Partnering With The Media For Effective Public Relations

By Sara Bridget Au

In crafting a targeted and effective public relations campaign, you need to be able to reconcile your goals as a practice and those of the reporters covering your story. It can become a bit of a dance, moving in circles around everyone’s main goal. If you know how the media works, you can more easily enter into a partnership with them, and that’s the key to good PR.

Your bottom line reason for doing PR is that you want to attract more patients or clients and thus make more money. But, here’s the catch, journalists don’t exist to help you make more money and they take great offense to anyone who believes they do. Journalists (well, good journalists at any rate) want to tell compelling stories, share important information and bring new ideas to the forefront.

Here are some important things to help you become a partner to the news media:

You Need To Be Local
The news media today is very much a cannibalistic society. Local news copies the national news. Television copies the newspapers. Radio takes a little from both. If you are targeting the local media you need to above all be local. Don’t ask them to travel too far for your story, offer to come to them or plan your event so it’s not too far of a drive.

One great way to get coverage is to position yourself as a local expert or example of a national story. For instance, take the recent news that foreclosure filings again rose in the third quarter. CNN’s report highlights California, Florida and Ohio as dominating the statistics. You know the local news outlets are going to do this story, but they have to localize it, tell us what these national numbers mean in Central Florida. They have to find people in the Orlando area who can discuss this issue firsthand.

Be Specific To Your Best Target
Target a specific reporter who’s covered your kind of story before. If you don’t know who to target, flip through the newspaper or watch a week of newscasts and get an idea of who does what. You can also call the general newsroom number and ask for the assignment desk or assignment editor – these are the folks who manage the reporters and the content of their coverage.

Ask for their email address, and then send them a good, well-written synopsis of the story you want to tell. Writing a good press release isn’t hard, but that’s a topic for whole other column. Follow-up in a couple of days via phone – make sure they received your information and then ask if there is anything else you can provide that will help them determine if your story is something they want to cover.

Don’t Expect Commitment
In all your dealings with journalists, you should not count on a commitment from them for coverage. When news is breaking, all bets are off. The best you can hope for is that after the latest catastrophe or scandal, they consider returning to the coverage plan.

If you do get bumped for breaking news, or if the reporter you target says thanks but no thanks (and probably not in those words), ask if you can stay in touch from time to time about issues related to your story pitch. Then follow-up again in a week or two with a friendly email that includes a nugget of information they may find interesting. This can be a localized angle on a national story within the medical field, a suggestion for a source on another issue (this is where networking pays off!) or simply a compliment on one of their recent reports. Do not become a stalker, but relevant information is always welcomed and in this way you can slowly build up a relationship so that your next pitch ends up being a home run!

Sara Bridget Au is the editor of Insight Business Update and has worked for CNN, ABC, and other national, as well as local, news outlets. You can contact her at sara@insightmg.com or (407) 230-1116.