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PR Fuel: Don't Ignore The Melting PotI was listening to the radio this evening and heard an interesting report. The latest U.S. Census Report indicates there are 38.8 million Hispanics living in America as of July 2002. That's almost a ten percent increase since 2000. Hispanics have replaced African-Americans as America's largest racial minority -- if only by a slim margin. And while the Hispanic population has seen explosive growth, Asians were the fastest growing minority group in America in the past two years. America is more of a melting pot now more than ever.Minority media (I don't like the term) is on the rise. There are publications aimed at every racial, ethnic and religious group imaginable. In a city like New York, there are dozens of foreign-language newspapers and magazines. At the corner deli, the one newspaper that consistently sells out is not The New York Times, The New York Post, The New York Daily News, The Wall St. Journal or Newsday - it's the local Polish-language newspaper. I was interviewed once for the paper. I was dating a Polish girl and her friend was a reporter for the paper. She was doing a story on Poles dating non-Poles. The funny thing about the interview is that they mentioned what I did for a living. I was working for an Internet company at the time and the next thing I know I start getting all kinds of emails from people with a lot of Z's in their last name telling me how much they liked my company's website. After that incident, I pushed our PR people to reach out to minority publications. Unfortunately, they didn't. I heard all the excuses. "They're not our target audience." "There's a language barrier." "Why limit ourselves to a certain audience?" I was not a happy camper. These people were our target audience, I argued. They're consumers and that is all that matters. Language barriers can be broken down easily - -find someone who speaks the language and hire them as a consultant (or get an intern for a short-term project). And it's not limiting ourselves to a certain audience, it's expanding our audience. Another argument I heard was that the PR people didn't know how to tailor their pitch to a minority audience. What needed to be tailored? It's the same pitch. This point was driven home when I did an interview for a publication targeting gay readers. I asked the reporter if he wanted me to talk about gays in business or something like that. I thought the guy was going to kill me. It was a stupid question for me to ask. The interview covered the same ground as any interview I'd ever done. It just so happened that the magazine's target audience was gay. Gay, straight, bi-sexual -- whatever my orientation happened to be, didn't matter. It was a story about an interesting, albeit an obviously ignorant, person. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of media outlets aimed at minorities. There are television networks aimed at African-Americans, Hispanics and soon Arab-Americans. There are magazines targeting everyone from women (technically still considered a minority) to Jews to people over the age of 55. For instance, Modern Maturity (recently renamed AARP The Magazine), published by the American Association of Retired Persons, is the largest circulation magazine in America. PlanetOut, an online community aimed at gays with plenty of content and PR opportunities, recently became profitable -- something a lot of online companies aimed at the "general populace" have never been able to do. A few weeks ago I wrote about Jeremy Pepper -- a young PR guy who recently launched his own PR firm. He happened to be online while I was writing this so I asked him his opinion on the subject. "When doing a test market run for a consumer product the team needed to land more interviews for the launch, so I decided to target the African-American newspaper for Indianapolis. The editor was so happy to be invited for an interview with a company spokesperson that it dawned on me that most PR firms ignore minority magazines and newspapers," Pepper said. That's a nice PR story, but it's also a sad commentary. Thinking about this topic has caused me to take a look at my own media list. The entire list is comprised of reporters at mainstream media outlets. There's no one at any Spanish-language publications and no one at media outlets that target African-Americans. No wonder I haven't gotten any ink in months. --------------------------------------------------------------- PR News Compiled and commented on by Ben Silverman A recent court-ruling in New York extends legal privilege to PR people. In a nutshell, a Federal Judge ruled that a PR firm's communication with a client can be considered privileged because the communication involved legal strategy. This case has created quite a stir in the corporate world of PR. Link: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business/bar06172003.htm ___ PR is long-term and goal-oriented, sort of like a fat guy running a marathon. Link: http://www.smartbiz.com/article/articleview/292/1/4/ ___ A Maine-based PR firm is taking heat because it represents an anti-casino group and a cruise ship line that has floating casinos. Bad PR for a PR firm! Link: http://www.pressherald.com/news/state/030615bailey.shtml ___ The Mayor of Indianapolis is kissing some PR butt. PR firms in Circle City are still upset that the city hired a New York PR firm to promote the city. Here's a suggestion: Come up with a new nickname for the city. Link: http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/2/050078-2372-009.html ___ How to get free PR - easier said than done. Link: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,309223,00.html ___ Three years ago Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis was in the middle of a murder trial. Thanks to a sparkling personality however, Lewis is now one of the National Football League's most marketable players. An interesting story to say the least. I've been continually amazed by Lewis on and off the field. Link: http://tinyurl.com/epoy
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