By Jennifer Nicole Sullivan

Last Thursday, I chatted with “Saturday Night Live” cast member Bill Hader over the phone. You know, he’s the guy who plays the painfully shy, Ed Hardy wearing, club guru Stefon and hilariously imitates Eddie Vedder, Al Pacino and Vincent Price. On December 5, the comedian presents “An Evening with Bill Hader” at The University of Rhode Island, so I caught up with him for a preview of the event for the entertainment newsmagazine Newport Mercury.

In an e-mail, Hader’s manager said I’d have 15 minutes to chat with the comedian. I provided her my phone number so he could call me at 1 p.m. (It’s rare if you ever get a celebrity’s phone number, although I still have digits for Chaka Khan and Sharon Jones of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings who chatted with me for 50 minutes while she stood outside of a laundry mat in Brooklyn waiting for her clothes to dry.)

Hader was a hoot! We had a fun, free-flowing conversation that moved easily, so I managed to stretch our interview to 30 minutes without him indicating a need to hang-up. We talked about his inspiration for Stefon, Eddie Vedder’s reaction about his impersonation and his biggest “SNL” mess-up. (For the full article, check out the Dec. 1 issue of Newport Mercury)

As an entertainment writer, I’ve had the privilege to interview several actors, comedians and musicians. But because of my distance from New York and Los Angeles, I’ve had to master conducting successful, easy flowing interviews with celebs over the phone. How do you create immediate chemistry? If you only have 15 or 20 minutes, what do you ask? And how can you engage your celebrity enough to remain on the phone to answer a few more questions?

Whether you interview a celeb, notable figure or any media savvy person over the phone, here are some tips to conduct a successful phoner:

• Research your subject: Well duh, right? But if you’re a huge fan, you might think you know everything about the celeb already and skip this crucial step. Your job is to uncover and explore those bits of info that readers don’t know. Plus, you don’t want to waste precious minutes asking about well-known, confirmed facts that you could have found out online. Become an expert on this celeb and certainly try to listen to their latest CD, watch their TV show or films or watch footage them on YouTube.
• Record, record, record: It’s no fun trying to type a thousand words a minute while trying to engage your celeb. You can buy a special cord from Radio Shack that hooks your digital voice recorder to your phone. I don’t have that, but luckily I can hold my digital voice recorder to the earpiece of my cordless landline phone and pick up a decent recording for future transcription. And, it creates a great souvenir of your celebrity chat.
• Find a commonality: It’s easy to create chemistry over the phone if you begin the interview with a commonality. Did you and the celeb grow up in the same state? Attend the same college? Recently spend time in Japan? When I interviewed Angela Kinsey, who plays Angela on “The Office,” I found out we both grew up in North Texas near Dallas. I began the interview by sharing our common home state and we had a long, comfortable conversation. Same with Bill Hader, I capitalized on our shared link to the south.
• Toss in a few compliments: Celebs are people too and still enjoy compliments. They will like the compliments, probably like you and will hopefully open up more. But don’t gush. You can’t waste important moments like when Chris Farley asked Paul McCartney in the old “SNL” sketch, “Um…remember when you were in The Beatles? That was awesome…”
• “Where are you at?”: Always ask the celeb where they are located during the phone call or even what they plan to do that day. After talking to me at his home in New York City, Bill Hader was headed to “SNL” to rewrite a sketch and then watch Sir Elton John perform at the American Museum of Natural History’s annual benefit that night.
• Ask important questions upfront: Think about questions in terms of past, present and future. (i.e. Past acclaim, present projects, future work) Of those, create a list of must-ask questions and ask them upfront just in case your time gets cut short. Have a list of extra questions in case you get more time.
• Be unique: Ask them the one interesting question that most people wouldn’t think to ask.
• Think short and concise: Save time by limiting your words. Ask clear, short, meaningful questions. Avoid awkward gaps or pauses by quickly jumping into your next question.
• Sound enthusiastic: No one wants to chat with a monotone, lifeless robot. Show your enthusiasm and personality through your voice.
• Know when to wrap it up: You could probably chat with these celebs all day, but know when to hang up. After close to 30 minutes chatting with Bill Hader, I knew I had enough info and said, “Well, is there anything else we haven’t talked about that you want people to know?” They will give their last bit and then you say your “thank yous,” “good lucks” and “can’t wait to see your next show/film/talk/etc…”

Jennifer Nicole Sullivan is a freelance journalist based in Newport, R.I., and a regular 
contributor to Newport Mercury, Newport Patch and Rhode Island Home & Design 
magazine. The Dallas native is a former features reporter at Corpus Christi Caller-
Times. Follow her on Twitter @trendyjenny.

