Media Relations

President Trump’s selection of William Shine as deputy chief of staff for communications is another example of how the commander-in-chief continues to rewrite traditional PR tactics. For the most part, the revisions have served the president well. The same cannot be said of their effectiveness for ousted EPA chief Scott Pruitt.

In a recent PR News survey of more than 400 media relations professionals, nearly everyone said email is their top pitching method. Just four respondents said Twitter is their first choice. These results do not entirely negate social media’s importance to media relations pros—55% of survey respondents said Twitter is their second-most effective method of connecting with reporters. But caution on social should prevail at all times.

In our regular feature that looks at presentations, we present slides that offer suggestions on how to pitch media using social media. The thing is, don’t use social media to pitch. On the other hand, it can be very useful to research your targeted reporters and build relationships with them.

It’s so tempting. There’s a large media list at the ready. All one needs to do is craft a compelling narrative, attach it to the media list, hit send and wait for journalists to call. It’s the digital age, after all. Why not deploy the eponymous technology and send out hundreds of pitches with the click of a mouse? If it only was that easy.

Though email and social media pitching is a cornerstone of public relations, sometimes it can feel impersonal, especially if you’re sending out dozens of pitches and hearing nothing back from inundated journalists. But what if you could meet these reporters offline, and get to know them as real people? Then your emails would no longer be lost in an overcrowded inbox, but instead move to the top of the list.

In today’s oversaturated, mile-a-minute news cycle, it can feel impossible for PR professionals to get the attention of the right journalist at the right news outlet at the right time for their brand. But though there are certainly no foolproof formulas to hit the jackpot every time, you can increase the chances of your pitch getting noticed with some tried-and-true methods from communications experts like Scott Dobroski, senior director of corporate communications at Glassdoor. Here’s some of his advice on how to get your email pitches noticed.

Right or wrong, many executives think the only media that matters is the Wall St. Journal and the NY Times. OK, so how do PR pros get their brands a mention in one of those papers? We turn to someone who’s climbed that mountain. Frederik Bjørndal, who heads media for N. America and Europe for Novozymes, a bio-solutions firm, provides a checklist for getting your pitches read and covered.

PR News and its Media Relations Working Group, comprised of 23 media relations and communications specialists, surveyed PR pros during March and April 2018 to gauge attitudes about media relations today and tomorrow. More than 400 responded to questions about the difficulty of obtaining media coverage, the importance (or not) of investing in media relations and earned coverage during an age of social media influencers and brand-created content.

Video has become an essential communications tool across all walks of life—including, it would seem, international diplomacy.

At the June 12 meeting in Singapore between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump showed Kim and a group of reporters a video in the style of a dramatic movie trailer. The narrative painted the two politicians as Hollywood film protagonists who hold the fate of the world in their hands.

You could feel the tension rising in the air, knocking out the aroma of coffee beans and herbal tea. Nancy had ordered a decaf-caf skim latte and the barista seemingly got it wrong. She stormed… Continued