Crain's Detroit Business - December 19, 2011 - (Page 12)

Page 12 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS December 19, 2011 UPCOMING W PARTNER EVENTS Crain’s partners with a variety of organizations on events and special subscription offers for their members. Please visit their Web sites below. How to Become a Government Contractor Presented by the PTAC of Schoolcraft College. Did you know the federal government purchases more than $524 Billion of goods and services a year, and that the State of Michigan has a diverse portfolio valued at billions of dollars? Find out what it takes to sell your goods and services to the Federal Government and the State of Michigan. In addition, learn about the free services and continuous government contracting support that the PTAC (Procurement Technical Assistance Center) of Schoolcraft College can provide to your company. Jan. 12 • 9 a.m. – Noon Schoolcraft College $45 per person Registration required: (734) 462-4438 Bloggers on the beat mat starting here and continuing to Page 17. Senior Editor Bob Allen also weighs in (below) on practical advice for PR folks pitching us stories. Read our regular news blogs at www. crainsdetroit.com and in our daily e-newsletter. e asked our intrepid reporters to offer up some end-of-the-year analyses of the hot topics and ongoing stories on their beats. Their viewpoints are shared in column for- BOB ALLEN: On getting news into Crain’s One problem with beany questions about the ing the “senior editor” email you sent me, well, and not a reporter is yes, I do have a question: that, lacking industry exWhy do you do this? I pertise, I have to wing it mean: If the email was when it comes to looking well-written, would you back on the past year. need to follow up? Shea can prattle on about If I didn’t get the Verlander, and Duggan email, shouldn’t you call about Dan Gilbert, and your email vendor first Skid about food, and instead of me? Greene about health care Bob Allen If I had a question, reform (big yawn), and Kaffer about Detroit (not even wouldn’t I call you? Or is it that you’re calling me as a courtesy beclose to a yawn). In contrast, I am reduced to the cause I might be too busy to call begravitas that comes from having cause I’ve been responding to my last name start with “A,” plac- emails and phone calls? After playing around with variing me atop the newsroom staff list. Which is to say, phone calls of- ous terms for this, I have settled on ten come to me. Emails, too. It’s “Trojan Horse.” You know, send part of the job and is no big deal. the email, then come back with the That said, please help me fathom call that isn’t a cold call but helpful, follow-up communication. the following: About 12 years ago, I wrote a colA few times a week, I get a phone call from someone “following up” umn to help individuals and orgaon an email, asking whether I re- nizations write news releases that ceived it and whether I have any would increase their chances of getting stories into Crain’s. Back questions. My reaction to this has evolved then, I stressed accuracy, brevity, from a perplexed amusement to modesty and clear communicahaving someone in HR talk to me tion. All still apply. Because I would like this to be a about the employee intervention program (which features an anger- teachable moment for all — and management component) to a non- truly, there very well may be a reason for the Trojan Horse and I’m lethal curiosity. And so for those of you who not seeing it — here is an additionhave called to ask whether I have al suggestion to anyone trying to get something into the news, be it Crain’s or another media organization: Research. Find the organization’s website and spend a couple of minutes learning about it — what it does, who’s in charge, staff names and numbers and what they cover. This is what I do when I’m looking for information about a company and I want to avoid my call being important, as they say before I press 1. Also, nothing is more embarrassing than when the person on the other end of the line asks you what you know about his or her company and you are reduced to faking it. And toward that end, if you’d like to learn about us: Go to crainsdetroit.com, place the cursor over the word “Home” on the red navigation bar at the top of the home page and select “How to get your news in Crain’s.” Here you can learn, among other things, how to get stories into our publication and the reporters who cover your industry. I hope this helps your quest to become more visible on the Web and print pages of Crain’s in the year to come. Feel free to call or