By: Adam Falk

There’s only one movie in my life that I’ve watched twice in a row: Ocean’s 11.

The gambling. The lights. The suits. The killer cast. The tactics. The Pinch.
And the fountain.

Oh, the Bellagio fountain.

To a seventh grade boy (who totally wanted to be part of a heist someday, man), Ocean’s 11 was it. The height of cool. The pinnacle was the picturesque moment of success in front of the Belagio fountains.

I had to have it.

A little over a month ago, it happened. It’s actually why I’m blogging right now.

I attended the SPJ Convention in Las Vegas last month. Before going I decided, this was going to be a time for me to not only talk about our industry and the future of news from the student perspective, but a time for me to brainstorm with those already making it happen. A time for me to set a business card in front of professionals and join the conversation.

So, the week before the convention, I tweaked my resume, built a personal website and designed a business card. I was ready. Determined to meet as many interesting journos with innovative ideas as possible, I armed myself with a stack of business cards and hit the casino floor – a heist of my own.

And I’ll admit, I was relentless. Along with a fellow reporter and friend of mine, we talked to as many people as we could, especially people we didn’t already know. That’s the key.

This business card ‘tactic’ worked. Not only was it great to talk with people like Mark Briggs, who gave a rousing, optimistic and realistic view of the future of news, it was fun.

In a game of blackjack, you need to be assertive, but not aggressive. So play your business cards the same way. Don’t force the hand you don’t have. But show your cards when it’s time.

And do yourself a favor, take off the poker face for this one. There are far too many people who talk at each other in our industry. Let’s use our yearly gathering as a time to start the conversation (Twitter reference intended). Really listen to each others’ ideas because it’s up to all of us to redefine the industry. It’s trite but simple: be genuine. Journalists are perceptive, they’ll be able to tell.

After the sessions. The cameras. The ties. The innovative individuals. The notebooks. The swag. There was the fountain.

Just before leaving Vegas, we stopped. The show started, and I watched the Bellagio fountain perform…from across the street.

There’s the last lesson: don’t call the pinnacle too soon. I knew we’d only just begun.

Adam Falk is a multimedia journalist in his last year at the University of Missouri. Adam has experience working in print, online, video and film and is working toward a minor in film studies. You can contact Adam at AdamFalk01@gmail.com or on Twitter @amfalk.

The story of a campus, a social network, and the pandemonium that followed.

By: Evan Bush

Let’s be honest, as young journalists, we’re all hooked on Twitter. So hooked in fact, that the other day, when someone rehashed a comment I’d made, I bellowed out with pride, “I just got retweeted in real life!” Maybe my relationship with Twitter has gone too far.

Like Facebook, WordPress, and the blogosphere, Twitter has become a necessary skill to promote stories, find sources, and keep in touch with trends and the news. But journalists must learn to use Twitter deliberately and with caution. As we’ve all learned, 140 characters can say too little, or far too much.

Let me give you an example. I’m a student at the University of Missouri, which has one of the biggest J-Schools in the nation. It also has a heck of a lot of people on Twitter, led by its population of journalists.

Last week, the Mizzou made a cameo appearance in Twitter’s trending topics. The phrase “University Hospital”, MU’s medical center, was tweeted so many times, it ended up on the national Twitter scene.

It was tweets like this that had everybody riled up: “Gunmen loose on campus. Seeing reports of University Hospital on lockdown. Stay safe, #Mizzou & #CoMO.”

Many of my student journalist peers tweeted similar statements. Some use the same handles for personal and professional use.

I was in class at the time. And students never use Twitter in classes right?

While no one ran for the doors, a few people seemed convinced we had a Virginia Tech-like situation on our hands. Cooler heads and tweets eventually prevailed, but the damage had been done, and much of the campus at some point, had believed there to be a shooter on campus who may have killed four people outside a parking garage.

A friend who was sitting in the journalism school’s advising office told me at one point the advising office staff talked about going on a “lockdown” for student safety. Misinformation had reached profound levels.

One simple, and factual tweet was the root of the the cause and started the firestorm of terrifying 140 character blips.

“#911 Correction: University Hospital is on lockdown; gunman on the loose.”

It was true, although poorly worded. Police were searching for Joshua Maylee, who was the suspect of a triple homicide. A fourth person had been injured, and had been taken to University Hospital. The University had reason to believe he might come to the Hospital to attack the survivor, and put security measures in place to prevent his entry, hence the term “lockdown”.

