Introduction to Media Relations
Lands Advisory Board Resource Centre
Prepared by Tewanee Joseph
INTRODUCTION TO MEDIA RELATIONS
The media are among the most important and credible of any communication channels today. Media
relations, therefore, constitute an essential element in a communication strategy to raise the profile of a
group or activity.
The media is an all-encompassing term for press and broadcasting organisations. Geographically,
media can be local, regional, national and international.
It is important to understand the media so that you can maximise the success of your communications.
As a reminder, the following pages highlight the key points about journalists and the media and are
provided as an aid before any planned or unplanned encounter with the media. These principles
should help you assist the media in getting your key messages across to your target audiences.
Types of Media

Print is the least immediate, but most permanent medium. Once a publication is printed, it
becomes part of the permanent record. Types of publication include: journals, newspapers
magazines, newsletters and books.

Radio is an immediate medium. News can be aired the moment it breaks and you can be live on
air over the telephone.

Television is also immediate. It is the most influential of all media because you are both seen and
heard, giving the strongest and most enduring impression.

News agencies or News Wire Services are international disseminators of news stories. National
news services provide a similar service to local radio stations and to some local papers.
Understanding the Media
The Media




Utilise stories – in words, pictures and sound
Have deadlines to keep
Are businesses – they balance profit against loss and need to make money
Primarily aim to stimulate, interest and entertain their readers – not just an information or education
service
-
Journals, newspapers and magazines want readers
TV wants viewers
Radio wants listeners
The journalist is doing a job. He/she has to produce a newsworthy story that the editor considers worthy
of publication. The final decision to publish rests with the editor. Therefore, although a journalist writes
a story, it may not be published, or not in full. In addition, the journalist will not write the headline – the
sub-editor will.
2
A journalist will always be looking for an angle that will make his story different from his colleagues on
other publications. Try to give /her this angle.
A distinction should be made between news journalism and feature or investigative journalism.
News journalists are working to very tight deadlines and appreciate quick responses to their inquiries.
Feature writers are generally, but not always, under less time pressure, however, their reporting can be
more subjective.
News – what is it?
News is … (or should be) any or all of these:






Something that is happening now
Different, unusual, unique, novel
Controversial, confidential
Relevant to many people
Extreme – very sad, very happy, very serious, very silly
Conflict – ‘A row was brewing last night…’
Media Activities
Proactive media relations involves ongoing media contact initiated by yourself or a colleague. This
approach will keep you at the forefront of the journalist’s mind as an approachable, reliable source of
information.
Reactive media relations is when you wait for journalist to make inquiries. This is a reactive approach
and can put you at a disadvantage.
Good Planning
…. Will help you to prepare yourself for the consumer campaigns and make them work for you.
WORKING WITH JOURNALISTS
The key to successful media activity is a good relationship with key journalists. To build these
relationships successfully you need to have a good understanding of their job and the way they work.
Journalism is a highly competitive profession which results in high stress levels, long unsociable hours
plus the demands of working accurately against the clock. This pressure coupled with an average of
1000 press releases landing on their desk every day can sometimes make them a challenging target
audience! However, the stresses and strains can be minimised by developing a relationship with
journalists. This takes a lot of time and effort, so it may be wise to select a few target journalists to work
on initially. IT WILL BE WORH IT.
Remember that their job is to gather accurate, newsworthy information and they often have very tight
deadlines, which means that media activity must be carefully planned and timing is crucial.
3
TALKING TO JOURNALISTS – Remember…

There is no way to make a journalist cover a story. You are much more likely to succeed in getting
your message across by tailoring your story to suit the interests of a particular journalist based on
the profile of their readership

Get to know the influential journalist through their work. Remember to look not just at health
correspondents, but also social affairs, women’s interests, and political. Watch the TV programmes
you would like a story to appear on.

Keep track of the sorts of topics they cover and what they have covered recently. While it is useful
to know that a journalist follows an area similar to the story you want to place, no journalist will
cover essentially the same story within a short space of time.

Remember the needs of the journalist. Journalist are very busy and will not welcome phone calls
when they are trying to meet their deadlines.

Deadlines: Weekly and monthly publications prepare their issues weeks and months in advance.
TV and radio programmes are often prepared a full six months in advance but still need materials at
short notice. Daily journalists will have deadlines that they need to meet.

Journalists are often looking for a timely link for a story. They will be more interested in a story if
there is another event happening that coincides.

