At PR News' recent Media Relations Conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Amy Eisman of American University's School of Communication and a founding editor of USA Today brought up the concept of the "journalist whisperer." This is a PR professional who can speak a journalist's language on the platform they want to be reached on. Someone who doesn't have to use press releases or mass emails but has developed relationships to the point where they are only a call, informal email or G-chat away from the right journalist to cover their client's or organization's story.
Isn't this what the whole media relations function is all about, what it's always been about? Perhaps in the bygone days of long lunches, ad-stuffed newspapers and magazines and fat expense accounts (both on the PR and media sides of the equation) no one had to be told to be a journalist whisperer. There was time to build relationships.
Now it's just plain hard to keep relationships of all types together. The pace of life and technology itself seems to have driven wedges between individuals—between family members, between friends, between business colleagues.
It's up to you to break that pattern. Amy Eisman didn't cook up the term "journalist whisperer"—she heard it from a journalist friend who made it plain that she needs the help of great PR pros. She needs their help to do her job, more than ever. She wants to forge bonds with PR pros who know her, know her work habits, know the unique pressures she's under, know what she needs to hit her own deadlines and drive the bottom line for her own media organization.
So commit to building those relationships with the media professionals who matter to you. And the best way to do that is to do what you would do in any relationship. Don't wait until you need something to reach out to them. Ask them how they're doing and what they need when you don't need anything in particular. Just a little whisper, once in awhile.
Follow Steve Goldstein: @SGoldsteinAI