Jabari Young, senior writer and editor at Forbes, specializing in the editorial lead of ForbesBLK.
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Katie Atkinson is the Exclusive Digital Director of the West Coast for Billboard.
Katie chats about her role at Billboard, where she tackles a lot of emails every day while juggling event coverage at night. She also explains how publicists can work closely with her to share timely pitches and make important connections.
Follow Katie on LinkedIn and X/Twitter.
Click below to listen to the full conversation and read below for highlights from the interview:
Katie Explains Her Role and Inbox
[0:02:27] BB: Now, for those, maybe it's not as familiar and we'll get to your inbox in just a second.
Something like executive digital director, what does that all entail?
Because publicists want to know, should I pitch you or not?
[0:02:43] KA: Yes. I feel like my title sounds a little more intimidating. I mostly am sort of in
charge of our music consumer facing news coverage for digital. That entails making sure we
have a website that is beautiful and works well, and also entails making sure that we are
covering the right things, assigning the right stories, and just hitting our marks there.
So, digital director sounds like it doesn't quite tell you what I do. I'm also for about half my day
our news lead, so I'm the person that is publishing every single story, assigning every single
story during that portion of my day, and then the rest of my day, I am trying to catch up on
many other executive responsibilities that I have. So, I am very much living in my inbox and
seeing all the pitches come through. I am a good person to come to because I'm sort of air
traffic controlling for like a lot of people that work at Billboard. So, if it's not me that you need, I
know who to get you to at Billboard.
[0:03:44] BB: Okay. Now, you mentioned your inbox, you live in there. What's going on in
there? Is it crazy?
[0:03:50] KA: You mentioned the word ballistic.
[0:03:52] BB: Yes, I did.
[0:03:53] KA: I think that that is actually a great adjective. No, it's a warzone in there. God
forbid I take a vacation and come back to the tens of thousands of emails waiting.
[0:04:03] BB: Ten thousand? Okay.
[0:04:06] KA: Yes. I'm not exaggerating. Actually, when I went on maternity leave, that was like
a real situation. But anyway, yes, it's a lot of email, but I literally go through every individual one
every day.
[0:04:19] BB: Oh, my God, you do. Oh, wow.
[0:04:21] KA: I sure do.
[0:04:23] BB: Okay. But this sounds weird. But why?
[0:04:28] KA: Because I don't want to miss something important.
[0:04:30] BB: Oh, God, bless your soul.
[0:04:32] KA: This might be how my brain works. But I'm like, if I don't individually go through
these emails, I mean, I literally click through every email and I go quick. So, there are things
that I can still breeze over accidentally, but for the most part, I'm the one – I've been at
Billboard for 10 years this summer, actually. So –
[0:04:50] BB: Yes, which is legendary in this industry, my God.
[0:04:54] KA: Oh, my God, yes. I thank my lucky stars every day. I think that because of that,
people know to come me for things, and so I don't want to miss an exclusive, an embargo,
something that I need to get to somebody immediately. So, there's just a lot of immediacy in in
my inbox.
[0:05:09] BB: Wow. Okay. So, you open everything.
[0:05:15] KA: I do.
What She's Looking For
[0:07:37] BB: When you're accepting the pitches specifically for the podcast, because
increasingly, this is the role of a lot of reporters and journalists is like, well, they also got now
this content to produce. And that's kind of a different pitch, of course, and guest. So, I want to
increasingly on this show, like give some more insight into the podcast side of stuff.
[0:07:58] KA: Yes. I actually, like I said, it goes back to the charts. We actually implemented a
rule, my co-host Keith and I implemented a rule that you need to have like a certain chart
requirement to be a guest on our show, and it's easy because we cover pop music. So, if you
are in the category of pop, you're most likely in our top 40 charts and things. But when we get
a pitch for an artist that has yet to break into our charts, it's a pretty easy no back to the
publicist to say, “Hey, we'll take a listen to the music, but until they impact our charts, we
probably won't have them as a podcast guess yet.”
