By Mark Macias Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer
For many startup founders, appearing on CNBC represents more than media exposure.
A CNBC interview can introduce a company to investors, customers, strategic partners and prospective employees in a single day. The network reaches millions of business decision-makers, making it one of the most influential business news organizations in the world.
That visibility explains why founders often ask the same question: How can I get my business on CNBC?
As a former Executive Producer with NBC and contributor with CNBC, I can tell you the bar is much higher for CNBC. The potential stakes for every interview are heavy based on the potential to move the markets. This is why subjective angles aren’t even looked at while objective stories have to be substantiated across several levels.
Those editorial decisions continually shape how our agency develops media campaigns for startups today. Click here to see our case studies. CNBC producers think like journalists, not marketers, and understanding that difference dramatically improves a company’s chances of earning coverage.
By Mark Macias Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer
Raising capital is one of the biggest milestones in a startup’s journey, which is why it can be so frustrating when your funding round is ignored by the media. Why doesn’t the media cover your capital raise?
Funding alone is not news.
As a former Executive Producer with NBC and CBS and founder of MACIAS PR, I’ve worked with startups across healthcare, technology, artificial intelligence and finance. One lesson has remained remarkably consistent throughout my career: journalists do not cover events simply because they are important to a company. They cover stories that are important to their audience.
Understanding that difference is often the key to successful fundraising publicity.
By Mark Macias Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer
Few media placements carry as much weight with startup founders as Forbes.
Forbes has become a destination for entrepreneurs, investors, executives and business leaders looking for insights on innovation, leadership, technology and emerging companies. As a result, one question consistently surfaces among startup founders:
How do startups get featured in Forbes?
Many assume the answer involves a large marketing budget, personal connections or a public relations stunt. Reality looks very different inside the newsroom. Forbes reporters and contributors are constantly searching for compelling stories, but they are not searching for companies that simply want publicity.
Coverage is earned when a company has something genuinely interesting to say.
Having spent years as an Executive Producer with NBC News and later becoming a contributor for Forbes, I’ve seen how journalists evaluate stories from both sides of the media landscape. That experience provides a unique perspective into what attracts attention and what immediately gets ignored.
By Mark Macias Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer
Founders often believe a great product should naturally attract media attention, and the logic seems reasonable. If a company has built an innovative, useful and disruptive product – journalists should want to write about it. Yet every year, thousands of startups receive little to no media coverage for their launch.
The problem is not the product. More often than not, the issue is the story.
Having spent years as an Executive Producer with NBC and CBS in New York – and later building this public relations agency – I’ve seen this mistake repeatedly. Entrepreneurs assume reporters are looking for products. In reality, journalists are looking for stories. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a startup, healthcare or tech company.
Understanding that distinction can dramatically improve your chances of securing media coverage.
By Mark Macias Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer
Can PR Help Startups Raise Capital? Absolutely. Unfortunately, many founders overlook a powerful tool that can influence how investors perceive their company, assuming they can’t afford it.
The question often comes up during conversations with startup founders and CEOs. Can PR help startups raise capital?
The short answer is yes. Public relations alone will not secure funding for a company with a weak business model or limited market opportunity. Strategic PR, however, can help create the visibility, credibility and momentum that investors often look for when evaluating potential investments.
As a former Executive Producer with NBC News and founder of MACIAS PR, I’ve worked with startups across healthcare, technology, artificial intelligence, finance and consumer products. One pattern consistently emerges among companies that successfully raise capital: investors are attracted to momentum.
A recent example involved the bootstrapped dating app, Weepo. The client didn’t have any funding but after their brand started getting exposure with local TV, Time Out New York, New York Post and Business Insider, they ended up raising several million dollars with investors. You can read that client case study here.
By Mark Macias Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer
What’s the most valuable media placement in America? The answer depends on your needs and what you are looking to achieve from the media coverage.
Surprisingly, it’s not always the publication with the largest audience, nor is it the outlet with the most social media followers. The publication with the biggest name is great for exposure but it doesn’t always drive the best leads.
The most valuable media placements are the ones that create additional opportunities. These stories and TV segments generate investor calls, customer inquiries, speaking invitations and, perhaps most importantly, additional media coverage.
A great news story doesn’t end when it’s published. It starts a chain reaction. I’ve seen this time and time again with our clients as I see reporters pick up stories from a larger outlet.
That’s why the question isn’t which publication has the biggest audience. The better question is: Which publication creates the greatest business impact?
By Mark Macias Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer
Corporate messaging has a problem. Most companies are still communicating like it’s 2015 with their outdated corporate language.
Open a press release, executive bio, company website, investor presentation, or earnings announcement and you’ll find the same tired phrases repeated over and over again. Organizations describe themselves as innovative, industry-leading, best-in-class, customer-centric, and transformative.
They claim to leverage synergies, drive value, and deliver solutions. The language sounds polished and professional, but it has become so common that it no longer communicates anything meaningful.
The biggest irony is that many executives use these phrases because they believe they make their companies sound more credible. In reality, the opposite often happens. Journalists, investors, and customers have seen this language so many times that they instinctively tune it out. Instead of strengthening a story, corporate jargon buries it.
As a former TV Executive Producer who reviewed thousands of pitches from public relations firms, startups, public companies, and corporate executives, I can tell you that reporters aren’t looking for polished language. They’re looking for information. They want something new, surprising, useful, controversial, or relevant to their audience. Corporate buzzwords rarely accomplish any of those objectives.
AI might be dominating the news but don’t assume it’s going to shake up your industry in the near future.
Over the weekend, several prominent news publications, including the NY Times, reported on new research that concluded there isn’t enough quality data to train generative AI for enterprise. It’s disappearing and as a result, startups can’t find the quality data to train their machines.
Dirty Data is Hurting AI’s Growth
The study found publishers are no longer assisting with the advancements of AI, and as a result, the data is getting messier. More specifically, publishers are blocking web crawlers from pulling quality data used by companies like OpenAI and Google.
Four years ago, I wrote an article for Forbes that explained why AI wouldn’t work in PR and media strategy in the near future. (You can read the article here). I explained how no one is collecting real time news data, and even if an enterprise startup began gathering it, that data would be outdated within 24 hours.
Machine learning needs quality data to learn and without that, AI can’t effectively produce a strategy based on real-time quality data. Think about the big news story over the weekend with President Biden pulling out of the presidential race. The news changed by the minute.
It’s pretty much the same conclusions published in the news stories over the weekend.
How AI Impacts PR
So what does this mean for your publicity or media campaigns? Don’t fall for the hype. If someone says they’re using AI to generate your media campaign, question them. Yes, generative AI is helping with content creation but AI can’t understand strategy without data to teach it. And right now, there is no data for that.
Every successful media strategy still needs timely news elements to generate coverage. In addition, the best PR publicists will leverage intuition, critical thinking and creativity in real-time. That’s the key phrase – real time. If any enterprise did begin collecting news data in real time, it would be outdated in a few hours. If the data is old or unreliable, the tool is useless.
Are you looking for new ways to leverage your data for news coverage? Message me if you’d like to brainstorm over new angles.
ABOUT MACIAS PR
MACIAS PR was founded in 2009 by Mark Macias – an Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. City & State Magazine named Macias one of the top 50 best PR pros in New York in 2022 and 2024. Finance Monthly named MACIAS PR the 2017-2020 Strategic PR Firm of the Year, and PR Firm of the Year. Message us if you’d like to get a customized strategy.
