Business as Usual: PGH Tech Reporters

Transcription: 

Good afternoon, everyone. This is Audrey Russo, President and CEO, the Pittsburgh Technology Council. Happy Monday, we have another great show today. And in one moment, I will introduce our guests. But I really want to make sure that everyone knows a couple of things. First of all, I want to give a big shout out to Huntington bank thanking them for all the work that they've done in supporting us on everything that we're doing. I see Jonathan's even wearing a Huntington bank shirt right now, background Come on, and the background. Absolutely. That's Jonathan kersting. He's vice president of all things media and marketing and storytelling, he will be with us today making sure that we can encourage people in the chat. And we have muted everyone's microphones just so that we can be kind to our guests and make sure that any background noise is not interfering with our ability to have a conversation with them. So I do I'm very thrilled right now to welcome Julia. And I'm welcoming Lauren. So we have representatives from the business times. And from the post Gazette. They are considered our tech and manufacturing reporters, essentially. And they have been good friends to the community. And we thought it would be a great idea to hear from them, see what they're up to figure out ways that they tell stories, how can we get our stories in front of them and all the things that really matter to making sure that the communication across Pittsburg and beyond is occurs? So when I'm going to bring on Julia, Julia miracle, and she is a longtime friend of the tech Council and the tech community. And then we're also going to bring on Lauren Rosenblatt. So first, I'm going to welcome Julia, Julia, I'd like you to kick things off by you know, introducing yourself, tell people about the path you took to where you are today. And then talk about your current role and focus at the business times. So Julia,

Alright, thank thanks so much. Um, so I, well, I went to journalism school at St. Bonaventure University, and then my first job in reporting was at a pretty small daily newspaper, mountain, Burlington, Iowa. And after that, I wanted to come to a little bit of a bigger city and wanted to focus a little in on a specific beat in in reporting rather than sort of the general assignment idea and found my way to the Pittsburgh Business Times started out as as just the tech reporter there, and I've been in that role for a little over two years now. And has sort of added manufacturing and and a little bit of education to do might be it as well during that time, but still focus on technology.

Well, where's your home? Well, yeah,

I'm originally from northeastern Pennsylvania on the Wilkes Barre area.

Okay, so you came to Pittsburgh for the job. Right? And how long have you been in a little

bit over two years now?

have been that long. Good. Okay. So what do you think? What do you think about Pittsburgh? Give us a couple of, you know, give us some of your Yeah, I

love Pittsburgh. I think it's it's a great city, it's got a lot going on. Being a getting my introduction to Pittsburgh through the through the tech ecosystem, and the tech scene has been has been really cool. Because obviously, you know, there's, there's always something new. It's probably a great way for you to get immersed in the community and meet people. Right? I mean, you probably have a chance to meet people, when other people come and relocate, you know, they don't get a chance to see the the panoramic view. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, from the first week that I was here, you you meet a ton of people through through the tech council through all of the, you know, startup accelerators, like like at innovation works and universities, all of those, those big networks where people are really helpful.

That's great. That's great. So Lauren, Lauren Rosenblatt. I'm going to ask you the same thing. How did you get here a little bit about your background? Yeah, sure. And, well,

first, thanks for having me. Um, so I came here about five years ago now. for school. I went to the University of Pittsburgh, and I did not know that I wanted to go into journalism. I got involved in the student newspaper just as a hobby. And eventually it kind of took over my life. And I realized it was what I wanted to do. And so since then I've worked at the post Gazette for about two years. And first I was on the digital side of things, working on some of their applications and website stuff. And then I've been a tech reporter for about a year. And since then, like Julia might be has kind of expanded to include a lot of work for stuff and General covid work related changes.

So, so you and you are originally from from Northern Virginia, outside of DC.

Okay, so what do you think? What do you think about living here? Both, you went undergrad, and

now I love it. It's been so cool seeing the city, not as a college student. You know, Oakland is such a different world. And it's been really fun to explore the rest of Pittsburgh and see everything it has to offer. And I think it's a great place, you know, for young professionals. And there's just so many unique neighborhoods and different companies and different things going on in the region. So it's been really cool.

That's great. That's great. So we're going to go back and forth. I'm going to go back to Julia, and say, Julia, it's Monday. Today's Monday. What's a typical day? Like? I mean, here it is Monday, any different than Sunday for you?