It's kind of a double-edged sword, though, because I always am telling young artists, like, “You
need to crack at our charts,” and they're like, “But we need media coverage to get our music
out, so it's rough.”
[0:08:47] BB: Do that. Oh, it's the double-edged sword.
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How Katie Works with Publicists
[0:13:39] KA: Well, I also found some really crazy long subject lines that I realized I just like
glossed over them because they were so long. It's like, and the important words weren't up
front. It's like, I couldn't possibly. The way I'm navigating my inbox, I'm literally clicking through,
I'm looking at the preview of the email on the right window and I'm just clicking through the
emails with my cursor, basically.
If there's a long email and a subject line, and it doesn't get the meat of the situation up front,
I'm likely going to full-blown miss it. So, yes, shorter and more important keywords at the front.
Kind of like how we handle SEO text.
[0:14:20] BB: There we go. There we go. Okay. This is good to know. Anything else, Katie, that
just like grinds your gears, to use my dad's favorite phrase, about publicists and then on the
opposite? The opposite as well. Like, “Oh, I love it when.”
[0:14:36] KA: Well, I don't know. You tell me whether this is a good or a bad thing that I've
been told before that like that publicist really like me and I'm like, does that mean I'm doing my
job well or not?
[0:14:46] BB: Oh, yes. That's a huge compliment, I think.
[0:14:50] KA: Oh, yes. Because I try, like I said to respond to things that are super –
I try to respond to things in a timely fashion. I try to respond when I know it's a fit. Like I said,
if I have a relationship with someone, I respond when it's not a fit. Even when prompted,
although I don't love that, I do get responses sometimes where it's like, tell me why you didn't take this pitch.
I don't love the follow up question, but I will often indulge them and tell them the basic reason.
Most of the time it's like, my team doesn't have time. Or like I said, it's not an artist that Billboard cares about yet.
But yes, so I guess the grind my gears part is the bothering for a response or a reason. But like
on the other side, I have a lot of great relationships with a lot of great publicist friends because
we're all in this together. We're all working toward similar goals. They're helping me. I'm helping
them. It's a very symbiotic relationship. I don't think of it as being one side. I don't think I like
sitting in a power position. Like I said, I often need their assistance for access to talent and I
often need their assistance for timely responses just like they need for me. So, in that sense, I
feel like they're colleagues that we're working toward similar goals.
[0:16:05] BB: You're collaborative with publicists.
[0:16:08] KA: Collaborative, yes.
Rapid Fire Pitching Preferences
[0:16:18} BB: Okay, Katie. I have my quick-fire list of questions. Are you ready?
[0:16:23] KA: I am ready.
[0:16:23] BB: Well, let's do it. Video or phone interview?
[0:16:27] KA: I'm a video interview person, especially when it comes to the podcast, because
we try to have a conversation. I like to see people. A lot of times you can't tell if an artist is like
finished with their answer if they're on the phone. So, I don't want to talk over them. I like when
you can use like visual cues to know like if they're still going. That being said, I'm very
old-school when it comes to the interviews that I do that are written for a magazine or for
digital. I probably would be just fine with a phone interview as well.
[0:17:01] BB: A phoner, there you go. Bullet points or paragraphs in pitches?
[0:17:05] KA: Oh, I like bullet points. I think I'm going to go with bullet points. I like things short
and sweet.
[0:17:09] BB: Short and sweet. Well, that's the next question. Short or long pitches? Short.
[0:17:12] KA: Yes, I mean, I'm okay if you're sort of having to not say too much at the
beginning, because that sometimes intrigues me. Somebody will say, “We have an A-list artist
who's starting in a campaign. Can you agree to the embargo?” Sometimes just the question
like that will get my attention.
[0:17:27] BB: But let me ask, have you ever been bamboozled by an A-list?
[0:17:31] KA: Of course.
[0:17:32] BB: Okay, I was going to say.
[0:17:32] KA: Which is why I always, I agree to an embargo, but I don't agree to coverage until I
have all the cards in front of me.
