Media Relations

A traditional view of PR sees success as dominating news cycles with as much buzz as a brand or celebrity can generate. Former VP Joe Biden is not doing this. Instead, he’s allowing his opponent, the president, to do most of the talking. Kglobal VP Jenny Wang explains why this tactic is working well for the Biden Harris campaign.

Earlier this week, Johnson & Johnson announced it had paused “further dosing in all our COVID-19 vaccine candidate clinical trials” due to an “unexplained illness” in a volunteer. One day later, drugmaker Eli Lilly paused its clinical trial for an antibody treatment. For PR pros, messages related to the race to find a vaccine and treatment serve as a natural experiment in healthcare communication.

Media relations guru and PR coach Michael Smart discusses a terrific lesson for communicators from Disney executive chairman Bob Iger’s autobiography. Smart says the relationship between Disney’s top communicator Zenia Mucha and Iger, which is based on honesty, sometimes brutal honesty, is the model we need to emulate.

Technology has invaded the world of media relations, allowing PR pros to send press releases and other announcements easier and quicker than ever. Still, a recent PRNEWS webinar emphasized the human factors in media pitching, including building relationships with journalists through phone calls and empathy.

It was one of those rare weekends. Just about any news story was getting crickets from the media except for one. Indeed, there were several examples of moderate PR crises, but few noticed. Basing your crisis strategy on other stories crowding out media coverage of your company’s PR crisis is a gamble that hardly ever pays.

Even before the pandemic, plenty of major media outlets were struggling to stay in business. With fewer targets to pitch, is it time to ditch your media relations strategy? Veteran communicator Michael Monahan argues there still are myriad ways to attract coverage, even if one of the solutions means PR pros are crafting content.

Recently, our team at PRNEWS decided to revive a series for our readers: “Ask a Reporter.” With logistical changes in the workforce, as well as a news cycle that just won’t quit, PR and media need to work more harmoniously than ever to get the public the information it needs. During “Ask a Reporter” we will interview a fellow journalist, finding out what works best for them when it comes to media relations.

You know it’s a slow news day when PRNEWS breaks out a story about the joys of embargoed stories. Seriously, we found that like most everything else, you can embargo well or embargo poorly. We also learned that the PR pro does not live by embargoes alone. Frequently, there must be exclusives or one-on-one interviews.

The media market was changing before the pandemic hit. Some of those changes have accelerated or slowed as a result of the novel coronavirus. How should PR pros approach the next few months and the years after that? Our author offers three trends to consider.

Recently, PRNEWS decided to revive the series “Ask a Reporter.” With logistical changes in the workforce, as well as a news cycle that won’t quit, PR and media need to work more harmoniously than ever to get the public the information it needs. During “Ask a Reporter,” we will interview a fellow journalist, finding out what works best when it comes to media relations.