Tag: media relations

If We Had a ‘Meet the PR Pro’ Panel for Journalists

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Local chapters of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) frequently have “meet the media” panels as a feature of monthly programming. In these informative sessions, local journalists representing print, TV, radio and online media outlets share the type of news they cover, how they cover it, the best way to reach and pitch them, and more.

These are helpful sessions, especially for younger public relations professionals.

But I have often wondered why we can’t reciprocate—why can’t we invite an audience of journalists to hear a panel of PR professionals? Because there are a lot of misperceptions among journalists about what PR is and how PR professionals do their jobs. 

 Here are some points that could be made to an assembly of reporters:

  • Media relations and pitching stories to journalists is a small part of what PR people do. While some PR people may  focus on that role, such as media relations managers or public information officers (PIOs), some PR people do very little or no media relations. 
  • News releases and pitches are just one tactic PR people use. PR is about building mutual relationships with multiple publics, and all forms of communication are used by professionals. These can include paid advertising, organizational media such as newsletters, annual reports, brochures and more, or the vast array of digital media including email campaigns and social media and wed sites. Most PR people have a number of ways to directly and effectively reach internal and external publics. Journalists come into play occasionally.
  • Where journalists sometimes feel outnumbered by PR professionals pitching them far more stories than they could ever do, PR people feel outnumbered by journalists asking for comments, interviews and information for stories the PR person may not have initiated. A news conference can help add efficiency in such cases, but with breaking news a PR pro may have to make multiple callbacks to journalists even as they are dealing with questions from a client or CEO, planning an investor conference call, working a community relations meeting, attempting to meet a deadline for internal communication and more.
  • While journalists sometimes complain of PR people pitching things that are not even newsworthy, PR people complain of some journalists doing stories that are more market-driven (ie good for ratings) than newsworthy, or they cover stories in a way that is sensationalistic as opposed to objective reporting. 
  • Journalists may feel annoyed by PR people interrupting them with pitches, but should keep in mind that it is often only through a PR person that a journalist is aware of some news or gets access to an interview with a well-informed source. Often such high-profile individuals have to be convinced to even do an interview since they feel too busy for journalists. PR people also offer media training so that executives give clear, concise, factual and compelling interviews that provide key information as well as those all important quotes, SOTs and actualities. 
  • Journalists should be careful who they call PR people. Just as not every rogue blogger is an actual journalist, there are numerous people out there who pitch stories who have no degree in PR, much less accreditation (APR) or even a job title that is public relations. Don’t judge a whole profession by a few imposters or bad actors. In fact, in the history of White House press secretaries, only one or two was actually a PR person. Most come from politics. The same lack of PR pedigrees is common in corporate and nonprofit settings as well.
  • Legitimate PR people are inherently ethical. They bristle at the notion of “spin” and deception. College PR programs stress the big picture and ethical practice of PR. Advocacy for an organization and persuasion if done honestly is not “spin” or “putting an organization in a positive light.” It is professional representation of a voice and perspective that has a legitimate right to be heard in the “marketplace of ideas.”
  • Finally, the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the “press” is not actually about journalism. It is about all citizens being able to print (ie on a printing press) and distribute information, and today that applies to other communication technologies. PR and advertising professionals are afforded the same rights as journalists in this regard.

These are just a few comments that could come up at a panel for journalists to understand public relations and those who practice it, as well as how it should be practiced professionally. There are many productive journalist-PR pro relationships, and they usually involve a healthy mutual understanding of each other’s job.

Newsletters get hot for media relations and public relations

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Several years ago in a media relations class I teach, a student asked me about sending news releases to newsletters. At the time I said generally not, because a newsletter is a house organ or owned media only interested in their own organizational news.

Fast forward to 2021. Newsletters are not only emerging as a few exceptions but a robust aspect of news outlets, as blogs have been for some time.

One sign of this reality is that Muck Rack has added newsletters and their authors to its media database used by legions of public relations professionals.

A big reason for this trend is that well-established journalists from name brand and bonafide outlets are striking out on their own in an act of “entrepreneurial” journalism. Authors ranging from Andrew Sullivan to Ben Shapiro have done this, as have a trio of former Politico reporters. And this is not just a trend among national media, as local journalists are launching newsletters as well.

Of course it hasn’t taken long for this trend to be aggregated online–the current hot spot is Substack. This is a reason for PR pros to look into pitching these newsletter journalists, and also to consider starting their own Substack or owned platform newsletter as another form of brand journalism.

A way to think about such newsletters is the way PR pros have had to learn to think about bloggers and YouTubers and other social media posters. There are professional journalists using these new platforms and gaining audience of mass reach in a new way, as well as new players reaching new and niche audiences. They all need content, sources, facts.

So if a student in my media relations class asks about newsletters, I hope it’s a specific question in response to my bringing it up as another type of media contact and pitch opportunity.

Muck Rack media relations certificate good for students or pros

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As an educator I have been grateful to companies in the public relations tech industry that offer students the opportunity to use their product, albeit in limited fashion, as part of their coursework.

I had always mentioned to these company reps at conferences and in response to the email marketing that they should offer up demos and student use options as a form of loss leader marketing. Give for free a limited use of their product to students, who upon graduation will ask their bosses and clients for budget to become full, paying customers.

Cision was one such company that really became a significant part of my Media Relations Writing course. In addition to writing a series of assignments and completing a media kit for a client, students had to develop a target media contact list. They were able to do this using Cision.

