By Hilary Allen

This week, Massey Media was announces it is a Live Green Spot. It is a great moment for Massey Media, for Live Green members, and for environmentalism. This certification is testament to the fact that one can run green, socially responsible businesses and, despite many myths, still be successful.

But then that got me thinking… I had never heard of green PR! I knew a restaurant could be green and a yoga studio could be green, but I wasn’t exactly sure how a PR company — even one run by some of DC’s most fabulous media specialists — could be green. After 10 weeks of interning with Sarah and Lacy at Massey Media, I was truly beginning to understand what went into making a successful PR campaign, how much time and effort was required for this job and furthermore, how Massey Media functioned. All that said, I still couldn’t quite figure out what green PR was; I knew some research was in order.

In doing my research, I found a number of websites had specific thoughts on green PR; most of them agreed that it had to do with what kind of paper one used and which environmental organizations they worked with. For example, if fifty percent of their clients were people working in the environmental movement, they could be considered as green. A few other websites put forth the idea that green PR had more to do workplace practices and habits.

While I thought all of those were valid ideas and thoughts on what green PR was, I can’t say I felt quite satisfied by those explanations. Something about them seemed a bit superficial to me. I mean, don’t get me wrong: anything, big or small, that is done for the environment is fantastic, but I suppose I was expecting something else, something more substantial. Needless to say, I didn’t quite find the answers I was looking for on the interwebs.

So with that, I decided to look internally: I knew both Sarah and Lacy were vegetarians, I knew they both didn’t own cars and rode their bikes to work and I knew they both were very passionate about the environmentalism. When it comes to working with clients, they are truly about empowerment, they share the tools of good PR so that others may benefit. They regularly give workshops to young people and off free talks about how to do PR for social change. Furthermore, rather than having their own private office space, they decided the company headquarters would be at the Affinity Lab, an shared-spaced business cooperative in which many businesses share bathrooms, kitchens, copier and fax machines, desks, and conference rooms. This was truly the epitome of green business practices.

After I processed all of that information, I came to the conclusion that green PR was really more about intention and practice rather than about the kind of paper one uses or what percent of your clients are environmental. Mind you, Massey Media does most things electronically and thereby saves many trees, but Sarah and Lacy go a few steps further. They bike to work everyday (Lacy even bikes in the winter months!), their eating habits are green and environmentally friendly, their homes (and personal lifestyles) are green. Most importantly, they have a strong intention to promote and support like-minded environmental activists and organizations.

To me, Massey Media is the epitome of green PR; not only do they use and incorporate green practices while at work, the try and succeed at incorporating those practices and fundamentals in their personal lives as well. Green PR is about being an active part of the environmental movement, checking in at home to make sure you’re living green, and supporting the movement to grab more headlines and attention. In this way, the intention of the PR work is always about empowerment both for the clients and the company. Ultimately, it’s about shifting the media landscape to move to a place of featuring the good work to make the world a healthier place for all of us.

(Here is an Afro American story that illustrates it all: http://www.afro.com/sections/news/washington/story.htm?storyid=2120)

By Sarah Massey

Becoming a Live Green Spot is a natural extension of my work at Massey Media and, basically, everything in my life. My goal is to help audiences to see the connections between the health of our communities with the health of our planet. I’ve worked with under-served communities in urban neighborhoods to give voice to environmental justice. At Massey Media, we stand up to the companies and government agencies that dump, pollute, and rip mountains apart for coal. We advocate for good, green jobs so workers can be a part of the green economy, building for a healthy future for our children and grandchildren.

My BA is in International Studies and Geography, and I went exploring in Mexico and Europe to better understand human systems. What you might not know about me is that I hold a Masters of Urban Planning (MUP) with a concentration in transportation and environment from Hunter College. Hunter College is a university rooted in social justice, and the MUP’s focus is bringing public services, health, and equality to under-served communities. My degree taught me to both plan for public transit and to take an advocate role with government to access the needed support and funds. Everyone knows public transit is better for the environment and helps people with disabilities get around, so why can’t we have more of it?

With that knowledge, I worked as a transit riders advocate with the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, the country’s largest transit system. I rode the rails and studied bus lines. I worked with passionate people who wanted public transit to be the best it could be for what they saw as the capital of the world. At work, I met a group of community organizers from Harlem, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, who were fighting to make sure that transit would have only positive impacts for the community. I felt compelled to help more directly. We championed the “If You Live Uptown, Breathe at Your Own Risk” campaign that brought clean air buses to NYC and also DC. Later on, my passion for working on rights campaigns took me to the labor movement at the National Employment Law Project and the AFL-CIO, where I advocated for better, healthier working conditions for all workers. I see myself as a connector between the two movements: I am both green and blue.

