If there’s one sure-fire way to deter journalists from using your press releases it’s becoming a ‘blocker’.
An unusual breed, the ‘blocker’ attempts to get journalists to run their stories while making it horrendously difficult for them to do so.
Whether it’s demanding to sit in on an interview and interjecting every five minutes with cries of “Don’t write that!”, or inappropriately asking for full copy approval on a 200-word story about a charity walk, the ‘blocker’ is unrelenting in their mission for control.
What’s more, they run the inevitable risk of souring their relationships with journalists and sending their next release on a one-way journey to the spike.
The mark of a truly talented PR professional is one who can strike the balance between giving the journalist what they want while meeting the needs of their client.
Here, journalist Emma Judd from the Portsmouth News lets us in on the tell-tale symptoms of a ‘blocker’ and gives her take on the ‘perfect PR professional’.
I have a great, really positive story, but have to deal with press officers who are so scared that I might write something bad that they're suspicious of every enquiry I make. It could be they ask you 'what the story is here', which, to be perfectly frank, if they know their onions they should know straight away.
write in jargon. I am a business editor. There's a lot I understand about the business world. But I do not, for example, understand the finer points of every sector's developments so I need to be told plainly, simply, and briefly what the story is about.
If you wonder whether you write plainly enough, read a newspaper. Would what you've written fit in there? If no, rewrite! Have you tried to use long and complicated words just to sound more professional? If yes, to me you are anything but professional.
simplicity. We want to talk to people who can explain very quickly what they have for me. A perfect pitch would go like this:
Me: Hello, news
PR: Hi Emma, I have a story about a business expanding in Portsmouth, would you be interested?
Me: Sounds like something I'd be interested in, tell me more...
PR: Shall I email over the details? We have high resolution pictures...
Me: YES!!!!
So we want press officers who can talk to us on the phone to pitch a story properly, not just read a speech from a sheet (yes, we can tell). We want press officers who know the area we cover, who know the local publications, and who aren't afraid to build a relationship with us. We want PR people to be our colleagues, not the enemy.
someone who is friendly, who knows my paper, who won't be frightened of picking up the phone and who will send me a press release where I can easily see what the story is in the first three paragraphs, if not the first sentence.
They'll be someone who we can have a chat with, who we wouldn't mind having a drink with, and will recognise that I won't be pinned down on when or if a story is going in. In return, I'll listen to you, be more likely to read your releases thoroughly, call you if I have a question rather than hit delete, and even call you to tell you I'm going on holiday so you can send lots of lovely releases to fill any gaps. In a nutshell, I want a friend, not a foe, and I want you to want that too.
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