In this episode of MsInterPReted, we’re talking about tourism in Tennessee. Tennessee tourism generated $29 billion in direct visitor spending and saw 141 million visitors to the state in 2022, Tennessee ranks 11th in the nation for travel spending, the highest rank ever for our state.   Tennessee has approximately 13, 372 restaurants in the state, which is roughly one restaurant per every 500 people if you look at our population numbers and over 1600 hotels.   Sarah Beth is the CEO and president of the Tennessee Hospitality & Tourism Association. Her experience includes being Ex ..read more

On this episode of MsInterPReted, Fletcher’s director of media relations, Allison Lester, talks about travel writing, pitching and hosting media tours. We welcome two travel writers to talk about their experiences in travel writing. They provide advice and talk about the trends in the travel journalism industry. Susan Barnes has more than 20 years of journalism experience and writes for multiple outlets including USA Today, Food and Wine, Garden and Gun, Travel + Leisure - just to name a few. She writes about travel, lifestyle, food and beverage.  Ashlee Fechino is the founder of the Happ ..read more

Sara Davenport is an award-winning journalist who followed her dreams and became an anchor in a top-10 market. But after winning all the awards, and covering all the stories, she need a plan B - something that gave her not just a fantastic lifestyle, but also a life. She has created a life as a media mentor working with others looking to break the breaking news cycle. She wanted to work from home or just work from phone/wifi She wanted to travel and vacation for more than 8 weeks/year She wanted to make 6-figures, from one or multiple businesses She wanted to be a storyteller, content creato ..read more

In this episode of MsInterPReted, Fletcher Marketing PR Vice President, Sarah Merrell, and Director of Media Relations, Allison Lester discuss PR trends that we want to leave in the dust. As 2023 winds down, we are looking ahead to the new year and new strategies. These are some of the common strategies and trends that are outdated or unnecessary. We discuss: Overuse of buzzwords/industry jargon An overemphasis on media placement quotas without attention to the quality of placements Overly complicated metrics Vanity metrics Vanity awards/paid awards Hiding/Burying negative news Reactive crisi ..read more

On this episode of MsinterPReted, we discuss hyperlocal journalism. This form of journalism focuses on reporting news and information at a very local level, typically targeting specific neighborhoods and communities. It emphasizes coverage of local events, issues, and stories that directly impact the immediate vicinity, including topics like local government, community events, business updates, neighborhood developments, and other hyper-specific news that may not receive attention from larger media outlets Jesse Mayshark and Scott Barker are both former journalists who also worked on the publi ..read more

Fletcher Marketing PR Senior Strategist, Mary Beth West commissioned new worldwide ethics code research through her work on the PRCA Global Ethics Council. The new London-based Institute of Business Ethics (IBE) research was released in the white paper entitled “The State of Ethics Codes in the Public Relations Industry: A Global Analysis” (available for free download). It documents that among 24 PR industry ethics codes in nearly as many nations worldwide, there is little unified consensus about how ethics codes should be employed as “living documents” in the everyday work of industry leaders ..read more

Casey Mank is co-founder of Bold Type and is a Center for Plain Language Board member. She also teaches English at Georgetown University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Casey and her company conduct workshops on writing skills, workplace communication and email etiquette. In our digital world of communications, it is imperative that we think more strategically and holistically about how we communicate internally and externally with our business partners. Casey shares that, “no matter how good you are at your actual job, even if your actual job has nothing to do with writing, the way that ..read more

Today, all of us feel the impact of stress and burnout in one way or another. It could be we feel a little extra jittery at the start of the week, or maybe it even prevents us from doing what we need to in our professional and personal lives. Regardless, we need to always try and actively combat and healthfully balance our stressors.  In Booth Andrew's career, she experienced her own burnout for years but it reached its peak when she went from a successful CEO of a $5 million non-profit, mom of 3, community leader and triathlete to unemployed, broke, divorced, severely ill and separated f ..read more

Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic idea, it is here. And now programs like ChatGPT are introducing AI to the world of writing, content creation and public relations, bringing with it a myriad of benefits, questions and ethical concerns. Matthew Pittman is an assistant professor of Advertising and Public Relations at the Tombras School at the University of Tennessee. He has a Ph.D. in Communications and also serves as a consultant. He talks with Sarah Merrell, Fletcher Marketing PR Vice President, about the AI writing software ChatGPT.  On this episode of MsInterPReted, Sar ..read more

Greg Jarboe is president of SEO-PR, which he co-founded in 2003. Their digital marketing agency has won awards for generating results for a variety of clients, including: The Christian Science Monitor, Get City Dealz, Harlequin Romance, MarketingSherpa, Parents magazine, the SES Conference & Expo series, Southwest Airlines, and Rutgers University. He’s also the author of ‘YouTube and Video Marketing’ and one of the 25 successful online marketing gurus profiled in Michael Miller’s Online Marketing Heroes.    Since 2003, Jarboe’s written more than 1,600 posts for ClickZ, Inked, Sea ..read more