Image: Stuart Miles/freedigitalphotos.net Consider this: An organization issues a news release about an event. A day or two later, having heard nothing from reporters, the group sends the release again, this time with a subject-line plea /demand in capital letters and many exclamation points. The result: Reporters show up for the event. One even apologizes.
No one is more surprised by this outcome than I am. Indeed, I would expect an all-caps command performance to earn the organization zero news coverage and a permanent place in spam folders.
So what should we conclude when a seemingly wrong tactic leads to a positive result?
In this case, I spent some time mulling my long-held views about pitching reporters—and landed where I began. In reaching out to news media, we should start with an understanding of what a reporter considers newsworthy and how the event or announcement we’re pitching fits with those priorities.
The group that went the all-caps route was fortunate; the event being promoted was a newsworthy one. Coverage resulted in spite of the approach, not because of it.
My view: The end does not justify the means.
What do you think? Should PR professionals aggressively demand coverage? Or does that put relationships and future coverage at risk?
No one is more surprised by this outcome than I am. Indeed, I would expect an all-caps command performance to earn the organization zero news coverage and a permanent place in spam folders.
So what should we conclude when a seemingly wrong tactic leads to a positive result?
In this case, I spent some time mulling my long-held views about pitching reporters—and landed where I began. In reaching out to news media, we should start with an understanding of what a reporter considers newsworthy and how the event or announcement we’re pitching fits with those priorities.
The group that went the all-caps route was fortunate; the event being promoted was a newsworthy one. Coverage resulted in spite of the approach, not because of it.
My view: The end does not justify the means.
What do you think? Should PR professionals aggressively demand coverage? Or does that put relationships and future coverage at risk?
RSS Feed
