There are different facets of stories that we don’t really think about until we can get in there critically and really dissect it.” (9:46-10:05)

• “When you want to get an expert source, and you really want to establish relationships with expert sources, not every single phone call has to be an interview.” (11:55-12:05)

• “I think PR is extremely pivotal to journalists in terms of connecting with people, hearing about stories we wouldn’t otherwise know about. That happens on a daily basis.” (23:03-23:16)

• “I think the most important side [of a pitch] for a journalist is the news hook. The news hook makes everything. Am I hearing something that will leave a lasting impact on people? Are people going to be interested in this specific story? These are all the questions that run through your head every single time you have a story that you’re planning on pitching or that you’re going to pursue.” (32:27-32:51)

Links

https://news.wjct.org/post/proposed-nassau-beach-ordinance-could-hurt-decades-long-american-beach-tradition

Learn more about Connect2 Communications:

Website: https://www.connect2comm.com/

Podcast home page: https://www.connect2comm.com/podcast

Twitter handle: @Connect2_Comm

Instagram handle: @connect2_comm

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/connect2-communications

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Connect2-Communications

We are thrilled to have Tobias Mann, Editor at SDxCentral join us on the podcast this week. Tobias covers the SD-WAN, SASE, optical networking and semiconductor industries. ConnectThe2 gets the inside scoop on Tobias’s early days working as a reporter in the newspaper industry and what it was like reporting on local crime in Winona, Minnesota. We also learn what stories Tobias is interested in writing the most right now; spoiler alert, it involves silicon. Stick around for the games section of the podcast, as we play a new game customized entirely for Tobias.

Sean Buckley is the Executive Editor at Broadband Communities. His journey in tech journalism began 20 years ago and his writing has since appeared in popular industry publications like Telecoms Magazine and Fierce Markets. He joins ConnectThe2 to discuss his new podcast for Broadband Communities, how he got his start in journalism and the various tradeshows he looks forward to attending this year.

Clint Boulton, Senior Writer at CIO.com joins us as our special guest this week on the ConnectThe2 podcast. Clint has been writing about enterprise CIOs and digital transformation for over nine years and was previously a Staff Reporter for The Wall Street Journal covering big data, cloud computing and other areas germane to CIOs. During our conversation with Clint, we discuss the pros and cons of social media, how to pitch him and the importance of telling engaging narratives.

Brian Heater is a journalist and hardware reviews editor at TechCrunch. His writing has appeared in popular publications like Engadget, PCMag, Playboy, Wired and Entertainment Weekly. He joins ConnectThe2 to discuss his podcast RIYL, how he got his start in journalism and why he started a weekly newsletter in the middle of a pandemic.

Our guest on this week’s podcast joins us from San Jose, California – Julie Kunstler, Senior Principal Analyst at Omdia. Julie is responsible for Omdia’s coverage of the broadband access industry, which we learn more about throughout the episode. We cover a wide range of topics, including Julie’s previous experience working with startups, her travels in Japan, the importance of broadband connectivity for all and which conferences she hopes to attend later this year.

Our special guest this week on the ConnectThe2 podcast is New York-based writer Monica Chin. Monica is a reporter covering computers and education at the Verge. Prior to the Verge, she was a staff writer for several consumer technology publications like Business Insider, Tom’s Guide and Mashable. In our conversation with Monica, we discuss her appreciation for laptops, telling human stories and her love for ice cream. We also learn new details on some of the stories she’s written.

On this week’s episode of the ConnectThe2 podcast, we are joined by Rich Miller, Editor and Founder of Data Center Frontier. Rich has more than 19 years of experience reporting on the data center sector. Prior to covering data centers, he worked in print media directing coverage of investigative journalism and enterprise reporting projects at daily newspapers in New Jersey. He joins the ConnectThe2 podcast to discuss trends in the data center industry, his love for storytelling and his passion for podcasting.