In Part
1 of the series Most effective ways to
annoy a journalist, real NEWS, not PR blabla’s, was said to be what
reporters and editors look for in your pitch, which helps you endear yourself
to them. But look, that is not the same as saying real news buys you automatic media
coverage of your organisation or event.
You
know very well that well fried and tantalising Chambo fish brought to you in a
tattered, scrappy and unwashed plastic plate loses its appeal to you. The
manner in which you talk to reporters and editors about NEWS in your
organisation can do two things:
It
will EITHER earn you media coverage OR will force the editor to do what is not
so hard to do and for which he/she owes no one any apology – putting the invitation aside to
look at it ‘later’. Trust me, ‘later’ from an editor or reporter is not good
news at all. The journalists themselves don’t know when that ‘later’ will come.
One thing
that irritates editors or reporters in Malawi has to do with Media Relations
practitioners’ timing of their invitations to news events.
Probably
you know the nature of their work requires reporters to be flexible in their schedules,
for example leaving one assignment to cover some breaking news somewhere. However,
reporters do also have their own news projects that they work on, with
deadlines. In fact meeting the strictest deadlines is one of the things that make
newsrooms of serious news media houses very hot places.
As a
PR person you earn yourself a minus if you interrupt a journalist’s work by
inviting them to an event which you had been planning for weeks or days but about
which you did not inform the media person well in advance.
This
is what I mean: Your organisation has been conducting some research in the
country and it’s time for the dissemination of the findings or results. You set
a date and inform other stakeholders, for example, partner organisations,
government departments etc.
On
the day of the dissemination of the research findings, half an hour before the
scheduled starting time, your superior asks you how many media houses will be
represented at the event. You remember you did not inform any but at the same
time you realise how the absence of the media will badly reflect on you and
even on your superior.
You
pick your phone, start dialing reporters and editors ‘We have been conducting a
study on XYX issue. We will be presenting our findings to the public at XXX
hotel. We will be starting at 9am, so our driver is on his way to get a
reporter from your media house.’
Serious?
What if all the reporters at the media house you are calling are working on their own projects
which they cannot afford to leave even for a mere half an hour?
Well, if
you thought I consider such a PR person unprofessional, you should waited to hear this: There are times when someone calls an editor ‘Bwana (sir), I am a driver
from VVV organisation. Mr/Mrs so so (the organisation’s PR person) has sent me to
get a reporter for our event starting in half an hour’.
When
I was with Zodiak, this is how my colleagues and I used to feel each time we got such type of invitations:
Why do some PRO’s do things as though we have reporters assigned to sit on
a bench, waiting to be picked for news conferences/events?
It’s
just luck, sheer luck, if you get media coverage if that’s the style of your
Media Relations. Otherwise, editors or reporters are likely to tell you ‘Oh
thanks. We will get there ourselves’.
Usually,
that is politely put to you but you can be assured that 95% of the time, behind
that polite response is great disappointment or even anger. The editor is therefore unlikely to dispatch a
reporter to your event. As I indicated in Part 1 of this series, even without
your event or news conference, a journalist will still find news elsewhere.
It
is not just the interruption of journalists’ own scheduled work that irritates
them when you do things this way. Something more does.
Journalists
feel that the fact that you ‘forgot’ to inform them about your event well in advance simply suggests you don’t really value how the media
can help you. As such your organisation doesn’t deserve media coverage. That’s very bad but
that’s the reality in the newsroom.
Reporters
and news editors cherish anyone who gives them news. Yet they can, and do, though
not overtly, loath PR persons who conduct themselves unprofessionally despite offering
opportunities for real news. A journalist can be a hungry person who gets irritated by the very person who offers him a bowl of rice. Of course as you might have
seen, that is not without good reasons. It's not a question of being ungrateful.
The
bottom line is - Unless it’s breaking news, avoid calling journalists just minutes
before your event starts. It reflects lack of planning on your part; cultivates journalists' resentment towards you and can estrange you from the media.
Include
the media in the planning of any event that you wish covered and give journalists adequate time, at least some two or three days or even weeks before the event, depending
on its magnitude.
This
works to your organisation’s advantage. The media house prepares for you by identifying
the right reporter to cover you and by doing the necessary background research
about the event or the issue if necessary. That allows the media house to cover
you as comprehensively as possible which helps in the dissemination of your organisation’s
core message on an issue to your target publics.
However,
if you would like to be good at irritating reporters and editors, call to
invite them to an event starting in just 20 minutes of your conversation. Above 90%
success rate guaranteed!
_______________________
In
Part 3 of this series, I will be discussing how news
conferences irritate journalists.
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