Yeah, I would say that a typical day. Well, the the Business Times, typically puts out two email newsletters every day, there's Morning Edition and afternoon edition. So a portion of my day is kind of split up into writing and reporting and writing stories that will be on online on published on the website for those two, two times a day. And then the rest of the day is usually allocated for working on more long term projects, I'm doing some of the more in depth reporting that leads to, you know, our cover stories and our focus stories that might be in the print edition, the weekly print edition of our paper as well. And then I'd say that the third component of my daily schedule is just staying in touch with people just keep maintaining relationships with, you know, different sources, and just keeping communication with a lot of the tech companies here in Pittsburgh.

So I'm today. So do you work on the weekends?

on big blur,

I do not work on the weekends. Luckily, because we are a business specific newspaper, we typically keep those business hours.

So do you have a couple of good stories in the hopper right now? Always. I want to see if I could crack you. That's okay. I'll come back to that. See if we can have some fun with you. Okay, let's go to Lauren. Lauren. What's a typical day today is Monday. Right? And you folks put out something every day? Yeah. Different kind of paper? What's it like for you today? What are you up to?

Yeah, yeah. So Mondays are a lot more emails than any other day, I would say that's the only thing that's different. I'm catching up, I want to happen over the weekend and things like that. But for the most part, you never really know what you're going to get every day. And sometimes, you know, we always try to have a longer term, a longer term project, like Julia was mentioning. And so you always have something you kind of come to when you you have some free time. But I'm pretty much the only tech reporter. So if something happens, I got to drop everything. And come to that, you know, get the breaking news. So it's kind of a mystery, you never know what you're going to get. And you try to line things up, but to have coverage all the time and keep tabs on the different companies and things like that, so that you can be a little ahead of the curve as much as possible.

Right. And so what about during COVID? for both of you? Has anything changed during COVID? Do you think that I mean, because you've been working virtually, I would imagine you don't always have to be you know, have feet on the ground. So is anything different in terms of COVID for you, Lauren.

Um, we've pretty much gotten used to working from home now. We went home back in March. And it was a little bit of a, you know, an adjustment, a lot of emails and getting used to slack and things like that. But now, I think I think we're kind of all on the same page, we have to be very vigilant to make sure you know, wires don't get crossed within the paper and no one's working on the same things and stuff like that. So a lot of internal communication. Other than that, you know, meeting with sources I used to really enjoy meeting people in person and going to see their offices in their facility as much as possible because especially with tech companies, there's so many cool things to see while you're there. And I haven't done as much of that. So that's kind of disappointing, but that's starting to ramp up again. As you know, we're getting used to these safety measurements and mask wearing and stuff like that. So we're trying to get back into that. And zoom always helps, of course.

So are you actually getting out right now? Are you making visits and getting out?

Occasionally, um, it depends on on what the company wants and whatever feels most comfortable with. But if we can make it happen safely, especially while the weather's still nice, we try to make it happen.

So what about you, Julia? Yeah,

I would, you know, repeat a lot of what Lauren said, I have not yet been to, to, you know, any in person event events or anything yet. Um, for the most part, it feels that that operations, you know, day to day how everything works is pretty much the same. It's just, you know, every every all the events are virtual, like this, one of my interviews are now phone calls or zoom calls. So, you know, I do again, like Lawrence had missed that aspect of just being able to go and actually speak with people in person. But, um, but for the most part, how how everything operates, transition pretty smoothly online. Do you feel like the pace is picked up since COVID?

In terms of the workers, it just, is it the same?

Oh, yeah, I

would say the the pace has picked up a little bit, especially because you don't have that, you know, travel aspect. It does kind of make the day a little bit more efficient in terms of how many people you can talk to and how much you can work on. I think it really picked up for our health reporter. Oh, yeah.

But I think that was the biggest change. Right? What about you, Lauren? Anything change?

Yeah, I think, you know, at the beginning of this, everyone kind of jumped on to help with COVID coverage. And keeping up with the different regulations and business requirements, you know, it was different things were closing and reopening, and you know, all of that was happening. So that was a pretty heavy lift. And then also trying to, you know, get those stories out. What does this mean for every industry? And what does this mean for the hardware companies and software companies and venture capital and stuff like that. So there was a lot of getting on that right away to see people's initial reactions. And now, again, that's kind of steadied out people are getting into their routines now. But now that, you know, things are starting to come back, I think we might see more, more of that again.

And so, you know, we have entrepreneurs and founders that are on the call today, and many of them have extensive experience dealing with journalists, but many don't. And so what is your advice? What, what kinds of things kind of advice would you give them? Because, you know, the people who are in our ecosystem, and I think Ingrid made it made a point saying, Lauren, you have your work cut out for you? Because, you know, and I would say the same thing for Julia, because there's a lot going on here right now. But what advice would you have? How, what kinds of things can you, you know, talk about in terms of they see themselves as cheap storytellers. Sometimes sometimes they don't. So what what about some advice that you can provide, and particularly, even some of the, some of the do's and don'ts that would also help? So he who wants to start? Who wants to jump on that? Julia, you want to jump

there? Yeah.

