Meet Andy

Andy is the founder of On Milwaukee, he's a Milwaukee native, he lived in Providence, Washington, DC, and Baltimore before returning home in 1996. Andy launched onmilwaukee.com LLC in April 1998 as a way to channel his passion for Milwaukee, journalism, and tech into a cutting-edge media company. He's a graduate of the George Washington University and worked at the White House Office of Communications, the Dallas Morning News, Washington Barrel, and to Milwaukee PR firms before branching out on his own at age 23. And he is more passionate than ever about Milwaukee's mission statement to grow communities and businesses through engaging digital media. 

What would you recommend for how a business does PR?

That's a good question. Because I've worked on both sides of the business. I've been in PR and media relations, and I've been in journalism, and I've gone back and forth. And sometimes my role continues to be on both sides of things. So I know what it's like to pitch and I know what it's like to be pitched. And what I always tell people is to make sure you have a relevant story for the outlet that you're pitching it to. If I looked at my email inbox right now, it would probably be about 700 messages today, mostly people trying to get coverage of things, and most of the time, it's not relevant. So people are spending an awful lot of time putting energy into things that don't really match who they're talking to. And it makes it more difficult for us to sort through it. Back in the day, media relations equated to news releases. And now that's, that's just one piece of it. So I would recommend that anyone working in public relations considers all the different tools that are available to get their message out and do it in a way that resonates with the journalists on the other side.

So what are some mistakes you see businesses making in getting the press's attention?

If you make it too hard on the journalist, make your job easier, right? So so let's just start with, like the basics of news release writing, like, if it's a sales pitch, if it's full of typos if it's faxed, you know, it's like, Give me something not as much as they used to. But I mean, you know, give me something that a very busy Junior writer, if they wanted to, could pretty much copy and paste, I would never tolerate that, from our journalists. But, you know, the best news release is one that is already written in APA style, if that's what the publication uses. It's not, you know, it's, it's, it's not, it's, it's not an ad, right, you know, people can pay for that this isn't native content, like, show me why it's newsworthy, and write it is such, the biggest mistake is pitching things that are relevant, and then, you know, getting annoyed, why it's not working, and being blocked, you know, blowing your shot on that. And something, when you could have something else that would work. Because it's a relationship, basically, you know, some stranger, coming to me and asking for favors. It's like, you know, this, this is hard work. And we have a lot to choose from. To understand what we are, I get a lot of pitches addressed to the wrong publication. And it's like, come on, like, that's a pretty much surefire way to, not to know like, you know, hear the wrong name, you know, who you're talking to. And then I think that being respectful of the way that reporter wants to communicate, so for me, like I don't, I don't want to do this over Facebook Messenger, or I don't want to do this over text. And that's how people pitch me all the time. And I'll say, you know, could you please send me an email, but other people will say, like, you know, fire me off a text or something. And remember that you're asking a journalist to do something. And if you make it too hard, and you don't respect the deadlines, you don't respect what they need. You're just hurting your chances of success.

If you could go back to your 20-year-old self, what would you tell yourself to do more or less of or differently with regard to your professional career?

Okay, so 23 instead of 20? Because 23 is when I started on Malachy. Well, I would have told myself, to stop being such a smartass and write better stuff. I also would have told myself to think more about monetizing and less about if you build it, they will come I would have thought about how incentivizing the people who love our content to pay for it, as opposed to people that we don't agencies, people that we don't know people in other cities who don't feel the love here. So I would have never thought about that. And I think that, oh, 23-year-old news, pretty fun. I really, I wrote some pretty cool stuff back then. And we've dipped back into the archives over the years. I feel kind of like I'm the unofficial Milwaukee historian because even though we have a few employees has been since the early days, obviously, I've been there the longest so I can't remember everything I've ever written or everything we've ever run out of those 60 65,000 pieces. But there's, there's like some amazing, hilarious. So just some like, you know, Bucket List interview, I would have, I would have never turned I think I turned down a ride in the Goodyear Blimp once Oh, man, I gave it to a freelancer. Ah, that was stupid.

Connect with Andy!

Connect on LinkedIn

http://onmilwaukee.com/

We've all heard it before. It's Oh, you know, welcome to social capital, a weekly podcast that dives into social relationships and why the

Hey, everybody, Lori Highby here, welcome to the social capital podcast. You can find our show notes at social capital podcast

daily information about marketing strategy tips, all podcast episodes and upcoming events. If you'd like to connect, make sure to send a note with

closely with marketing. That's why I'm bringing you marketing experts with a variety of backgrounds for you to learn and grow from. Today's guest is

University and worked at the White House Office of Communications, the Dallas Morning News, Washington barrel and to Milwaukee PR firms before

When you read it. It sounds it sounds pretty good.

Well, whoever wrote it did a good job. I

wrote it. Yeah. It sounds it sounds better when you say okay,

I've heard a number of people will say that, really? You supplied it to me?

