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Media relations These short items discuss the following:
Film fest PR In 1998, a Toronto film festival sent us a clever press kit. Inside a popcorn bag, you could find all kinds of details about the festival, including a list of places where stars might be seen. The only problem &ldots; the release didn't say when the festival was. Calling reporters PR schools advise students not to pester reporters, and reporters complain constantly
about follow-up calls from PR people. So why do we keep doing it? Probably because it works. In a letter to PR Tactics (October 99), an ad agency PR person notes that "such calls are necessary to help get
coverage and attention," adding that "almost every hit I've ever received was the result of making patient, polite calls to reporters and editors." She calls back once a day for about four days and about
a quarter of her pitches lead to media coverage. In a separate feature, a Virginia PR person argues that with so many people sending out media releases, it's more important than ever to separate your wheat from their
chaff. Of course, the real secret of good media relations is simple: write good media releases that contain real news and customize your pitch for each media outlet. The callbacks may expose you to abuse from
stressed-out reporters, but you owe it to your clients. And, if it really is news, you owe it to reporters stressed out enough to lose your release in the first place. PR reaches into the newsroom The July 1999 issue of PR Tactics notes that reporters are relying on PR
people for more of their news than ever before. According to a survey conducted by Bennett & Company, 73 percent of writers use PR sources for as much as a quarter of their story information. That's up from just 58
percent last year. The firm also found that 85 percent of reporters preferred getting releases by mail, while 36 percent would rather have e-mail and 56 percent wanted faxes. (Obviously, reporters could use more than
one medium.) You can get the full results, going back to 1990, for US$25. American readers can call 1-888-425-9993. Video news releases Writing media releases is easy and cheap, so naturally we do lots of them. Too many, perhaps. But many of our audiences get almost all their news from
television. That requires more money, more planning and more thought. Given cutbacks in all newsrooms, reporters are relying more and more on PR people for information, and that's true in television as well, with most
stations using footage provided through video news releases (VNRs). In the US, a good VNR can run on 40 or 50 stations and reach up to 3 million viewers, at a cost of about $20,000. But this sort of success depends
even more crucially on the factors that also make a good print release: timeliness, local content, short and sharp sound bytes, graphics and strong writing. Packages usually contain a 90-second piece, additional sound
bytes and a b-roll of raw footage. Footage must be professionally shot and should, ideally, include images that would be difficult for the media to get by themselves. That's a tall order, of course. But one way to
mesh lengthy approval processes with speedy media deadlines is to think ahead. If you know something is coming up far enough in advance, you can start putting the VNR together, filling in the last few blanks just before
the event itself. Plus, you can reuse much of the footage in later VNRs. Getting accurate media coverage People accustomed to approving the contents of internal communications are sometimes upset when reporters refuse to allow them to approve news copy. Reporters rarely do this, in
large part because it encourages sources to demand changes that remove unflattering facts. Unfortunately, it also means that sources can't correct wrong facts, either. Public Relations Tactics, in its
October 1997 issue, included some tips for improving the accuracy of media coverage about you, which we have condensed into this list.
An editorial board checklist The September 1997 issue of
Public Relations Tactics included a useful article about working with newspaper editorial boards. We've extracted some of the ideas to make a checklist:
What reporters want A Bowden's survey of more than 250 news editors showed some
distinct preferences when it comes to news releases: 226 want releases of fewer than 1,000 words, 198 prefer that releases be mailed instead of faxed and 177 want any photographs to be in black and white. An
unscientific Ernst & Young poll, meanwhile, found that 60 per cent of business writers have no objection to e-mail media releases. What editors hate about press releases An internal survey of staff at the Wall Street Journal
illustrates some of that paper's biggest complaints about press releases.
News conferences Is the news conference dying? At a time when news staffs have
been cut to the bone, fewer reporters have time to attend conferences, and are more likely than ever to ask for the crucial information over the phone instead. Moreover, PR people are learning that, just as products
need to be marketed to niches, stories need to be marketed to different media according to audiences those media attract. The December 1996 issue of PR Tactics
suggested limiting news conferences to events of such importance and urgency that a mass briefing is the only practical way of communicating. Instead of holding conferences, we at Cornerstone would suggest writing solid news releases and building relationships with key reporters and editors. Or consider taking the story to the media; why not go to reporters where they work, instead of having them come to you? And don't forget to make it easy for the media to find the information they'll need on your Web page.
Free April Fools' publicity On April 1, 1996, readers of seven major
American newspapers were shocked to read that, as a deficit-cutting measure, the American government had sold the Liberty Bell to fast-food chain Taco Bell. Later that day, Taco Bell confessed to the prank and donated
$50,000 towards restoration of the revolutionary icon. In the meantime, Taco Bell accumulated found 400 TV mentions, plus countless newspaper articles. As Marketing News columnist Bob Lamons says, "The
most impressive aspect of the Liberty Bell gag was its audaciousness." Graphics and news releases Include a graphic with your next news release. According to a study done at the University of North Carolina, a graphic can double your column-width coverage. Media Relations
Insider, a Berkeley, California newsletter, explains that graphics make a story more appealing to the print media because reporters and editors are "art starved." Not a slow news day Talk about bad luck. The leader of Britain's Labour Party, Tony Blair, gave a major speech on the very day that the O.J. Simpson criminal trial verdict came down. Worse still, one of Britain's most sensation mass murders trials picked up where the O.J. trial left off. A bad day for media relations? Not at all. According to The Economist, "the two crime stories predictably reduced the attention given to Mr. Blair's speech [but] led to soaring ratings for news programs, enabling his message to reach millions more Britons." Hugh Grant and the media
HUGH GRANT should have been destroyed by his $60 encounter with a prostitute. Instead, he turned back what could have been a career-destroying media disaster by using classic crisis communications techniques. Here's
what he did. 1) He faced the music. Organizations in trouble tend to retreat behind their "no comment" corporate bunkers, their every terse denial making them look guiltier than ever. Grant instead did a
humiliating round of interviews. 2) He told the truth. It would have been easy for Grant to construct an elaborate fairy tale excusing his behviour. He didn't. Never lie to the media. Lying to reporters is teasing
rabid dog with raw steak. The public can forgive an error, but it despises a cover-up. By reacting quickly, Grant controlled the story. Instead of letting the scandal dribble out for days as uninformed third parties
created news angles, Grant quickly took his medicine. Organizations, of course, are more complicated than individuals. But you can achieve the same lightning reaction if you plan ahead. Make a list of possible crises.
Decide who would do what. The fewer people involved, the quicker your response and the less confusion there will be in the media. Of course, a crisis never goes "as planned," but a good crisis communications
plan and a candid response will keep you from getting caught with your pants down. So to speak... High tech and media relations New technology is creating new media relations possibilities. According to Marketing, a fifty-person teleconference can cost $900, while satellite conferences can cost as much as $40,000. Both technologies allow communicators to bring together reporters from across the country. Meanwhile, some organizations are spending between $3000 and $10,000 on video and radio news releases that offer ready-to-use clips to broadcast outlets.
Cornerstone is a writing and editing firm that uses marketing and PR principles to
create "words you can build your business on." Call us from anywhere in the world for rush work.
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