Don’t forget local news wire services. More and more publications are facing staff cutbacks and
are picking up more news from the wire service

Remember the regional media – newspapers, TV and radio stations are the key to local stories.
They will often cover a story that would not be of interest to a national journalist simply because it
has a local link. They also have a great deal of time and space to fill each day.
Journalists are operating in a competitive market place too. Exclusive stories will give them an
advantage over their competitors, but only if they are interesting to the medium’s audience.
Sustain your relationship
You may embark on a relationship building exercise with a potential ‘story’ or even in mind, for example
the Land Code Initiative. It is extremely important, however, not to treat these opportunities as ‘one
off’s’, you should sustain any relationship that you have been successful in developing.
The ideal scenario is one whereby the information sharing is a two way process, i.e. the journalist will
actually know to contact you when he/she requires information relating to a specific area. This kind of
relationship can have enormous benefits in terms of ensuring it is your opinion leaders they are familiar
with and further communicating your messages.
4
Here are some useful tips on how to sustain relationships with journalists:



Your initial research will have given you a good insight into particular journalist’s areas of interest
– provide them with quality information – even if this does not relate directly to your therapeutic
areas
Invite them for coffee or to visit your organisation when you have nothing specific to ‘sell’ to them
and ensure that they know it is purely a social meeting
Keep them informed about forthcoming meetings or events – even if these are not directly related
to your organisation.
TWELVE THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT JOURNALISTS
1. Treat them as normal people, because they are – smile down the phone!!!
2. They are professional and objective, but their interests are independent of yours – they are
not extensions of a company’s marketing or PR department. They are not there to educate
their readers/viewers/listeners, but to tell a story
3. It’s a market; you’re selling, they’re buying (unless you are in a reactive situation)
4. Deadlines are real
5. They want a good story not just a good lunch
6. Remember the pressures they face – editors, time, competition, opposition, suspicion,
cynicism …
7. Get to know their medium (TV / radio / newspaper etc) – read, watch, listen – and assume
they know their medium
8. Make it easy for them – phone number, full names, full facts, quotes etc. Journalists want
information – not waffling. If you are the correct spokesperson to talk to journalists, have
key messages worked out in advance.
9. Do not waffle – get to the point. Have something to say
10. Nothing is “off the record”
11. Don’t lie. Ever. Only make statements you can support factually
12. Be relaxed, but stay sharp!
5
Step one
IDENTIFYING YOUR KEY MEDIA
 An accurate and up-to-date target media list is a critical part of planning for the activities outlined in
this section. The following points will help you to create a list suited to your needs and audience.
 Determine which media, including journals and news publications, are important to you.
 Identify which journalist you feel would be most interested in your information. You can find this
information in media directories or be calling the publication / radio station directly (e.g. the First
Nations correspondent).
 Develop your media list. Classifying your list by types may simplify its use. Within each category
gather as much information as possible. List the specific publication, its address and telephone
number, its audience size or circulation (if known) deadlines, press days, names and titles of
specific journalists of interest, highlighting those individuals particularly interested in Lands, Health
Education, etc.
 Update your list on an on-going basis and review it once a month. Few things waste as much
time as sending a well-developed covering letter to a journalist who is no longer with the
publication.
 Add details of any journalists who telephone and express an interest in the subject once your
media relations are underway.
 Keep media log sheets to hand to note down their relevant details.
Step two
PREPARING TO COMMUNICATE
Media relations can play a key role in your overall communications strategy, however, you should be
clear about the role it can perform. The following sample objectives will help define this for you:
Media Relations will help you …
 To increase awareness amongst the local community concerning the progress of Land Code
 To increase awareness amongst the general public of Land Code / your organisations activities /
initiatives / services
 To increase local public understanding of the facts and figures of a Land Code
 To maintain and improve a positive image amongst the local community via the local media
6
Tools & Techniques
Below is a brief description of the most commonly used public relations tools and techniques.
Media kit
A media kit should incorporate some or all of the elements listed below. It should contain the full range
of materials you wish to pass to a journalist.
 Press release
- Ideally no more than 2-pages in length
-
Contain the core messages related to the ‘story’ you wish to create
 Fact sheet
- Relevant technical information, or a summary of key points
 Backgrounder
- may be up to 6-pages, use to:
- Give the basic information that a journalist may need to reach the required level of
knowledge
-
Provide additional or more detailed information
-
To give a history of First Nation / people / products
 Photo/caption
- for graphic representation of all possible ‘stories’
- a photograph should never be released without a caption stuck to it
The above tools and techniques can also be used in isolation.
Spokespeople / Media Training
Even the best trained spokespeople can fail to deliver company messages effectively in media
interviews. To minimise the possibility of such an occurrence, media interviews must be left to
representatives of the company, who can do the job.
Press Release
The purpose of a press release is to:
 Announce something
 Describe something newsworthy
 Respond to something questions about the First Nation/Organization
7
When writing a press release, try to think of yourself as a journalist – write and think as a journalist
would. Highlight the news. The more professional your release, the better chance there is that it
will be published in its existing state. It should also be remembered that a journalist is not
necessarily an expert on the area you want to communicate.
When writing a press release, you should be clear about the key messages you are trying to
communicate. However, no matter what the content or the style, each story will have the same
basic format, consisting of the lead, the inverted pyramid and quotes.
The lead
The lead is the introductory paragraph in which the main points are summarised clearly. In theory,
it should be able to stand on its own as the news story, and should generally cover the six key
questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
The inverted pyramid
The inverted pyramid is the basic format of news stories in which points are highlighted in order of
importance from paragraph to paragraph. The diminishing area of the inverted pyramid is
representative of the diminishing importance of the news given in each paragraph of a story.
Quotes
Interviews and quotations are the backbone of all releases. All points made in a release have to be
attributable to a reliable and relevant source.
Questions and Answers (Q & As)
Finally, for times when your company representative must answer difficult media questions,
prepared questions and answers (Q&A) are useful for reference before the interview.
Update the Q&A document regularly. Although not every question can be guessed in advance, the
majority are foreseeable and consistent answers can then be given to all journalists as quickly as
possible. This is especially useful for contentious issues that require a standard answer. Never
give ‘no comment’ as an answer – say if you cannot give a response and a reason why.
Step three
COMMUNICATE
Send out Press Packs / press releases to target journalists
 Press Packs are usually accompanied by a brief covering letter (signed by a company
representative or their PR company) introducing the even or the news with a suggested story
angle that will interest a journalist
 A proactive mailing of media kits should be followed up by a telephone call-a few days later to
find out whether the kit was received and read
8
Step four
FOLLOW UP
FOLLOW UP PHONE CALLS
To optimise the chance of obtaining coverage, efficient follow-up procedures are very important.
Speaking directly with the editor/journalist will act as a reminder. As they receive large quantities of
mail each day, this telephone call may draw their attention to your press material. This contact will also
help to foster future press relations.
When
Follow-up should take place within a few days of distribution of your press information. Timing is very
important. If you have sent information to a journalist, do not contact them early the following morning
as they will not have had time to read the material. However, do not wait for too long as they may have
forgotten the idea. The best time is usually the following day or within a couple of days. Remember
their deadlines (for example, never call a national journalist at the end of the day).
Sometimes, your story may be overlooked by a journalist because of a major news story. Similarly, the
consumer media may be dominated by a major event such as a plane crash, war or natural disaster just
when you want to follow them up after a conference. In this situation, wait a few days until the event
begins to receive less coverage and then approach the journalist again.
How?
Following up stories requires delicate and sensitive handling
DO NOT…..


