Media Relations for Professors

On Monday, SCU had a “thank you” lunch for professors and administrators who had media exposure this year. The formal program included three speakers: Ed Clendaniel, San Jose Mercury News opinion page writer; Dana Nachman, NBC 11 special projects producer; and myself.

Ed spoke about getting op-ed pieces published in a newspaper. He said that the Mercury News gets about 20,000 op-ed submissions a year for less than 1,000 publication spots–a Reporters routinely use search engines to find sources, so my blog acts as a “magnet” for attracting those reporters. In some cases, reporters will quote the blog directly without even speaking with me. Further, my blog lends some internal credibility to my authority as a source.

2) Blog readers act as a type of distributed referral network, regularly referring reporters to me.

3) Reporters may become subscribers to my blog, in which case they may regularly report on stories I write about and quote my blog/contact me for more quotes.

I also noted that, by participating in the blogosphere, I could get access to websites such as Slashdot and Digg where the visibility of being linked may rival or exceed the exposure from being quoted in the mainstream media Given the choice between a quote in the NY Times or a link from Slashdot, I’d likely take the Slashdot link!

I did sound a few cautionary notes about blogging for professors. It’s time-consuming; not everyone has a blogging personality; and there are a variety of risks (legal, reputational, and ruffled feathers).