INQUIRE: Experts Talk Media Relations
We asked four industry experts about building authentic connections with the media.
MPMG ASKED:
In an era of shrinking newsrooms and limited resources, what is the best way to break through and build meaningful relationships with reporters?
Anya Wassenberg (Editor, Ludwig van Toronto)
My advice as a music/arts editor is first and foremost to make sure what you have is relevant to what I’m doing. I get so much material that has very little in common with my mandate! Like most editors these days, I suspect, I get much more material in my inbox than I can possibly go over in detail, but if I know a pitch is coming from someone who has consistently sent me good material with a compelling story behind it, and all the details are easily available—that’s who I will go to first.
If you do have good material, don’t be afraid to send a second try if you don’t get an answer to the first. But, of course, there’s a fine line between a good follow up and spamming me daily.
Charlie Smith (Editor, Pancouver)
Kindness goes a long way. But most importantly, I just hope that people make life easier for us.
Provide photos that work for both desktop and mobile sites. Work in sync with the schedules of reporters and editors. TV assignment editors are busy in the morning. Daily reporters are busiest at the end of the day as deadlines loom. Radio show staff are busiest as the program is about to go on-air. Pitch stories with this in mind.
Website editors are overwhelmed with emailed story pitches. Get noticed by sending the same pitch two or three times over the course of a couple of weeks. I like receiving pitches on weekends because I don’t receive as many emails on those days, yet I’m still working.
Micro-managing stories after they are published is not a good idea unless there are errors that need to be corrected. It takes up website managers’ time when other things need to be done. Excessive post-publication micro-managing can make an arts journalist or editor less willing to cover that person in the future when there are so many other artists deserving of coverage. Good luck!
Dana Gee (Journalist, Vancouver Sun & The Province)
Building a relationship is probably best facilitated by doing a bit of research and seeing what the reporter writes about on a regular basis. Start there and then consider what is the common thread in their content that you can then tie to your pitch. For me, stories with a B.C. connection are paramount.
Timing is everything. What I mean by that is to get your story pitched well in advance of the publication or premiere date of the project. This is needed for scheduling and planning purposes. Make your pitches short and concise. No one has time or wants to wade through pages of content. Also make sure you have access to a handful of high-resolution photos to go with the story you are pitching. In the end we are all stretched thin and skating as fast as we can. So, making the leg work a little less time consuming is really helpful.
Mike Usinger (Writer and Editor, The Georgia Straight)
Submission still to come.