Saturday, November 21, 2009

New York Times, TV Guide, Advertising Age and People Magazine Editors Share New Media Trends and Insights with LA Entertainment Publicists

By George S. McQuade III
West Coast Bureau Chief


EPPS Panel on New York Media


Twitter, Facebook and social networks have become mainstream for entertainment writers and editors Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (EPPS) members learned recently(11-19-09) at a media workshop sponsored by the International Cinematographers (ICG) Local 600 in Hollywood.
West Coast Editor Michael Fleeman, People.com said, “Whether we like it or not, reporters are being dragged into new media, some kicking and screaming about it. You have to know how to do it, and you have to file under deadline.”
“We have a designated Twitter person, and when you see our newly redesigned website in January, you’re going to see something interesting with Twitter,” said West Coast Editor Michael Fleeman, People.com.
Fleeman has been with People.com for three years, which is one of the leading entertainment sites Online. Before that he was with AP for 13 years.
Staff Editor Natalie Abrams, TVGuide.com said they don’t have full time twitter people, but each individual use new media to drive more traffic to TVGuide.com’s websites.
Abrams also said deadlines are important. “The East Coast picks up all morning and we (LA bureau) come in at night, so deadlines for TV shows, interviews with actors and producers that air on Thursday should be up on the home page Wednesday night, so everything is fresh the next morning,” she said.
New York Times Reporter Edward Wyatt, Los Angeles said reporters are being asked to post their stories Online and twitter about it. “Sometimes I record audio interviews or TV interviews and post them on the site,” he said. Wyatt cautions PR Pros to not miss the forest for the trees.  “If you have a webisode that is attracting 50,000 eyes, and you want to tell me about it great, but it the television show associated with it attracts 16 million people a week, that’s the meat of the story.” Wyatt covers the television business in LA. He joined the Times in New York in 1995 as a finance and investing reports and has covered education, the redesign of the World Trade Center site, the 2004 Democratic primaries, publishing business, as well as professional cycling and the Tour de France. He moved to LA in 2006 to cover Television. Wyatt also said he’s looking for national stories, because the Times just doesn’t report on Manhattan stories. “When I came to LA I found we had not done a story on Two-and-a-Half Men, which is the biggest comedy on television and watched all over the country,” he said. “A lot of people in Manhattan don’t watch it, but people in Iowa, Kansas and elsewhere do. So if you bring stories with a national pace, we’re interested.”
Wyatt said his two pet peeves from entertainment publicist who pitch him include: “getting asked ‘who have you been talking to, which is none of your business when I am trying to just do a story”  and when publicist lies to their client, “because what will happen is one day I’ll meet your client at a cocktail party and they will say ‘why didn’t you talk to us to promote this new show of mine?’ This actually happened. I said, “Because I asked your publicist, and he said, “you couldn’t talk for X and Y reasons, and I was there on the set, and you walk right past me three or four times. Just don’t do that (lie).”
(pictured) Andrew Hampp,Ad Age Mag Michael Fleeman, People.com) Los Angeles Reporter Andrew Hampp for Advertising Age echoed other complaints of panelists on publicists’ followup calls on a pitch. “Please don’t pitch me after you received a big NO from another editor above me,” he said. “We are still a work in progress, and started our website three years ago. We have separate website and magazine editors and then we share editing staff. It’s about 99 percent original content on the website. There’s not much overlap between the magazine and website. The site is shorter, faster and more newsie, breazier and a younger user,” he said. Hampp said the print version deadline for  Ad Age magazine is Thursday or early Friday, and the AdAge.com has a daily and weekly newsletter so there is much to choose from through the week. He says deadlines are many at AdAge.com
Hampp’s pet peeves of PR Pros is that second followup phone call he receives after the press release has been received.
“I think my biggest pet peeve is just the coordination on events,” said TVGuide.com’s Natalie Abrams. “ I’ll get three separate emails a network publicist, a studio publicist, a show publicist or a personal publicist for the actor, and it is all on the same thing, making it hard to decide who to respond to, so coordination on that end would be good,” she said. Abrams also agreed with Wyatt about lying, “if you don’t want it out there that your client is going to be killed off of a show, or that your show has been cancelled, we can embargoed it, just be honest with us.”
Natalie Abrams, staff editor, TV Guide.com is the west coast Staff editor at TVGuide.com, a one-stop entertainment and video content destination serving more than 20 million unique users per month. From television spoilers to insider scoops, Abrams breaks the latest in entertainment news. Since joining in September, 2009, she landed exclusive interviews with some of the hottest celebs including the cast of Glee, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, 24 and 90210 among others.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

MONICA- Rocks the House and Joel Madden Receives Nod from Lionel Richie and Charity Award at First Annual Noble Awards Event



The First Annual Noble Awards Event A Huge Success

The event honored  Morgan Freeman  - Lifetime Achievement Award

“It was a successful night, everyone who contributed and participated in the event came away with a warm feeling in their heart,” said Founder/Producer Janeen Mansour of The Noble Awards, held (Sunday, October 18th) at The Beverly Hilton.

Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush hosted the first awards show, and he himself was also honored for his dedication as a board member and hustling fundraiser for the Lollipop Theater Network. They bring magic and movies currently in theaters to children confiened to hospitals nationwide due to chronic or life-threatening illnesses.Morgan Freeman was honored for his work with more than dozen charities. He thanked everyone for supporting him and for the Lifetime Achievement




Award. A dozen other celebs received recognition and a Noble Award for charity work.Despite being a little under the weather for running a Trianthalon in the name of charity Terri Hatcher accepted her award from Actor James Denton, America’s favorite plummer also on Desperate Housewives. Other celebs included  Norman Lear, Lionel Richie, Laila Ali to name a few.
Nancy O'Dell, Joel Madden, Brett Ratner, Kenny Babyface Edmonds, and Annalynne McCord. There were some surprises, too like America’s Got Talent Nick Cannon as one of the presenters.
The awards were sculptured by Antonio Banderas the children at the Shriners Hospitals for Children with the guidance of The Art of Elysium volunteer/actor/sculptor David Grieco.   Joel Madden said, “The artists at The Art of Elysium” should get an award, too.



Lionel Richie presents Joel Madden with Noble Award








Noble Awards Presenter  Dennis Haysbert (Jonas Blane)
The first awards show came off without a hitch and the live music performances enhanced an inspiration evening. It was an evening of entertainment and celebration that honors charities, celebrities and the tremendous work that they do. ‘This event and movement should inspire the next generation to be noble throughout their lives,” said Mansour. One of the highlights of the musical performance that brought the house down was Monica, introduced by Bill Bush. Born and raised in Atlanta, Monica Denise Arnold is a talented R&B / pop singer, songwriter and actress.  She became the youngest female artist ever to have two back-to-back No. 1 hits on Billboard's R&B singles chart.

Both songs from her three-times-platinum debut, “Miss Thang,” topped the Hot 100 chart and sold one million copies each. In 1998, “The Boy Is Mine” was released and had three consecutive No. 1 Billboard pop singles.

The title track with Brandy spent 13 weeks at No. 1 on the pop charts and eight weeks at No. 1 on the R&B listing. Additionally, the duet earned Monica a Grammy to add to her American Music, Soul Train and Billboard Awards.

The inaugural NOBLE AWARDS event, produced on behalf of the non-profit Celebrity Charity Awards Corporation, a 501c3, has a mission to unify the efforts of charities with celebrities, philanthropists, media and every day citizens to create
an effective forum for change and service.

Brian McKnight has earned himself a spot in contemporary music history. He has released 11 albums to date, 7 of them have gone platinum, with several going 2 and 3x platinum, and has sold over 20 Million albums worldwide. He just released a new album last month and perform one of his songs live. Brian McKnight (Video)Another of the highlights of the evening was eight-year old Emily Bear, who performaned live at the Noble Awards show. (Youtube)
8-year old Emily Bear Pianist Emily Bear has only been playing piano for three years, 

but at just eight years old, her accomplishments are inspiring and her talent is breathtaking. Classical, jazz and boogie come naturally to her. Emily’s songs were are all written and composed at age seven.

She performs a large list of classics and standards, and also composes her own magical songs. Giving and charity are very important to Emily and a portion of the proceeds from all CD sales are donated to charity foundations such as Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Ronald McDonald House Charities, and Children's Hospital, among others. Her latest CD "Always True" is now available in the Store. Her first three CDs, "Five Years Wise", "The Love In Us" and "Once Upon A Wish" are also available.Julio Iglesias Jr.also provided some soul soothing live singing at the event.
Julio Iglesias Jr. was born in Madrid, Spain to well-known singer, Julio Iglesias and Isabel Preysler. He moved to Miami, Florida at a very young age, a place he now considers home. The Lion’s King’s Timothy Mitchell also sang and played a powerful song on piano sounding much like Steve Wonder with a great stage band backing him up.
(Miss California pictured (L) Each year the Noble Awards will recognize and honor philanthropic organizations and the celebrities that make considerable contributions to them. This year’s honorees, who attended to accept their award included Nancy O’Dell for Best Buddies International, AnnaLynne McCord for The Blind Project, Teri Hatcher for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Brett Ratner for DoSomething.org, Billy Bush for Lollipop Theater Network, Whitney Burditt for Playing for Change, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds for Stand Up To Cancer, Laila Ali for Women’s Sport Foundation and a charity very close to my heart, The Art of Elysium honoring Joel Madden. Jennifer Howell, Founder of The Art of Elysium, presented this award to Joel Madden with Lionel Richie, Allison Beck and Stacey Price: “As both an artist and a father, Joel truly embodies a sincere passion for both music and children.  It was evident in his beautiful and humble acceptance speech where he expressed his heartbreak at the thought of a child spending one second inside of a hospital. 
A big emotional time of the evening occurred when his twin brother Benji (who has spent many days with The Art of Elysium teaching guitar and participating in music workshops) shared his love for his brother with a music dedication.  Nicole Richie (who has also dedicated her talents to the charity) witness her affectionate father while he introduced Joel and thanked him for loving his daughter so much. The love, support and generosity that was shown by all members of Joel’s family are the true roots that can help take The Art of Elysium’s mission to every child that spends that terrifying one second in a hospital.” Creator Janeen Mansour was thrilled to see her dream come true.
“The goal of the Noble Awards was to highlight the charities there that night and celebrities that champion them," she said. "Our goal reached far beyond my expectations. The purpose of the Noble Awards is to create awareness and send out a call to action. I feel everyone in the room was inspired and moved and understood the message we were trying to convey. That message is to be a Noble.”
Humanity needs leaders like you (Be Noble and Take the Challenge (more)

(In photo on the left) Janeen Mansour with her husband Producer Ziad Batal (2nd from right) took all year to plan an idea that became a reality and a vision in Hollywood.




Photos by George S. Mc Quade III @MAYO Communications.com

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