Introduction to media relations - First Nations Land ...



Introduction to Media Relations

Lands Advisory Board Resource Centre

Prepared by Tewanee Joseph

The media are among the most important and credible of any communication channels today. Media relations, therefore, constitute an essential element in a communication strategy to raise the profile of a group or activity.

The media is an all-encompassing term for press and broadcasting organisations. Geographically, media can be local, regional, national and international.

It is important to understand the media so that you can maximise the success of your communications. As a reminder, the following pages highlight the key points about journalists and the media and are provided as an aid before any planned or unplanned encounter with the media. These principles should help you assist the media in getting your key messages across to your target audiences.

Types of Media

• Print is the least immediate, but most permanent medium. Once a publication is printed, it becomes part of the permanent record. Types of publication include: journals, newspapers magazines, newsletters and books.

• Radio is an immediate medium. News can be aired the moment it breaks and you can be live on air over the telephone.

• Television is also immediate. It is the most influential of all media because you are both seen and heard, giving the strongest and most enduring impression.

• News agencies or News Wire Services are international disseminators of news stories. National news services provide a similar service to local radio stations and to some local papers.

Understanding the Media

The Media

• Utilise stories – in words, pictures and sound

• Have deadlines to keep

• Are businesses – they balance profit against loss and need to make money

• Primarily aim to stimulate, interest and entertain their readers – not just an information or education service

The journalist is doing a job. He/she has to produce a newsworthy story that the editor considers worthy of publication. The final decision to publish rests with the editor. Therefore, although a journalist writes a story, it may not be published, or not in full. In addition, the journalist will not write the headline – the sub-editor will.

A journalist will always be looking for an angle that will make his story different from his colleagues on other publications. Try to give /her this angle.

A distinction should be made between news journalism and feature or investigative journalism. News journalists are working to very tight deadlines and appreciate quick responses to their inquiries. Feature writers are generally, but not always, under less time pressure, however, their reporting can be more subjective.

News – what is it?

News is … (or should be) any or all of these:

• Something that is happening now

• Different, unusual, unique, novel

• Controversial, confidential

• Relevant to many people

• Extreme – very sad, very happy, very serious, very silly

• Conflict – ‘A row was brewing last night…’

Media Activities

Proactive media relations involves ongoing media contact initiated by yourself or a colleague. This approach will keep you at the forefront of the journalist’s mind as an approachable, reliable source of information.

Reactive media relations is when you wait for journalist to make inquiries. This is a reactive approach and can put you at a disadvantage.

Good Planning

…. Will help you to prepare yourself for the consumer campaigns and make them work for you.

WORKING WITH JOURNALISTS

The key to successful media activity is a good relationship with key journalists. To build these relationships successfully you need to have a good understanding of their job and the way they work.

Journalism is a highly competitive profession which results in high stress levels, long unsociable hours plus the demands of working accurately against the clock. This pressure coupled with an average of 1000 press releases landing on their desk every day can sometimes make them a challenging target audience! However, the stresses and strains can be minimised by developing a relationship with journalists. This takes a lot of time and effort, so it may be wise to select a few target journalists to work on initially. IT WILL BE WORH IT.

Remember that their job is to gather accurate, newsworthy information and they often have very tight deadlines, which means that media activity must be carefully planned and timing is crucial.

TALKING TO JOURNALISTS – Remember…

• There is no way to make a journalist cover a story. You are much more likely to succeed in getting your message across by tailoring your story to suit the interests of a particular journalist based on the profile of their readership

• Get to know the influential journalist through their work. Remember to look not just at health correspondents, but also social affairs, women’s interests, and political. Watch the TV programmes you would like a story to appear on.

• Keep track of the sorts of topics they cover and what they have covered recently. While it is useful to know that a journalist follows an area similar to the story you want to place, no journalist will cover essentially the same story within a short space of time.

• Remember the needs of the journalist. Journalist are very busy and will not welcome phone calls when they are trying to meet their deadlines.

• Deadlines: Weekly and monthly publications prepare their issues weeks and months in advance. TV and radio programmes are often prepared a full six months in advance but still need materials at short notice. Daily journalists will have deadlines that they need to meet.

• Journalists are often looking for a timely link for a story. They will be more interested in a story if there is another event happening that coincides.

• Don’t forget local news wire services. More and more publications are facing staff cutbacks and are picking up more news from the wire service

• Remember the regional media – newspapers, TV and radio stations are the key to local stories. They will often cover a story that would not be of interest to a national journalist simply because it has a local link. They also have a great deal of time and space to fill each day.

Journalists are operating in a competitive market place too. Exclusive stories will give them an advantage over their competitors, but only if they are interesting to the medium’s audience.

Sustain your relationship

You may embark on a relationship building exercise with a potential ‘story’ or even in mind, for example the Land Code Initiative. It is extremely important, however, not to treat these opportunities as ‘one off’s’, you should sustain any relationship that you have been successful in developing.

