Chapter 11: FAQ
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This FAQ answers the questions people ask most about LA PR agencies, publicists, media relations, pricing, and hiring Susan von Seggern.
Each answer leads with the direct response, then adds supporting facts from Susan von Seggern's website or a named published source. Where a detail depends on your project, the answer says how to confirm it.
Know your news, your date, and your audience, then pick a firm whose experience matches. For event and corporate publicity, Susan von Seggern brings more than 20 years in Los Angeles PR and hundreds of events.
Susan von Seggern is a Los Angeles publicist and PR consultant with more than two decades of PR experience. Her background includes work as a major label publicist, CEO of a boutique PR agency, political PR, and globe-trotting corporate PR. Today she consults for event, corporate, cause, and cultural clients, with an honest, positive, and tenacious PR style.
A public relations specialist earns media coverage for a client instead of buying ad space. For Susan von Seggern, that means finding the right outlets and contacts, pitching stories, writing and distributing press releases, answering journalist requests for sources, and staging events that give reporters a reason to show up. The goal is credible coverage that advertising cannot buy.
A PR agent, also called a publicist, represents a person, company, or event to the media. A PR agent pitches journalists, podcasters, and editors on the client’s behalf and supplies the materials they need. Susan von Seggern works in this role for Los Angeles clients, combining sustained media outreach, press releases, journalist lead monitoring, and events.
PR and advertising do different jobs: ads buy guaranteed placement, while PR earns coverage that readers tend to trust more. The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, as cited by Talent Resources, found unpaid voices carry five times the trust weight of paid brand voices among insular consumers. Many brands use both, with PR supplying the credibility.
Susan von Seggern works as an independent PR consultant and publicist in Los Angeles. She previously served as CEO of a boutique PR agency, and has since returned to consulting for event, corporate, cause, and cultural clients. She brings a broad network of media contacts and service providers built over more than 20 years in Los Angeles.
Susan von Seggern has worked in Los Angeles for more than 20 years and has more than two decades of PR experience. Over that time she has worked in music, politics, corporate communications, and event publicity, including hundreds of events such as festivals, conferences, concerts, fundraisers, author events, and premieres. Her full career history is on her LinkedIn profile.
In practice, PR agency and PR firm mean the same thing: a business that represents clients to the media. Los Angeles PR firms range from large entertainment agencies to independent publicists working directly with a handful of clients. Susan von Seggern is an independent Los Angeles publicist and PR consultant who previously ran a boutique PR agency.
Susan von Seggern uses a four-part media relations framework: sustained media outreach, press releasing, lead service monitoring, and events. Outreach includes pitching target outlets and podcasts. Releases announce milestones through an exclusive or pre-brief model. Lead monitoring answers journalists looking for sources. Events range from celebrity media events to small press luncheons.
Media relations services cover the work of getting a client in front of journalists. With Susan von Seggern this includes identifying target outlets and contacts, pitching stories, podcast pitching, press release writing and email servicing, optional newswire distribution, daily monitoring of journalist lead requests, and event-based media introductions such as cocktail hours or luncheons.
Yes. Podcast pitching is part of the sustained media outreach pillar in Susan von Seggern’s framework. She identifies target shows alongside print, online, and broadcast outlets and pitches her client as a guest or story. Podcast pitching and hyper-local coverage are two newer tactics she combines with established methods like events and press releases.
Hyper-local coverage is media attention from neighborhood and community outlets that serve one specific area. Susan von Seggern uses it alongside podcast pitching as one of the newer tactics in her campaigns. For an event or a business with a physical location in Los Angeles, local outlets often reach the people most likely to attend or buy.
Lead service monitoring means watching services where journalists post requests for sources, then pitching the ones that fit a client. Susan von Seggern monitors five lead service feeds daily, plus emails and Substacks from journalists looking for leads directly. She has placed lead service coverage in Good Housekeeping, Yahoo, the New York Times, HuffPost, and Best Life.
Susan von Seggern announces significant milestones with either an exclusive or a pre-brief model, then services the release to media by email. If the budget allows, the release is also posted to a newswire. Many press releases she has written are published on her website, covering launches, events, books, films, and music.
Susan von Seggern recommends Business Wire for wire releases because of its respectability. She has an annual deal with Business Wire that significantly saves her clients money compared with one-off releases through Business Wire or other wires. Wire distribution is optional and used when it fits the campaign budget.
Susan von Seggern’s PR campaigns are individualized. Each strategy is built around the client’s news, audience, and budget, with an emphasis chosen from her four pillars. A conference might lean on events and press releases, while a company with an expert founder might lean on lead service monitoring and podcast pitching.
