The Thanksgiving weekend proved once again in my belief that long weekends are the perfect opportunity for feature stories about your client or issue.
A thorough scan of stories in print and online from Thursday through Monday, Nov. 26 suggest many missed opportunities for my profession. New cycles are shorter. Consider that the elections - and all the accompanying attention - were long over. Stories about Sandy were fading. Even the "fiscal cliff" is barely dictating huge amounts of coverage (although it should, given what my taxes may look like next year). Hard news did not rule the day on Page One.
As I have sounded many times before, a long holiday weekend means reporters are required to fill multiple editions of news. They are forced to "pre-write" a ton of stories just to fill the pages and airwaves that are Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Editors and news organization owners have not and will not carry a full staff on a holiday weekend. This extra duty on reporters typically means they want to crank out easy features. They simply don't have time to be choosy or to do in-depth reporting or investigative journalism. They may have just three days to fill seven days of news.
The evidence is clear. Go back to your papers and TV websites. What I saw were multitudes of stories that have been lingering for a while - features that likely would not make it any other time of year.
What a few enterprising PR pros did is this: Right after the elections they pitched a story that is important, but not immediate. They usually add the line: "You've got some time to work on this." If you provide the complete package and not force a reporter to make a lot of calls, it makes their lives easier. They have a couple of weeks to work on it and file it way before the holiday.
What kind of story fits this bill? Obviously, holiday-related ones rise to the top. People (including reporters) are sentimental this time of year. They want the "human angle." If you represent non-profits, now is the perfect time to develop the story about the plights of non-profits during the holidays (or how changes in tax law will hurt). If there is a story you've wanted in print for a long time, now is the time to re-examine the angle and figure out why anyone would care today? Do you have an issue or project/product in development that will rise (good or bad) to public attention in the first quarter of 2013? Now is the time to set the "mood" for the debate and bring out the first one or two building blocks to what likely will be a complicated or ongoing issue.Look at trends: What is different about Christmas in 2012? For instance, no big-ticket kid movies are opening between Thanksgiving and Christmas. What does that mean to toys and other products that depend on big movies?
Always find the "real" people of your story, too. Many stories are told from the individual in the center of the news.
Our next opportunity is a big one. With Christmas and New Years falling on Tuesdays - that means reporters have a total of 12 days of news to fill in advance. Each week it starts with Saturday and goes until Wednesday. That means any story development must begin this week and pitches concluded by Dec. 7. (do it by Dec. 5 or the following Monday since some reporters will still do Pearl Harbor day stories). Right now, reporters are starting to develop their 2013 trends pieces. How are businesses gearing up for the new year?
Of course, a few of my colleagues like to surmise that a story published or broadcast during this period is meaningless - since "no one is reading or watching the news during the holidays." But most ratings and surveys suggest otherwise. And, with stories remaining "alive" via online, it's easy to repurpose these to your heart's content.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Friday, July 13, 2012
All in a day's work
Water battles in California usually end up (or begin) in the public relations arena.
Today's LA Times story points out that PR firms were hired for competing interests in a long-running battle in CA's desert to pump, store and move water to serve urban SoCal. (Disclosure: I was on "both sides" of this issue - first representing Cadiz, then working for the Metropolitan Water District).
While this particular reporter has long made it a habit to point out when PR firms are used in water battles, as if to say "Hey, this is wrong, right?", the mention simply highlights "why" public outreach and strategic communications are a needed, must-have professional service.
This is especially true with a highly emotional and high-stakes item as water in California.
(I know - this sounds self-serving, given my firm has water clients.)
Yet, the plain truth is evident: Public support is needed for most major water issues in the West. And, the only way to get public support is....through "public" relations.
Let's face it: the world is full of information all competing for our attention. A public relations firm provides valuable services to:
The common misconception is that PR firms "spin" their audiences or the issues.Wrong. The best PR firms simply make sure the facts for their client's side are presented and given proper consideration. The better term is that we "argue" on behalf of our clients - much like a lawyer would in court. The really good PR firms will even acknowledge to news reporters the "failings" or vulnerabilities of their client's side of the story because we know no one is perfect.
All in a day's work for a PR firm.
Today's LA Times story points out that PR firms were hired for competing interests in a long-running battle in CA's desert to pump, store and move water to serve urban SoCal. (Disclosure: I was on "both sides" of this issue - first representing Cadiz, then working for the Metropolitan Water District).
While this particular reporter has long made it a habit to point out when PR firms are used in water battles, as if to say "Hey, this is wrong, right?", the mention simply highlights "why" public outreach and strategic communications are a needed, must-have professional service.
This is especially true with a highly emotional and high-stakes item as water in California.
(I know - this sounds self-serving, given my firm has water clients.)
Yet, the plain truth is evident: Public support is needed for most major water issues in the West. And, the only way to get public support is....through "public" relations.
Let's face it: the world is full of information all competing for our attention. A public relations firm provides valuable services to:
- Call attention to an issue.
- Help package all the facts in a way that makes sense
- Provide answers to common questions
- Respond to allegations, charges and attacks
The common misconception is that PR firms "spin" their audiences or the issues.Wrong. The best PR firms simply make sure the facts for their client's side are presented and given proper consideration. The better term is that we "argue" on behalf of our clients - much like a lawyer would in court. The really good PR firms will even acknowledge to news reporters the "failings" or vulnerabilities of their client's side of the story because we know no one is perfect.