But Maylee never went to the hospital. No one was ever shot, and he was caught shortly thereafter.

What was once pandemonium became a classic tale of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. Except it wasn’t just one boy crying–it was tens, if not hundreds.

Rumor and conjecture can travel exponentially faster in the age of social media. Twitter is powerful, and young journalists are in the perfect position to leverage their new-age rolodexes. But the same standards for a reported story should exist on social media networks. Tweets, as witnessed, necessitates care and deliberation. Because hopefully the the wolf won’t show up, but one day Twitter might be your best ally.

Evan Bush is a senior magazine journalism major at the University of Missouri working in print, online, video and film. In between working and taking classes, Evan is working toward minors in creative writing and film studies. You can contact Evan at Bush.Evan@gmail.com or on Twitter @EvanBush.

By Jennifer Nicole Sullivan

“Who are these PR people?” I wondered as a 24-year-old full-time features reporter at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. In one week, I’d received five e-mails, three faxes, one letter and an in-person visit from one well-meaning, but extremely pushy public relations representative in regard to a garden club event happening in town.

My first impression of PR reps was that they’re aggressive, annoying and spin-doctors who stand between me and the people I needed to reach. I simply didn’t understand what they meant to me as a reporter. Oh, how I was so wrong!

After a stint at the newspaper, I spent two years teaching English in Japan. When my husband’s job brought us to Newport, R.I., I quickly (and ironically) landed a job as a public affairs specialist at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I. Although I only stuck with the job for a year (I’m a journalist at heart), I gained a huge appreciation
and understanding for “PR people.” They aren’t the enemy as I once thought. Rather, they’re a huge source of information and folks a reporter can rely on when searching for a last minute source or information on a tight deadline.

As a freelance journalist, I now understand the importance of building working relationships with public relations reps. And because of that, I’ve received more story tips, backstage access, prompt e-mail responses and press passes than I ever did as a fledgling reporter. Building a strong Rolodex of public relations reps will not only make your reporting job easier, but it can also build your reputation and following as a journalist.

Tips for Working With PR Reps

• Follow PR Reps on Twitter or LinkedIn: You will learn news tips quicker and gain PR reps as Twitter followers.

• Send Clear Media Requests: Whether via e-mail or phone, tell PR reps exactly what you need from them and always tell them your deadline.

• Listen to Their Phone Pitches: Even though you’re crunched for time and can’t stand listening to PR story pitches, hear them out. You never know, it may lead to your next big, unexpected story. By the way, unless they’ve been
in the biz for years, PR reps probably feel nervous cold-calling you. So give them a break and don’t be rude.

• Be Honest: If you’re not interested in covering their story, don’t lead PR reps on. Be honest (but kind) and explain why you’re not interested in their story pitch.

• Always Be Kind: As I experienced first hand, it pays to be genuinely kind and appreciative. PR reps are more willing to help you when you are courteous and respectful. And if they feel comfortable with you, they are more likely to open up and give you the nitty-gritty information you need.

• Send a Thank You E-mail and Story Link: PR reps appreciate it when a reporter follows up with a thank you e-mail that includes a link to the published story involving their company/client. That way, the PR rep doesn’t
have to search for it or wonder when it’s coming out. And most likely, the PR rep will forward the link to several people or repost the story on their website or via social networking. So that means more readers will see your
story. A thank you e-mail takes a bit of time, but it’s worth it to double your readership.

Jennifer Nicole Sullivan is a freelance journalist based in Newport, R.I., and a regular
contributor to Newport Mercury, Newport Patch and Rhode Island Home & Design
magazine. The Dallas native is a former features reporter at Corpus Christi Caller-
Times. Follow her on Twitter @trendyjenny.

by Mike Brannen

So you’re months away from getting a diploma and heading out in the real world. You’ve been studying journalism, or mass communications, or another field, and you’ve learned all you can in the classroom.

Your professors have given you lessons on how to land a good job. Be polite, well-polished, have a good resume. Those are no-brainers. There are certain things that your advisors prep you for, and some things they can’t.

I finished school this October and have been job searching since September. I studied broadcast journalism and am looking to produce at a local affiliate. Although I haven’t signed on the dotted line at my TV station of choice, I can give you a heads-up on some things that will help your
process.

NOTE: For the non-TV folks, substitute “station” with “newsroom” and the same tips still apply.