Just last year, Cision offered a certificate program. I encouraged students to seek this credential for their resumes since they had been taught the concepts in my class and had used Cision. Several took me up on it, and I was planning to institutionalize the Cision certificate as a graded assignment in my classes beginning this fall. But then Cision’s university program disappeared like a journalist suddenly going into PR.

From Cision to Muck Rack

Muck Rack to the rescue. Cision’s announcement came with about a month to go before fall classes started at my university. I scrambled to devise a way to do the media research aspect without this industry leading tool. Muck Rack came along like a PR pro helping a journalist on deadline.

Muck Rack started as a way to track and interact with journalists specifically on social media. It has expended into a full service media relations service for all aspects of that part of public relations–engaging journalists, monitoring news, and generating reports that go beyond clip counts to look at reach, engagement and response.

Recently, Muck Rack partnered with Business Wire, a news release distribution service that has evolved in its own right recently to include investor relations and analytics. The combination of the two service providers will help PR pros reach audiences via traditional and new media, including bloggers and podcasters.

Get certified

Meanwhile, Muck Rack has also added Muck Rack Academy. The new venture currently offers certificates in Fundamentals of Media Relations and Fundamentals of Social Media. Both are free and serve a sort of white paper purpose–offering and demonstrating expertise in order to gain clients.

The media relations certificate will replace the Cision certificate I was going to require in my class. As a good professor should, I took the course (and passed!) to ensure it is appropriate and useful for students. I think it certainly is. It can be done in less than two hours, is free, and the content is well presented and savvy. Students can enhance their resume and LinkedIn profile by noting this certificate. New pros or those who have taken on a media relations role at times without any PR degree might find this certificate practically very useful.

To my fellow college professors, I would recommend the Muck Rack for Educators program. You get access to the basic Muck Rack features and can add your students as “teammates,” assigning them to various media database activities as experiential learning. I responded to an email invitation from them, but you can reach out to a Muck Rack rep and ask about the program. Your students will benefit.

‘Media Relations Writing’ Book Available Now

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Penning Kindle Front CoverFor two reasons I have written my own textbook.

First, students and I were not happy with the variety of textbooks about public relations, PR writing or media relations writing available now from academic and other publishers. They didn’t find them useful, and they weren’t reading the assigned book.

Second,  I am often asked by professionals–in public relations or in other roles who sometimes need to write a press release or do some other form of media relations—if they can pick my brain, have me give them some advice, or otherwise tell them about how to work with journalists.

So I turned my lectures into a book that could be useful in a college classroom, a PR department at any organization, or as a guide for anyone working in other professions who nevertheless have to try to gain publicity for something and they are not sure how.

The result is “Media Relations Writing: A Guide for PR Pros (or anyone who just wants publicity). Yes, it’s a long title and subtitle but it covers the market.

I’ve been field testing it on students in my media relations writing course this semester. They are reading it, and they like it for its clarity and practicality. They also like the price–free!

For others, the price is also right. It ranges from $4.99 to $14.99 depending on format (e-book or paperback) and the platform. The book is out now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple Books.

To find out more, see the books page on my Penning Ink website.

Who Should Be Your Spokesperson?

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imagesJust recently, a client of mine was in the news. The story was not something we had pitched, it was just some journalistic enterprise stemming from a public meeting.

It just so happened that the CEO and COO were both across the country at a conference. So the VP of Finance took the call from a reporter and answered the questions. This was appropriate, given that the story was financial in nature. The reporter needed to verify and clarify some numbers and then ask for a quote. The resulting article was clear and positive and the finance expert had gained some media exposure.

I bring this up because people often wonder who their client or organization’s spokesperson should be. Some assume it should always be the CEO. Others think that’s the role of the PR person. Often in times of crisis it is a lawyer stepping up to the microphone (not always a good idea because of the implications of a lawyer speaking looking defensive as opposed to transparent).

The reality is, the best spokesperson depends on the subject matter and context.

When I did media training several times over the years for the client I mentioned, I always did it for not just the CEO but everyone on the management team, including finance, human resources, and other specific business area management leads. This is because everyone should be ready to give a clear interview that is both helpful to journalists and consistent with company objectives.

That is the purpose of media training–to make sure everyone who might do an interview is not mystified, afraid of, or antagonistic toward the media. They should know how to speak for print, radio, or TV–live or recorded–in a way that provides accurate and useful information that sounds genuine and not generic jargon.

In previous PR jobs where media relations was the focus, I often connected reporters to people other than myself for interviews. The idea was to shine a light on more people in an organization to show its depth and diversity, but also to have more insightful comments closer to the subject at hand. Reporters were always appreciative of the access to sources most suited for the story.

Here are some simple considerations for setting up a spokesperson on a given story:

  • authority/accountability–who has the power or made or will make a decision relative to the story? This could be the CEO, but it could be another member of management. Think in terms of who the public would want to hear from to justify themselves for the actions to be reported in the story. (This also is something to think about if debating whether someone from a PR agency or someone in-house should be the spokesperson for a story);
  • knowledge–who can really answer a reporter’s questions in detail in a way that can enlighten and educate an audience? This may be a scientist, a teacher, an accountant, an engineer, a safety officer or anyone who deals with the subject of a reporter’s story daily as the focus of their job;
  • accessibility–who is available right now or very soon? Reporters work on deadlines. Sometime there is a long lead time to set something up, but often the story is for tonight’s broadcast or going up online for the next app or email update. In this case, the PR professional may be the one to speak for the sake of efficiency.