DESCRIPTIVE LETTER

1. PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY The Orange County Sanitation District is a sewer plant. In general, the only time the media covers us is when there is an accident, a spill, beaches are closed, or rates are going up. Let’s face it, most people don’t know and don’t want to know what happens after they flush the toilet. They prefer to believe in magic. Another hurdle lies in our media market. In Orange County California, we have one large local paper (The Orange County Register) and our television news is based out of Los Angeles. As a result, it can be difficult to get the L.A. news to make the hike down to Orange County to cover stories. In the past, we pitched stories through calls, media releases, emails, and other standard public relations tools. This time we decided to take our plea to social media.

2. INTENDED GOALS OR OUTCOMES The primary goal: get positive media and educate the public on what we do and why they should care.

3. DOCUMENTATION OF ACHIEVEMENT Los Angeles reporter KTLA Allie McKay does regular segments on the Channel 5 KTLA morning show entitled “Allie@Work.” KTLA is the number one rated morning show in the Los Angeles market. It is also a superstation broadcast throughout the United States and Canada. Over the years, we have tried unsuccessfully to get the KTLA morning news show to cover us. They receive over 500 pitches per day. This time we used a different approach. After seeing an “Allie@Work” segment that day, we went to her Facebook page and at 10:51 AM wrote, “Allie, you HAVE to come here! You have always wanted to work at a poop plant right??? :- ).” Her response came at 10:54 AM, “Sonja got your email, we will be in touch late this month.” By 1:40 PM we had an air date set. On July 26, we began our day with a 3:30 AM set up. Allie did live shots at 5:42 AM (10 second tease followed by a 4 minute segment), 6:42 (10 second tease followed by a 4 minute segment), and a 7:42 AM segment (10 second tease followed by a 4 minute segment. The highest rating time is between the 7-8 o’clock hour. It followed later by a 1 PM taped segment approximately 4

minutes in length. As a result, we received approximately 17 minutes of free advertisement to the number 2 DMA (Los Angeles media market) audience of 3,310,000. That number does not include the audience that saw the show in other markets across the U.S. and Canada. In addition to the live shots, we took toilet mugs up to the studio. We hoped that the anchors would use their mugs for morning coffee and it would provide a tie back to the studio. It worked like a charm! In addition to the original 17 minutes, we received many additional minutes from the studio anchors, weather and entertainment reporters drinking from the coffee cups, and playing with our mascot “Sammy the Sewer Rat” throughout the 4 hour newscast. We also provided them with two mugs that contained a small-planted pot with biosolids. A plant informational tag read, “Growing beautiful gardens from you.” As a result of the coverage, we received calls from all of the country and Canada. We received an email from the Federal Reserve Executive Office in San Francisco asking how to purchase a mug. Our Facebook impressions for the day were 25,190 and for the 28-day period after the airdate, we reached 1,754,876 impressions. That compares to a normal month of 14,000 impressions daily and 435,282 for a 28-day period. In addition, the video clips were highlighted on BC Water News for one week to a subscription base of 30,000. We have also integrated the videos into our new website. The videos serve as an educational tool to those who visit our website. The have become a great resource.

• Increased Facebook impressions by 400% during a 28 day period • Highlighted in BC Water News for 1 week – 30,000 subscribers • Increased employee morale significantly • Lead to the District’s involvement in a pilot Oprah Winfrey

Network/Mark Burnett television show (scheduled to air in June or July)

• Produced over $12,500 in free advertising (estimate for 17 minutes)

Summary:

Television audience: 3,310,000 KTLA news site: 2,134,000 unique visitors iPad application: 700 BCWater News subscribers: 30,000 YouTube views: 958 Twitter followers: over 40,000 Total exposure 6,514,000 people.

4. BUDGET AND OUTSIDE RESOURCES Our budget was $144 for six toilet coffee cups.

Links to video clips

Video 1 -http://www.ktla.com/videobeta/6f7a7226-d3c9-4bb9-9516-b22ba88f6db7/News/KTLA-Sewage-Treatment-Plant-Operator-5AM Video 2 -http://www.ktla.com/videobeta/527c8274-3ce1-4605-9741-10a471ffd34f/News/KTLA-Sewage-Treatment-Plant-Operator-6AM Video 3 -http://www.ktla.com/videobeta/e85bcec6-bc61-407a-8328-7c1bde67d029/News/KTLA-Sewage-Treatment-Plant-Operator-7AM

YouTube

Video 1 - http://youtu.be/CwzMlfPYYQ4 Video 2 -http://youtu.be/ud3qm0_RtO8 Video 3 - http://youtu.be/8z8RMMyo7qo

“A viewer sent me a tweet saying that if the Chilean Miners are back at work, it’s time for you to get back to work, too”

