21 Media Relations
Do’s and Don’ts for Optimal News Outcomes?
You hope the strong news release you have worked so hard to polish will generate media interest and inquiries. But if it does, and if your spokespeople aren’t prepared for the media, your best effort can get derailed in a hurry.
Before a major news release is distributed, two meetings, lasting a total of about an hour, should be held with your chief spokespeople. The first session is on media etiquette and it is for anyone, at any level, who may be placed in front of the press. During this phase, you should talk everyone through these 21 tips that, if followed, can optimize your media opportunity or, if ignored, can ruin it. I itemize and explain these points below. The second session, in this order, should be the asking and answering – and follow-up – of the world’s wickedest questions that a really smart or aggressive media person might ask about your news. Perhaps in a subsequent post, a little guidance on how to identify these questions and how to role play without getting fired will be offered.
But let’s move on to the list of Do’s and Don’ts.
1. Beware the ‘Empty Air’ Media Technique
The French have an expression, un ange passe, that literally translated means ‘an angel is passing.’ It is used to describe that awkward silence that sometimes occurs, for example, at a dinner party when by coincidence everyone stops talking at once. What’s relevant about this is that experienced media people know that CEOs and other corporate spokespeople abhor a vacuum. So a clever reporter will ask a question, get the answer, and then say nothing for what seems like a long, long time. It’s usually just a few seconds, but it seems eternal. Too often when this happens, your spokesperson starts talking again, adding more to the previous answer, or changing it, and sometimes divulging way more than is appropriate. Advise your spokespeople to answer the question and resist the temptation to fill dead air.
2. Lesser Media Figures Often Grow Up to Be Big Time Media Figures
Inevitably you will get a call from a newly-minted or novice reporter, often representing an outlet that is not in your tier one. You can blow it off, but you probably shouldn’t. Here’s a real life example why: Years ago in Texas a lowly reporter for a daily newspaper started poking around a major semiconductor company asking some hard questions and writing some articles the company found objectionable. Determining that the reporter was from a local paper with a limited reach, as the story goes, they decided the best thing to do would be to just ignore the guy: take no more questions; grant no more interviews. However, that reporter went on to cover the technology beat for The New York Times. Ouch, right? Lesson to be learned here: be nice to newbies.
3. Don’t Ask When Your Story Will be Published
Most traditional reporters don’t have control over when, or even if, a story will be published. They can’t answer the question, but the issue is more complicated than that. To ask ‘when’ is to assume you’ve met the bar for attractive news content. An analogy may help explain this better. An interview is like a date. Asking when your news will be published is like asking at the end of a first date, “When can I expect you’ll be spending the night.”
4. Eye Contact and Frequent Use of the Writer’s First Name
Obviously, the eye contact rule is for face-to-face meetings. This is a hard one, by the way. It’s not that it is so difficult to understand the importance of eye contact, but it can be very awkward having to tell a spokesperson, especially a superior, that they need to do this. Let’s face it… people with eye contact problems can have other issues, yes? But in fact, no one has ever fired me for saying it when it needed to be said, but it can be awkward. Easier to convey is that spokespeople should use the writer’s first name more often than what seems normal. Media types won’t love me for saying this, but it is true for them as with all people, that hearing our own name somehow snaps us back into more conversational alertness. No, I can’t explain how that works, but it works.
5. Tell Your Spokespeople to Make Sure They Understand the Question
Everyone’s had that experience from time to time that they don’t really know what someone is asking them. In press interviews, if this feeling comes over you or your spokesperson, it is far better to say, “I’m not sure what you are asking me. Could you rephrase that?” Here’s a good example to help you remember this rule. I’ve used this story in front of CEOs and it has helped them. Johnny, a young boy, asks his father, “Dad, where did I come from?” That’s bad grammar but Johnny’s Daddy got the question, he thought, and launched into a long talk about male and female intimacy, the miracle of life, and the natural biological order of things. At the end, a perplexed Johnny said, “Dad, I don’t know what you’re talking about. My friend Eddie says he is from New Hampshire. Am I from New Hampshire, too?”
6. Beware the Hidden Sequence of Questions
Few really good reporters are going to come right out and ask you a question they know you won’t answer. For example, “What will your revenues be next year?” or “What are your growth projections for the coming fiscal year?” No one in their right mind at either a private or public company is going to answer those straight up. To get around this some experienced writers will get to the bottom of this through a series of questions they ask in between a bunch of unrelated questions. They might ask, for example, about your distribution systems and supply chain partners and want to know how many you have. A little later, after several unrelated questions, they may ask about field quotas for the various regions. More time passes and they may ask something like this, “I suppose like most companies, you impose huge quota increases year over year?” Few CEOs will let that go because how do you keep the sales reps you have, and get new ones, if the word on the street is that quotas go through the roof every year. Anyway, you see where this is going, right? With enough data points, a good writer can connect the dots and get to some fairly reasonable estimates… and will have your spokesperson’s own words in support of the estimates.
7. Give the Overwhelmed Reporter a Gracious Way to Admit to Utter Confusion
At anytime, but especially if a reporter’s eyes start to glaze over, train your spokespeople to say something like, “Am I making any sense here?” or “Have I been clear on this point?” You do this because in my experience reporters, especially new ones, are reluctant to admit they don’t know what in the world you’re saying. By asking if you have been clear, you put the responsibility for the confusion back on you rather than them. It is much easier for a reporter to say you haven’t been clear than to say he or she isn’t getting it.
8. Take a Few Minutes Getting to Know the Reporter and Gauge What They Know
First of all, as much as you’re trying to sell a news story to a reporter, you’re trying to form a relationship on some level that may prove useful in the future. Plus, people like it when others show an interest in who they are as people. You may not always think so, but reporters are people, too. So spending a couple of minutes up front in conversation unrelated to your news is useful. Ask how they got in to the business. Ask them if they like it. Ask them where they trained. Ask them any appropriate question that helps you know them better. Then, at the very start of the Q&A with them, you should have the first Q and it should be: How familiar are you with our company/product/service, etc. Their answer will help you keep from talking down to them or talking way over their heads. One last tip in this regard: you should read anything you can get your hands on of recent vintage from the reporter. Reading what they’ve written will illuminate their style, depth, intelligence, and sometimes even some biases they may have. Yes, reporters have biases. It is just that some show them and some don’t. It is best to know that in advance.
9. Take Notes
Here’s a low-tech suggestion with a high-value return. During media interviews, someone should be in the room with your spokesperson whether they are meeting a reporter face-to-face or over the phone. The reasons for this is different in each case. Reporters won’t like me saying this, but in face-to-face meetings, if someone else is taking notes like they are, it has been my experience the reporter takes better, more careful notes, too. Well, I can’t actually know that because you shouldn’t really try reading a reporter’s notes. I guess I’m saying that interview outcomes have been better in general when I’ve taken notes during an interview with my spokespeople. I’ve never had a reporter object to this practice. Even if you’re hearing your spokesperson saying the same thing over and over in repetitive interviews, take notes. For phone calls, the reason you take notes is because the actual spokesperson probably won’t and it is very hard after the fact to remember every question and answer. Your spokesperson is also typically so focused on saying the right thing, he or she won’t always be sure how the interview went. With good notes, even if you only heard one side of the conversation, you can review the answers and fine tune them.
10. Know Who You’re Talking To and Who Their Audience Is
This may seem obvious but it is in here because it happens too often. Your spokesperson needs to know, and use, the correct name of the writer and should be aware of that writer’s chief audience. You can’t change your basic news story from interview to interview, of course, but you can lead with a different emphasis in each interview. For example, if you’re talking to a reporter from a consumer magazine, lead with the