Association of National
Advertisers (ANA) Multicultural Excellence Awards Entries Sought
You can submit campaigns in your choice of five categories: African American, Hispanic, Asian,
Multicultural-campaign-with- significant-results, or General (which "culturally diverse".)
Entry fees are
unusually high at $500 a pop, but a portion of the proceeds used to help fund scholarships for high-potential
multicultural students who plan to pursue careers in advertising and/or marketing. Entries limited to ANA member
companies. Deadline Aug 15th: http://www.ana.net/awards/
Kid Power XChange
Newsletter Seeks Contributors
If you are a consultant or agency serving clients marketing to kids, consider submitting a how-to article to
the Kid Power newsletter which is sent to all conference attendees on a regular basis. Submission form for ideas here:
http://www.kidpowerx.com/newsletter/submitart.htm
Upcoming deadlines
* Aug 15: NorCal BMA Beacon Awards, $55-80 per entry
http://www.norcalbma.org/Events/beaconcategories.htm
* Aug 22: AD:TECH Awards, $175 per entry
http://www.ad-tech.com/awards
* Sept 19: American Business Media CEBA
Awards $125-135 per entry
http://www.americanbusinessmedia.com/images/ceba20
03_rules.pdf
Mitch Betts
Features Editor
ComputerWorld
500 Old Connecticut Path
Framingham, MA
01701
www.computerworld.com
301-262-8243
Mitch_betts@computerworld.com
Reach (as of 7/03)
180,000 controlled print circulation
854,660 unique monthly site visitors
Betts' background
"I'm a graybeard," Betts jokes about his 19-year stint at ComputerWorld. Why has he stayed around so long?
Simply put: he likes it.
"There's no influence by advertisers, which is very important to me," he says. "We have a strong focus on
quality information, writing, accuracy, and design. And I like being in computer press in general because it's always
changing, there are always new issues."
Betts works off-site: the magazine is headquartered in Massachusetts but Betts has an office in an office park
about five minutes from his Maryland home.
That's another thing he enjoys about his job: he gets to go home for lunch.
Current editorial coverage
ComputerWorld tells readers how to use technology to solve business problems, with a focus on medium to large
corporations.
"If CIOs of General Motors, Wal-mart, Amazon would be interested, we’d be interested," Betts says.
Editorial content strives to show the world through the eyes of IT managers and CIOs. "Our stories are
populated by these people," he says.
A mix of case studies and trend stories make up the features section (the first 20 pages of the mag).
The best way to pitch Betts
They respond to email better than phone pitches -- not because they can just hit the delete button, Betts says,
but because it's easier to forward to the correct editor or to send a standard reply to a common question.
"We do get phone calls and we don't hang up," Betts says. "We deal with them politely, but they're second
choice."
Currently, pitch Betts himself or one of the other features editors directly by email.
However, keep an eye on the Web site, as the pitching process is soon to change. In a matter of weeks he will
have set up an email box for all pitches.
Sounds like a black hole, but Betts promises it won't be a slush pile that nobody reads. "We’re doing it for
the opposite reason," he says. "We’re going to comb and mine the box so we don’t miss the good ones."
They'll also be weeding out the not-so-good ones and "politely responding to them."
A team of editors will have an actual schedule of when to check the box. Betts hopes this will fix the slush
pile problem.
Once the email pitch box is in place, you can still pitch Betts directly. But "I really believe there will be a
benefit of sending to the general box because there will be a daily team looking for story ideas. I’m aware that folks
will be sending me pitches directly, but frankly, I may forward it to the pitch box."
What he looks for in a
story pitch
In a perfect world, pitches to Betts would showcase a large corporation and an IT manager who's willing to talk
about business problems and concrete results using technology: for example, they have shaved 2 days off a process or
made X dollars or earned 3 new customers.
If it's an exclusive to ComputerWorld, even better.
"And people need to be accessible and ready to be interviewed," he says. Often he gets a promised user who then
turns out to not be available.
Four tactics when pitching Betts:
1) Check out the editorial calendar at http://www.computerworld.com/services/mediakit/calendar.<
/A> If your story or client fits one of ComputerWorld's upcoming features, let the appropriate editor know.
Note: if you've got a paper version of the editorial calendar from somewhere, it's probably out of date. Make
sure you check the online version.
2) Pitch beyond the editorial calendar. "The calendar just shows one tech feature per issue that we've planned
ahead, but there are many stories underway."
3) Don't send press releases to features editors. "We're not breaking news folks," Betts says. Remember, he's
looking for trends or case studies.
If you have breaking news, pitch to the right beat reporter. (Find a complete list of editorial beats, with
email addresses and direct phone numbers at http://www.computerworld.com/services/editorialcontacts
.)
4) Offer value with your follow-up. If you follow up by email, don't simply say, "Did you get the email I
sent?" Instead, offer some value, i.e.: “We have a new user we can offer to you.”
Wait a few weeks after first contact to follow up, and don't follow up by phone.
Pet peeves
Betts first assures us that this is a personal rather than company-wide irritant, then goes on to admit he is
annoyed by PR professionals who say, "We’d like to place this in ComputerWorld."
"You don’t *place* things here any more than you’d place them in the Wall Street Journal," Betts says. "If
anything gets me hot, that would be it."
Misdirected pitches, such as pitching breaking news to the features editor, also irritates him.
What he looks for in
printed press materials
Paper creates office clutter, Betts believes, so he doesn't collect press kits or other collateral
materials.
One exception: he collects newly published books for excerpts or interviews with the author.
Pre-written contributions
He doesn't accept bylined articles from vendors in the hardware or software community. But the Web site editors
sometimes do use contributed materials such as tutorials or how-to articles.
"It must be of general interest and not self-serving," Betts says. Send them to one of the online department
editors listed on the editorial contacts page.
On becoming a regular
columnist
Betts welcomes hearing from possible columnists for either the op-ed page or features section. "Again, they
would not come from the hardware/software vendor community," he says. "They would need to be book authors or independent
consultants or professional columnists. I set high standards for them."
Where you can meet Betts
Because Betts works remotely, he’s not a good candidate for press tours or breakfast meetings, but the other
editors are sometimes open to meetings. For example, he says, tech editor Tommy Peterson
(tommy_peterson@computerworld.com) sometimes does visits with vendors when they make their Boston tours.