March 07, 2011 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

KTLA 5 Morning News Has Best February in 5 Years

#1 Local Morning Newscast 7-9am

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--KTLA 5 is proud to announce major advances for its landmark morning show during the February 2011 ratings period. The KTLA 5 Morning News at 7am posted heavy gains year-over-year, increasing 29% in Adults 18-49 and 22% in Adults 25-54. The Morning News was #1 in households and #1 in Adults 25-54 for local newscasts 7-9am according to Nielsen Feb. 2011 Live Plus Same Day ratings. The newscast, anchored by Frank Buckley and Michaela Pereira, also welcomed back weatherman Mark Kriski after a difficult illness. Out sick since October, Mark felt it was time to come back after such a long recovery. “A viewer sent me a tweet saying that if the Chilean Miners are back at work, it’s time for you to get back to work, too,” Mark jokes. KTLA 5 News Director Jason Ball added: “Mark has been a fixture in L.A. morning news since we launched the KTLA Morning News almost 20 years ago. We are delighted at his recovery and look forward to his quick wit, his unique perspectives and even his 7-day forecasts.”

In other programming, off-network syndicated reruns of Two and a Half Men continue to be #1 with Adult viewers 25-54 in the 7:30pm access time period.

KTLA.COM also hit new milestones with over 3 million unique visitors and over 25 million page views in the month of February, according to Omniture metrics. “KTLA 5 and KTLA.com continue to be leading sources for news and entertainment in Southern California. We’ve expanded our news coverage with our weekday mornings starting at 4:30am, an hour at 1pm, and hour-long newscasts at 6pm and 10pm. We produce more hours of local news per week than any other Los Angeles television station,” states Don Corsini, President and General Manager.

KTLA 5 has served Los Angeles with award-winning television news and entertainment for over 60 years. KTLA 5 is a unit of TRIBUNE, America’s largest employee-owned media company. For information visit www.ktla.com.

Contacts

For KTLA 5 Steve Poitras 323-460-3906 spoitras@tribune.com

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So, without further ado, here are Toni's (and the KTLA team of producers') rules. If you'd like to download it in document form, go HERE.

Toni Molle’s 8 Rules of the Road for Pitching to a TV News Producer

- or –

Secrets of the KTLA Newsroom Revealed These rules are for pitching to me and for the producers/editors in the newsroom at KTLA News Los Angeles specifically. Please know that most newsrooms across the country follow rules or procedures that are similar; some details of course will be different, so please adjust your approach accordingly.

My Number One Rule:

1. Do Your Research: Watch your local news shows so that you know what they cover on which days of the week – and tailor your pitches accordingly.

Make sure you are contacting the correct person – get to know:

2. WHO'S WHO IN THE NEWSROOM:

PLANNING EDITOR – Knows upcoming events, receives press releases, oversees what’s coming down the pike; Pitches go to her/him

ASSIGNMENT EDITOR – Hands out the assignments of who covers what & when; usually day-of

SEGMENT PRODUCER – Produces feature or guest segments; often writes copy, questions, etc. for anchors or reporters

LINE PRODUCER – Puts the rundown together for each show; decides time & placement of segments/stories

Staffing in a newsroom tends to be lean and mean. Each person wears many hats and they are BUSY.

Now that you’ve researched your show(s), remember that the medium is TELEVISION. So…

3. What are Producers Looking for in a Pitch?

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• Put your pitch in the body of the email; it’s usually better to link to images

• Make sure all the relevant contact info is easy to find

• You only have one chance to "make a good" impression – check spelling, typos!

• Unsolicited samples – not always a good idea; it’s usually better to ask the producer; that said, no one here ever said “don’t send it” to chocolate. But please be pretty sure that your product is something we’d be interested in before sending it along

• Don't fax…ever – none of the producers here like them or read them

SUPER IMPORTANT: Don't invite crews/reporters to an event if there is no access for camera – make sure the producer understands the physical situation

Now that you’ve learned these rules…

5. So – What are Your Chances of Getting a Story on KTLA?

Know this:

• KTLA gets over 500 pitches a day

• Less than 1% make it to the Planning Calendar for coverage and consideration; please don’t take it personally if we pass on your story – it can be for a variety of reasons – and we may keep it on file for a later date.

• Responses will be via email

• No follow-up calls necessary – producers will contact you if they are interested.

But:

6. Rules for Following up: This is not to say that you can’t or shouldn’t follow up, please just be reasonable and polite.

If you have sent a product sample, check in in a week (if it’s not time-sensitive). If you don’t get a response, you can try again in a week or two, but, honestly, if you don’t hear from us – we’re not interested, or not interested at that moment. Again, you may be kept in a file for future stories.

Please follow up by email.

7. A Note From us at KTLA:

All the producers at KTLA are thrilled to give these tips to you so that you know how to pitch properly and to whom you should direct it. We do look forward to your pitches as appropriate.

Please pay attention to these guidelines, and please be respectful of our time and deadlines – we are SUPER busy every day. That said, we depend on outside pitches for information

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