The exemplary One Piece Podcast interviews Anime USA guest Wendee Lee.

In my last post, I evaluated what I look for in a model press attendee. Thanks for all the understanding and appreciative comments. I have to re-emphasize that most of my press outlets, like the One Piece Podcast crew pictured above, were journalists I’m happy to have as colleagues.

Now that I’ve cleared my head a bit, it’s time to evaluate my own performance.

Press releases

I’ve always thought this part of PR was super sleazy. In journalism school, I would laugh with my classmates and professors at the notes the public relations class before us would leave on the whiteboard. It all seemed like a sidestepping swindle designed to fool journalists into writing stories about non-news events.

Now that I’ve played for the other team, however, I’ve realized press releases are only spam in the wrong hands. Over the year, I’ve learned to carefully curate a list of media outlets until I’ve learned which groups would be interested in which news. While I sent the same releases everywhere, Anime News Network picked up our Make-A-Wish Partnership announcement, while the Washington City Paper wrote about our event details.

As a journalist, the last thing I want to do is PR spam the media sites I like and read. My goal for 2012 is to make a more detailed press spreadsheet so I can send out releases more thoughtfully. For the rest of 2011, however, I’ll be working on another spreadsheet — all our press coverage. There are a lot more spreadsheets in PR than in journalism, I think.

Press outreach

In 2010, we only had nine press outlets attend Anime USA. In 2011, we had 43. I credit this spike to improved communication with press.

I put up the Press Policy in the spring and the webmistress gave it a more prominent position on our site. I sent formal invitations to press groups that had done a good job in 2010 and whom I wanted to return. Everyone else, I Googled before responding to make sure they matched the quality Anime USA expects of their press outlets.

In the end, I generally made acceptance and rejection decision on the group’s politeness (or lack of) in their correspondence with me. I didn’t want press acceptance to be based solely on audience. After all, Anime USA accepted me as press when I was a student with no credentials, and no (anime-related) writing samples. It was this opportunity that gave me the confidence to become a fandom reporter. It also got me on staff. So I have a weakness for student and startup applicants.

Press relations

In order to set a professional tone right off the bat, I designed a branded press kit with information, rules, and our press conference schedule.  I had to update it twice while our guests played musical chairs all the way up until November 14. While I’m not generally a fan of killing trees (web journalist, blogger and all that), I think making print copies of these cleared up a lot of potential confusion. I handed these out with press badges.

Even though I spent most of Friday and Saturday in the Convention Operations room greeting members of the media with press kits and badges, I definitely did not personally meet all 91 press attendees. So it gave me peace of mind to know that they knew how to contact me regardless.

Press conferences

This was my grand experiment. Last year, I watched Saint Tom Stidman schedule one-on-one interviews for every press group that wanted an interview. The scheduling, the logistics, everything, was a hassle. So I decided to take a cue from Anime Boston. They hold press conferences there, and if they didn’t, an unknown like me would have never had a chance to sit next to Nobuo Uematsu. I thought conferences would be more democratic.

There was a little pushback from press at first. Professionals were okay with it; actual reporters are used to conference style interviews. A few bloggers from small sites were upset. I assured them that there’d be a professional journalist — either me or Patch.com’s Tyler Waldman — moderating every conference and making sure everyone got a turn to talk.

Nothing went the way I planned. Only two to four groups attended each press conference, even though sometimes as many as 15 requested interviews with the same guest. I adapted to the situation and deferred to my press groups on what they’d prefer to do. Overwhelmingly, they preferred one-on-one interviews, even if they’d each only get 15 minutes with the guest. The other outlets would wait their turn, sitting and listening. This led to a huge decrease in repeat questions.

I’ve listened to what the press wants, and next year, we’ll divide conferences into 30 minute one-on-one blocks, all in the same room. That is of course, unless we snag somebody on Nobuo Uematsu‘s level.

Anime USA official blog

As you can imagine, my duties as press liaison forced me to dial back a bit on promoting the Anime USA official blog. Last year, I gamified blog visitations with an elaborate QR code campaign.

I promoted one of my 2010 bloggers, the talented Mike Fenn, to Lead Blogger. He moved the blog from WordPress to Tumblr, which made the blog instantly more social. It also allowed bloggers to update from their smart phones, netting us tons more posts than last year. We received a total 640 unique visitors (out of 5,000 attendees), so there’s definitely still work to be done.

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I hope my recap has given you some insight into how I run press at Anime USA, as well as an understanding of just how hard we volunteers work to staff the convention. I’m still far from becoming a model press liaison, but I am feeling pretty good about how I handled myself this year.

