discussion – Julie's Corner

Barbara Goldberg, a corespondent for Reuters, will be speaking at 6:30 p.m. in Nursing Room 105. All journalism and public relations students are encouraged to attend. However, this talk is open to all. She will be speaking about how social media plays a role in modern-day reporting.

Reuters is an international news wire service, similar to the Associated Press. The media outlet was founded in 1850 and since then, has garnered award-winning coverage. In 2017 alone, two of its pieces were finalists for a Pulitzer Prize.

According to Victor Jeffrey Serote, the organization’s coverage is widespread. Reuters boasts a staff of approximately 2,400 reporters in nearly 150 countries. The website also claims that Reuters is “the worlds largest international multimedia news provider reaching more than one billion people every day.”

Serote also wrote that, because Reuters corespondents are stationed all over the world, deadlines do not exist at the organization. There is an understanding that stories and other components such as video and photography are due as soon as possible. Serote suggested that this understanding among reporters creates a 24-hour schedule where news is constantly flowing into the organization and being put out.

Reuters’ coverage seems to show a fair deal of variety. It covers everything from economics and politics to entertainment. For example, as of today, the homepage of the Reuters website features stories such as “Turkey demands to know who ordered ‘savage’ Khashoggi killing” to “Caterpillar’s shares tumble on disappointing profit outlook.”

According to Barbara Goldberg’s Twitter account, she covers news in the Northeast region. She seems to frequently feature the work of other journalists on her page, from Reuters to The New York Times.

Stacey Bender, CEO of Bender Group Public Relations, will be coming to speak at Seton Hall on Sept. 25 at 6:30 p.m. in Schwartz Hall Room 105. Those interested in her discussion will witness a PR professional that seems to defy expectations. According to NJBIZ, Bender founded her company in 1995, as a mother to four children all under the age of seven. The article frames her as a woman dedicated to both family and business.

These values are evident down to the very structure of her company. On the company website, the Bender “team”, seemingly all upper management, is comprised of only four people, with Bender included. In addition, Bender’s brother, Barry, serves as the company’s CFO. This is not to say that Bender blindly promotes her family members, necessarily. In his bio on the website, Barry Bender has a notable list of experiences, including his eight years as the director of internal audit for Tropicana. This is the main point at which Bender defies expectation. She seems to maintain a wide range of clients and a high degree of professionalism while still keeping a relationship with her clients, at least that is how she describes her day-to-day business in the NJBIZ piece.

apple computer desk laptop — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

However, Bender is not the only one who says her company has a personal touch. A quick search on Glassdoor, a website where current and former employees and interns share their experiences at a company, finds that many people note Bender Group PR’s small staff as a positive feature. Glassdoor lists the company size as no more than 50 employees total. It is likely less. The company also announced in June via Twitter that they welcomed in office dog named Sadie, adding to the personal feel.

One Glassdoor user explained that the staff size presents a challenge to consistently stay on top of the workload but that it, overall, served them well as a first experience in the PR world.

The company’s size begs the question of how such a small firm could attract names like Freshpet and Frank’s Red Hot to be among their clients. Perhaps these questions and more will be answered at the discussion!

Bender Group PR is located in Montclair, NJ. The PR professionals there specialize in media placement, crisis management and social media among other facets of the PR world.

All are welcome to attend the discussion regardless of year or major. However, PR and journalism students are encouraged to attend.