Posts Tagged ‘media’

Putting the “Relations” Back into Media Relations

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

    By Amy Schwinge

We hope you have found our blogs focusing on media relations for the month of May useful and interesting.

Not trying to toot our own horn (well, maybe a little), the team at Mary Beth West Consulting is honored to have received multiple awards from the Public Relations Society of America this spring, including several for media relations and related strategic communications tools.

I thought I would share a little background on what we did to receive some of these recognitions, particularly with respect to managing media relationships effectively.

As a first example, we kicked off our public awareness campaign for the Blount Education Initiative (BEI) with a news conference.  On that front, make sure you have content to support inviting media to a news conference.  In this day and time of limited budgets and resources, the last thing you want to do is ask a journalist to leave the office for a news conference if what you have to share could be sent via an e-mail. 

The BEI news conference was appropriate, because we had newsworthy – and rather detailed, statistics-driven information – to share, along with introductions of the leaders driving BEI’s mission to make education the local community’s top priority.  We released compelling results of a new survey outlining current perceptions as related to education and quality of life for the area.  We also introduced the media to the “faces” of the Blount Education Initiative as they explained the reason and need for BEI’s existence along with a summary of BEI’s strategic plan.  This news conference also allowed us to meet many of the journalists face to face with whom we would be working during the public awareness campaign.

For LeConte Wealth Management, we met with members of the media individually whenever possible to introduce and recommend LeConte as financial experts on a host of topics and advocates for financial literacy.  We also shared numerous consumer finance issues-driven news releases to spread the word.

As a third example, we had a dual strategic plan for national publications and local coverage for Todd Richesin Interiors, and we didn’t have the luxury of meeting the national media face to face.  In order to cut through the clutter of other media pitches received by such publications as Traditional Home and House Beautiful, we launched our relationship building with editorial decision makers by carefully ascertaining what specific types of projects and design personalities they were covering and queried them on both subject matter and information-receipt preferences they found useful.  We then sent photo-intensive information kits about Todd and his work, including written “case study” profiles of his work style and individual approach for each project.  We were able to forge relationships with local media and national publications alike, resulting in Todd receiving a great deal of local and national coverage, such as:

  • An eleven-page spread highlighting one of Todd’s projects in Key West, Fla., in Traditional Home (June/July 2010 issue)
  • Traditional  Home (March 2010 issue): “20 Young Designers to Watch”
  • House Beautiful (December/January 2010 issue): “Next Wave of Top 20 Designers”

Collectively, these examples show that each client is different, so a different media relations approach is warranted for each.  Don’t try cookie-cutter formulas; they don’t work.  Remember, it is called media “relations” for a reason; you must take the time and effort to establish genuine relationships with your media contacts, focused with their own audiences in mind.

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Media Relations: What Works (Part 2)

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Tyra Haag--Resize small    By Tyra Haag

To continue last week’s recommendations for managing a strong media relations program, consider the following additional points:

-Understand media outlets’ decision-making:

  • If your story doesn’t air or get printed on the day they say it will, gently find out what happened and determine if there is an alternate plan for it to be carried. 
  • If a reporter or outlet has committed to attending your event, but doesn’t show up, find out why, but don’t behave in a blatantly upset manner. All newsrooms have a “board” of what they plan to cover that day—sometimes particular events or stories make the chopping block due to last-minute scheduling changes, breaking news or even crisis events that take precedence.
  • Every paper and TV station can’t cover every story you pitch, so don’t play your hand too much.

-Come prepared:

  • Have a media kit ready at all events, and always be on time.
  • Prepare talking points for your client, CEO or other spokesperson well before an interview, and if needed, run through a practice session or two to help that person prepare for on-air / on-the-record interviews, particularly if the subject matter is complicated or sensitive.
  • Be known for your good follow-through—return each and every phone call or e-mail in a timely manner.

-Be social:

  • According to the latest Infinite Dial study by Arbitron and Edison Research, the Internet has surpassed TV as the “most essential” medium.
  • All news outlets and most media personalities use Facebook and Twitter daily. Request to be their friend and start following them on Twitter. Pay attention to what they discuss and how they cover certain situations.
  • Give kudos when you really mean it, especially if a story has affected you in a certain way, but be sincere about it. Brown-nosing is not the way to keep in touch.

-Be a resource:

  • Send non-client related info when appropriate if you think it’s newsworthy.
  • If someone from the media calls asking about another organization in the area that isn’t your client, be helpful and guide them to the appropriate contact. 

-Show your appreciation:

  • A card, cookies or a lunch date are great ways to show your gratitude.
  • Accompany clients to interviews (when appropriate) to get some quality face-time and to inquire on whether or not anything else is needed.
  • Remember to thank them for covering your story.

In a nutshell, any organization’s relationship with the media is not a one-way street. You must give in order to receive, or as Jerry McGuire implored, “Help me, help you!”