I also sent this post to my colleagues Chad and Nick, press liaisons at Katsucon and MAGfest respectively, so I’m looking forward to their comments especially.

Thank you to everyone I’ve worked with this year at Anime USA, whether you’re a member of the press, a staff member or an attendee. You’re not only the reason I do this, you’re the reason I love it.

Do your research

Your teachers probably told you that there’s no such thing as a stupid question. However, in journalism, there is such a thing as a blatantly misinformed question. Don’t bother your source with questions you could easily find out from a quick Google search.

If your subject is a popular voice actor, don’t ask them questions like, “What are you most known for?” or “Can you name some of your recent projects?” It’s insulting to the guest, and it makes this press liaison cringe.

Don’t let your fandom blind you

I know what it’s like to be both a fan and a journalist. However, I know there’s a time to geek out as well as a time to be professional, and very rarely do those occasions intersect. I get that you’re a big fan, or you wouldn’t have asked to do an interview with one of Anime USA’s guests. However, “I love your work so much,” is not an appropriate interview question. Frankly, it’s not even a question.

Luckily, our special guests are troopers. They’re clearly used to dealing with sometimes socially awkward fans. But they shouldn’t have to deal with that sort of thing in a press conference.

Do keep your press liaison in the loop

When I corresponded with press groups before the convention, I asked them each a few questions about their plans. When do you plan to get here? What do you plan to cover? If there was a lack of reply in either of these areas, problems arose.

For instance, one press group asked me for four extra press badges (I only give a maximum of four to any group). Later, security found this group bringing people without badges into the convention center. They explained they were doing a project where they invited “con virgins” to Anime USA to gauge their reaction. I think that’s fascinating! If they had told me about this plan, I could have secured special permission. As it stood though, they were in violation of the convention and security stopped them immediately.

In another instance, one press group almost didn’t receive their badges. I asked each group to give me a general time they planned to arrive at the convention. When groups arrived at a radically different time than they’d told me (a group that emailed to say they were arriving Thursday evening showed up at noon on Sunday, for example), I wasn’t as easy to reach.

In both cases, these press groups experienced inconveniences that could’ve been avoided with a little communication.

Do NOT lie to me

You may have heard that press attendees get into the convention for free. Posing as a press member could save you some money in the short run. But if I find out, I will make sure the price you pay is steep. First, I’ll send security to remove you from the convention. If that doesn’t work, I’ll simply tell all my friends.

Here’s something you might not know: the press liaisons at Anime USA, MAGfest, Katsucon and Otakon are all pretty good friends. When somebody poses as a press member at one convention, word gets around. Pretty soon, you’re not only blacklisted from Anime USA, but every other local geek convention, too.

Hope you enjoyed that free press badge! It’s the last one you’ll ever get.

Do respect the convention policies

I don’t play favorites with press acceptance. When I was choosing whom to accept to Anime USA 2011’s press team, I checked for professionalism, quality work, a regularly updated publication, and respect for our organization. Unfortunately, I made a huge misjudgment about one press person when it came to that last attribute.

This press person did some interviews with some of our staff members, but unfortunately left behind her computer charger. She sent an email to me to ask if I, or one of my staff members, could deliver the charger to her on Sunday at her home in DC. I was appalled at her nerve for asking — it showed clear disrespect of our duties as convention staffers — but politely replied to let her know to pick up her lost item on Sunday at the convention.

This press person showed up at the hotel five hours after our convention was over. Our entire staff was at our annual post-con celebration party at a nearby restaurant. She called our convention’s hotel liaison, demanding he send somebody from the party to retrieve her charger from our locked equipment room. (Hotel staff wasn’t letting her in as per our agreement.) When the hotel liaison refused, she clamored for our convention chair to break the hotel policy for her and let her in. This request was once again refused. The liaison told her to wait until our ceremony was over.

Anime USA is still reeling from what happened next.

Somehow, this press person convinced the hotel’s security staff to let her into our locked equipment room. In the hour that followed, $4,000 of our equipment went missing. Thanks to this press person’s impatience and disrespect for our policies, our convention has been devastated.

I am certain Anime USA will recover from this setback. But we’ll do it without press attendees like her.

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Don’t get me wrong; 99 percent of the press groups I invited this year were exemplary. But a few bad apples can spoil the whole bunch.

I’m not perfect either. In my next post, How to be a model press liaison, I’ll take a look at the ways I could’ve improved in my role, too.