Ever wonder about the impact of media coverage? This coverage meant millions to start-up companies

Unless you are familiar with the media spotlight, it is difficult to appreciate the power of the media.

If you are a victim and need help, there are few tools more effective than the media’s megaphone. Witness the aid that poured into Haiti, largely thanks to the blanket coverage of the world’s media and news cable channels, particularly CNN.

Media remain proud of their ability to impact, for good or for ill, the people they cover. A familiar refrain in journalism circles goes: “Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.”

Carl Lavin, a managing editor at Forbes and Forbes.com,  recently mentioned that the 20 small businesses featured in the publication’s “America’s Most Promising Companies” have enjoyed a signficant boost in funding, directly attributed to the coverage. At a time when small businesses are struggling for financing of any kind, be it loans or venture capital investment, the 20 companies—including QED, a promising biotech company in my region of Northeast Ohio—have raised $19 million in investments in a matter of months. The list was published in October.

In this case, journalists comforted some of the most innovative risk taskers among the entrepreneurial ranks. A good use of the media’s power.

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