By Leo Valiquette
All right, picking up from where I left off last time:
7) Be prepared: When you engage the media, questions can come from all directions. Even when you are taking a media call on a particular milestone, such as a new product launch, expect the unexpected. That doesn’t mean you should readily view the journalist with suspicion and expect to be ambushed with inappropriate questions. Perhaps the journalist is looking to follow up on old news, such as whether the company is still on track to reach profitability by a certain date, or if those hiring plans you mentioned a year ago worked out, what your future growth plans are, etc. When arranging an interview time, confirm what the journalist would like to discuss. For more reading on what materials to have ready for the media, see Providing the media with the tools they need to cover your company.
8) Keep it simple, stupid: That doesn’t mean talk to the journalist like he or she is an idiot. If they want something dumbed down, they’ll ask and you should accommodate. Better to take the time and demonstrate patience with questions that require something be explained in terms a 10-year-old would understand than risk a miscommunication. In the age of Google, retractions and correction notices do little to yank back errors that may be damaging to your company, or at least confusing for busy readers who want their information delivered in clear and obvious terms.
9) Good stories have drama, conflict and resolution: Journalists looking to tell a good story hate to hear that everything is perfect and peachy keen. That doesn’t mean they’re looking for trouble where there isn’t any, they just know the skies can’t be sunny and clear all the time. Don’t be afraid to be frank about challenges your business has faced. Instead, take it as an opportunity to talk about how you’ve persevered and overcome, the lessons you’ve learned, or at least, how you intend to overcome if the bio-waste is still flying from the fan. Remember what I said last time in Point #3? What you’ve learned in the School of Hard Knocks can help paint you as a seasoned and capable executive. It also makes for compelling reading that can imbed you in readers’ minds far better than a write up about your latest product’s bells and whistles.
10) Don’t hide: Sometimes, what you don’t want the world to know gets out at the most inconvenient times. Perhaps it’s bad news, or just news you’re not ready to share. It’s often better to set the record straight than ignore a journalist with a scoop that’s been obtained through avenues beyond your control. The journalist may have already scraped up enough information to run with a story before they even pick up the phone to call you. Don’t throw away the chance to tell your side of the story and clear up any possible misinformation, or negotiate an exclusive with the journalist that allows you to embargo the news, if that’s appropriate. Dodging the media is often perceived as a sign that you have something to hide, which only adds fuel to the fire.
On the other hand, don’t feel pressured to give that interview before you’re certain about what it is you want to say. Take the call, garner exactly what it is the journalist is looking for, and arrange for the interview to take place at a more suitable time. But appreciate and respect the fact that the journalist likely has a deadline and an editor breathing down his or her neck.
In conclusion:
It should be self-evident by now that there’s often room to negotiate the terms of engagement with the media. Ethical journalists are after the truth with fair and balanced coverage of the news, events, and organizations relevant to their publication. But how that coverage is obtained, how you agree to be the subject of public scrutiny and consumption, is up to you. The simple rule of thumb is don’t say anything to a journalist you don’t want to see in print. If you want to err on the side of caution, you could always give the media the cold shoulder. Of course, do that and you cut yourself off from the most effective means of generating awareness of your value proposition to potential partners, investors and customers. The media can be a powerful means to promote your business and the subject-matter expertise of your management team that you can’t afford to ignore.
Also of interest: No sandwich required
By Leo Valiquette
My years as a business journalist have taught me a thing or two about what it takes to get the media’s attention … and what to do once you have it. There’s a process of engagement for which you should be prepared, but that doesn’t mean you should view it as a confrontation. It doesn’t mean war, as Bugs would say, but rather, opportunity. Here are 10 things to keep in mind, which I have divided into two postings.
1) It’s not about your agenda: If you’re a Microsoft or a Google, it’s easy to dictate the terms of engagement to the media. If you’re not, it’s a different playbook altogether. You have to offer journalists what they need when they need it, which takes research.
2) Sometimes, it’s spelled out for you: As my colleagues have discussed here before, many publications, especially niche players like trade or industry papers, plan out specific coverage of an industry, sector, trend or area of business development months in advance. It could be content for a section of a few pages, or to fill an entire issue. These “editorial calendars” can provide insight to when and how a particular publication may be interested in your story, or in your perspectives on the state of your industry. See Evaluating editorial calendar opportunities and When and how to inquire about editorial calendar opportunities.
3) Be flexible: Often, the best way to get exposed through the media is to be a source of comment on a particular area that impacts on your business. The journalist is looking for subject-matter experts for a story he or she already has in mind. I’ve dealt with companies looking for media coverage that wanted a corporate profile and wouldn’t settle for anything else. Rather than work with me to fill a particular need I had, they declined and gave up the chance for any exposure through the newspaper.
