How can you generate positive coverage of your organization with journalists?

Be selective in what you pitch. Have the courage to tell your supervisors that pitching a minor story or non-story will only hurt your credibility and decrease the chances of good play when a real story pops up. A good journalist will learn to trust a good PR practitioner.

Journalists are people. They need useful, timely input to do their job. Their time has become so very precious that on the one hand, you need to make sure you are targeting the right person, and on the other, you need to do a lot of the job for them. As a former journo, I say that with kindness - they cannot cover 4 beats and produce several articles daily without help from comms people. You have to help them get access to a story, and you have to make it interesting. You have to also have all the elements at your fingertips - no use teeing up a story and then scrambling to find someone who'll give a quote.

In my experience, building strong and firm relations with journalists helps greatly in understanding when to pitch a story. Furthermore, those relations should extend to programme managers and producers. Trust and mutual respect are key ingredients in the relationship.

To generate positive coverage of your organization with journalists, cultivate authentic relationships built on trust and mutual respect. Understand journalists' interests, beats, and deadlines, tailoring pitches and story angles to align with their preferences and needs. Provide valuable, newsworthy content and access to relevant spokespeople or subject matter experts to enhance the likelihood of coverage. Additionally, be responsive, reliable, and proactive in addressing journalists' inquiries and requests, maintaining a positive and collaborative rapport that encourages ongoing coverage of your organization.

Story and target group must match. This is a prerequisite for achieving positive media coverage. I don't necessarily have to know the individual editor or journalist personally - although that is of course helpful. The target group(s) are therefore initially the media I want to reach. Trade journals have a completely different need for information than regional daily newspapers or business publications. This means that I have to present a topic differently in order to appeal to the respective media genre. When a journalist visits you, it is part of the toolkit to research in advance, to know their preferences and to prepare the internal interview partner accordingly. Good luck!

Know your company's messages really well and also - your targets. What is it more important for your company to cover in the media? Financial figures, culture, sustainability? Know this messages inside out and when opportunity arises, add them to a story, build a context and use them as examples. Best ways to do this: - in person, during conversations - by email, when perhaps sharing other resources on a topic that might be connected or help the story your media is working on. And never be pushy about it.

Your pitch has to grab a journalist's attention and pique their curiosity. Instead of just listing facts and figures, craft a narrative that taps into emotions, paints a vivid picture, and leaves the reader wanting to know more. What's the central conflict or challenge? Who are the protagonists overcoming it? How will their journey resonate with the audience? For example, instead of pitching "Company X launched new software," tell the story of the customer pain points it solves and how it's transforming their operations. #MediaPitching #PublicRelations

Get on a texting basis with your trusted reporters. It makes pitching a lot easier when you're working on a tight deadline. You can quickly give 1-2 sentences of what you have to offer. They can text you back on whether or not they want to cover it, and you can email over resources. It makes it easier for them to pick up the phone and call if you need to coordinate an interview.

Building strong relationships with journalists is key, but it's a fine line between being a valuable source and an annoying pest. The goal isn't just getting on their radar, but becoming someone they genuinely want to hear from. Don't blindly pitch every reporter on your list. Do your homework - understand their specific beats, interests, and needs. Then provide tailored insights, data, or angles that genuinely add value for their stories. Be responsive yet respectful of their time and deadlines. Most importantly, don't just take - give back too. Position yourself as a knowledgeable partner, not just someone always asking for coverage. #MediaRelations #EarnedMedia

Open the door to building a long-term relationship from the get-go: 1. Be available! Don't wait too long to reply to a request for information, interview, etc. 2. Be honest and transparent in your responses. 3. Be willing to help a journalist find people for interviews; direct quotes help give a story credibility, depth, and color.

When you're new in your role, set up meet and greets over coffee or lunch. Get to know them - what their interests are, what types of stories they want to cover, what are key priorities for their outlets. It's all about relationship building, and it's easier to do it on the front end when you're building a proactive relationship, versus during reactive media inquiries.

