MEDIA RELATIONS
Seven things government communicators need to know about today’s newsrooms
1. Smaller staffs – Like government communicators, newsrooms are being asked to do more with less. That means fewer staff, lower budgets, near impossible workloads and even tighter deadlines. Ensure the stories you pitch have true news value. Ask what kinds of stories particular media want. Keep your pitches short and to the point. Move on if your story doesn’t make it past the assignment editor’s “smell test.”
2. Smaller stories – With competition for the audience’s time and attention increasing and editorial space at a premium, editors are under pressure to make every word count. Successful communicators always distil complex policies, programs and perspectives into plain language. Journalists and government communicators alike must make that extra effort to edit their stories into bite-size articles and reserve those deep “think” pieces for op-eds, features and online media rooms.
3. Less filtering and fact-checking – We’re well into the age of “he said, she said” and the courts have ruled that as long as the journalist or blogger is responsible, his or her “facts” don’t necessarily have to be correct. That puts an increased onus on you to get the facts straight and to share them at the outset. If the reporter (or his/her editor) gets it wrong, ask for a correction – but be prepared to back yourself up with verifiable sources rather than a simple denial.
4. Convergence – The jury is still out whether the Web will save the daily newspaper but the verdict is in on the Internet’s impact. While there’s a growing market for RSS news feeds and other online news outlets, most Canadians still receive their news from television and the main engine driving most story line-ups for all media is still print. Remember that “feeding the beast” doesn’t mean “one size fits all.” Television and print need compelling images, radio news needs sound and compelling imagery, bloggers need perspective, and they all need accurate information.
5. Faster pace – Part of the reason there’s less fact-checking these days is because stories are published almost instantly. Today, journalists are filing directly from stump speeches, the House of Commons foyer, Committee rooms and courtrooms. To keep pace and in order to ensure that salient facts are kept in context, you need to devote more attention to media monitoring. That means ramping up the frequency and scope of your monitoring and analysis, particularly of the now not-so-New media. And, be prepared to look beyond above-the-fold, front-page Globe and Mail as the true measure of your media relations success.
6. Less experience – As some of Canada’s longer serving, higher paid “beat” journalists are pensioned off or dive for cover in academia, minister’s offices, PR shops and the Senate, there’s a new crop of bright, young tech-savvy general assignment journalists actively trolling for stories. Thankfully, their curiosity and ethics are strong. They really don’t want to file any story that’s flawed. Part of your plan, therefore, must be to educate reporters and to provide them with irresistible opportunities for them to do their job. One of the best ways of doing that is to give them more “face” time with your political leader and/or subject matter specialists. Get a reporter to commit to attend a technical briefing, field trip, or an exclusive, one-on-one interview and you are virtually guaranteed coverage.
7. More commentary – Columnists, editorialists, tabloid journalists, open-line radio hosts and bloggers often adopt extreme positions and say provocative things in order to draw attention to the issue, inform and entertain their audiences. Media do have bills to pay and they do that by attracting an audience and selling advertising. By definition, pundits are opinionated and often influential. You ignore them at your public relations and political peril. But, instead of picking a fight or burying your head in the sand, build a solid position based on the facts and your organization’s public mandate and values. Practice your messaging before you enter primetime, and target the same audiences as the pundits through letters to the editor, VIP call-ins, editorial board meetings, by building relationships with columnists who have opposing views to the mainstream, and by joining the online dialogue.
When all else fails, buy an ad. At least there you control the whole message.
Ken Anderson is Delta Media’s Senior Counsel and Director of Training
ken@deltamedia.ca
