YOURS FOR THE ASKING: Gregg Lagerquist. |
Feel like cashing in your 15 minutes of fame sooner rather than later? One local anchorman says all you have to do is call — and ask him to tell you specifically what you need to do to get on his news program, and then do exactly that.
Gregg Lagerquist, of WGME 13, dropped this nugget and more Friday at a Portland meeting of the Maine Public Relations Council, which included opportunities for local PR flacks to learn from media professionals the best ways to "sell" press releases to news outlets. Judith Meyer of the Lewiston Sun Journal and Anna Wolfe of Gourmet News (a specialty-food trade magazine) rounded out the panel of speakers.
Meyer, managing editor of Lewiston’s daily paper, spoke first and offered insight about the difference between a free ad and a genuine news story. In her experience, PR reps often overlook the latter, though “it can be a fine distinction.”
Once she took a call from a rep for a furnace-cleaning company releasing information about discounted rates. “That’s not a story,” she said. But instead of hanging up, she let the conversation continue, and it paid off. Meyer found out that the company was so short-staffed that the company's original owner, an 80-year-old retiree, had come back to work: “Now that’s a story.”
Lagerquist, the weeknight news anchor for Portland's Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned CBS affiliate, said he looks for story ideas with visual impact. As far as press releases go, “It would have to be dramatically out of the ordinary to make it to TV.” Either that, or Lagerquist's own idea.
Once, a PR chum of his sought his advice regarding an upcoming press release. The man’s company was donating $15,000 to the Boys and Girls Club for music equipment. Lagerquist told him, “Get a big check, have the kids play instruments in the background.” That’s exactly what the guy did, and Lagerquist covered it.
What else might get Gregg to broadcast a press release? Impeccable timing. “We rarely think in advance,” he said. But whatever you do, don’t mistake him for his Channel 6 rival Pat Callaghan by complimenting his co-anchor. “When someone says, ‘I love that Cindy [Williams],’ that’s a strike.”
But even if he's giving out advice about how to stage news, Lagerquist is clear: “Call me a journalist,” he says. If you call now, you just might make tonight’s 6 pm broadcast.