As a New Yorker, I’ve always loved public transit, walking through cities, and I know how to live with a small footprint. DC allows me to also live near green spaces and access bike trails and local farms. I buy used and recycled clothing and products whenever I can. I’ve never owned a car and I hope I never have to. I have four wheels: a mountain bike and a road bike.

my road bike with spray paint

My professional and educational experiences, along with my personal values, have informed my choices for running my own company. As a business owner and a boss, I want the best for my staff, our clients, and everyone we impact. We empower our clients to have strong voices for a positive vision of the planet. My team has flex time and a communal workspace to make the work life more healthy. We are dedicated to reducing waste on the job. Being a business owner offers a special opportunity for leadership, and I strive everyday to be a good role model. I serve on the Board of the DC Employment Justice Center and I am the founder of the Fabulous Women Biz Owners DC, a group for support and networking. I am proud to exemplify what it means to be both environmentally and economically sustainable. I hope others get on board.

Making Massey Media a Live Green spot and being an environmentalist, a community organizer, a labor activist, a vegetarian, and living without a car, wearing recycled fashion, and buying produce direct from a farm are all the big and little choices I make everyday to show my commitment to a better planet for all of us. My mom and dad, who are also social justice advocates, taught me that fulfillment comes from doing generous work and living with integrity. I try to follow in their footsteps, and I pay homage to my parents by giving the company our family name.

If you are looking to make a news splash in DC, call on Massey Media. From influencing international policy and trade with Egypt to gaining new audiences for a local theater group starring people with disabilities, and everything in between, our team is making headlines in our nation’s capital. Massey Media is a DC public relations company that helps you harness the power of the press to promote the arts, environmentalism, social justice, and socially responsible businesses.

In addition to making headlines, we’ve already empowered hundreds of communicators this spring in our storytelling and media training workshops. We trained mountain justice activists, the owners and members of the Affinity Lab, low-wage workers with the DC Employment Justice Center, and local leaders who took our story telling workshops. Last week, we spent an afternoon with the O Street Studios artists preparing for their forthcoming art opening. Here is one of handouts written by Sarah Massey on how to reach your target audience through media relations.

DC Venture Summit & Startup Job Fair
Join Massey Media at the Affinity Lab this Friday night at the DC Venture Summit & Startup Job Fair. This event will feature presentations on some of the most cutting edge entrepreneurial concepts by leading area startups, as well as provide great networking and a Startup Job Fair. As a public relations veteran, Sarah Massey will be giving a talk on how Massey Media recently overcame the challenge of a shrinking traditional media. She will also share insights on how the press and producers view stories and strategies for getting your message out by making news. The Summit is a laid back atmosphere targeted at connecting startups, investors, and stakeholders and providing a forum for discussing the latest and greatest in entrepreneurship. RSVP here:http://dcvs.eventbrite.com

Recent press results for our clients:

• 3/2/10, Almasryalyoum.com, Egyptian workers protest privatization
  
• 3/12/10, Washington Business Journal, Still Point moves offices in Takoma Park
  
• 3/25/10, Arlington Connection, Two-for-One Theatrical Event This Weekend
  

Please call Massey Media at 202 445-1169 to make headlines or participate in a media training. We hope to talk to you soon!

Do you ever wonder how an artist or a band suddenly shows up in the newspaper and TV news? How did they get the coverage? Doesn’t your project also deserve press attention? Of course your work deserves to be broadcast too; and, with knowledge of how the press functions and a touch of creativity, your project can make headlines.

Read the full column from Sarah Massey at the Pink Line Project.

You are invited!

September 12 on the National Mall was a reminder to celebrate the basic right we have in the United States, the right of free speech and protest. While a lot of attention was given over to the poorly-named Teabaggers and their anti-health care reform agenda, there was also an important rally for immigrants rights in the shade of the Washington Monument. Organized by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), with the support of United Tenants and Workers, CASA de Maryland, Legal AID Justice Center, SHARE Foundation, CARECEN, DC Jobs With Justice, Comunidad Unida de Uluazapa (El Salvador), and CPR Radio 97.5 FM, immigrants rights supporters held a rally, vigil and a music concert to protest the 287g Program and to demand president Barack Obama to use his executive power and end or suspend this program until is fixed.

