I once handled a book for Harvey Mackay, who had asked me to publicize a manuscript called “Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive.” Harvey was a first-time unknown author, an envelope manufacturer, and I needed to call upon many creative approaches in promoting him. Fortunately for me, Harvey is an extraordinary individual and a great natural salesman (I say that in the best sense of that word) - and representing him was a delight. He was incredibly energized and never said “no” to any media placements I put in front of him. I remember once when I landed an interview for him with a syndicated columnist in Cleveland, and all that was required was a phone interview (Harvey is based in Minneapolis) - Harvey not only flew to Cleveland to meet the columnist…he had lunch with her and the meeting translated into not one column item, but a series of syndicated column items. Harvey had impressed her that much. I imagine some of you may recall that that book, “Swim With The Sharks…” became a mega-bestseller, including nearly a year on the New York Times Bestseller List.
One of the many placements arranged for Harvey was with the Asssociated Press (AP) Bureau out of Minneapolis. That was really the first major national placement, because it ran on the AP’s “A” Wire, which is the national wire that goes to hundreds and sometimes thousands of newspapers, both nationally and internationally. That single placement became the engine for more major media pickup, and the rest is history. It showed me the power of the wire services. AP, Reuters and UPI are the primary such services.
Years later, when I represent a humanitarian NGO, CURE International, which builds and runs teaching hospitals for disabled children in Third World countries, an extraordinary event was about to occur at one of their hospitals in the Dominican Republic. A baby girl, Rebecca, had been born deformed with a vestige incomplete head connected to her actual head. The vestigial head needed to be removed, and that surgery would be a first in medical history. Teams of surgeons flew in to join the Dominican surgeons, and I knew that this was a story that had great media potential. It was a risky surgery too, and our hearts went out for little Rebecca and her family. I first planted a seed with Reuters out of Miami, which ran the story in advance of the event. The pickup on that story was huge, and created a great deal of curiosity with the press. All the broadcast network and national cable networks positioned themselves to cover the story. I then notified the local AP reporter out of Santo Domingo, who received permission from his editor in New York to cover the actual operation, and that story ran in thousands of newspapers. [I had simultaneously worked with a medical reporter from USA Today, for whom I arranged a phone conference with the doctors in advance of the surgery, and that national newspaper ran over a full page, with graphics, of the surgery].
Sadly, Baby Rebecca died in that surgery, though she contributed enormously to the advancement of medical science in understanding that abberation - and helped future babies with a similar condition - to survive.
AP then ran a lengthy story about the tragic outcome; as did Reuters and USA Today. Naturally both the pre-surgical story and the post-event story ran in thousands of newspapers nationwide and internationally; and broadcast network and cable tv newscasts did the same.
Most recently, I represented Dr. Peter Langman, head of psychology at KidsPeace: The National Center for Kids In Crisis. He had written a book called “Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters”. It was an analysis of the mental/emotional conditions of the Columbine killers. I knew that a major story with AP, as well as a story in USA Today, would do much to give life to this book. I worked with the local AP Reporter in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, where Dr. Langman was situated. The seeds were planted early, and because this was a very busy reporter, I knew that I would need to maintain contact with him on a fairly regular basis. Then, a couple of weeks before the anniversary of Columbine, the reporter interviewed Dr. Langman. He brought a photographer. The interview was in-depth. I sensed it would be a long story; and indeed it became just that. The outcome? Over two thousand newspapers picked the story up. Virtually overnight, the book had been placed on the radar screen of millions of people.
In fact, I had also cultivated contact with a reporter from USA Today, again, well ahead of the Columbine anniversary. USA Today not only published their story on the front page of the paper, they also had a separate long book review published on the same day. “Why Kids Kill,” which had barely received any attention until the AP and USA Today stories, had jumped from practically zero on Amazon.com’s list, to Number 1 on Amazon’s bestseller list for crime books.
All of this is to say that the wire services carry great power and impact. Look for opportunities to work not only with AP out of New York or Washington, but with the local AP (or Reuters) bureaus in the locales where the story is taking place.
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