Valley PR Blog

Pitch Me: AZ Weekly Magazine

By Charlotte Shaff on August 4th, 2009 In Pitching

Name: Brent Diggins and Efia Moore
Title: “Night Owl” Column Co-Authors
Outlet: AZ Weekly Magazine
Twitter: @bdiggs and @myFEmy
Email: brent.diggins@azweeklymagazine.com

1. What are your main daily duties?
Our daily duties include going to and doing fun and exciting places around Phoenix so that we can write about it in our weekly Night Owl column. It’s a tough gig, but someone has to do it…

2. What kinds of stories are you looking for?
We cover all things hospitality and entertainment in Phoenix –music, bars, specials, happy hours, clubs, events, fashion, hotels, spas, restaurants and other fun things. We’ll also review products that cater to the 21-35 year old socially active crowd. Now and again, we like to cover fun fund-raising and non-profit events as long as they have a nightlife aspect to them. Our column doesn’t stick to a particular function as we cover a broad range of categories related to the topics above.
For holidays or special events, send information a few weeks in advance as we usually like to put together a round-up of information.
We DON’T: Cover things related to the business of hospitality unless it’s openings or closing of hotels, restaurants etc. We don’t do things that happen out of the state (and rarely anywhere but the Valley in the state—we’ll do a Sedona or Flagstaff thing now and again though).

3. What’s the best way to approach you with a pitch?
Short and sweet text-based e-mails with a press release or other information pasted below. We are also accessible and active on Twitter. Avoid sending attachments, large files, and pictures.

4. What recommendations do you have for PR professionals?
Our column revolves around us going out and doing things, so invite us out. To be frank, like most news organizations these days, we have little (read zero) budget so media passes and tours are ideal. We only accept media passes and comps for things we plan on reviewing so don’t send them unsolicited. For larger events, we like to do a “preview” of the event and then a “review” after the event.
We are a weekly column that comes out Thursdays, but our deadline is Sundays so keep that in mind. If you send us information Monday or Tuesday for an event that is happening that Friday, it’ll be too late.

5. What’s the strangest/weirdest pitch you’ve ever received?
Some people think that “nightlife columnist” means “sex columnist”…and we’ll just leave it at that.

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