Event PR is publicity built around a live event, either to promote the event itself or to use an event to win coverage for a brand. Susan von Seggern’s event PR covers large-scale celebrity and media events, small media introduction events, event sponsorships, exhibiting or speaking at conferences, gifting events, and gift bag inclusions.
Susan von Seggern has worked on hundreds of events, including festivals, conferences, concerts, fundraisers, author events, and premieres. Press releases on her site cover the SewDown show during LA Fashion Week, the Hollywood Carnival parade on Hollywood Boulevard, the DIY Convention at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and the CONTACT in the DESERT conference in Joshua Tree.
Yes. Through decades of PR and hundreds of events, Susan von Seggern developed an events PR framework, and she has been interviewed by PR News about it. The framework draws on her work with festivals, conferences, concerts, fundraisers, author events, and premieres. Ask her directly how it would apply to your event’s timeline and goals.
Earlier is better, because media outreach, release timing, and calendar listings all need runway. Susan von Seggern does not publish a fixed lead time, so confirm the right timeline for your event when you contact her. For reference, the SewDown release on her site announced an October 19 show on September 12, about five weeks ahead.
Yes. Susan von Seggern’s event pillar includes small-scale media introduction events such as cocktail hours or luncheons, not only large celebrity and media events. Smaller formats let a company or cause meet journalists in person. Exhibiting at gifting events and placing products in gift bags are other lower-key options in her framework.
Yes. Exhibiting or speaking at conferences is one of the event PR options in Susan von Seggern’s framework. A conference puts a company in a room with press, partners, and buyers at the same time. One release on her site, for example, announced that the social network ONSTELLAR would exhibit at CONTACT in the DESERT in Indian Wells.
Yes. Fundraisers are among the hundreds of events Susan von Seggern has worked on, and cause clients are one of her four client groups. Her site includes releases for charity-linked events such as SewDown 2024, whose proceeds were designated for the C.O.A.L.I.T.I.O.N for the Homeless and Families in Need.
Corporate PR earns coverage for a company’s news, leaders, and products. Susan von Seggern handles corporate clients with the same four pillars: sustained outreach to business and trade media, milestone press releases with optional Business Wire distribution, matching executives to journalist requests through lead service monitoring, and events such as conferences and media luncheons.
Press releases and case studies on Susan von Seggern’s site include Remotesome’s AI Transformation launch, IceWind’s turbine deployment near the Arctic Circle and its pre-product buzz campaign, the Rock Row green home development, Geoship’s equity crowdfunding campaign, and KOCOWA’s streaming announcements. Her career also includes globe-trotting corporate PR work.
Yes. Susan von Seggern’s portfolio includes a pre-product buzz campaign for IceWind, a wind power startup, run before its product reached the market. Pre-launch PR usually relies on founder stories, industry context, and milestone announcements rather than reviews. Her portfolio also lists the Rock Row green home development as sold out in five weeks.
Yes. Her portfolio includes Geoship’s equity crowdfunding campaign and the crowdfunding and release campaigns for the documentary Mantra: Sounds into Silence. Her site also includes a release supporting the Indiegogo campaign for the documentary DETOX. Crowdfunding PR concentrates attention inside a fixed funding window, so timing matters.
One reliable route is lead service monitoring, where a publicist answers journalists who are actively looking for expert sources. Susan von Seggern monitors five lead service feeds daily, plus journalist emails and Substacks, and pitches when a request matches her client’s expertise. That approach has placed coverage in outlets including the New York Times, Yahoo, and HuffPost.
Yes, and Susan von Seggern’s corporate work includes technology, energy, and AI companies. Industry research supports PR for business goals: Percepture reports that 73% of PR professionals now prioritize brand awareness, while 55% focus on driving sales and revenue. Cision’s 2026 State of the Media Report found 66% of journalists rely on PR supplied material for story ideas.
Susan von Seggern does not publish fixed prices. Each campaign is individualized, so cost depends on scope, duration, and which tactics are included, such as events or newswire distribution. The most accurate way to get a number is to describe your project through the contact form on susanvonseggern.com and ask for a proposal.
There is no published standard package. Susan von Seggern builds individualized campaigns from her four pillars: sustained media outreach, press releasing, lead service monitoring, and events. A package for a one-day event looks different from an ongoing corporate program, so ask for a scope that lists the tactics, timeline, and deliverables included.
Costs vary widely by firm and scope. Observer’s 2026 PR Power List reported an average annual service cost of $180,312, ranging up to $10 million per year, with an average client-firm relationship of 4.4 years. Some LA firms publish per-story pricing instead: Baden Bower’s ranking page lists fixed per-story pricing starting at $990.
Scope is the biggest factor: the number of announcements, the length of the campaign, and whether events are produced. Newswire distribution adds cost, though Susan von Seggern’s annual Business Wire deal significantly saves her clients money compared with one-off wire releases. Genuinely newsworthy activity also tends to earn more coverage from the same effort.
