In partnership with
SWMS Editorial Teleconference Series:
Priya Ganapati, TheStreet.com
Reporter
May 2008
Priya is one of TheStreet.com's key reporters, a frequent author of
the Tech Winners and Losers column. She's knowledgeable in
nearly all segments of the tech business, and is genuinely looking
forward to building relationships.
Integrated services and software
solutions for reputation and
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Audio link - SWMS Editorial Teleconference: Priya Ganapati
Beat:
Broadly, Priya’s mandate is video games, security and consumer electronics with a focus on smartphone
makers RIM, Palm and Apple.
Hot on games
“Gaming is an industry where execs are available to speak, and want to talk about the products and market.”
It’s really that simple. She finds that PR, industry and gamers are willing to work together and “they make
interesting spokespeople available, and when you have people talking to you, you want to write more as
opposed to another sector where people aren’t willing to talk.”
Tech Winners and Losers
This is a daily feature that “I have to get done -- it’s a science, not an art,” Priya says. It is determined by the
biggest stock movements on NASDAQ and NYSE. “There’s no latitude.” Her job is to “pick the stock doing
well or badly and try to make a few calls on the movement.”
The Routine
Mornings are filled with the winners and losers, followed by breaking stories of the day, “trying to put a ‘Street’
spin” on the news. The afternoon is devoted to trends and company profiles. Example: Activision.
Most of her reporting doesn’t feature interviews because they are written during quiet periods subject to
regulation. “A lot of my work happens in background” and most company comments on financials have to be
scripted, can’t deviate from messaging and generally “repeat what’s already been said on an earnings call,”
so she is very careful not to “regurgitate quotes.”
Priya prefers “chatting on background,” looking for insight into future moves and strategies to feed her ideas
about trends and the horizon. She finds these backgrounder meetings “a little more free-flowing, with a sense
of what’s going on in the business,” a “more relaxed conversation” that she uses to build confidence with the
executives so that “if they have a bad quarter (they know) that I won’t just label the company a bad buy based
on one bad quarter.”
Public companies only?
“The short answer is yes.” That said, Priya believes that “innovation is in private companies and I want to know
what the public companies are missing.” Tell her “how they’re going to be innovative,” how they are “capturing
a new market” or “the context of what some of the bigger guys are doing and how it could help or hurt them (the
smaller companies.) Example: Vollee. That’s how I can write about private companies but most of the pitches
don’t get the idea.”
Sam Whitmore’s Media Survey - Editorial Teleconference Series© 2008—in Partnership with Cision

www.CISION.com
www.MediaSurvey.com
In partnership with
SWMS Editorial Teleconference Series:
Priya Ganapati, TheStreet
Reporter
May 2008
Worried about stepping on toes?
Priya says that being afraid to talk tough about companies that might one day acquire you is “not the right
strategy. I work very closely with public companies and I know they are reading TheStreet.com, and they want
to know about what they’re missing. That’s part of the discussions I have with them. Do I see them as missing a
key market segment? Private companies need to be a little bit more bold and say they are working on this great
new idea: we have an innovative technology and we’re doing a better job than company ‘A’… They don’t have to
‘dis’ company ‘A’; they can say this is a sector they don’t see and we find interesting; that we think will eventually
become a huge market. That’s huge for me, to know what the big companies are missing.”
Especially in IT security. Priya: “A very popular strategy for these private and start-up companies is to get
acquired by a Symantec, McAfee or Check Point. These are companies that I cover very closely. I would love to
write about some of these start-ups, private companies that could potentially be working in areas that these big
guys are missing. But there’s a disconnect and I think PR people don’t really how to pitch me about that.”
She is also looking for a greater diversity of sources to comment on stories about the public companies she
covers. If you have “someone willing to comment about strategy, a product, or their numbers I definitely want to
hear from you.”
Video, slides, charticles, reviews
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So far no pitches for The Street TV... “surprising, since we do a lot of videos and it’s one of our key focus
areas.”
Art isn’t a big deal, “We’re still very focused on text.”
Gadget and product reviews come out of NY. Priya: “Send me a note and I’ll send off a note to the folks in
NY.”
Contact
[email protected]
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Sam Whitmore’s Media Survey Editorial Teleconference Series© 2008 in Partnership with Cision

www.CISION.com
www.MediaSurvey.com