By admin on March 16, 2010
By
Elizabeth Ireland
A funny thing happened on my last day at the news before joining Stalwart Communications. I was walking behind the assignment desk and I heard the assignment desk editor angrily hanging up the phone. He said something to the tune of “annoying PR person.” Then he looked at me and said, “they aren’t all like that, but some are.” I don’t want to be annoying.
One of my old colleagues is getting quite the reputation for being a “Twitter bully.” He’s called more than a few PR professionals out with a tweet or two.
Fresh from almost two years in a newsroom, I thought I’d do an informal poll of my newsy friends to help with my transition back into public relations. I asked them for the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to PR. What are some pet peeves? What works, what doesn’t?
Here’s what they told me:
1. Contact your local media outlets and find out when they do their planning, how they prefer pitches and when their meetings are (so you don't call during a meeting)
2. Don't over pitch a story! I can't tell you how many times I've gone from "Yes, I'm covering the event" to "Maybe" to "No, because the P.R. people are bugging me!"
3. It's better to email once or twice usually and follow up with a call the day before or day of the event (not 10 emails, 3 calls, 2 faxes)
4. Keep the pitch short and to the point (Who, What, Where, When, Why and Contact name and number (esp. cell #'s) good for the day of the event
5. I hate press releases that try too hard to be clever in the language used. In a newsroom, we look at it quickly and don't want to "figure out" what it's trying to say
6. Make sure you proofread and pay attention to who you're sending releases to (don't send me a release addressed to someone from a rival station/paper)
7. Don't call and ask for a bunch of people by name when you don't know them, chances are you're talking to someone that can help or makes decisions. (I get calls saying is Sage there? How about Steve? How about Heather? Finally when I tell them none of them are here at the moment, they say "who can I pitch a story to?" All along they could have just asked for an Assignment Editor or for an email address to our Assignment Desk, because that's where it should go anyway!)
8. If your clients have events, such as grand openings, etc. it's always a good idea to send out invites to make sure your media people are happy, have a good time and remember you for showing them a good time. This shows that you guys are legit, have good clients and open us up to working with you in the future! (P.S. when the only people you invite are the "talent," remember, they're not the ones sending crews out to cover your event, putting your story in their shows, or booking you for an in-studio guest appearance, it's the assignment editors and producers who do that!)
9. Don't EVER say "Well, we have KUSI coming out" or anything relating to the competition…we not only don't care, but it also looks like you're trying to strong arm us just because the competition is there. I look at it as "well then you don't need us to cover it, you already have KUSI!"
10. Keep your phone pitch to 30 seconds, we don't have time to chit chat and don't care about the history of your event, etc. If you sent an email and you call to follow up, and the assignment editor says, "send me an e-mail with the info," just send another one. Don't say I already did last Tuesday...obviously we don't have it in our file, it was deleted or we don't remember...what does it hurt to send another one?
11. Also, it's good to know people's work hours and try to accommodate. You know I work a crazy (graveyard shift) schedule so it's not good to contact (call) people when they're not working, unless they tell you it's okay
12. Coming from someone who constantly has to answer phones and work the desk, i'd say the number one pet peeve is when PR people call and go on and on and on. Keep it brief and to the point. The worst? When PR people call and are rude! That's a definite NO to news coverage as far as i'm concerned! Posted in General, Marketing Professionals | Tagged Newsroom, PR, Stalwart Communications