I mean, it's all true.

But with that extensive media background, I'm I'm curious because you know, this is an area that I do not have a lot of strength in

It? That's a good question. Because I've worked on both both sides of the business. I've been in PR and media relations, and I've been in

today, mostly people trying to get coverage of things, and most of the time, it's not relevant. So people are spending an awful lot of time

out and do it in a way that resonates with the journalists on the other side.

So when you say the word irrelevant, I'm kind of curious, like how, how would I know what's relevant?

Well, you have to think like a journalist. Hey, I'm not a journalist. So I mean, as a business owner, I mean, I think that's why you

pitch about heavy engineering. The outside of Milwaukee, it's not gonna work unless they can find an angle. So you got to figure out what? What

starts to feel kind of spammy. Sure,

I can see that. So I mean, we're talking about some mistakes here. What are the mistakes you see? Folks, business businesses making when

well, I think that your, if you make it too hard on the journalist,

make their job easier,

make your job easier, right. So so let's just start with, like the basics of news release writing, like, if it's a sales pitch, if it's full

the if that's what the publication uses. It's not, you know, it's, it's, it's not, it's, it's not an ad, right, you know, people can pay for that

know, some stranger, coming to me and asking for favors. It's like, you know, this, this is hard work. And we have a lot to choose from. So

this over Facebook Messenger, or I don't want to do this over text. And that's how people pitch me all the time. And I'll say, you know, could you

So that being said, what, what makes something newsworthy.

So when I was in PR, I spent some time researching who I was talking to, and newsworthy means different things to different places. And

people. And if you I would hope that a PR person or media relations person would spend some time seeing what on Malachy does and tailoring their pitch

You mentioned the word exclusivity. Can you explain that concept and why that matters?

Yeah. So I'll give you an example of how not to do it first, and then I'll tell you an example of how to do it. Sometimes I'll get a pitch

story, and and someone says, We'll give it to you first. Now you've got a hook, right? That might mean something to me because none of us want to sit

But doing it the other way around, that's like, Well, I'm glad you thought of them before you thought about the

past, you know, yeah, I definitely made that mistake. Because, you know,

I think people do that, because they think that they're, they're proving that it's newsworthy.

Well, that was my thinking, when I've done that. It's like, oh, look, this was so exciting and interesting that XYZ didn't run a story

that's a really crappy feeling. Also, when you see your own stuff just copied? Yeah, somewhere else. Because, you know, that's how assignment

are gone, where people remember where they saw it first.

It's not like, like, media is just everywhere. And yeah, you're,

you're not the way people consume media is they're not visiting a website and clicking around on articles. I mean, most of it is coming from

That. So if I come and pitch exclusivity, how long do I wait to get a confirmation before I try to find someone else with that offer?

Well, that's why you need to be respectful of deadlines. So there are some places that can turn stuff around in a day. And then there are

reporter. So if you're a stranger coming in off the street, saying, I've got this exclusive for you, and you don't hear back in a day, and then you

can say like, Hey, this is this is a big deal I've got, you know, let me know in the next few days, if you guys want to do this or not. If not, I'm

So now I'm gonna go set deadlines. And I'm also curious about change requests. How does that impact the relationship with the media?

Badly? Very badly? So the most frequent thing I hear is, can I see it before it runs? The answer's no. I mean, if we're talking about a very,

These are all like recorded interviews. So you made yourself sound like this. But if you trust that we are a legitimate news source, then you have

print. Doesn't mean that we should change it. Sometimes we get like, Oh, I forgot to get permission from my boss to like, well, once it's out there,

there are typos. Of course, you can fix those, but someone is complaining about what they got. And there's nothing wrong with it. Or they feel like

doesn't feel glowing enough to you then buy an ad.

Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. So let's talk about what tips that you can offer our listeners to help them get that immediate exposure.

So beyond just the points about relevance, and, and writing, like a journalist, it's being able to provide great photography video, being

important to build that rapport in the, in the right place. So if a reporter is very active on Twitter, they'll start there. Again, I wouldn't

I'm like, Yeah, but my. We don't, this isn't our only beat here, you know, like, Give me something really newsworthy, and we'll talk about it. But

confident. And we've also seen it go the other way where, where people just start spouting off about things that they probably shouldn't be. And it's

you want your grandma to read that headline.

Yeah, I mean, keep it PG. But I remember a chef once describing how he thought about other chefs. Like, wow, this is pretty. This is

And I was interviewed on and a local news station. He's a brewer and he kind of said something about other brewers. And then he

So I would say be even bigger picture is on the PR side, make sure that your client or yourself or whoever has proper media training to know

yeah, I've heard of like creating messages, message maps before you get interviewed so that you have like your bullet points or your

Yeah, this mm. Now I'm gonna give away some secrets. But I think that when I'm on the being interviewed side, that you are right, which I am

going to have done the in depth research and understand your topic like you do. So if you want to go into an interview with a message, make sure you

that's advertising.

