Tips for Getting Ink

The relationship between journalists and public relations specialists is a love-hate type of relationship. Each view their roles as superior to the other, yet are dependent upon each other for stories and coverage. Successful PR professionals are the ones who are continually advancing in their means of communicating with the media and maintaining strong relationships with them. In our constantly news-worthy world how does a PR professional go about getting ink for their client, not once, but routinely? Even with the rise in popularity of the internet, PR blogs and company websites are not sufficient enough, how do they reach out to the print and broadcast media?

Jeff Crilley, an Emmy winning journalist, wrote a book about strategies to bridge the gap between media and PR. His book is entitled Free Publicity and he gives tips from a journalist’s standpoint about what will get ink. He begins with “Timing is Everything”. This would seem self-explanatory and something most PR pros would already know, yet he drives the point in with so much force. He recommends pitching a story on a slow news day, that way you are more likely to get the hit. On slow news days reporters are in greater need for a story than days when the news is at a peak.

Another tip from Crilley was pitching a story that has impact, it answers the “who cares?” question. If a story doesn’t meet this standard then it isn’t worth publishing. “Don’t be Ordinary” is his third strategy. The piece you want published should be something memorable, “we cover the extraordinary, the man bites dog story gets the lead”. He also recommends sending visual images with the PR release. Even if it is for a radio station having a visual image will help the reporter to describe more colorfully.



http://www.jeffcrilley.com/

While continuing my search on proper protocol for PR and media relations I came across an article written by Kim T. Gordon. Gordon is an author and a leading expert in entrepreneurial success. She wrote for Entrepreneur magazine on ways to get media relations without having to hire a large PR firm. She also has some great advice on ways to communicate with the media and sets them in six basic rules. These are: to set clear goals “who do you want to reach, and what do you want them to remember about you”, to create a plan “will help you to stay on track and outline your goals”, lay the right foundation-help the press and make it easy for them to be in contact with you and know your company’s executives and products. Fourth is to shape your story “content that fits the needs of the media outlet”, make it easy to cover you is her fifth tip, “going above the basic press release” making the journalist interested but not consuming too much time. And finally to build relationships, you have to have “one-on-one interaction” with journalists and always follow-up.

Please check out her article, it is a worth-while read:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2005/february/75616.html

Both Crilley and Gordon give great advice on building media relations and how to score a hit. Knowing the basics, such as timing and knowing what is news-worthy, are skills that will help any PR hopeful, such as myself, gain the necessary strategies to begin pitching stories and really starting off our careers on the right foot. From my research and life experience (as little as that may be) the best piece of advice that I can give is the same advice my mother always gives me (lets face it, moms always do know what’s best) when meeting with people: “honey attracts more flies than vinegar.” Be friendly, be polite, and smile. That is the type of person others want to work with, make the experience a pleasant one and the journalist won’t want to burn the bridge after working with you, and you now have a permanent entry in your little black book of media contacts.

I hope this was as helpful to you as it was for me. Until next time!