Wed, 2017-09-27 11:05
Sam Whitmore
Profile: Ellis Booker, Ad Age
Few contributed content gatekeepers seek compelling submissions more than Ad Age’s Ellis Booker. He spent 36 minutes on the phone with us, explaining how PR pros can get to “yes.” He sent an email beforehand asking if he needed to prep for the call.
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When one thinks of Ken Wheaton, novels might come to mind. Ken has written three of them. If you track his LinkedIn page, you know he’s a contract editor with Think with Google. Odds are, though, you remember Ken from his 16 years with Ad Age. 
Will there ever be another Walt Mossberg? The now retired consumer tech product reviewer was one of a kind. But someone, someday, is bound to emerge as the voice above all others. Don’t be surprised if it’s Bloomberg technology reporter Mark Gurman.
Adrienne LaFrance, staff writer for The Atlantic covering tech, never worked in the trades. She never cranked out three stories a day. Adrienne once worked as an investigative reporter in Hawaii and reported for Boston University’s WBUR. She knows “story” crafted from the ground up.
Alexis Madrigal is back at The Atlantic after 30 months at Fusion. He’ll be covering “technology, science, business and trade,” which for PR pros may sound more promising than it is. Alexis has returned to explore the role of technology in global trade. This in theory includes supply chains, SaaS and the usual B2B suspects.
Here’s what tech freelancer Jaikumar Vijayan has to say about PR pitches. “They are a lot better than they used to be. In fact, I’d say about 70 percent of the pitches I get are great ones. They are succinct. They get to the point. They summarize what it’s all about.”
When you think of consumer tech edit for women, which brands come to mind? TheSkimm? Refinery 29? Make sure PureWow is top-of-mind. The seven-year-old, New York-based PureWow has 15 million monthly uniques visiting the web site and three million who opt in for its newsletters. Its Facebook page has more than 1.1 million likes.
Jennifer Jolly is a media star. She contributes weekly to USA Today and is a regular on NBC’s The Today Show. She also contributes to the New York Times though not so much lately. Jennifer is also an educator. Last month she launched Techish, her own tech site. Its mission: demystify technology for everyday people.
Even after 13 years in tech journalism, one can still get nervous about interviewing a tech CEO — especially if his name is Mark Zuckerberg. Just ask Fast Company senior writer Daniel Terdiman, who late last year looked up and saw a young guy in a T-shirt standing on his front porch, waiting to talk household AI.
Christopher Booker is a genial producer/correspondent for PBS Newshour Weekend, specializing in where economics and politics meet demographics. That’s more exciting than perhaps it sounds. Christopher tells “big stories through small windows,” exactly what PR storytellers aspire to.
You’ll love TC Currie’s background. Back in the ‘80s she was a bored admin with too little to do — so she read software manuals. Soon she was writing macros, moving data from dBase to WordPerfect. She read Fast Company once in a while but never really followed the tech trades.
It was so close. Aaron Tilley was set to end 2016 with his first Forbes cover story, on Nvidia’s powerful and growing presence in artificial intelligence. At the last minute, top management decided to put Donald Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner on the cover. More readers, better newsstand sales.