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Media Relations: What Works (Part 1)

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

By Tyra Haag

Engaging the media in an appropriate way leads to a stronger working relationship—not to mention gaining fair and positive coverage from time to time.  In the constantly evolving media landscape, being a media relations pro means more than just knowing how to write a good news release.  Here are a few insights I’ve learned along the way.

-Listen to what they want:

  • If one media outlet prefers harder news, don’t bother them with purely feature-oriented material. 
  • The most courteous question to ask a reporter, assignment editor or news director is when to contact them—i.e. day of the week, time of day, etc. Daily morning and afternoon meetings are always set in stone, so find out what times those occur so that you can avoid contacting them at an inopportune time.
  • Several media folks rely on news releases and advisories sent via e-mail. Long gone are the days of faxing a release (although most outlets still allow you to communicate this way). Most also prefer that a release be sent in the body of the e-mail rather than as an attachment to avoid your message getting spammed.
  • Keep releases one to two pages in length and advisories to a page or less.  Create a substantive “hook” for the subject line and make the first paragraph interesting enough to keep them reading.  Editors receive hundreds (or more) announcements, pitches, news releases and advisories a day. Make yours grab their attention.

-Find out what frustrates them:

  • Nothing seems to aggravate newsroom professionals more than a product placement disguised as a news pitch. Advertorials and news releases don’t mix, so don’t confuse the two.  Also, include a human element to your pitch or release when possible.
  • Show sensitivity to media outlets’ competitive concerns relative to other media. Don’t expect the media to care about you or your clients if you aren’t even familiar enough with who they are as a news organization and what kinds of audiences they specifically serve.
  • Admit if you’ve made a mistake and move on—no sense in dwelling on what might have been.
  • Any media outlet’s goal is to cover news and generate content that their own audiences will find of keen interest, so if your story isn’t newsworthy, don’t expect them to cover it.
  • Avoid asking for too much during “sweeps” months—lunch date, station tour, etc.

-Do your homework:

  • Get on the radar screen of reporters who cover the “beats” or topics from which your clients have their own stories to tell.
  • Don’t blindly e-mail blast releases.  Make well thought-out pitches and send news releases and advisories to the appropriate contact; otherwise, get ready to be “blocked” from their e-mail list or risk your message getting deleted immediately without even being opened.
  • If an organization is hosting a “Media Training,” make every effort to attend. These forums provide a great way to gain knowledge directly from the source and meet the expert panelists.

Productive media relations require give and take – and it’s critical to take that process seriously. Be sure to check out next week’s blog post for more tips on what works in media relations.

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Media Relations: It’s a part of – but not the whole – PR toolbox

Friday, May 7th, 2010

By Mary Beth West, APR

For anyone who has worked in the public relations field, it doesn’t take long to realize that this profession is widely misunderstood, as it has been since it formally became a professional discipline in the mid-twentieth century.

One of the main reasons for this mystification is that so many people singularly define public relations as what they see firsthand, most often in the form of what’s known as “media relations” – the communications process of working directly with reporters, editors and media outlets to achieve an organizational goal. 

And, unfortunately, what people readily observe in the media relations sphere is commonly not that flattering to the profession as a whole.

Turn on the TV most nights, and you’re faced with various spokespersons on the verge of fisticuffs, political press secretaries succumbing to the day’s feeding frenzy with the slip of a half-truth (i.e. a half-lie), or – my personal favorite – Hollywood characters from “Spin City,” “Wag the Dog,” “Sex and the City” or the like who define their PR success by how much they’re pulling the wool over someone’s eyes, or, in Samantha Jones’ case, pulling it off. 

So to help set the record straight about media relations done well, “In the Profession” will focus this month on best practices for this segment of work. 

I hasten to emphasize that media relations is one tool in the public relations and marketing communications arsenal – it’s not the whole of the PR toolbox itself, as some tend to assume.  It is, however, the most high-profile and publicly visible tool.  As such, a big part of representing the value of public relations accurately starts with making sure that media relations’ purpose and parameters for success are understood.

I’ll kick things off with our first piece of advice for the month: respect the First Amendment, freedom of the press and the role that media play to ensure that we live in an open and as-transparent-as-possible society. 

Unfortunately, many businesses – and even many people working in a public relations role – view news media as the enemy and something to be feared.  True, there can be some reporting tactics out there that are problematic (we’ll discuss those this month, too). 

However, the best place to start in working with the media from a position of strength and confidence is to understand – and to respect – the media’s greater First Amendment-driven role in society . . . and in so doing, to seek a relationship with media contacts that facilitates a free flow of information, achieving your organization’s objectives while serving the public good.  Pretty rewarding stuff all-around.

We look forward to sharing more on media relations in the month ahead, and we welcome your comments and feedback.

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