Mediabistro

Meet leading authors, editors, and literary agents and get your writing project professionally critiqued in our online Literary Festival & Workshops, July 16 – August 1, 2012. In our innovative, interactive online event, you will:

• Hear from accomplished authors, literary agents, and editors
• Workshop your own creative project with writers and editors
• And make connections with other writers and book lovers across the globe in our summer reading group.

Come celebrate the publishing world with us and get inspired to finish the book project you’ve been working on.

The speakers are top notch…

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Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

Moving to D.C. doesn’t have to mean forgetting where you came from. So, if you’ve still got a place in your heart for Southern traditions (hold the fried chicken stereotypes, please), you could land a byline in this regional pub.

South concentrates on highlighting remarkable Southerners and any brand new establishments and trends happening in the Creative Coast. (Think that Southern belle who’s influencing national politics, or that hip, new restaurateur from North Carolina who’s got the District buzzing.)

“The pub has an entire section dedicated to profiles on interesting Southern characters which definitely lends itself to outside ideas,” said managing editor Lauren Hunsberger. ”The characters, events, culture and stories are second to none and provide for some of the best reading in the world.”

For more on word count and which sections are open to freelancers, read How To Pitch: South.

From hiring Keith Olbermann and Internet pioneer Cenk Uygur to expanding into daytime with original programming with Stephanie Miller and Bill Press, Current TV has undergone a great deal of changes since its launch in 2005. But its mission stays the same, says co-founder Joel Hyatt.

“Our goal for Current is to influence the conversation of democracy,” says Hyatt in our So What Do You Do? interview. ”We want to have an impact on the public policy discussion.”

Hyatt, who stepped back into the CEO role in July 2012, also gave his two cents on how the Big Three (MSNBC, CNN and Fox News) are doing in covering the Republican primaries and Presidential race.

“There are times in which the cable networks do a really outstanding job; there are times in which I think the job they do is embarrassingly bad,” Hyatt said. “What journalism needs to do is seek truth. Convey it; explore it; create context for it; connect the dots.”

Is that the general rule on those rival networks? “No,” he said.

Read the full interview here.

Freelancers never know where their next story could come from. For freelancer Christian Feuerstein, it was attending a keynote speech at her college reunion that brought her the awe-inspiring story of a famous alum and Nobel Prize winner who survived Nazi Germany.

So, she did some digging to find the appropriate editor at  the Italian American mag Ambassador and fired off her pitch.

“None of [Feuerstein's clips] blew me away, necessarily,” said editor Don Oldenburg, “but I appreciated her professional approach and that she followed our requirements for a pitch: make it brief and convincing, tell me why you’re the writer to handle the story, and give me two or three clips.”

To see our breakdown of the actual query letter and more reasons Oldenburg green lighted the assignment, check out Pitches That Worked: Ambassador. [sub req'd]

This Thursday, February 16, Mediabistro brings you Social Media Marketing Boot Camp, an online conference and hands-on workshop. Through keynote speeches with the biggest names in social media, practical how-to sessions, and strategic assignments, you’ll create a comprehensive social media marketing strategy and launch your campaign across various sites and platforms. By the end of the online conference and workshop, you’ll be monitoring, analyzing, and improving traffic, engagement, and conversion to sales.

The program includes:

Stephanie Agresta EVP, Managing Director of Social Media, Weber Shandwick

Megan Berry Founder, LiftFive

What Makes a Social Strategy Successful?

The Power of Influence: Identifying Online Brand Ambassadors

Leslie Bradshaw  President, COO, and Co-founder, JESS3

Danielle Brigida  Manager of Social Media, National Wildlife Federation

Storytelling Through Social Media

How to Monitor and Measure Your Social Media Efforts

Michael Brito  SVP, Social Business Planning, Edelman Digital

Anthony DeRosa  Social Media Editor, Reuters

The Rise of the Social Customer and Their Impact on Business

Social Curation: How to Use Twitter and Tumblr to Build Authority and Spread News

Tim Devane  Director of Sales and Business Development, bitly

Lauren Dugan  Co-editor, AllTwitter

Incorporating Analytics and Social Media

How to Use Twitter to Promote Your Company, Cause, or Personal Brand

Devon Glenn  Staff Writer, SocialTimes

Brendan Irvine-Broque  Content and Marketing Manager, Facebook Marketing Bible, Inside Network

The Strategist’s Toolkit: How To Keep Up With Emerging Platforms and Trends

How To Grow Your Fan Base and Engagement on Facebook

Dave Kerpen  CEO, Likeable Media

Morin Oluwole  Strategic Partner Development, Facebook

How to Establish a Brand Personality Through Social Media

The Branding Power of Facebook Pages

Gretchen VanEsselstyn  Managing Producer, Education, Mediabistro

Leo Widrich Co-founder, Buffer

How to Build a Targeted Social Media Strategy

Productivity Tips from the Social Media Trenches

Baratunde Thurston  Director of Digital, The Onion

A Case Study of Creative Social Media Content

View full program details.

Check out what previous students are saying about the online event.

Don’t miss the chance to build your content strategy with social media experts and hundreds of innovators. Register now.

Breaking into the literary dream that is New York magazine means you’ve got to offer something new, an interesting angle or exclusive access into a little-known subcultural scene in the city (or anywhere else in the world).

“A freelance pitch that provides unusual insight and access into a slightly more hidden world or scene has a better chance of becoming a story here,” said editorial director Jared Hohlt in How To Pitch: New York [sub req'd]. ”Features that trend to get approved are narrative-focused and designed to engage the reader in good old fashioned storytelling.”

David Haskell, the magazine’s feature editor, agrees — but he needs more than just a good anecdote.

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Filmmakers and freelancers with a great story on Black America can discover a byline waiting for them at The Grio.

According to managing editor Joy-Ann Reid, every section of the site is hungry for underreported stories. From great stories with strong characters to photo-driven stories from a unique Black perspective, or even a profile with a big celeb can land you in the site. And Reid suggests adding multimedia to the mix, as the site relies heavily on original video content.

To find out which sections the editors are especially looking to beef up content, read How to Pitch: The Grio. [sub req'd]