email. Note that I said or. Bob Allen: (313) ballen@crain.com. @tzarbob 446-0344, Twitter: Marketing & Sales Executives of Detroit (MSED) Monthly Meeting “Automotive Forecast for 2012 — Global Recovery” Presented by: Jeff Schuster, LMC Automotive Jan. 26 • 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. Management Education Center, Troy MSED Members: $45 Non-Members: $60 Additional Information and Registration at www.msedetroit.org or call (248) 643-6590. DAN DUGGAN: Past (and future) headlines of note Through the magic of gion. Controversy conthe Internet, “Buildings tinues as to who will run and Dirt” is able to look the firm. Southfield Town deep into the future and Center moves to Detroit come back with the Following the trend of biggest headlines of the suburban firms moving year to come. to Detroit, the engineers Amazing, but true. of the region perform a At the end of 2012, the massive feat by actually real estate community of moving the four-building metro Detroit will be Dan Duggan complex from Southfield looking back on the folto Detroit’s riverfront, as lowing stories from my its ownership wants to “better real estate blog: Dan Gilbert buys the Detroit serve its tenants.” River The move was nearly held up beSources confirm that the Quick- cause the Detroit City Council en Loans founder no longer could could not decide on a tax rate for be contained by the built environ- the building. ment of Detroit and actually As for 2011, a few of the stories bought the river. Blazing a trail of that occupied most of my time are the latest in “open office environ- less spectacular but still imporments,” he also bought the old tant. Bob-Lo boats to offer employees Chasing deals in Detroit took up the chance to office from the riv- all but three weeks of my working er. year. Mega-firm created Between Gilbert’s investments, The major real estate firms of the residential projects being drimetro Detroit decided to form one ven by a demand to live in Detroit combined real estate firm, repre- and the suburban companies, such senting the most significant M&A as Chrysler Group LLC, interested in story of all time. The firm — CBRE, city space, the Detroit real estate JLL, Grubb & Ellis + Signature, Fried- beat was the story of the year. man, Mason Capitani, Farbman, MarOther important stories you cus & Milichap and Lee Associates — missed if this is the only real estate vows to get every deal in the re- story you read in 2011: The Michael Kojaian-Grubb & Ellis saga: Bloomfield Hills investor Kojaian tries to rescue the Grubb & Ellis brokerage from the brink of bankruptcy — not to mention the 23 million shares he owns in the firm. Colliers International on the rise, at least by head count. Under new management and ownership, the firm has been on a tear in 2011, picking up 10 new brokers, eight of whom were poached from other firms. Led by the automotive sector, industrial deals have been scorching hot, with close to 7 million square feet of deals as of the third quarter. Empty manufacturing facilities now litter the landscape of Southeast Michigan, with massive plants from each automaker now on the market. To scrap or not to scrap? Sadly, many say scrapping is probably the only option. Thanks to everyone for reading my real estate coverage in 2011. Stay tuned for 2012, and we’ll see whether my headline predictions indeed come true. Reporter Dan Duggan’s “Buildings and Dirt” blog on commercial real estate can be found at www.crainsdetroit.com/duggan Nominate Michigan’s BEST General and In-House Counsels Crain’s Detroit Business in partnership with the Association of Corporate Counsel Michigan Chapter; State Bar of Michigan, Business Law section and the Oakland County Bar Association will salute the best legal minds working inside Michigan’s public, private, nonproﬁt and government organizations in May 2012. www.crainsdetroit.com/nominate Nominations due Jan. 27, 2012. IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CO-PRESENTERS TITLE SPONSOR Find all the details at: http://www.crainsdetroit.com http://www.crainsdetroit.com http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20101026/STATIC/101029895/how-to-get-your-news-in-crains http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20101026/STATIC/101029895/how-to-get-your-news-in-crains http://www.msedetroit.org http://www.msedetroit.org http://www.crainsdetroit.com/nominate http://www.crainsdetroit.com/nominate http://www.crainsdetroit.com/duggan

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's Detroit Business - December 19, 2011

Crain's Detroit Business - December 19, 2011