All in a day's work for a PR firm.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Pay up front?
In light of another California city going bankrupt, it probably makes sense for PR agencies to negotiate deposits and up-front payments from their public agency contracts?
Previously, such a demand would have been rejected by cities, counties, etc. However, if a municipality really wants your services, they will find a way to "retain" you. When I managed a technology team, we demanded from start-ups at least one-half of the monthly amount at the beginning of the month. This same formula could be tolerable for public agencies.
So, I implore all agencies to stick together on this one. When finances improve, we can relax these demands. What we don't need now is for public agencies to find the agency willing to accept shaky terms.
Previously, such a demand would have been rejected by cities, counties, etc. However, if a municipality really wants your services, they will find a way to "retain" you. When I managed a technology team, we demanded from start-ups at least one-half of the monthly amount at the beginning of the month. This same formula could be tolerable for public agencies.
So, I implore all agencies to stick together on this one. When finances improve, we can relax these demands. What we don't need now is for public agencies to find the agency willing to accept shaky terms.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Conflicting stories
Putting aside the PR pen for a moment....
We may be returning to the old news of journalism. When this country was founded, cities had multiple newspapers. However, most of these papers carried their own unique bias or agenda, usually tied to the political party or movement they supported. So, getting the complete and unvarnished truth was difficult to get from just one newspaper.
More than a century ago, Americans were forced to read three or four newspapers to assemble some idea of the "truth" and the complete facts.
Flash forward to 2012. Now, it seems, we need to do the same. Only this time we go online to scan stories on a TV news' website, or a news gathering site, or, gasp, newspapers. This extends overseas, too. My European friends living in the U.S. gleefully tell me they read news online from their home country news organizations and get a better sense of world events than what U.S. papers cover. My couch potato friends in the U.S. gleefully tell me they get all their news from Access Hollywood.
Do we get all the facts from a single news source? And can we trust a single news source to be accurate?
Case in point: A major pileup occurred Tuesday, June 26, on a Southern California freeway I once travelled frequently, and in an area where I used to work as a journalist. OK, so I have, perhaps, a keener interest in this one that most. But, it is a nasty piece of freeway and this pile-up may prompt some changes, I hope.
Most reports had the cause of this horrific crash as this: The highway patrol slowed traffic to a stop so they could remove a table that had fallen out of some pickup truck. But, a semi-tractor truck coming up behind this "traffic break" couldn't stop in time and slammed into dozens of vehicles. Yet, when you read another newspaper's accounts - there is no mention of this. The pile-up occurred, according to this one newspaper's account, when cars began hitting the wayward table, then each other. There is no mention of the "double-haul" truck.
Which story to believe? The photos clearly show a double-haul tractor trailer rig in the mess.
When we have some much information to glean in a day about a variety of issues important to us, it's my belief the American public is actually relying on fewer outlets for their news. The average person doesn't have time to read multiple versions of the same subject. If you have news aggregation, are your inbound news sources the best ones?
So, do we end up simply believing what we read on a daily basis...since we only have time to get the news of the day from a single source?
We may be returning to the old news of journalism. When this country was founded, cities had multiple newspapers. However, most of these papers carried their own unique bias or agenda, usually tied to the political party or movement they supported. So, getting the complete and unvarnished truth was difficult to get from just one newspaper.
More than a century ago, Americans were forced to read three or four newspapers to assemble some idea of the "truth" and the complete facts.
Flash forward to 2012. Now, it seems, we need to do the same. Only this time we go online to scan stories on a TV news' website, or a news gathering site, or, gasp, newspapers. This extends overseas, too. My European friends living in the U.S. gleefully tell me they read news online from their home country news organizations and get a better sense of world events than what U.S. papers cover. My couch potato friends in the U.S. gleefully tell me they get all their news from Access Hollywood.
Do we get all the facts from a single news source? And can we trust a single news source to be accurate?
Case in point: A major pileup occurred Tuesday, June 26, on a Southern California freeway I once travelled frequently, and in an area where I used to work as a journalist. OK, so I have, perhaps, a keener interest in this one that most. But, it is a nasty piece of freeway and this pile-up may prompt some changes, I hope.
Most reports had the cause of this horrific crash as this: The highway patrol slowed traffic to a stop so they could remove a table that had fallen out of some pickup truck. But, a semi-tractor truck coming up behind this "traffic break" couldn't stop in time and slammed into dozens of vehicles. Yet, when you read another newspaper's accounts - there is no mention of this. The pile-up occurred, according to this one newspaper's account, when cars began hitting the wayward table, then each other. There is no mention of the "double-haul" truck.
Which story to believe? The photos clearly show a double-haul tractor trailer rig in the mess.
When we have some much information to glean in a day about a variety of issues important to us, it's my belief the American public is actually relying on fewer outlets for their news. The average person doesn't have time to read multiple versions of the same subject. If you have news aggregation, are your inbound news sources the best ones?
So, do we end up simply believing what we read on a daily basis...since we only have time to get the news of the day from a single source?
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