Sheri Baer, broadcast director at The Hoffman Agency, sometimes feels like a double agent. Thirteen years into a broadcast journalism career, she switched sides, so to speak. She was tapped to mend the perceived disconnect between PR pros who don't know broadcast and broadcast pros who don't know PR. She knows what it takes to tell - and sell - a story. Here are some of her tips for navigating through our current media landscape of layoffs, cutbacks, and reduced resources:

• Produce exceptional b-roll. "With budgets tighter than ever, the media is more receptive to well-produced b-roll and handout tapes. The key point here is 'well-produced.' In my previous life as a news reporter, I tossed countless b-roll tapes into the recycle bin. If you're sending out a flashy marketing tape with music, narration and fancy graphics, you're wasting your money. What looks slick to the client is actually anathema to the media. Give broadcast reporters what they need - the content they would use if they had the opportunity to shoot it themselves. Think simplicity, steady shots, natural sound. Get it done professionally, and get it done right. Good b-roll can and will secure airtime."

• Leverage the spot. "I'm not sure what it is about TV, but it hasn't lost its aura and mystique. If you see someone on television, they seem more important, more credible. And if it's your company that's being profiled, if it's your employees that are gathered around the television watching your CEO outline the corporate vision, just watch the pride surge and the morale lift. Post the video on your Web site, and visitors will be immediately drawn into your corporate story. Watch your sales force use that same clip to soften the ground with prospective customers. The actual airtime may be fleeting, but the uses of a solid news segment can be limitless."

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