In this video, I just want to talk about pitching journalists. We often think about ourselves or our clients, what we need, what we want. We don't often think about the needs of journalists or what types of stories would benefit a media outlet. But, we are going to discuss pitching journalists today and that requires us to focus on their needs. We want a story from them. Yeah, well, so do a lot of other PR practitioners. I want to encourage you to think about the benefit you provide the journalist. The value add your story offers their media outlet. PR practitioners and journalists should have a mutually beneficial relationship. So, start shifting your focus to the journalist's needs. For your reference, here are some sources for you to check out. Some of these address news values and newsworthiness. Margaret Sullivan's piece is very recent and has some good food for thought as we continue to see our news environment change. We may have touched on some of these in previous videos, but as we begin to talk through the logistics of pitching your news story, it's an important reminder. Media relations is difficult. So, it's going to take practice and patience to be successful. For the most part, journalists prefer to be contacted via email. Your subject line should be headline esque. You want to give some indication as to what you are emailing about. You don't want your email to be deleted before it's even open. So don't write a cheesy or cliche subject line. You are soliciting a journalist. So make sure you are thinking like a journalist. Each pitch should be personalized to the journalist and media outlet. It always blows my students' minds when I tell them they have to write a cover letter for every job they applied for, and it should be personalized and specific to the job position. They reply with, that's a lot of work, though. Well, yeah, applying for and securing a job is a lot of work. So, is media relations. Securing news coverage is a challenge, and you aren't going to be successful every time. But personalizing your pitch and being very specific to the journalist, will help you to build that relationship, whether the pitch results in a story or not. It's important to tell the journalist the value of the news. My biggest test is answering the question, who cares? Most of the time, few people will care. Then you should be asking, so what? You must tell the journalist the value, show that you are thinking about the audience, and providing relevant, interesting, newsworthy content. You must do the legwork. Media relations is a lot of work, and part of that work is helping the journalist envision and write the story. The press release is an outline of what the story could be a frame of the news. In the press release, you are providing at least one to two quotes from experts in your company. Then the media kit should provide any background information, facts, exec bios, and other relevant information. This is the research that the journalist needs to write the story. Journalists need key people to be accessible beyond the quote in the news release. Sometimes, PR practitioners will pitch an interview with their president or founder, and that's the idea of thought leadership. Rather than talk about CU Boulder, I'm going to talk about public relations. Hopefully, you'll come to think of me as an expert in the subject matter and, by association, PR Boulder has a strong public relations program. This is a strategy, don't shove the brand in the consumer's face, but position the face of the brand as the expert in the marketplace. This might be by being quoted in the news or invited to speak on a panel or giving a keynote. There's many ways to demonstrate thought leadership. The point is, once you pitch a story, key people within your company must be accessible to the journalist. If you are able to offer further support to a journalist, beyond the press release and media kit, say so. If you have high resolution photos or video available, say so. This is often sought after by journalists and helps to sweeten the pitch. Don't send as an attachment, however. You want to house those assets on your own website and link in the email to the journalist. If you are an avid consumer of news, you know that journalists don't just fluff their way through news stories, quite the opposite. Journalists try to write concisely as possible. Word count used to really matter, and it still does, but less so, due to the Internet and the opportunity for endless content. You are trying to help the journalist by pitching a news story that really is a good fit for the publication. Don't turn off the journalists, first thing, by showing your PR. What I mean by that is, you want to come in like a journalist, like someone who knows the business and understands what newsworthy news is, and someone who has a great story idea. You want to get straight to it. What's the story? Why is it a fit for the publication? How does it add value to the audience? No need to small talk. Don't beat around the bush, get to it. Trust me, the journalists will appreciate it. Just a quick whoa. The details matter here. When you write a pitch, a press release, put together the media kit, you have to ensure that it's perfect. That means the grammar, the style and format, the timing, all the specifics, everything. It's your job to get it perfect. You don't open the New York Times and see poor grammar, or inconsistent branding, or a late release. No, none of that. We want our PR to be right, every time. So, check, double check, and check again. Media relations is just one facet of a communication plan. The broader objective should be guiding the different strategies and tactics being used. When we practice media relations, we should be asking what we want to accomplish. What's the value of our news? What will the impact of our news be? Once we pitch, there's no going back, that means we have to be prepared and ready. Key messages should be disseminated across platforms. For those interacting with media, they should be trained to reinforce the key messages. It's our job as PR practitioner to coordinate this effort across owned and shared media, but then add an earned media in our media relations efforts, and we have to juggle it all.