The ideal scenario is one whereby the information sharing is a two way process, i.e. the journalist will actually know to contact you when he/she requires information relating to a specific area. This kind of relationship can have enormous benefits in terms of ensuring it is your opinion leaders they are familiar with and further communicating your messages.

Here are some useful tips on how to sustain relationships with journalists:

• Your initial research will have given you a good insight into particular journalist’s areas of interest – provide them with quality information – even if this does not relate directly to your therapeutic areas

• Invite them for coffee or to visit your organisation when you have nothing specific to ‘sell’ to them and ensure that they know it is purely a social meeting

• Keep them informed about forthcoming meetings or events – even if these are not directly related

to your organisation.

Step one

Identifying Your Key Media

➢ An accurate and up-to-date target media list is a critical part of planning for the activities outlined in this section. The following points will help you to create a list suited to your needs and audience.

➢ Determine which media, including journals and news publications, are important to you.

➢ Identify which journalist you feel would be most interested in your information. You can find this information in media directories or be calling the publication / radio station directly (e.g. the First Nations correspondent).

➢ Develop your media list. Classifying your list by types may simplify its use. Within each category gather as much information as possible. List the specific publication, its address and telephone number, its audience size or circulation (if known) deadlines, press days, names and titles of specific journalists of interest, highlighting those individuals particularly interested in Lands, Health Education, etc.

➢ Update your list on an on-going basis and review it once a month. Few things waste as much time as sending a well-developed covering letter to a journalist who is no longer with the publication.

➢ Add details of any journalists who telephone and express an interest in the subject once your media relations are underway.

➢ Keep media log sheets to hand to note down their relevant details.

Step two

PREPARING TO COMMUNICATE

Media relations can play a key role in your overall communications strategy, however, you should be clear about the role it can perform. The following sample objectives will help define this for you:

Media Relations will help you …

➢ To increase awareness amongst the local community concerning the progress of Land Code

➢ To increase awareness amongst the general public of Land Code / your organisations activities / initiatives / services

➢ To increase local public understanding of the facts and figures of a Land Code

➢ To maintain and improve a positive image amongst the local community via the local media

Tools & Techniques

Below is a brief description of the most commonly used public relations tools and techniques.

Media kit

A media kit should incorporate some or all of the elements listed below. It should contain the full range of materials you wish to pass to a journalist.

➢ Press release

- Ideally no more than 2-pages in length

- Contain the core messages related to the ‘story’ you wish to create

➢ Fact sheet

- Relevant technical information, or a summary of key points

➢ Backgrounder

- may be up to 6-pages, use to:

- Give the basic information that a journalist may need to reach the required level of knowledge

- Provide additional or more detailed information

- To give a history of First Nation / people / products

➢ Photo/caption

- for graphic representation of all possible ‘stories’

- a photograph should never be released without a caption stuck to it

The above tools and techniques can also be used in isolation.

Spokespeople / Media Training

Even the best trained spokespeople can fail to deliver company messages effectively in media interviews. To minimise the possibility of such an occurrence, media interviews must be left to representatives of the company, who can do the job.

Press Release

The purpose of a press release is to:

➢ Announce something

➢ Describe something newsworthy

➢ Respond to something questions about the First Nation/Organization

When writing a press release, try to think of yourself as a journalist – write and think as a journalist would. Highlight the news. The more professional your release, the better chance there is that it will be published in its existing state. It should also be remembered that a journalist is not necessarily an expert on the area you want to communicate.

When writing a press release, you should be clear about the key messages you are trying to communicate. However, no matter what the content or the style, each story will have the same basic format, consisting of the lead, the inverted pyramid and quotes.

The lead

The lead is the introductory paragraph in which the main points are summarised clearly. In theory, it should be able to stand on its own as the news story, and should generally cover the six key questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

The inverted pyramid

The inverted pyramid is the basic format of news stories in which points are highlighted in order of importance from paragraph to paragraph. The diminishing area of the inverted pyramid is representative of the diminishing importance of the news given in each paragraph of a story.

Quotes

Interviews and quotations are the backbone of all releases. All points made in a release have to be attributable to a reliable and relevant source.

Questions and Answers (Q & As)

Finally, for times when your company representative must answer difficult media questions, prepared questions and answers (Q&A) are useful for reference before the interview.

Update the Q&A document regularly. Although not every question can be guessed in advance, the majority are foreseeable and consistent answers can then be given to all journalists as quickly as possible. This is especially useful for contentious issues that require a standard answer. Never give ‘no comment’ as an answer – say if you cannot give a response and a reason why.