Well, yeah. And no one wants to be sold to either. Yeah, this is

free stuff. And this is earned media, right public relations. When it's done, right, you're not paying for it.

And so you have the following you do because you're not selling to them constantly.

Yeah, our audiences are our clients is our readers, our readers, not our advertisers. Because if you don't have readers or viewers, you

status or stronger,

right, and that's fine. If they're good, but if they're not good, you start alienating your audience, and

you don't want to do that. And that sounds like a topic we could dive into, in a totally different episode.

Did I speak too long? Too much.

But I am gonna, this is a good time to pause for a quick message from our sponsor.

Social capital is sponsored by Keystone click OK did in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Keystone click is a strategic digital marketing agency focused

All right, Andy. So fun information you shared. Thank you. I've got some random questions that may tie into it. But you have built

Oh, well, I'll answer it as an organization first, and then I'll answer it as a person. I think it's about remembering that media should be

conversation. So your, your name is attached to your faces attached to everything you're you're, you're experiencing real time feedback, you're

someone tells you something, you're like, Oh my God, that's an awesome story. Let's go with it. It's bad when you're sitting having a cocktail and

really surprised that we were writing stories that hadn't been written before. And that was exactly what I wanted. That's why I moved to

writers, we've sort of changed the way people cover cover content around here. And I always say that comes from being here. Like if we were say,

relationships with the people who are going to tell you stuff. So our dining writer, Laurie Frederick, she's like, she knows all the chefs, she

because she'll she knows she'll be the first one to get the story and the first one to release it. So I don't think it has to be an adversarial

Here's a fun one. If you could go back to your 20 year old self, what would you tell yourself to do more of less of or differently

Okay, so 23 instead of 20? Because 23 is when I started on Malachy. Well, I would have told myself, stop being such a smartass and

thought about that. And I think that, oh, 23 year old news, pretty fun. I really, I wrote some pretty cool stuff back then. And we've dipped back

So just some like, you know, Bucket List interview, I would have, I would have never turned I think I turned down a ride in the Goodyear Blimp once

Good. It's, hopefully have a good relationship with that person.

Oh, she's I mean, she's fine. She's not freelancing for us anymore. But I was like, I'm too busy. I should have like, screwed that up.

happened. Yeah, I haven't been on a submarine yet. So if you know anyone, the submarine, my bucket list is shrinking. But I love the experiential

know, and it can work with any any client. I mean, you might be thinking like, what does my b2b client have that's relevant? It's like, well,

That Okay, I'm gonna give you the opportunity to interview with something like to ask me.

Yeah, so you own your own agency and you have for what, nine years?

No, we're celebrating 15 This year, you're celebrating 2515 Yep, we got the big one five this year.

Congratulations. How have you done this without being a journalist? You just told me you like don't

PR is not the air Yeah, I mean, writing is something that I learned to be good at and enjoy. But how? I started out as a web, it was a

Yeah. But podcasting is journalism. So what you're doing right now is journalism. I guess I didn't think about it that way. The you have to be

um, I, the first time I was asked to be interviewed on a podcast, which was Steven Wesner Wesner of onward nation, good,

afterwards, I'm like, Oh, my God, that was so fun. And it was easy. And that and tied with, you know, as a business owner, in marketing have to

And I found that podcasting, which is the probably the most authentic way to just have a genuine conversation. I could be me and not have to

crazy. I hope people listen to it. Yeah, I think anyone's gonna listen to this, right. Yeah, I

hear. Listen to it. You know, what's funny is like, I've been out and about, I've been to conferences in different parts of the country.

Yeah, that just seems to be. I don't have time for that. But oh, it's fun. I love that I can I like to talk. I feel like I have a couple of decent

have you trained yourself to not say, um, or did you decide to say, No, you're doing an excellent job. I'm paying attention because I say

I did Toastmasters for about a year. And that works. But I found it was challenging for me to commit to the time to create content

I wasn't gonna say anything. But yes, yeah,

I took an improv course at Comedy Sports. Oh, that's cool. And that was awesome. It totally, it's funny, because they went into that for

So I just recorded a podcast and I found a piece of software that takes out filler words. Oh, and it actually works. Because after I heard

All righty. Andy, if anyone was interested in getting in contact with you what is the best way they can reach you?

So I'm at Andy turnoff on pretty much all the platforms, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and I'm Andy at on milwaukee.com Don't fax

in media, I think it's a unique event diagram. And it's still my passion. So anytime I can do something like this, it's, it's awesome, because it's

Well include all those links in the show notes. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Andy.

Thanks for having me, Laurie.

All right. This was great. This wraps up our episode of social capital. A huge thank you to Andy for taking the time to connect with us.

That's all for this episode of the social capital podcast. Visit social capital podcast.com are shownotes more episodes, and to see who will