8 things you should know before pitching to media

Forging good relations with the media is an art and should be cultivated long before specific press releases for any one client are ready to be disseminated.

1. Research the media

Nothing irks journalists more than a pitch that is not or cannot be tailored to their beat or the media that they represent. That said you might lose out on good coverage, if you don't take the time to research the various segments of a media.
For example, the editor of an online business portal might not seem like the best person to feature your restaurant launch in the financial district, unless of course, the portal has a food section.

2. Know your stuff

Few things are more irritating to a busy journalist than a PR person waffling vaguely about the virtues of a client in the first 10 seconds of the call. Before you dial, learn enough about your client in order to pitch a story idea in a concise and informative manner; write yourself a fact sheet or even a script if you need to. If the scribe asks you a question that requires you to do additional research, tell him that you will get back to him by phone or email once you find out more.

3. Understand journalists' perceptions of your client

A brass music festival organiser might think that brass music is the coolest type of music on earth, but this sentiment may not be shared by everyone, music writers included. It pays to keep your ear to the ground and learn about journalists' and their readers' perception of your client's event or product or service, so as to craft a story idea that the former can better resonate with.

4. Understand the local culture

This is especially important when dealing with media from different countries. In some countries, the media prefer to build their relationship with PR consultants over wine and dinner rather than on the merit of their pitches; it would be bad manners to pitch the story until the third course or post-dinner drinks. In others, journalists are more efficient, even overworked.

They tend to turn down invitations for drinks, are brief in their correspondence and prefer information to be delivered quickly, with no promise of a story. In some countries, the media update the PR agencies on where and when a feature will be published or broadcast. In some others, the media are not so forthcoming; in fact it is bad manners to ask when a feature will be out until several weeks after an interview has been completed.

5. Media are people too

PR consultants sometimes forget that journalists are also people, with their own preferences, quirks and idiosyncrasies. It helps to ask if you're calling them at the right time; an editor might sound a little curt if you call him to pitch a story in the hour before going to print. If a scribe has the habit of not answering calls, keep to email as a mode of correspondence.

6. Don't burn bridges

This is especially true of Singapore's media scene. Most of the major online portals, dailies, right down to syndicated lifestyle and fashion titles and even locally produced newsletters for corporations are either owned or managed by one or other of the two major media owners. As a result, most editors and writers tend to move up and around in the scene frequently, sometimes practically overnight.

So never burn bridges: that junior writer with an entertainment weekly might end up a deputy editor of a syndicated fashion title in a matter of a few years.

7. Make their life easier

One of the hazards of being a PR consultant is tunnel vision; you become so focused on promoting your client that you forget that the journalist needs a well-balanced story.

Experience tells me that the pressed-for-time journalist always appreciates any additional research or legwork that the PR consultant can offer to support the angle of the story as a whole and not just the part where your client is quoted.

8. Be consistent

For good impressions and relationships to develop, you need consistency. If you're consistently accurate, fast, willing to conduct additional research, offering assistance even if there's no guarantee of a story, the media will soon see that you are reliable source of information who works hard to help with their work.

Some years ago, I had the pleasant experience of having a respected journalist from a national newspaper calling me up one afternoon with the sort of question PR consultants dream of hearing, "I've got a whole page to fill on this topic for this weekend's edition. Do you have any ideas?"