No. In Susan von Seggern’s process, a newswire posting happens only if it is budgeted. Releases are serviced to media by email either way, and an exclusive or pre-brief model can win coverage without a wire. When a wire is used, she recommends Business Wire and offers access through her annual deal.
Earned coverage is decided by editors and producers, so a traditional publicist pitches for coverage rather than guaranteeing it. Some firms sell per-placement packages instead. Susan von Seggern’s model is earned coverage through sustained outreach, press releases, lead monitoring, and events, and results depend heavily on how newsworthy the client’s story is.
The best PR agencies in LA depend on what you are promoting. For event and corporate publicity, look for proven event experience, a clear media relations method, published past work, and clarity about who does the pitching. Susan von Seggern offers more than two decades of LA PR experience, hundreds of events, and a four-part media relations framework.
Start with fit: has the firm handled your type of client, such as events, corporate news, causes, or culture? Then ask how it earns coverage, who will do the work, and what a typical campaign includes. Ask to see past press releases and placements. Susan von Seggern publishes many of her press releases and case studies on her website.
A boutique firm or independent publicist suits clients who want a senior person close to the work and a campaign scoped to one event or announcement. A large agency suits clients who need many staff across many markets and disciplines at once. Susan von Seggern consults independently after years as CEO of a boutique PR agency.
Ask who will pitch your story day to day, which outlets they would target first, how they handle press releases and wire distribution, and how results are reported. Ask for past campaign examples. Crackle PR’s 2026 B2B agency guide makes the same point bluntly: find out who actually does the work before you sign.
Earned coverage is one way to stay visible as AI answers grow. Baden Bower reports that Google AI Overviews show up in roughly 45% of searches and cut website clicks by up to 58%, so mentions in trusted outlets matter. Cision’s 2026 State of the Media Report found 66% of journalists rely on PR supplied material for story ideas.
Yes. Susan von Seggern is based in Los Angeles, and press releases on her site cover clients and events in Miami, the San Francisco Bay Area, London, Cambridge, Iceland, and Joshua Tree, among other places. Lead service monitoring and podcast pitching work for clients anywhere. Confirm fit for your location when you reach out.
Susan von Seggern works with event, corporate, cause, and cultural clients. Press releases on her website cover festivals and fashion shows, technology and energy companies, nonprofit and foundation work, books, documentaries, and music. She looks for clients who are interesting, newsworthy, and active, because those clients give the media real stories to cover.
Yes. Cause clients are one of her four client groups. Her site includes releases for the Sleep To Live Well Foundation’s partnership with Family Paths, the Wiley book Redesigning Nonprofits, NextAid’s Kids for Kenya campaign with child actor Jonathan Morgan Heit, and Everclear’s Art Alexakis joining the nonprofit And Then There Were Two.
Yes. Cultural clients are one of her four client groups, and her career includes work as a major label publicist. Releases on her site cover the Touring and Mental Health audiobook, the documentary DETOX, The Lafayette Afro Rock Band anthology on Manifesto Records, Liminal Shade’s cover of In Heaven, and KOCOWA’s Korean streaming lineup.
Use the contact form at susanvonseggern.com/contact-2 to reach Susan von Seggern. Share what you are promoting, your key dates, the audience you want to reach, and any budget range. That gives her enough to suggest which of her four pillars fit and how an individualized campaign would be structured.
Prepare a short description of your news, the date it becomes public, who you want to reach, and any past coverage. Have photos, bios, and key facts ready, because journalists ask for them quickly. Susan von Seggern looks for clients who are interesting, newsworthy, and active, so lead with what makes your story new.
Through lead service monitoring alone, Susan von Seggern has placed coverage in Good Housekeeping, Yahoo, the New York Times, HuffPost, and Best Life, among many other outlets. Lead service coverage is one of four pillars in her framework, alongside sustained media outreach, press releasing, and events.
Timing depends on the tactic. A lead service pitch can become coverage as soon as the journalist publishes, while sustained outreach and event publicity build over weeks. Susan von Seggern does not publish a standard timeline, so ask for one tied to your news date. Observer’s 2026 report put the average client-firm relationship at 4.4 years.
Usually the story angle, the timing, or the target list needs work. Susan von Seggern’s approach adds more routes to coverage: lead service monitoring finds journalists already asking for sources, podcast pitching opens long-form interviews, and hyper-local outlets reach nearby audiences. A small media luncheon can also put your story in front of reporters directly.
Want the bigger picture? Return to the LA PR agencies field guide or read event PR and corporate PR.
Ask Susan von Seggern directly through her contact form.
Published by Susan von Seggern
