Communication Tools

Press relations require a double brain. On the one hand, you need to think about who’s reading the newspaper. You’ve got to gear press relations to those key audiences, be they consumers or regulators or shareholders or your own employees. On the other hand, press relations is about relating to the press itself. You’ve got to remember the messengers as well. They play by certain rules that you too must obey.

Among those many rules, press relations require explicit acknowledgement of what is “on the record” and what is not. Press relations requires that you meet reporters’ deadlines, not your own. Abet press relations with specific learnable skills: how, for example, to “bridge” to the insistent points you want to make, or “flag” those points to better ensure that they will be articulated by the reporter as you have articulated them.

Press relations begin before a story is even on the table, and continues long after the story is published. Press relations are personal relationships. Get to know reporters. Buy them lunch. If you are marketing your own expertise, they may think of you when they write a related article six months or a year hence. If you face crisis or scandal, prior relationships with key reporters can be beneficial if there’s a judgment call they have to make, and the odds of them going for you or against you are 50-50.