15 media relations tips by PR professionals and journalists
By Editor on Jan 2, 2007 in PRsurvey, featured, mediarelations
Here is a list of select media relations tips from PR professionals and journalists who participated in the recent online survey ‘Media Relations Best Practices‘ on this blog. Check them out:
- Stick to the facts, understand what is news and what is not.
- Journalists are rated on the basis of exclusive stories they generate everyday. If you can give a journalist several exclusives, you would be the star PR person.
- When journalists doing negative stories want quotes from top client bosses, PR people should be able to help. If you can do this, you will have the journalist eating out of yours and your clients’ hands.
- Get to know the editor very well, then some amount of any ‘not so important’ news or story can get into the print.
- Develop credibility amongst the media persons.
- Media relations should be based on a strategy and not a knee jerk reaction.
- Expect the unexpected from the media but still try and understand them more.
- For an event, try to identify the right journalist and provide clear details in their required language. The PR professional should stop calling continuously if they know the event will not be covered by the media.
- Know your client’s business and the announcement that you are pitching, in detail, before contacting the media.
- Never sell a story while journalists are approaching their deadlines. Chances are that they may not be interested in talking to you as they need to rush to file their stories.
- Give the journalist your client list.
- Take appointments before meeting journalists.
- Just try to step into the shoes of the journalist before initiating anything.
- Friendship and sharing good stories from time to time is the best combination.
- Give space to journalists…feed them precise and newsworthy information. Be prepared with an option always.
This post is the concluding part of the results of the Media Relations Best Practices survey. While many of the results and tips might seem obvious to a seasoned PR pro, I have put them up nevertheless so that perhaps a newcomer in the industry might benefit from it. A big thanks from my side to all those who have participated. Sharing our knowledge among ourselves is one great way, I think, through which we can take forward the best practices of the profession.
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On Jan 3, 2007, David Tebbutt said:
Your readers may find a series of posts on how to handle the media quite useful. It’s written from a UK journalist’s perspective but, toned down in parts, it works all over the world.
http://teblog.typepad.com/david_tebbutt/2005/03/how_to_handle_t.html
On Jan 7, 2007, Anonymous said:
Hobbit, Hi there… What should one do if the story you are pitching is not exactly ‘news’ yet there is pressure from the client’s end to get coverage?
On Jan 7, 2007, hobbithob said:
thanks david for the link.
On Jan 7, 2007, hobbithob said:
@ anonymous. Sometimes clients feel that PR is the solution to every marketing communication needs. We need to educate them that PR has limitations. If a story is weak, we need to make the client understand that and give the reason as well clearly. To sell a weak story, we can package it as part of a bigger story. You can try pitching the story to some other journalist in another city. Stories filed from regional centers many times get into the national pages. For instance,if you cant crack the Del and Mum journalists, try Chandigarh ,Chennai, etc. but remember to add a local angle.
On Jan 8, 2007, Anonymous said:
Today PR is in a very confused state, especially in terms of clients’ perception.
Its very true that some clients feel that PR is the solution for all marketing & promotional initiatives, which might not be true all the time.
As a PR professional, I feel it is very important for agencies & respective teams working on a particular account to induct & educate the clients on the general working of PR.
On Feb 16, 2007, sanjeev said:
We, as PR practioners raise a lot of voice and make many many announcements during PR conferences held anywhere in India. I think there is a need to involve the top management in strengthening the PR profession because the top management has to do more of PR in its day to day role in an organization. PR is not merely the Image building exercise, today. It is more of a Management function who plans, organizes, coordinates, leads and last but not the least implements
On Feb 28, 2008, Paramjit L Mahli said:
Make sure you do your homework. Know the reporter’s beat and review a couple of latest by-lines. Due diligence goes a long way in establishing a good relationship with the reporter. It also shows that the publicist has done their homework.