The Inner Circle Round Up: Media News You Can Use May 2019
Welcome back to the May edition of the Inner Circle Round Up, where we pour through media news to help find new opportunities for you to consider. This month, NBC’s streaming platform and a new global religion desk are among some of the promising new PR possibilities. Follow us on Twitter and share any opportunities you came across this month at @ScottCircle.
What’s New (and New-ish)
New York Times: The Weekly Show
The highly anticipated New York Times The Weekly is premiering Sunday on FX and Monday on Hulu. The tv show will examine one major story of the week, taking you behind the scenes as journalists report on the story.
The Inner Circle Take: While this may not necessarily be a pitching opportunity, we think the opportunity here is research. Getting a better idea of how journalists work and understanding what the reporters you are pitching are actually covering is extremely valuable for PR pros.
The Fulcrum: new politics and policy outlet and newsletter
The Fulcrum, initially named as The Firewall, is a news platform that aims to decode “the fight for better government through nonpartisan coverage” on national, state and local levels. The website is set to launch in June, but they have been distributing a regular, digestible newsletter. They describe themselves as “dedicated to covering efforts to fix the American political system.”
The Inner Circle Take: If you have political advocacy clients that work at both the grassroots and national levels, check out The Fulcrum. Subscribe to their newsletter to get a better idea of the type of coverage they focus on. Their newsletter is already a valuable tool and we look forward to seeing more with the launch of their website.
AP, The Conversation and Religion News Service: a collaboration to expand religion coverage
The Associated Press, Religion News Service and The Conversation have teamed up for a new project, “The Global Religion Journalism Initiative.” Funded by a $4.9 million grant, the initiative aims to expand global religion coverage through a joint global newsdesk. Coverage will emphasize “explaining religious practices and principles behind current events and cultural movements.” To support the project, the outlets will add new religion reporters and editors to their team-- with AP adding 8 religion journalists.
The Inner Circle Take: This is a potential goldmine for advocacy, nonprofit or faith-based organizations with some religious focus. This investment demonstrates a need for more religion coverage. With more journalists in the field, there is more opportunity to expand their coverage --and maybe write the story you’ve been pitching them using their new resources.
Name TBD: New Tech Outlet with International Focus
A new tech outlet that will focus on the impact and effects of technology outside of the US and Europe is in the works. Spearheaded by Sophie Schmidt, a tech industry veteran and daughter of a Google exec, it will highlight the “human impact: social, cultural and political phenomena driven by the interaction between new tech and different cultures, institutions and norms abroad.” While still in the planning stages, the publication aims to be running by the end of next year.
The Inner Circle Take: There are a number of new tech outlets in the works, so we will be interested to see how they differ once they come to fruition - and which ones succeed. This tech outlet specifically is unique by choosing to focus beyond western developed nations. This could be a great PR opportunity if you work with nonprofits or other organizations that work on expanding or are involved with tech access to the Global South.
New York Times: New Parenting Platform
The New York Times has launched a new parenting site. While in beta, the site is up and running and aims to be a stand alone product--similar to their Crosswords and Cooking platforms. The site is intended support new and expecting parents through expert guidance on relationships, fertility, pregnancy and pediatrics, mental-health and finance. Parenting will feature reporting on evidence based guides and research along with personal essays.
The Inner Circle Take: If one of your clients produces evidence based research in the realm of parenting, reaching out to the new Parenting product could be a potential opportunity.
NBC: New OTT Streaming Platform
NBC has launched its new streaming service NBC News Now. The service will feature new content while utilizing familiar NBC journalists. According to a spokesperson, the show “will be a mix of live reports from the field, taped in-depth feature stories, explainers and regularly updated headlines.” NBC News Now will start with eight hours of live programming with the goal of becoming a 24/7 news platform.
The Inner Circle Take: As younger generations--and maybe your target audience--move away from cable to streaming services, traditional cable news platforms are looking for new ways to reach these demographics. With new content optimized for OTT format, comes new opportunities for PR pros to reach their audience on the issues that matter to them.
New to Us (and maybe to you too)
Politico: Global Politics Podcast Launch
Global Translations will delve into the global political challenges we face. The podcast aims to uncover “what's really at stake with the most pressing issues of our time, the political roadblocks for solving them and the ideas that might just propel us forward.” The new show will launch on June 6.
The Inner Circle Take: If one of your clients can speak to the global political issues of the day, this could be a great profile raising opportunity. Guests on the show can be pretty high profile, so you will want to make sure your expert is the right fit.
MediaFile: Student-run news platform
MediaFile is a nonprofit news organization completely run by students that report on the media industry. Based out of GW’s School of Media and Public Affairs, their staff is comprised of students around the world. News sections include podcasts, politics, industry, international and opinion.
Inner Circle Take: This is an opportunity to stay informed on media news and find new PR opportunities ...but if you don’t have the time to keep up with another outlet, just stay tuned to The Inner Circle Round Up and we’ll have you covered!