I would say, first of all, just to reach out, I think we were gonna have our contact information is

out there. Everything's out there. The Twitter's out there, your addresses out there. I mean, your emails out there and phone?

Yeah, um, and I think that sometimes, people kind of think there's some, you know, very specific process they have to follow to reach out to reporters, um, but it's really just, you can just call or email, there's no right or wrong way to really do it. Um, and, and I think an important point I would want to make is that, you know, even if you don't necessarily have a specific story, pitch, or an idea, you know, for a story at that about your company at that moment, it's still helpful to just reach out and kind of build those relationships and build those connections. So that when a story does come down the road, you know, that foundation is, is already laid and, you know, I've got some background on the company, and that's helpful. I'd say in terms of some advice for for, you know, giving a pitch to a reporter is just to make sure that there is an element of timeliness I guess I'm you know, I think that sometimes we get a lot of very broad general pitches about company growth and and those kind of things and those are Really good stories. But I think it's really helpful to when you're sending a picture reporter to just kind of pinpoint what the you know why that story should be told at that specific time what the element is. That is is new.

Okay, Lauren?

Yeah, yeah, I definitely agree with with Julia. And I would add to that, that, we like to hear all the updates, even if we don't write about it. So not to take them personally. It always helps to have context about the company so that, you know, if you email us about your new hires, and we don't write about that, but then you email us about a funding round, it always helps to put in Oh, they also just hired 100 new people. So we like to hear everything, even if it doesn't turn into a story in itself. I would also say when you're emailing us, or at least for me, it helps to not be like, too technical and don't sound that you know, don't try to sound super impressive. Mostly, I just want to hear about the impact that your tech is going to have, and you know, the change that you think you're going to make. And then I want to understand how it works. But usually, I think that requires a conversation. And so I would say focus on that, like focus on what impact you want to have, and why you are the right person to make that change, and why you're qualified to make this technology more than anybody else. And so I have

eight have this is for both of you. Have you seen any trends over the last seven months? Are there any patterns that you're seeing or hearing that and they can be anecdotal? Not necessarily, like how are you releasing facts? Are you seeing any trends that maybe you could just share with us, and that might help our audience.

So

I see it gotten a lot of pitches about cleaning, and disinfectants and stuff like that, um, and, I mean, obviously, there's a big market for that right now, more than ever, so that's definitely going to keep happening. There's been different health tech things, you know, ways to test for COVID and, and things like that. And that's been really cool to see, especially how much of it is coming out of Pittsburgh, because you know, that stuff's gonna be so universally needed. And then I've also been following the gig, the gig economy a lot, you know, Uber drivers and doordash, and stuff like that, because it's come into play a lot more, a lot more people use it than ever before. And just that whole type of economy is probably going to change with COVID.

A lot of opportunities for disruption there as well, there are a lot of companies are looking at even how to disrupt those companies. Right here in our backyard. What about you, Julia?

Yeah, I would note that, in addition to seeing a lot of those companies that have technologies related to COVID-19, I think there's also been a lot of transition in what already established companies had been doing, um, you know, a lot of tech companies that had a technology, you know, that maybe was completely unrelated, sort of shifted a lot of their efforts to see how they could actually make whatever they were working on into something that that helps with COVID-19 or a lot of manufacturing facilities that again, like manufacturer or something completely unrelated, you know, in the past few months have shifted a lot of their work to start manufacturing things that that help with COVID efforts as well. So that's, that's been an interesting trend to see.

So let's now let's talk about the pitches you both have made yourself accessible and gave given everyone your contact info. So what tell us about what what is a good pitch? Give us what a good pitch you get, you hinted around a couple of things, but what what's a good pitch and what's what's a bad pitch?

I can start And so again, I would, you know, go back to to what I mentioned about just that there needs to sort of be that element of timeliness and something that's new. At since we're a business newspaper, some of those things include you know, closing large funding rounds, you know, any hiring of of new leadership or moving to New opening new facilities or moving into new spaces is something we write about a lot. Um, mergers and acquisitions are another big one kind of just those, those specific transactions that you know, that might be a milestone for the for the company.

And so what give us an example of something not good.

Um, one thing I tend to see a lot of that a lot of in pitches that we don't typically write about is things like Honors and awards like sometimes, companies will reach out to note that their thesis Joe has, you know, won some some type of award. And usually unless it's something very prestigious, that's not something we would write about. But I would go back to what what Lauren noted about, you know, it's still great to get those updates. And and keep that in mind. Because you know, maybe if we're writing a story about the company in the future, that would kind of be something you could, it might not be a story on its own, but it's something that could be weaved into the larger narrative.