The key to building an actual relationship lies in the consistency of your efforts over time. It's like making regular deposits into a bank account – while the immediate impact might not be apparent, the cumulative effect becomes evident when you review your statement at the end of the month or quarter. This principle holds true when cultivating relationships with journalists. Engage in background conversations to better understand their areas of interest, position yourself or your company as a trustworthy source of insight, and even if your efforts don't yield immediate coverage, the groundwork you've laid can prove invaluable when you need it most.

Build a relationship. Don’t engage with journalists that cover your area only when it’s convenient for you. Read their articles, send them notes with your comments on it, message them on important dates, be present and open. Build trust.

Too many companies rely on jargon-filled press releases that merely list product features and supposed benefits. To truly grab journalists' attention, you need to quantify and vividly illustrate the tangible impact your work has on people's lives. Instead of saying "our new software increases productivity," share a case study detailing how a customer was able to save X hours per week and reallocate resources to drive Y% more revenue. Pair that with a short testimonial video capturing the human story behind the numbers. Hard data and metrics are crucial, but make them resonate by connecting them to real-world outcomes. Distill the "so what" factor that elevates your story beyond corporate jargon. #EarnedMedia #PublicRelations

One option, instead of just pitching your typical product launch, is to do a case study. This humanizes the piece, and shows proof of concept. You can show how you're moving the needle in the industry. Even better -- you couple a product launch with a success story from an initial pilot.

Prove to a reporter that you can help them with their story, not that you're always giving them stories. If you can provide thought leadership and answer a question for them quickly on their deadline, they will come back to you again.

This is where the "relations" part of media relations comes in. Be friendly, courteous, professional. Understand their deadlines. Ask what they need to make the story come to life. Offer a media day tour of facilities where can get their own footage. Reporters hate canned company footage. However if you can offer canned footage inside restricted areas, or drone shots, they'll take it! Have one or two people at the media outlet you correspond with, and cultivate those friendships. Don't let tough questions phase you.. be prepared and prepare your spokespeople. They have a job to do. Building trust and credibility up front is everything!

Don't just wait for company news to pitch - identify upcoming events, trends, or conversations your brand can credibly weigh in on and shape the narrative. For example, if there's an industry conference coming up, work with subject matter experts to author a thought-provoking perspective you can pitch as a preview. Or newsjack a buzzy national event by providing localized data, visuals, or spokespeople that add a fresh angle. You can even manufacture attention-grabbing moments by launching a survey, running a compelling social media campaign, or hosting a virtual event or panel featuring external influencers alongside your leaders. Embrace tactics that disrupt the typical PR cycle and establish your brand as a leading voice.

Create a "balance sheet" of your organization's assets, liabilities and equity, making sure you list the intangibles such as systems, processes and beliefs. They are often the best catalysts to giving a journalist an introduction to your company. Journalists often tell me that they want to learn about what clients THINK in addition to what clients DO. The THINK is your best hook, so THINK MORE.

It's important to remember that 80% of all emails are read on mobile devices, so you can assume most reporters will read your pitch on their mobile, making that five to six inches extremely valuable real estate. My advice is to be as concise as possible and use white space to your advantage.

Coverage is never guaranteed - that's why it's called earned media...you have to deserve the coverage through a compelling story and captivating pitch. But above all, our job as communicators is to build relationships. Build them with your C-suite, build them with employees and build them with journalists. When you can speak clearly and concisely where you're an expert, and be a reliable resource for media, you're credibility skyrockets. Add value. Be humble. Serve as a resource. Positive coverage is likely to follow.

These days, no brand exists in a silo. Train your thought leaders to get out there and participate in broader conversations about the topics that matter most to them. This means not just posting on social media or being quoted in press releases, but genuinely taking an interest in what others are saying and doing by re-sharing, liking, following, quoting and commenting on 3rd party content. Done correctly, it will come across as truly authentic - which it is.