Results tagged “Mary Lou Falcone” from Life's a Pitch

I'm enjoying the growing list of what me and my people do wrong in the comments section of this post. To re-cap, journalists don't like it when publicists:

• ...use ALL CAPS in the subjects or bodies of their e mails.
• ...mail discs with no liner notes/track listings/context of any kind.
• ...blindly send press releases to journalists who have no history of writing about that artist/concert/repertoire/genre.
• ...don't include audio or video clips in their press releases.
• ...act all lover-scorned when editors aren't interested in their clients.
• ...send releases under the oh-so-attention-grabbing subject line "Press Release".
• ...over-package physical CD mailings.
• ...do anything BUT include releases in the bodies of e mails - no attachments, no external links.
• ...seat themselves next to critics at events and concerts.
• ...talk about other clients at concerts they've invited critics to review.
  
• ...don't actually have a reason for pitching what they're pitching, besides being paid to do it.

To this list, I will add, journalists (also probably) don't like it when publicists:

• ....pitch journalists about artists/concerts they've already written about (simple...Google...search).
• ...include huge photo files.
  
• ...don't spell-check.
• ...write poorly.
  
• ...don't think it's their job to come up with and put forth creative story ideas.

 
THAT SAID, two can play this game! Classical music publicists of the world, what do JOURNALISTS do that annoy you most? Be Brave, little ones!  More accurately, Post Anonymously!

I'll start:

I'm all about taking the on-a-pedestal mystery out of the classical music industry, but my gears get slighted grinded (ground?) when journalists write about the trials and tribulations of arranging and conducting an artist interview in the feature said-interview was intended for.

Opera Chic brought these OC Register and San Diego Union-Tribune features to her readers' attention(s) last week, and while both pieces are otherwise interesting and very well-written, I have to wonder if the journalists really had to mention that Maestro-elect Dudamel only gave them ten minutes? And that his publicist interrupted the interviews? And that he was running behind?

The hardest part about preparing for a 10-minute telephone interview with Gustavo Dudamel is figuring out what to do with all that energy.

Not with it, actually, but without it: What if his legendary pep didn't come across in a chat crammed between six other interviews? What if he was worn out, or distracted? Because if there's one thing that pops out from all of Dudamel's five-star YouTube clips - the one attribute both fans and skeptics say defines him - it's that indomitable energy.

The second hardest part was getting a hold of the man...It took nearly a month of planning, with entreaties from certain well-connected individuals to other well-connected individuals, dozens of e-mails and phone calls to the presenter and publicists, and one minor last-minute rescheduling, but at 2:53 p.m. last Friday, I was on hold for Dudamel. He was at his publicist's office in midtown Manhattan, wrapping up another interview. Running just a little behind schedule. (San Diego Union-Tribune, November 21, 2008)

You get ten minutes, take it or leave it. I took it. I called at the appointed time. Sorry, we're running behind, please call back in 20 minutes. OK. I went and did the dishes, then called back. Can you hold for three minutes? OK. Then Gustavo Dudamel comes on the line.

He doesn't seem to know to whom he is talking, so I introduce myself...

[ten minutes later]

"Excuse me, Tim, it's Mary Lou Falcone (his publicist) interrupting rudely, I apologize. But we need to cut it as we have someone waiting, OK?" (OC Register, November 21, 2008)

It certainly makes for good reading (as I've said time and time again on this blog, people love behind-the-scenes drama), but that time-crunch is a fact of artists' lives: when an artist is touring 300+ days a year, he or she is forced to do interviews in a crazy speed-dating fashion! Of course it's not ideal, and the concept of a ten-minute interview is pretty silly, but if you couldn't get what you needed in ten minutes (fair enough), why not tell Dudamel's team thanks but no thanks, we'll wait until he has a bit more time?

This kind of thing is very frustrating for publicists and artists: we try to make time for everyone, and then sometimes get punished for it. Last spring, a writer e mailed me to fact check Hilary's interview with her. No, not what Hilary said in the interview, but rather how many interviews had she done before their's, what time did she get up to do interviews that morning, and how many journalists had I turned down for interviews on her one press day in New York City? Erm....while I appreciate that this makes Hilary (and Dudamel, in the cases above) look all in-demand and celebrityish, I'm not entirely sure it's fair to the artists.

And one more thing, before I hand it over: Just as Greg Sandow commented in the publicist post that press releases should give him a reason to care about their subjects, let me go on record as saying that features and reviews should probably do the same.