President Obama extended the 287g Program that turns local police into surrogate immigration officers. One of the most significant problems with this law is that it creates a fear of the police, the very people charged with protecting the population. If you are robbed at the worksite but you are an undocumented worker, you are not going to call the police. This means criminals get away. Further, civil rights groups have stated, “Racial profiling and other civil rights abuses by the local law enforcement agencies that have sought out 287(g) powers, have compromised public safety, while doing nothing to solve the immigration crisis.”

I attended the rally and music concert to show my support and celebrate the values of free speech and protest. Artist, Activist Cesar Maxit made powerful signs, “BROWN is not a crime. Stop 287g Racial Profiling.” We need creative, hopeful, and loud responses to oppression, even when it comes from the White House, I mean especially when it comes from the White House. Today, Maureen Dowd wrote about America’s racism in her column. She added an important quote, “… always remember that silence gives consent.” Don’t sit idly by. Raise your voice to support justice.

- Sarah Massey

You have the frame, you have your message. The project is daring, the artists are world-class. But you have no press. Shouldn’t reporters be crawling out of the woodwork to cover this story? Doesn’t the visual just shout front-page? It may, but reporters don’t swoop in like fairy godmothers. They don’t have some journalistic version of “Spidey Sense” for great stories. They need direction, too.

The perceived success of any project is in part determined by the amount of press and attention it receives. Media pushes projects into the limelight and gives them a greater future. Garnering media attention is a competition, though. There are hundreds of stories floating about, and everyone thinks theirs is the best. To get attention, you have to make the effort.

The bread and butter of catching the media’s attention are pitch calls. Pitch calls set a foundation for future relations and are the most direct way of reaching a reporter. The frame of any successful pitch call will lay out the “5 W’s” for a reporter: who, what, where, when, and why. This is the basic information any reporter needs to have to decide in about one minute if your message is a story. It needs to be formatted in a succinct manner that catches attention and communicates how your project is different from every other group they have heard from.

Pitch calls can seem daunting at first. You constantly face the possibility of a negative response. However, you must proceed with confidence. You believe in your project and are passionate about it and that is the key element when talking to the media. To receive excitement, you must project it. No one is going to listen to a robot. A monotone mumbler will never make the 7 second news-bite.

Many also proceed under the impression that they are bothering a reporter or intruding on their busy schedules. Instead, you need to consider your call as doing the media a service. They are always on the look-out for a great story, and instead of having to go out and search for it, you have brought them it to their doorstep. Pitch calling is the beginning of building positive relationships with the media. It is a reciprocal partnership from which both of you will benefit. Forming these relationships will also aid you in future projects because once a reporter knows your work and that it is newsworthy, they are much more likely to continue providing you coverage in the future.

Making a Pitch Call:
1. Place your pitch call plan in front of you. Make sure you have read it through enough times so that you will not sound as if you are reading a script.
2. Pick up the phone and dial the first person on your press
3. Smile. When you smile, your voice changes inflection. It is infused with enthusiasm and warmness. Always pleasant to hear on the other end of the phone.
4. When you call, politely, yet firmly ask for the person with whom you wish to speak. Make sure you state your name and the group you represent.
5. If you reach the reporter, follow the pitch script you practiced. If you reach a voicemail, leave a message that includes all your major talking points, along with your name and contact information.
6. At the end of a pitch, always gather the reporter’s contact information including name, phone number and email address. Make sure you jot down any pertinent notes so you can follow through in the future.

Congratulations! You can now begin forming important press relationships and grabbing the spotlight for your project!

-Kimi Killen

Photo Credit: Sarah Massey

Famed Mexican muralist Jose Clemente Orozco described a mural as “the most logical, the purest and strongest form of painting…it cannot be made a matter of private gain; it cannot be hidden away for the benefit of a certain privileged few. It is for the people.” When the Albus Cavus 2009 Edgewood Mural project is unveiled in mid-August, it will not only be for the people. It will be by the people.

The wall will be a collaborative effort between artist and community, individual and collective. During the nine-week program, the young DC participants have mined their own imaginations and used crowdsourcing (when “consumers” help create a product through feedback, typically on the internet) operations to take the temperature of the Edgewood community.

But in a climate where news is defined through sex, violence, and which “celebrity” is getting a divorce or which politician is dropping off the Appalachian Trail, how can public art grab a piece of the media pie? Should the media even want to cover public art?