1. Expect to spend AT LEAST two months getting the job you want.
I sent ten resumes and DVDs on September 22. I got my first call October 1 from a Hearst station. About a week later, I got a call from a Raycom station. Two weeks later, a call from a Gannett station. It took more than three weeks for that station to get back to me, and it was the station I wanted most.

The Hearst news director I spoke with said many of these jobs remain open until the right candidate becomes available. Rarely will a station get desperate to fill a spot immediately with someone they feel is unqualified. I thought there was no way a station would hire me during the November sweeps period. As the news director said, they will hire when the candidate is there.

2. Be careful telling stations about the other ones you are talking to.
The key thing is to not mention other stations until an offer is made.

The Hearst station wanted to fly me out. They said they were 85% sure they wanted to hire me. The Raycom station had a more appealing opening. I told the Hearst station I was not 85% sure I wanted that job. That news director said Hearst stations typically don’t like to be competing with others for candidates. They want people who have Hearst as their number one. Needless to say that bridge was burned. To make matters worse, the Raycom station filled the appealing opening.

I’m still in limbo with the Gannett station, but I’m slowly talking with a Belo station in a higher market. If I tell Gannett about Belo, Gannett will say “great, take that job if you’re looking. We’ve got other candidates who REALLY want to be here.” BUT, if Belo makes an offer, then I could go back to Gannett and mention how a higher market wants me. I would then also tell Gannett that they are more number one choice. Stations get a little jealous (and competitive). A station like Gannett would then feel like they a getting a great deal because this producer could
have gone to a higher market.

3. Flying out to the station is not an offer.
I mentioned how if I was to fly to the Hearst station, they were 85% sure they wanted to higher me, and that I should be 85% sure I wanted to work there.

However, the Gannett station flew me out last week. At the end of the interview, I was told I was on a “short list” of candidates. I assume I am not their number one candidate. Talk about a gut-check. I don’t think there is a clear way of asking if you are the number one candidate. Just assume you are not until they make an offer.

4. Apply high.
The worse thing these stations can do is say no to you. The Gannett station is in a pretty high market considering my age (24) and experience (2 years), but it’s worth taking a shot. The executive producer wasn’t too keen of me because of my inexperience. However, I’ve got an interview under my belt. If I go elsewhere for a couple of years, I have a great chance of working for Gannett in the future.

5. Be picky, be happy.
Take the job you want, not the one that is available. Remember, you’ll have to work there probably at least two years. Go to a place that will make you happy to be there. Same thing goes for position. I know I don’t want to work mornings because I’ll be unhappy. I’m waiting to find weekend jobs so I don’t have to work at 2:00 a.m.

6. Who’s in charge?
Find out who the top editor or news director is and mail your resume to them. NEVER SEND TO HUMAN RESOURCES. The people in HR really don’t want to do the hiring. Do your work and find out the name of who is making the news decisions.

7. Check your connections.
Many former grads came to my campus for Homecoming in October. An alumnus mentioned a student who sent a resume to her station. This student never contacted the alum. Now, the alum says she won’t make the effort to help because the student didn’t do his homework. Sounds catty, but some alumni have a pride about getting fellow alums in the same newsroom.

I interned with a FOX O&O after my freshman year. In a small world, a reporter and producer at the Gannett station both previously worked at that FOX station. I emailed some folks back at the FOX station to put in a good word for me. Thankfully they did because I left a good impression when I was an intern.

8. Spice up your cover letter
Tell a story, talk about when you had to make a big decision in a heartbeat. Avoid cover letter templates. They’re boring, unoriginal, and unimaginative.

9. Say Thanks
My sister gave me the tip to follow up interviews with thank you cards. If someone at Station X wants fill an opening within their station, and you end up getting that job, you might need something extra to justify the hiring. A thank you card to the news director or executive producer speaks volumes. And not a thank you email. A snail mail thank you card. It sets you apart from everyone else.

10. Save the Money for Later.
Wait, wait, wait for the station to make an offer and a salary value. Let them bring it up on their terms. If you bring it up, it gives the impression that money is your priority, even if it isn’t.

When they give the offer, negotiate a little bit. They will lowball you, so push for a little bit. It shows you have a little backbone and that you are not a pushover.

Everybody’s experience will be different depending on the medium, the city, the newsroom environment, and the job opening. Just be yourself and you’ll do fine. If you’re curious about my experiences in this job search or want to talk further about my tips, you can reach me by email: mike.brannen08@gmail.com.

Mike Brannen recently completed his thesis, Motivational Use of Twitter, and received a Master’s Degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He has worked various positions at KOMU-TV during the past four years. He is currently a newscast producer and producer supervisor.