About Sam Whitmore's Media Survey

The Basics

Sam Whitmore's Media Survey helps tech PR pros

• Get beyond journalist bio basics
• Perfect the “problem pitch”
• Focus on emerging tech media trends
• Know the nuances of top target titles

with services including:

Exclusive Tech Media News, Research & Analysis
Breaking tech media news and research in context for your clients and your business

Valet Research & Consulting

Help when you need a “go-to” expert, with 24 years of tech media experience, to deliver on the mark and on deadline. Harness us for new-business pitch research and help with managing client expectations.

Staff Development Tools & Training

Executive media training: in-house and online sessions

Editorial Teleconferences

Insightful shop talk sessions with editors, reporters and bloggers: always frank, pulling no punches. Get the inside scoop: who they are, how they work, and how PR can hit the elusive editorial objective.

Read more: Download swms_overview.pdf 

Click here to apply for your 30-day free trial.

Valet Research and Consulting

SWMS valet research and consulting is as unique as your agency, your company or your clients. After nine years of service, we've learned to be as personal as we are authoritative. Consider us a go-to tool when you're under the gun. Hours of non-billable consulting are part of your paid annual subscription; they are there to use when you need them. If you need more, they are available at an hourly rate.

We approach all our valet rearch and projects from an editor's perspective, diving into:

• Tech Media Trends & Insights. Example: why aren't editors buying a certain buzzword?
• Inside Info on Publications & Editors. Example: How does Forbes.com get along with the magazine staff?
• New-Business Pitches. Examples abound of our analysis giving an edge to the eventual winner.
• Client Positioning & Expectation Management. Sometimes it helps when an independent party says it.
• Edit Opps & Strategies. Example: Which will be the key election-coverage themes and how can we get our story told within those articles?

We don't conduct media audits. But if we say so ourselves, we are quite resourceful and have a proven track record of helping our subscribers achieve their objectives.

Perhaps this is a good time for you to hear from our subscribers.

Click here to apply for your 30-day free trial.

You Won't See This Elsewhere

We're not fire-breathing newshounds, but yes, we do break stories now and again. At heart we consider ourselves to be tech media analysts: studious about tech content, wise to how tech PR can leverage it, and well-connected with the influencers who create it.

We love the empirical approach. Take, for example, our January 2006 PDF series that scrutinized 600 unsolicited e-mail pitches. (Click on the image to the left.) It was CES season and the reporters were deluged with requests to meet the client or attend the exclusive party. Some of these pitches were good and we said so, providing valuable takeaways. But we also took a painstaking top-level look at how many pitches were sent in HTML versus text, how many led with a salutation, how many had a legitimate news hook, and how many came from vendors as opposed to agencies. And we study tech editorial in the same painstaking way.

We publish our news, research and analysis on the Sam Whitmore's Media Survey web site, furnishing your organization with a site-licensed log-in and password. We also cheerfully send our content directly to you via e-mail the moment it's published. We'll need your e-mail addresses for that, but we share them with no one. Ever.

Ready? Click here to apply for your 30-day free trial.

All About SWMS Editorial Teleconferences

Each Tuesday afternoon, for 30 minutes, we interview a leading tech editor, reporter or blogger -- the kind you'd like to influence. We discuss their job, their beat and how tech PR pros can help their cause. Subscribing organizations dial in and listen live. You can ask the journalist a question directly over the phone or send an e-mail to us and we'll ask it for you.

Each week our harried tech PR pro subscribers -- even the experienced ones -- learn a little bit more about the plight of today's harried tech journalist. Later in the week we send a teleconference synopsis in e-mail, along with a link to the audio file, so you can archive this precious knowledge. We've been hosting these calls for years, and we're proud to say we've talked shop with the best in the business.

