Spinning Disney's World: Memories of a Magic Kingdom Press Agent by Charles Ridgway

Author:Charles Ridgway [Ridgway, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Non-fiction, IDPF, ebook, technical article, Epub, tutorial
Publisher: The Intrepid Traveler
Published: 2007-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Traveling to meet the press was a major part of our publicity efforts even before I came to Walt Disney World in 1969. Our new markets were far away, unlike at Disneyland where nearby Southern California was its dominant market. I continued Eddie Meck’s go-see-’em policy even though it meant longer trips. My staff and I went regularly to all the major cities in the East to meet the press and deliver stories in person. Many times, we didn’t give out the stories unless they asked. We just got to know our press contacts and talked about things going on at Disney World. If we worked it right, the editor came up with his own ideas for a story.

Especially in the winter, when days were dark and cold up north, editors were more than willing to talk about sunny Florida. Those contacts led to a massive turnout of newspeople for later events in Walt Disney World.

That plan to head north in cold weather caused its own travel problems. I made one trip to Philadelphia in mid-winter during a blizzard. I skidded out to the suburbs to visit WCAU-TV, the CBS affiliate. Our main contact was the weatherman named Herb, but he failed me that day. The snow kept coming down. All the station personnel decided to stay overnight to be sure to be there for the following morning - and I had to stay with them. There was plenty of time to make friends.

One of my top aides, Rod Madden, still a vital part of Walt Disney World publicity efforts, recalls that our contacts with TV weathermen paid off later when we started sending out short TV feature clips - visual handouts for use on their weather shows. When the weather up north was its most frigid, we prepared a short TV film (this was before the days of video tape) showing people basking in the warm Florida sunshine. One showed Donald Duck in a small boat on Bay Lake fishing. When he pulled his “fish” out of the water it turned out to be a fish shaped sign saying “Don’t You Wish You Were Here, Herb?” The name on the fish was individualized for each weatherman. Willard Scott loved it!

We also contacted news directors, producers, radio newsmen, travel writers and feature assignment editors on newspapers in all major markets as well as magazine travel editors headquartered in New York, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.

Much of what was accomplished for many years, even today, depended on those early press contact trips.

Later I expanded my press visits to Europe. My first time abroad was a free trip. SAS Airlines had brought a group of Scandinavian travel writers to see our preview center before we opened in Florida. In return, the airline invited me three years later on an “Inaugural” flight from Helsinki to Stockholm. Since I was going, I decided to add press contact visits to London, Paris, Frankfurt and Copenhagen. Disney merchandising reps in those cities helped arrange meetings with key travel editors.

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