That's good. Lauren, what about you, you want to give some examples? both good and not good?

Yeah, sure. So yeah, the same type of thing. We like to look for kind of broader stories. You know, we want to see how a company positions itself, you know, in the in the sector that they're in, in general, and what sets them apart and things like that. So the breaking news is always good. But I also just want to hear you know, about the company itself. And I think it always helps to show that you've already made some traction. Like if you don't, like we like to see that there's an investor or you know, you're a part of a startup accelerator or something like that, just to show you kind of already laid the groundwork and are up and running. So that we know, you know, it's definitely going to happen. So yeah, I would say that always helps. And same thing with the timeliness that Julia was mentioning. It always helps if there's something new that's changed, whether it's a funding round, or a new rollout or something like that. We need some type of a hook usually. And it helps if if you guys can provide that, you know what, what you're expecting why you're reaching out to us now versus any other time. And that doesn't mean we won't come back to it. If there isn't a timely angle, you know, definitely still reach out. And we can find one or wait for one. But it always helps if you have an idea of you know, why you think we should write about it right now. It's always good to hear.

And, and that doesn't mean that you're going to write about it. Right.

I think that's the point here. So what about if, if Jonathan sends you a press release on something? how effective are press releases? Can you can you talk about that? Was it shifted over the last 10 years?

Um, I would say it depends on the press release. Okay, yeah.

Yeah, I guess, um, if it's super generic, it's probably not very impactful. Um, I'd like to hear how it's gonna affect Pittsburgh, specifically, um, you know, because there's so many people covering the tech industry, and we want to focus on how it will affect our residents, and the people living here and the economy here. So I think that always helps to include even if that's not your press release, if you just, you know, put that in the email last night out to me like we're not Pittsburgh based, but I think it would impact us, because XYZ. So that always helps. Yeah, for the most part, I think press releases do help provide some of that background information all in one place, and like number of employees, and when you were founded, and stuff like that, so I find them useful in that way.

Sure. I would say that, that they are helpful, but obviously, I'm sure Lauren would agree, you know, our goal is to hopefully get the news out before everyone would receive a press release. So I think just noting that, you know, we want to work with a lot of these people ahead of time, if possible. And I'm not in every case. But in in a majority of cases, I would say that reporters are usually willing to, you know, work on a timeline with you. And you know, even if there's something under embargo, or that you're hoping to announce on a certain day, unless there's, you know, some some other reason not to usually we're willing to work on the on those timelines. And it's really helpful to, to have that information ahead of time. So we can actually set up interviews and talk to you about it and not just sort of have that really quick, reactionary story once the press release is already out.

There's a good question, Jonathan, that Ingrid cook has asked if you could jump to that. And then I want to ask a few more questions before we wrap up.

So we have Ingrid cook here, when my favorite people hanging out with us wants to know, have you ever had a story that you were super passionate about? But your editor rejected it? And if so, what was that story? Why was it rejected? And how did you handle it? Good question. Ingrid. I love it.

I can start, um, I would say I've actually been pretty lucky. in the, in the couple of years that I've been here at the business times that I can't really, you know, think of a story like that I my editor is pretty willing to let us work on what we want to work on. And I'm pretty open to to you know, accepting those different ideas. So I haven't had anything, anything majorly like that.

Good. Good question with Lauren. Do you have an example?

I don't have a specific example either. I don't think most pitches are like outright reject. They're kind of told, like, Oh, well, you know, let's think about that one and come back to it. No, no, we never want to say no. Yeah, there could always be a story there. But um, when I started as a tech reporter, you know, my boss had already worked with a couple of tech reporters before me and I, she kind of had to coach me to get used to, you know, every founder you talk to is going to say, they're going to change the world. But they're not all going to change the world. And I can't get too swept up in the you know, this technology is going to be the thing that changes everything. So you kind of got to get used to that language and form your story ideas around it.

Okay, but we need to be more, when we have our story, we need to cut through that with you. I get it.

Thank you one story, though. I'm curious, like, I mean, if someone pitches something, can you just start pursuing it, that's something where you need to kind of go back and get like official approval in order to really roll forward on something.

So at the post Gazette, it's a little bit of both, I think, as you develop your beat, you kind of earn more except for a little more. And, you know, if you get something and you know, it's a big story and a big deal, then you can kind of just say, this is what I'm pursuing. And then, but it never hurts to check in, I always, you know, we send emails, like three times a day just with what we're working on. So most of our team knows what we're pursuing as things come up.