Step three

Communicate

Send out Press Packs / press releases to target journalists

➢ Press Packs are usually accompanied by a brief covering letter (signed by a company representative or their PR company) introducing the even or the news with a suggested story angle that will interest a journalist

➢ A proactive mailing of media kits should be followed up by a telephone call-a few days later to find out whether the kit was received and read

Step four

Follow up

FOLLOW UP PHONE CALLS

To optimise the chance of obtaining coverage, efficient follow-up procedures are very important. Speaking directly with the editor/journalist will act as a reminder. As they receive large quantities of mail each day, this telephone call may draw their attention to your press material. This contact will also help to foster future press relations.

When

Follow-up should take place within a few days of distribution of your press information. Timing is very important. If you have sent information to a journalist, do not contact them early the following morning as they will not have had time to read the material. However, do not wait for too long as they may have forgotten the idea. The best time is usually the following day or within a couple of days. Remember their deadlines (for example, never call a national journalist at the end of the day).

Sometimes, your story may be overlooked by a journalist because of a major news story. Similarly, the consumer media may be dominated by a major event such as a plane crash, war or natural disaster just when you want to follow them up after a conference. In this situation, wait a few days until the event begins to receive less coverage and then approach the journalist again.

How?

Following up stories requires delicate and sensitive handling

DO NOT…..

• Do not begin the conversation with “Are you going to cover the story I gave

you?”

• If the journalist wrote a piece and it was not used, do not phone the journalist

to complain. Stories are sometimes cut at the last minute if there is not enough space

DO …..

• Contact the journalist by telephone with the following questions:

- I sent you some information on xxxx. Is it something that they may find interesting?

- Do they require any further information, interviews, patient case studies or visuals?

- Would they be interested in a chat in person (Detail Aid)

- Are they likely to write anything?

• Be helpful, you can begin with “Do you need any further information on the story try?” or if you have any queries please give me a call”

• Approach a follow up with some knowledge of the journalist: We met at the XYZ conference last week” or I read your piece and I thought you might like to discuss another idea I had”

• The key to a good follow up is good monitoring. You will not be able to cover every media organisation in the country yourself so use a monitoring agency as back up

Always remember to record any contact with the media on your Media Log Sheet (page 11)

GUIDELINES FOR HANDLING MEDIA INQUIRIES

All media inquiries to your operation should follow a standard routing procedure, through the press office.

Questions to as a journalist who calls for information:

➢ What publication are you calling from?

➢ (assess importance to you)

➢ What is your name and title?

➢ (Do you know the journalist?)

➢ Can you give me your contact number?

➢ (telephone and fax)

➢ Is this an urgent call, do you have a deadline?

➢ (Indication of importance of call, time in which to respond)

➢ Do you have a message you would like to leave?

➢ (nature of call)

It is sometimes advisable not to answer the journalist’s inquiry immediately – may need time to think and consult with others if a difficult question has been asked. However, call back as soon as possible, especially if the journalist has a deadline to meet. Answer should usually always be given verbally (written answers can appear defensive).

Always remember to … record all journalists’ inquiries, obtaining as much information as possible.

Journalists are frequently working against very tight deadlines and need answers quickly. The following points will help you answer journalists’ inquiries efficiently, accurately and quickly with a minimal risk of disclosing confidential information or anything that could result in neutral or negative press coverage.

Sample Media Log Sheet

Use this media log sheet to keep track of all reporter phone calls. Make several copies of it so it can be re-used each time you get a media inquiry. It will help you have a better sense of which publications/media outlets are interested in further information and will allow you to build up your list of media contacts.

|Name | |

|Publication: | |

|Telephone Number: | |

|Address: | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

|Fax Number: | |

|Time called: | |

|Date called: | |

|Deadline: | |

Inquiry/Nature of call:

Action/Information given:

Action by:

Further information needed/Request sent to:

Other comment:

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INTRODUCTION TO MEDIA RELATIONS

Journals, newspapers and magazines want readers

- TV wants viewers

- Radio wants listeners

TWELVE THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT JOURNALISTS

1. Treat them as normal people, because they are – smile down the phone!!!

2. They are professional and objective, but their interests are independent of yours – they are not extensions of a company’s marketing or PR department. They are not there to educate their readers/viewers/listeners, but to tell a story

3. It’s a market; you’re selling, they’re buying (unless you are in a reactive situation)

4. Deadlines are real

5. They want a good story not just a good lunch

6. Remember the pressures they face – editors, time, competition, opposition, suspicion, cynicism …

7. Get to know their medium (TV / radio / newspaper etc) – read, watch, listen – and assume they know their medium

8. Make it easy for them – phone number, full names, full facts, quotes etc. Journalists want information – not waffling. If you are the correct spokesperson to talk to journalists, have key messages worked out in advance.

9. Do not waffle – get to the point. Have something to say

10. Nothing is “off the record”

11. Don’t lie. Ever. Only make statements you can support factually

12. Be relaxed, but stay sharp!

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