I DID this kind of article last year, and received positive feedback from both journalists and public relations practitioners. Some PR friends told me they used the article as part of their training for newbies as well as a refresher for veterans. Media friends, on the other hand, said this kind of article could help PR people understand the needs of media people better.
So I decided to write one again for 2023, featuring a new set of Christmas wishes from a different roster of journalists. Surprisingly (or maybe not), some wishes from 2022 surfaced again in some of the responses: about getting names right, timing of sending press releases, asking journalists when their stories will come out. We got some new ones though, which I think will be useful for PR practitioners like us to learn and practice.
They don’t work for you
“I WISH PRs won’t ask me to forward their press releases to my beat mates. It wouldn’t hurt to find out who’s covering which beats,” TV5 Senior News Correspondent Gerard de la Pena said.
As PR practitioners, we should do our own research on our media stakeholders. Apart from the obvious, which is getting their names right, it is also basic to know what beat they are covering. If you already have some level of relationship with a reporter, you can ask them for the names of their beat mates whom you do not know. But do not ask them to send out press releases for you.
Likha Cuevas, Head of Southeast Asia for Mergermarket, related an even worse experience with a Singapore-based PR agency: being asked to provide a backgrounder regarding her publication for the agency to use in their pitch to their client.
“If you’re going to make a pitch [for an exclusive interview] to a client, please don’t make the reporter make the pitch deck, i.e. what the publication is, exposure, subscribers, etc. Do your research,” she said. “We reporters and editors are already burdened with the day-to-day news cycle, and for you to order us to make this deck is too much. It’s your client, not ours.”
She added that when facilitating interviews with journalists, “do not give us a script. You can politely mention a pitch or an agenda you want to push, but do not dictate what questions we want to ask. Your client has the option to not answer our questions.”
Do your monitoring
ANOTHER pet peeve among journalists is PR people asking them about airing or publication dates, or if a story will be used or has already been used.
“I wish they wouldn’t ask me when [a story] is going to air, and also if the story has already aired,” de la Pena said. “My job is to gather news, and it’s not up to me if the story will air or not. That’s the job of the producers.”
Manila Standard Assistant Business Editor Alena Mae Flores reminded PR people that it is their responsibility to monitor whether or not their press releases were used.
“I do not understand why some PR people resend stories when they already came out. This shows they have poor monitoring or lack of coordination inside the office,” she said.
Extend common courtesy
AS simple as they are, some obvious acts of courtesy seem to not be common practice among some PR practitioners.
Cuevas asked PR practitioners to please respond to journalists’ queries or requests and not leave messages seen-zoned. “Just respond to us by saying your client is not keen to reply/grant the interview. At least we know we are not talking to a wall.”
When sending press materials, Philippine Daily Inquirer Business reporter Ronnel Domingo said both timing and recipients have to be deliberately planned.
“Don’t send the same press material to the same team because it’s embarrassing, awkward, and complicated when colleagues end up sending the same story [to the desk]. Pinpoint the target reporter and then focus on that person,” he said.
In terms of timing: “Please observe regular work hours. Do not send materials in the dead of night,” he said. “I know companies/PR agencies now have digital teams for engaging vloggers and influencers. If you observe ‘regular hours,’ you accommodate both digital and the ‘old-style’ media whose hours revolve around the dinosaur called the printing press. If you observe the hours of the digital media, you trample on the hard-to-die print media.”
Sending of event invitations also requires good timing. Veteran editor and BusinessMirror columnist Stella Arnaldo said invitations sent a day before an event makes it “obvious [that] you considered us an afterthought.”
And do not expect to get mileage from the very same people you did not invite, she said. “Don’t send press releases about an event to which you didn’t invite us, then expect us to publish it or use it in our stories.”
Write your stories well
IF you want to see your stories published, make sure to send well written press releases. Manila Times Tech Editor Jing Garcia suggested that PR people “learn the form and style of a publication, so there’s a better chance of your release coming out.”
Flores added that incomplete press releases, particularly those that lacked vital information, would likely not be used. “PR people should know outright what information should be made available instead of waiting for reporters to ask since this will take additional time,” she said.
Establish and nurture relationships
BEYOND our technical competency, I think we all know that our relationships with our media partners bear a lot of weight in determining our staying power in the industry. Arnaldo said good relationships should be established early on and nurtured for the long haul.
“The PR person should learn to develop relationships with reporters, and calmly discuss his client’s view on a story they may not agree with, instead of going straight to their editors to complain about said story. Today’s reporters are tomorrow’s editors and, like it or not, the PR, if he is still around, will have to deal with those future editors, who will have a say whether or not the PR’s press release makes it in the paper,” she said.
The PR-media relationship, de la Pena added, is not one-sided after all. “This is not really shaming or blaming. At the end of the day, we are partners. Parang mag-jowa lang ‘yan (It’s like in a romantic relationship)—give and take.”
May we make our media partners’ wishes come true this Christmas and every day. Have a blessed Christmas, everyone!
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier organization for PR professionals around the world. Abigail L. Ho-Torres is AVP and Head of Customer Experience of Maynilad Water Services Inc. She spent more than a decade as a business journalist before making the leap to the corporate world.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations. Please send your questions or comments to askipraphil@gmail.com.