Tip #60: Get your facts right…

PC Magazine & Dow Jones columnist John Dvorak tried to morph into an investigative journalist this week when he published an inflammatory “Special Report” on his blog titled: Is US Chief Information Officer (CIO) Vivek Kundra a Phony? Dvorak’s report centered around “questionable facts” about Kundra’s experience and educational background. The most shocking charge was that Kundra fabricated his MS in Information Technology based on an Internet search of registrar records Dvorak conducted.

Problem is, Dvorak didn’t take time to even pick up a phone and do the most basic of journalistic research before publishing his story. Within hours, journalists from NextGov and GigaOm tracked down the truth (MS in IT awarded in 2001), by simply calling Kundra’s alma mater. If you are going to throw serious allegations around when you report, be prepared to back them up, otherwise you risk looking like (in Dvorak’s own words) “an 18 year old blogger who just got his first Macintosh.”

Tip #59: Free Tips = Good

Rafe Needleman, author of ProPRTips.com (the inspiration for this blog), has announced that the Pro PR Tips book is now available through his sponsor, ITDatabase. That company, which makes a directory and tracking service of writers and topics for PR people, is giving away the book to qualified people in the tech PR industry. If you’d like to get on the list to receive the book, sign up here.

Also: See Pro PR Tips in the New York Times: Spinning the Web: P.R. in Silicon Valley.

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Tip #58: Have a “Plan B”

Tip #57: There are good news days

…and there are bad news days.  Be prepared for both.

Tip #56: Headlines make a difference

I know many reporters don’t write the heads for their stories, but man, they should.  Who knows the story better?

Tip #55: Avoid anonymous sourcing…

…whenever possible.  There’s a time and a place where you should consider using, but certainly don’t default.  At worst it can be seen as lazy/sloppy reporting, at best it allows skepticism to run wild while others second guess how accurate your source is.

A good read on when and how to use confidential sources is You Didn’t Hear This From Me, originally developed as part of the American Press Institute’s seminar, “Our Readers Are Watching,” and posted at No Train, No Gain.

Tip #54: Don’t pull a Christian Bale

Seriously, try to be professional.  There’s no reason for going totally over the top with a PR/marketing person, especially in a public way (remember Tip #20: Don’t air your dirty laundry).

Check out this Twitter exchange between (soon to be former) National Post reporter David George-Cosh and April Dunford, founder of Rocket Launch Marketing.  As David might say: un-fu@k!ng-believable.  See full MediaStyle report here (by Ian Capstick).

Interestingly, Mr. George-Cosh seems to have deleted the tweets from his account, but they’ve been preserved below and over at MediaStyle.

Thanks to @VaENew and @NicolePRexec for pointing out this Reporter tip!

Update: The National Post published an apology over the incident, and April Dunford blogged about the experience as well.  I certainly agree with Aril’s “apologize and move on” point; if there was an immediate apology I think the whole incident wouldn’t have had enough steam to get off of the ground.

Tip #53: Liveblogging rocks

If the White House can liveblog from an event, you can too. Why should I wait until tomorrow (or even later that afternoon) for your news?

Tip #52: I don’t think you’re stupid

Via Thomas Lee:

Contrary to what you may think, we’re not out to dupe you. There are some reporters out there that  that seem to truly believe every PR pitch they receive is a ruse. If we don’t have an existing relationship, it’s understandable that you’ll be more thorough in vetting a pitch, but realize that trying to pull one over on you is not in our best interest or the best interest of our clients. Our reputation in this business is all we have.