So let's, let's talk about national, if you can, you know, talk about that we like, any kind of advice that you have for entrepreneurs, and for companies, anyone that are looking at national publications, or specialized news outlets, or any strategies to help them get coverage, give any advice that you can just provide. I mean, we love you locally, we love that, like, you know, most of these companies need customers from all around the world. So they need exposure.

Yeah, I would say, um, sometimes to think of what the publication might have that is outside the scope of their, you know, daily news stories. For example, at the Business Times, we have different features, like the personalities of Pittsburgh, which, you know, is just sort of a q&a to get to know a leader in the business community. We have a couple different features like that we have different awards, like, fast 50, which features you the fastest growing companies in the region are 30, under 30, things like that. And I think that those are, those vary between publications, but a lot of publications have those kind of special features or awards that they do. And sometimes, you know, even if your company doesn't have something that might fit into that daily news story, that traditional format that you're thinking of right away, it might make sense for for something, something along those lines.

Okay, anything, Lauren, that you want to add them?

I would, I would say, maybe explain why your I guess your position in Pittsburgh, makes you more qualified to do it than some other tech companies, you know, as an emerging tech scene. I think that the Pittsburgh entrepreneurs have different experience than those like in Silicon Valley. And that could be an interesting angle to pitch about why, you know, the different region and different relationships with residents has kind of formed your company. And again, CMU, you know, nationally renowned, so I think that always helps, you know, showing the traction that you have, and the backing that you have to really show how serious you are.

Well, what about who do you folks listen to? Like, who are your favorite, you know, tech journalists or podcasters? Or, you know, whoever is talking about this, whether it's in Twitter, or so, you know, whatever social media, how do you keep yourself apprised of what's happening and who do you listen to? Alright, king wants to start Okay, Lauren, I'm

pretty, pretty simple. But I would say that I start with and you know, just kind of checking in with the The New York Times has their their on tech for email briefing. And that, you know, is often a pretty good place to start and get a broad general sense of, of a lot of different topics, and then kind of dive into what you're interested from there.

And then

a podcast that I like to listen to, it's not entirely tech focused, but um, but it's how I built this on NPR. And I think that it is gives you a good sense of the business aspect of it. And you know, how entrepreneurs got their star. I know, they recently had one on on Duolingo. That was really good. Very

good. What What

about you, Laura? So one of my favorite Twitter followers, is Taylor Lorenz. She's the New York Times style reporter, a lot about internet culture. And then along the same lines, Fox does a newsletter called the goods. That's the same type of thing. And I think they do a really good job of showing how tech can be like using your daily life and how it's changing our generation, and stuff like that. And same as Julia, you know, there's a lot of daily newsletters, The New York Times recode TechCrunch, they all do a really good job getting their content out there. And then lastly, there was podcasts from recode called Land of the giants that looked more specifically at some of the big companies. And I thought it was very interesting.

So good. So it's exciting because you have a front row seat to what's happening here in Pittsburgh. I don't think that is there. Another question, Jonathan. There might be one from Greg, if you want to just take that is Yeah.

So Greg wants to know, is it advisable to draft a story before reaching out to a reporter?

I would say no.

You know it, I think that we want to hear your story and craft it, you know, based on our expertise, but you could definitely come into it, you know, knowing stuff you want to share with us and things that you find very important. But

write the story, but hang on to it for yourself, you know.

Oh, so I want to thank both of you for taking the time with us today. Thanks, everyone who's been listening, they've made themselves accessible. They're telling you how to get ahold of them. So reach out to them. If you didn't get a chance to find out who they are. Just reach out to one of us, and we'll send you their contact info. We appreciate the work that you're doing. We appreciate that you care about Pittsburgh, we really appreciate getting these stories out. Because you know what even we have to continue to tell Pittsburgh about these stories as well. Well, we care about national and international as well. We also care about people here having a sense of pride and knowing what's happening. And that's what helps build the community. So hats off to Julia from the business times. And Lauren, from the post Gazette. And thank you, Jonathan. And thank you, everyone for joining us. What who's on who's on for tomorrow, Jonathan?

I believe we have accelerant on tomorrow. I think talking about some digital transformation matters if I'm not mistaken. And this conversation is awesome. because it reminded me of my days at the McKeesport Daily News a little bit. I kind of missed that. Yeah.

So maybe maybe you can volunteer and see if you can help. I don't miss it that much. Okay, thank you, Julian. Lauren. Thanks, everyone, for joining us. Stay safe. We'll see you here tomorrow. Same time. You guys.

Thank you so much.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai