HBL Editor publishes your releases on his blog and allows you to see his interview diary online
By Palin Ningthoujam on Mar 26, 2009 in mediarelations
My wife pointed out this very interesting information and I think it’s one of its kind. Murali D, Deputy Editor of The Hindu Business Line, has a blog called ‘Just In, Just Out‘ where he publishes press releases he receives on his inbox. Very apt name! The subhead reads ‘What’s hot in my inbox’. It could have been ‘Hot releases in my inbox’ though.
Probably Murali was tired of follow ups from PR reps to put out press releases and so he created a blogspot blog and put everything – press release and intro mail included – online. ‘So there you go, your press release has been published. Happy now?’
Apparently many PR people are still sending him press releases and he is continuing to put that out on the blog. I figure the PR people don’t know about the blog and send him releases for the Hindu Business Line paper. Sending press releases for the blog especially would be a bit silly, I think, unless you are desperate of some coverage and want it anywhere. I said silly because the blog today looks like a free press release distribution site full of releases from mom and pop stores, SEO people, and corporates alike. I don’t know how many people come to read the blog especially for reading the releases as they are.
However, what I like is his other blog, Food for Thought, where he publishes his interview schedules online and asks PR reps to check free schedules there and pitch for those free spots. He will then accept requests on a first come first serve basis. I like this one, not because he is agreeing to do every interview request, but because of the approach he has taken. It’s open and transparent. It saves him time as PR reps will check his schedules first and pitch requests accordingly. On the blog, he also uploads the CVs/ profiles of the people he has met and post their pictures.
What do you think? Do you know any other journalist adopting such online tools to manage their connection with PR folks? Share in the comments.
Popularity: 11% [?]
On Mar 26, 2009, Bhawna said:
On Mar 26, 2009, Gayathri Pradeep said:
D.Murali is one of the most admired business journalists that I have come across. He has a genuine interest to learn things, know more about people and his reading interest profounds me each time I meet him. I work for one of the leading PR agencies in Chennai and have been fortunate enough to meet him during interactions with clients.
He is full of suprises, is so tech-savvy and updated with everything that it leaves you dumbfounded. You start admiring him for his enthusiasm and zest to learn new things. He reviews atleast 5-6 books every week!!! Once I asked him how he manages to read, complete a bad book and even review it. He laughed and told me that no such thing as a good or bad book. There is something to learn for you in each and every book!!!
On Mar 27, 2009, Bhawna said:
On the second thought, I would like to say that Mr. Murli D is one of the most intelligent and down to earth journalist. He does not have a little bit of arrogance. If you read his articles you will see that he can talk about anything and everything passionately. I admire him a lot.
Once I was connected to him, by mistake, instead of Mr. Murli Swami and I asked Mr. D Murli if he has received the handset, he was like ‘what set’? I said XYZ brand handset… and all. Mr. Murli D nicely said ‘oh I think you want to talk to Murli Swami, just wait a sec I will connect you to him’. Now from how many journalists, forget editors, do you expect this from??
I also admire Mr. Venkatesha Babu of MINT. He is so quick on his emails. You can expect a reply from him within 20 minutes, except of course, when he is busy. At times he replies within a minute. Can you beat that?? Not only he replies to the emails on ideas he likes but also on the ones he doesn’t like. He also guides you to the right person and marks a copy to that person on the same email. I wish all the journalists were this professional and humble.
On Mar 27, 2009, Gayathri Pradeep said:
Very true. Most of us in PR wish journalists were more humble and approachable. But mostly great relationships are born with conflicts with a few of these journos.
Is Venkatesha Babu of Mint from Bangalore? Have never interacted with him before. Hope to do so in future.
No other media can beat The Hindu BusinesLine in Chennai which has the most no of friendly journos. They have carried several articles on PR in the past. They give speaker opportunities to PR heads in BL Club. We even have a few of them visiting the agency for a friendly chat at times.
On Mar 27, 2009, Shahnawaz said:
Your wife pointed out a nice thing.
For that matter i admire Mr. Rajeev Dubey, Business World, he is also one prompt professional (on mails, phones, even sms).
On Mar 27, 2009, Bhawna said:
@Gayathri Pradeep yes Venkatesha Babu of Mint from Bangalore. In fact i also think HBL journos very humble. I have interacted a lot with Hyderabad journos amd most of them are extremely friendly and approachable, such As Mr. Rajani Kanth of BS, Mr. V. Rishi,Mr. Kurmanath and Mr. Somasekhar of HBL and many more.
@Shahnawaz hey even like Mr. Dubey.
We have kind of started Journalists admirer club.
Let’s see what other people have to say
On Mar 27, 2009, Shweta said:
I agree with everyone that Mr. D.Murali and Mr. Rajeev Dubey are one of the most intelligent and humble journalists. As a matter of fact, they dont have to prove their significance by being unapproachable, as they already are too significant to endorse it
I would like to add a few more names to the list of admired journalists like Mr. N. Madhavan of HT and Mr. Josey John of Mint. Also, Mr. Leslie D’Monte of BS is quite approachable and surprisingly promt on his emails – a rare quality in journalists which makes our lives much easier!!
On Mar 30, 2009, Sandhya said:
Nice to see this post on Mr. D Murali, the most admriable person, talks with interest on any subject and is such a down to earth person.
I just dont have count on number of lunch meetings i have had with him for my client, truly awesome. Mr Murali now has a great fan following.
Yes BL journos are easy to approach ; there are also other journos in this list… the entire team at FC , Kumar Roy / Jayaraj Sivan at TOI, Bijoy at DC to name a few.
On Mar 30, 2009, Gayathri Pradeep said:
Few of my other favourites are R.Mohan, Anandan and Bhagwan Singh from Deccan Chronicle. R.Mohan is a legend in journalism and I was really surprised at how humble he was. FC has great team who are very open to PR people. Delshad Irani who was with Business India is a very sweet person. Have approached her for Executive focus and front runners and have come up with some great coverage. Desiree who has replaced her is also great. Delshad is with ET-Brand equity now. Jahnavi Abhayankar of Business World is also very approachable. She takes care of Quick Take and also does some great book reviews. Pierre Fitter who used to take care of the Book Mark column was very sweet…but quit a month ago. Not sure who replaced him. Sharada of Outlook Business is really sweet and approachable and has done some great stories for my clients. Heard that Sriram Srinivasan of OB is taking a break and is going abroad to pursue higher education. Lalitha Sridhar has replaced Vatsala Kamath of Business World, Chennai.
On Mar 30, 2009, Bhawna said:
i also admire Mr. Josey John.
On Jul 8, 2009, Sharad said:
Interesting to see how journalists are getting ranked for their promptness. And I really appreciate this. But I have a thought to share with you guys, especially for those who think journos are rude. I am assuming some of your are fairly senior and hoping that you will share this with ur juniors. Despite knowing that the filing times is between 5-7 pm, that is the precise time chosen by PR associates to call and ask whether we have received a certain release and most importantly will we be carrying this. I would like to say, journalist cannot give a gaurantee of what gets printed. Two, (this is something new) these days we are flooded with calls from PR agencies where the caller is just not aware of who tracks a particular beat. Trust me, there are cases where we have helped many and spent 30 mins in giving the list of reporters. But please isn’t it your job to atleast know the names of journalists in the organisation. The situation is so bad these days that some of them do not even know the RE or the editor of the newspaper. Isn’t this part of training or briefing. I am quite sure to avoid such calls lot many editors are getting online. At least they don’t get to answer these calls. Just an observation
On Sep 15, 2009, dinnerware said:
M. Murali D is a great journalist. He is down to earth, humble, i wish more would follow in his footsteps. Life is a game, but as long as you learn to respect others. I really think that we live in full liberty, as long as we can manage to help others by doing so! Great article! Good food for though!
On Mar 26, 2009, palinn said:
HBL Editor publishes your releases on his blog and allows you to see his interview diary online http://tinyurl.com/dn69gj
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
On Mar 26, 2009, IndiaPRblog said:
HBL Editor publishes your releases on his blog and allows you to see his interview diary online: My wife pointed.. http://tinyurl.com/dn69gj
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
On Mar 30, 2009, rahulvarshneya said:
HBL Editor publishes your releases on his blog and allows you to see his interview diary online http://tinyurl.com/cxhe74
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
On Mar 30, 2009, swatidwivedi said:
Reading: http://twitthis.com/92hvfv
This comment was originally posted on Twitter