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It’s like a swimmer who hates water, but some PR pros don’t relish dealing with members of the media. Worse, some lack news sense or have never spoken with a journalist. Fortunately, it’s not too difficult to become a media-friendly PR pro. Here are a number of tips from veteran PR pro and former journalist Arthur Solomon that can help you become media friendly.

PRNEWS often reports on the best practices of communicators and PR professionals, but rarely do we acknowledge the mistakes that make or break a career. We reached out to the wider public relations community to create a list of the seven deadly sins of PR. Committing one or many of these atrocities could end a career or at the very least, take it in the wrong direction.

Weber Shandwick did a very good thing last week. It released diversity data for its senior levels. The data were dismal and the agency said as much. It also made the correct point that benchmarks are needed before you can make improvements. Though the agency needs to offer detail about how it will improve, Weber has taken a bold first step.

A well-known PR adage is, ‘If you don’t tell your story, someone else will.’ A bevy of major retailers has paraphrased that aphorism to fit the moment: ‘If the government doesn’t protect our employees and customers against coronavirus, we will.’ By requiring masks, these iconic brands have become healthcare policy wonks.

It’s July and we’re still stuck in a pandemic. By most measures, things are getting worse, not better. The country seems to be confused. We asked a group of healthcare communicators how PR pros can help at this moment. Most said the industry can and should.

During our July 15 PRNEWS webinar, “Communicating Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Efforts with Employees,” Gabrielle Gambrell, marketing and communications consultant and adjunct professor at New York University, Catherine Hernandez-Blades, senior vice president; chief environmental, social and governance and communications officer at Aflac, and Wendy J. Roundtree, APR, founder of Jarel Communications, discussed the importance of showcasing meaningful diversity programs. 

Here’s a column that you should make time to read. What? You’re too busy? Seriously, PR pro Jamie McLaughlin had the same problem. That’s before he resolved to become less busy. His story offers hope to harried PR pros everywhere. And smile. This is a very quick read.

PR professionals representing the country’s largest public figures are likely having a rough week after a wave of cyberattacks on Twitter. Around 4:00 p.m. Eastern on July 16, tweets from celebrities including Kim Kardashian West, Joe Biden, Bill Gates and others started rolling in, asking Twitter users for Bitcoin donations in service of “giving back to the community.” These celebs would double donations to the unnamed “community” cause, the tweets read. All told, hackers made off with nearly $120,000, The Verge reported.

PRNEWS welcomes Scott Dobroski of Glassdoor to discuss the changes in employment communications during the pandemic.

With the novel coronavirus, we see on TV and read in print media the same experts over and over. The public thinks these people are the most-qualified. Sometimes that’s the case. Other times, it’s because they are media savvy. Here are tips that will help make the executives you represent more media friendly.