Daily Candy & T Magazine Announce Big Changes (your briefing)

Today while going over my long overdue pile of news clippings and articles to read, I came across two bits of information you may have looked over in WWD or other outlets, but that I thought would be relevant to you.  File it away in your "'media news" part of your busy entrepreneur's brain, but also think about how this news will effect your own brand's pr campaign.  I will drop hints as to what my opinion is as well....

Daily Candy eliminates SEVEN daily local newsletters
Daily Candy is eliminating seven local newsletters it was announced this past week.  The newsletters to go will be Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas and Seattle.  This also means the editors who work on those local newsletters will also be let go.  Hopefully some of them will find their way over to Daily Candy's new Sunday Weekly guide.  This guide will reach out to all of their US markets and discuss and recommend things to do for the coming week.  What happens to the people in those local markets that lost their local newsletters?  They're now going to be getting the Daily Candy Everywhere edition.

So what Daily Candy newsletters are left?  New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and London.

What does this mean for me?  For starters, if you are in one of the cities that has eliminated service in terms of their newsletter, it's important to realize you can no longer pitch your local angle.  Those who have local services and restaurants may find it more difficult to land Daily Candy as they are to geographically focused.  What they CAN do however is find a way to spin themselves into a Daily Candy Weekend Guide for their area.  Before you even start pitching Daily Candy, however, be sure you refresh your memory on how to pitch Daily Candy with this piece we wrote earlier this year: Daily Candy Article.

This also means that several editors are out of a job (sad).  If you have relationships with editors at these outlets be sure you reach out (if they have a bounce back they will probably have a forwarding email address).  Send a note and be sure to keep in touch, as you want to continue that relationship wherever they may go next.

T Magazine Launches Redesigned Site

T Magazine (the New York Times magazine) launched a newly redesigned web site last Friday - did you check it out yet?  Do so here.  The editors want the websit to look more like the daily magazine, which means it will include subsections of coverage for categories like fashion, travel, holiday issues and more.   They seem to also be quite concerned with making it much more accessible to advertisers allowing them to customize ad sections and purchase large vertical ads.  The updated site was also redesigned to make it more friendly to search engines.  Finally, it will icnldue updates on a "Moment" blog as well as a live Twitter feed.

What does this mean to you?  If I were you I'd be thinking two things:  it's clear from this article that advertisers are at the front of the New York TImes mind (as they are all over the media world).  They need 'em to pay the bills and they have to keep them happy.  It also means that these companies (who include Bulgari, Louis Vuitton, Bloomingdales and Westin Hotes & Resorts) will be competing with you for editorial coverage and space and have an upper hand because they are shelling out for ad space.  This is always the case in public relations and doesn't change here.  Still, every editor wants to tell a great story or to discover a great product or collection.  So check out the website, familiarize yourself with it, and who writes what sections.  Figure out what areas you could pitch yourself to and how they like to tell their stories.  See if you could ever fit into the Moment blog.  Do your homework and pitch appropriately!  And then stay for the good articles!