4) You can get whatever you want, if you’re willing to pay for it: No, that doesn’t mean that if you buy an advertisement you will get a story. Strike such blasphemous thoughts from your brain! if you insist on your message being told your way, subject to your approval, the journalist’s answer will most likely be “Our sales and marketing department would be happy to hear from you. Here’s the number. Bye, bye.” If what you want is an ad, then buy an ad.
5) A profile presented as an objective, impartial news story is not an oxymoron: If a journalist does decide to write specifically about your company, you have to understand that he or she, and their editor, will maintain control over the final product. At best, you can push for the right to double check facts and figures that the journalist will include in the story and verify any direct quotes from yourself or your staff that the journalist intends to include. For this to be a well-rounded news article and not a promotional piece, don’t expect you will be the only source, and that leads to the next point…
6) Do the right people know who you are? When a journalist writes about your company, what it does, where it’s going and the likelihood of it actually getting there, he or she needs sources. Sure, you may be tickled by the prospects for your brave new enterprise, but yours may not be the most objective opinion. The journalist will be looking for the third-party perspective of analysts who follow your industry and can provide a frank assessment of your prospects. So it pays to put yourself on the radar of the analysts who carry weight with the media and sell them on your company. Other sources could include your investors and even competitors. And don’t overlook the value of testimonials from happy customers.
To be continued…
By inmedia
According to widely published reports yesterday, including this excerpt from BtoB, “CNET Networks and Yahoo Thursday announced a three-year strategic partnership that includes content, advertising and search marketing components. Under the terms of the partnership, CNET.com will become a major third-party provider of technology content on Yahoo Tech and Yahoo News.”
This will provide valuable rebroadcast opportunities for those of our clients that are featured on CNET, extending our clients’ messages well beyond the readers traditionally reached by CNET alone, levering Yahoo!’s expansive reach.
By Leo Valiquette
For the first time in almost eight years, there’s a different employer cited on my voice mail and e-mail and that comes as a far greater shock at this point than realizing my transition to the Dark Side is complete.
If you have had a chance to read Francis’s post below, you already know my background as a journalist, most recently as editor of the Ottawa Business Journal. Last week as I bid a fond farewell to the OBJ, my former colleagues teasingly referred to my career change as “The Quest for the Bling” with a mock front page that featured me as Frodo in a still from “Lord of the Rings.”
Well, I can’t say that income had nothing to do with my decision to take the leap, but of far greater importance was finding a shop with good people with whom I shared a common philosophy in terms of how PR should be done. The technology sector was obviously a key area of focus for the OBJ, but the paper is not a trade publication. How technology works, the minutiae of bells, whistles, and compatibilities, is not the focus of the paper’s coverage. What’s important is the business case for a particular product or technology. What need does it fill in the market? How does the company intend to exploit that need and build a sustainable stream of revenue? Those are the kinds of questions we wanted to explore at the OBJ.
When I started casting the net for career options, it didn’t take long to find kindred spirits at inmedia, where there is a similar emphasis on how clients’ stories are told. In fact, it was a breath of fresh air after enduring reams of poorly researched and ill-prepared pitches while working as a journalist. Nothing burned my bacon more than junior PR flacks who tripped through their delivery as if they there reading a script that had just been handed to them, or more seasoned professionals who should have known the OBJ was the wrong kind of media outlet for what they were peddling. My thought was, if you haven’t taken the time to figure these things out, why should I take the time to listen?
But a PR pro who understands the importance of personal, hands-on service is only half of the equation. The other is the company executive holding the purse strings. Working as a business journalist gave me the opportunity to speak with scores of talent managers, headhunters, venture capitalists and sales and marketing gurus about what it takes to build a strong and successful company. A company that doesn’t rely on the “wow factor” of a product’s bells and whistles to drive sales and realizes that to settle for being “local” rather than global is to settle for mediocrity. Some executives get it, some don’t, and others never will.
In my new role with inmedia, I look forward to working with the ones that do and winning converts from among the rest.
By Francis Moran
In the ongoing, mainly good-natured battle between the ink-stained wretches of the journalism trade and the spin doctors of the public relations game, it is generally acknowledged by both sides that they (the journos, that is) are seen as the forces of goodness and light while we, the spinners, are evil incarnate. (Personally, I have found PR to be a more honestly straightforward, if more obviously commercial, proposition than the necessary compromises, deals and half-truths of journalism, but that’s an entire other blog post. Or three.)
I am lapsing into this philosophical musing today because we have won another one over to the dark side, and we’re proud of it.
Today is the first day at inmedia — indeed, the first day in PR — for Leo Valiquette, who spent nearly 10 years on the other side of the great divide, the last eight or so at the Ottawa Business Journal where he most recently was editor of the weekly. Leo is well known around the city and, if the number of congratulatory emails I’ve received since news of his move first slipped out are any indication, is also well respected.
We know Leo from many years of effective dealings with the OBJ on behalf of our clients and have always found him to be a good writer, with a firm grasp of the issues and a decent guy. We’re delighted to have him on board.
Welcome to the dark side, Leo. The plans to the death star are on your laptop.