Here's a partial list of the editors whose wisdom we've helped share:

Barrons
Eric Savitz, West Coast Editor
Baseline
John McCormick, VP/Editorial Director
Larry Walsh, EIC
bMighty
Fred Paul & Cora Nucci, Editors
BusinessWeek
Ben Elgin, Correspondent
Peter Burrows, Computers Editor
Rob Hof, West Coast Bureau Chief
Stephen Wildstrom, Tech Columnist
Steve Hamm, Senior Editor
BusinessWeek Online
Steve Rosenbush, Technology Reporter
CIO Insight
Ellen Pearlman, EIC
CIO Magazine
Laurianne McLaughlin, News Editor
Conde Nast Portfolio
Blaise Zerega, Managing Editor
CNET.com
Rafe Needleman, Webware.com
Tom Merritt & Molly Wood, Buzz Out Loud
CNETNews.com
Greg Sandoval, Senior Reporter
Jai Singh, EIC News.com/CNET.com
Jim Kerstetter, Editor
Martin Lamonica, Editor
Michael Kanellos, Editor at Large
Stefanie Olsen, Senior Reporter
Tom Krazit, Reporter/Blogger
Compliance Week
Scott Cohen, Editor and Publisher
Computerworld
David Strom, Freelancer
Don Tennant, Editorial Director
Jaikumar Vijayan, Senior Editor
Ken Mingis, Online Editor
CrunchGear
John Biggs, Editor
The Economist
Andreas Kluth, Reporter
Engadget
Peter Rojas, EIC
eWeek
Cameron Sturdevant, Technical Director, Labs
Eric Lundquist, Editorial Director
Jim Rapoza, Lab Director
Larry Seltzer, Security Center Editor
Paula Musich, Senior Editor
Fast Company
David Lidsky, Senior Editor
Scott Kirsner, Freelance Writer
Financial Times
Peter Whitehead, Digital Business Editor
Richard Waters, Managing Editor, SF

... and that's only A through F. You get the idea.

Click here to apply for your 30-day free trial.

Testimonials

Weber Shandwick Worldwide (tech-practice feedback):

• I love the tech media intelligence especially -- can't get that anywhere else.  That stuff makes us look really smart and on top of tech media trends. 
• Lots of our staff listen to the teleconferences on a regular basis.
• I visit the site about 3-5 times a month and usually try to either attend myself or have someone on our team attend the teleconferences. Additionally, the commentary and other insight that you forward around I always read and find very helpful. It's been a wealth of information and insight. Obviously, I'm a big fan of it. :-)

Todd S. Defren, Principal, SHIFT Communications:

"The value that SWMS brings to the PR industry is incalculable. Their contacts, credentials and counsel make for an unparalleled combination.  Any agency or in-house communications group will benefit from talking to Sam Whitmore about how to better compete for market- and mindshare."

Waggener Edstrom Worldwide (comments following an SWMS in-house presentation):

• Very relevant – our work is changing daily and Sam’s comments and insight were great.
• Sam provided many resources and innovative ideas for what we can do to influence editors and increase coverage.
• Great current anecdotes. I can take these and use them. Great insight.
• Sam is very authentic. Lots of news you can use.
• I listen to his teleconferences religiously.

Lou Hoffman, Founder, The Hoffman Agency:

"Using the valet service as a "sanity check" on new business has value. But I continue to be impressed with the thinking that comes out of the ongoing SWMS emails. There's nothing like it in the industry."

Stephanie Schulman, Edelman Public Relations:

"Sam Whitmore's Media Survey has made a huge difference in the way that my team and I are able to approach the media. We’ve expanded relationships with hard to reach, top-tier reporters and editors that have been and continue to be very important agents for our clients. Sam is able to anticipate the questions that any high level PR professional would ask of each individual reporter and I am eager to continue participating in the teleconferences to enhance my knowledge of the technology media and capabilities to serve all our clients at Edelman."

Chris Carleton, Principal, CHEN PR

Your insights re: how best to manage our outreach to "traditional" media vis-à-vis bloggers for our recent (client) rollout @ DEMO. It was spot-on...We were able to secure visibility in places like the WSJ and CNET as well as Engadget and Gizmodo.

Megan Boyaval, Account Manager, Corporate Ink Public Relations:

Your insight is exactly what we were looking for. Thank you for responding so quickly, and with such detail. We look forward to tapping you again!

Click here to apply for your 30-day free trial.