PR people have various habits that annoy journalists—one that persists is not knowing enough about the publication or programme they are trying to sell a story to. As well as offending the reporter, this means the pitch can be hopelessly mis-targeted. Sometimes it gets silly—the editor of ‘Stuff’ magazine has received calls from people asking ‘is there anyone there who deals with gadgets?’—when in fact the whole magazine is about gadgets. In our experience, the bosses of even well-regarded PR firms—many dealing in the financial and corporate sectors—often do not realise that such faux-pas are committed in their name by junior staff members on a very regular basis. If either you or your PR wants to get the media interested in your topic, try to show you know the types of issues they cover, understand their audience, and can demonstrate why your issue matters to them.
Tom on X
How do you cope if a broadcast interview becomes more aggressive than you were expecting?
We can now offer on-camera and autocue skills coaching for spokespeople who have to present online video material or webinars.