Do not begin the conversation with “Are you going to cover the story I gave
you?”
If the journalist wrote a piece and it was not used, do not phone the journalist
to complain. Stories are sometimes cut at the last minute if there is not
enough space
DO …..


Contact the journalist by telephone with the following questions:
- I sent you some information on xxxx. Is it something that they may find
interesting?
- Do they require any further information, interviews, patient case studies or
visuals?
- Would they be interested in a chat in person (Detail Aid)
- Are they likely to write anything?
Be helpful, you can begin with “Do you need any further information on the story
try?” or if you have any queries please give me a call”
9


Approach a follow up with some knowledge of the journalist: We met at the XYZ
conference last week” or I read your piece and I thought you might like to discuss
another idea I had”
The key to a good follow up is good monitoring. You will not be able to cover every
media organisation in the country yourself so use a monitoring agency as back up
Always remember to record any contact with the media on your Media Log Sheet
(page 11)
10
GUIDELINES FOR HANDLING MEDIA INQUIRIES
All media inquiries to your operation should follow a standard routing procedure, through the press
office.
Questions to as a journalist who calls for information:
 What publication are you calling from?
 (assess importance to you)
 What is your name and title?
 (Do you know the journalist?)
 Can you give me your contact number?
 (telephone and fax)
 Is this an urgent call, do you have a deadline?
 (Indication of importance of call, time in which to respond)
 Do you have a message you would like to leave?
 (nature of call)
It is sometimes advisable not to answer the journalist’s inquiry immediately – may need time to think
and consult with others if a difficult question has been asked. However, call back as soon as possible,
especially if the journalist has a deadline to meet. Answer should usually always be given verbally
(written answers can appear defensive).
Always remember to … record all journalists’ inquiries, obtaining as much information as possible.
Journalists are frequently working against very tight deadlines and need answers quickly. The following
points will help you answer journalists’ inquiries efficiently, accurately and quickly with a minimal risk of
disclosing confidential information or anything that could result in neutral or negative press coverage.
Sample Media Log Sheet
Use this media log sheet to keep track of all reporter phone calls. Make several copies of it so it can be
re-used each time you get a media inquiry. It will help you have a better sense of which
publications/media outlets are interested in further information and will allow you to build up your list of
media contacts.
11
Name
Publication:
Telephone Number:
Address:
Fax Number:
Time called:
Date called:
Deadline:
Inquiry/Nature of call:
Action/Information given:
Action by:
Further information needed/Request sent to:
Other comment:
12