Public art does not need media attention to exist, but attention is necessary to thrive. The very nature of “public art” is delineated by its name. To live as intended, public art requires interest: neighborhood, local, or national. Murals can represent social movements or beautification projects; and, oftentimes, the artist (or artists, in the case of the Edgewood mural) are looking to expand and continue creating. There are aseemingly infinite number of blank walls and not-so-pretty buildings calling for make-overs. America’s urban and suburban public spaces are built for functionality, not beauty. Groups like Albus Cavus seek to reverse this trend.

A new look, though, requires financial support, and this is where the media comes into play. The media’s purpose is to call attention to the newsworthy, important, new, or interesting. When public art receives a write-up, a TV interview or most importantly, a visual, it is able to reach an audience who can enable development and future projects.

Public art should be a “no-brainer” for mass media. It is the classic tale of the ugly duckling, and who doesn’t like a happy ending? It is the story of a barren, cracking parking lot wall that is transformed by passion and imagination into a veritable explosion of color and life. As mentioned previously, though, sex and scandal persist to be the big sellers.

The most important ingredient in the recipe for gaining press attention is to target and research your audience. You have to find the people who report on and write about your subject: art blogs, art critics, city writers, and development writers. Once you’ve created a targeted “press list,” the next step is to grab their attention and keep them up to date! What is the most interesting aspect of your art project? Is it the process of bringing 50 people together to create a singular work? Are public murals part of a social movement? Looking past the media, whose attention do you want to grab?

Public art is change you can see. If you can focus the public lens on the process and the qualitative results it produces, you will be more than another photo op. Make the media look closer, and they will find the experience.

-Kimi Killen

Photo Credit: Sarah Massey.

Young Americans ask Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and President Barack Obama for strong action on Climate Policy at the G8 and Copenhagen summit

** Youth to rally again outside White House, 8:00 AM on Friday 6/26, as Merkel meets with Obama **

Climate action leaders dance with gigantic green hard hats, as well as cut-outs of Obama and Merkel, to urge the heads of state to take stronger action on climate change and support good, green jobs. (Photo by Julie Erickson.)

Washington DC – American youth holding gigantic green hard hats and signs danced in front of the German Embassy today in order to advocate for aggressive international climate policy. Several of them held a huge banner that read “Americans Want Under 1.5 Degrees and Green Jobs.” They dance to encourage  Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and President Barack Obama to set the international limit on global temperature increase to 1.5 ˚C and support good, green jobs. 

As the youth demonstrated at the Embassy, Merkel was preparing to meet with Obama on Friday. The two had planned on discussing the upcoming G8 summit as well as climate change issues.

“The decisions that Obama and Merkel make are going to significantly impact the state of the world that I grow up in. The youth will bear the brunt of the impacts of climate change,” says one of the dancing hard hats, Matthew Maiorana. “Our leaders need to set bold targets that show the world that the United States and Germany are ready to be climate leaders. We also call on them to commit to attending the important Copenhagen summit on climate change and adhere to a science-based climate policy.”

The youth assembled today with 11 larger-than-life cardboard green hard hats and cut outs of Obama and Merkel’s faces. Hoisting their hard hats, they participated in a choreographed dance with visages of Obama and Merkel. A huge banner that read “Americans Want Under 1.5 Degrees and Green Jobs” provided a backdrop for the festivities. 

Their dance, they said, shows what America’s youth want for their future. It represents the connection between solutions to climate change and good, green jobs to lift America out of its current economic crisis. The youth also called for a global temperature increase limit to be set at 1.5˚C, a position supported by Merkel. If the temperature rises above this mark, tropical island states like the Marshall Islands and the Maldives will be under water.

America's youth dance to show what America's youth want for their future. The dance represents the connection between solutions to climate change and good, green jobs to lift America out of its current economic crisis. (Photo by Julie Erickson.)

“The G8 is an opportunity for heads of states to discuss the issues that are most pressing in our world,” said Rachel Young, a young American present at the event. “They are charged with ensuring that we are meeting the needs of all the countries, including the demands from small island states, who are calling for a temperature rise limit of 1.5 ˚C.”

America and Germany have the incredible opportunity to usher in a new era of clean energy economies, which starts with committing to a target of temperature stabilization of below 1.5˚C, and creating green jobs for all. 

Today’s actions accompany a dramatic increase in grassroots mobilization around the up and coming floor vote, the American Clean and Energy Security Act of 2009 HR 2454. Which will lay the foundation for America’s stance in the upcoming international climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

The youth were working with Avaaz.org an international advocacy organization of 3.5 million members worldwide and 200,000 members in Germany. They are planning a second event for Friday at 11 AM at the White House.