[0:17:41] BB: That's right. By the way, can we just ask this because I'm sure it's so fun. I have
not done that. I'm going to start doing this. I'm going to start doing this for this podcast.
What's the raddest person you've been able to interview?
[0:17:56] KA: My favorite interview that I have ever done was with John Mayer, who I love. But
also, I got to do that in person, which I also love. I guess to answer your question, video or
phone, my answer is in person, when possible. Yes, I've loved his music for decades, and then
now he's with Dead & Company, and my dad was a huge – so I grew up with Grateful Dead
music, and he was actually touring with them, and it was just the most fascinating
conversation. I did that for the podcast and I'm obsessed with it. I love it.
[0:18:24] BB: Love it. I love it. I love it. Okay. Thank you for answering that back to our
questions here. Back to our questions. Actually, images attached or a Dropbox zip file?
[0:18:34] KA: Oh, well, knowing how large my inbox is and the storage is limited by my
company, I'm going to go with the link. Yes, because then I don't have to shoulder the burden
of the image size in my Outlook.
[0:18:47] BB: There you go. Email or a DM of some sort for a pitch?
[0:18:52] KA: Email, no question. The one DM I can think of that I have accepted was like an
invitation to be on a podcast, not like a professional publicist pitch. So yes, I'm going inbox on
that one.
[0:19:04] BB: One follow-up or multiple? You earlier mentioned this one.
[0:19:08] KA: I like one follow-up. But I do miss things because of the volume of email. Just
yesterday, I responded to two emails where people said like, “Hey, just wanted to flag this.”
And I'm like, “Oh, my God, I quite literally missed both of those initial emails and I was
interested in both.” So, yes.
[0:19:24] BB: Okay. Direct or creative subject lines? We talked a little bit.
[0:19:29] KA: Yes, probably direct. The creative does get my attention sometime though. So, I
can't say like, no.
[0:19:35] BB: But it's bamboozlement. I don't know. Press release or media kit?
[0:19:40] KA: Press release. Just straightforward. And then I can ask for more if needed.
[0:19:44] BB: Yes. Anytime that you read pitches, it sounds like all the time, Katie, because you
are in it.
[0:19:51] KA: I read them every day, every hour, every minute, potentially. I'm sure I've gotten
probably at least 50 emails while we've been chatting.
[0:20:00] BB: Oh, my gosh. Wow. Wait, 50? It’s been 20 minutes.
[0:20:07] KA: Okay, I'm actually checking, 38. So, I was exaggerating.
[0:20:12] BB: That's, oh, Katie. You might be the record holder. I don't know on this show. I
don't know.
[0:20:18] KA: Oh, no. I don't know if that's a title I'd like to hold.
[0:20:22] BB: No, not that one, no. Okay, we didn't talk about this, so let's throw this into.
Sources. Is it ever helpful for you to have sources? Obviously, you want music industry people,
but are there sources? Is there a professor of musicology that you want to have from Stanford
University to talk to? I don't know.
[0:20:37] KA: Yes. We do expert-based stories all the time. I think the biggest example for
Billboard is legal stories where we know about some big case and we are not going to be able
to get the actual attorney to speak with us about this case, but we can get someone who's
been involved in similar cases to speculate about what the chances are of either verdict or
whatever. So that's a big one for us. Sometimes we'll do stories where we grab multiple legal
experts to get their opinions. Another one is we'll do stories with crisis PR experts as well.
[0:21:11] BB: Oh, Katie. Well, hey, you can just call it any time, although music is really not my
area. We got other music. Anyway, yes. Hey, everybody, you just heard. Katie's looking for her.
[0:21:23] KA: Yes. I mean, if we see like a really rough story for like a music star, it's like, where
does that person go from here? Let's talk to the people who make that happen for celebrities.
[0:21:33] BB: Is that not every week that you have one of those, Katie?
[0:21:37] KA: Yes, it's frequent. It is frequent.
________
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