Hi all,
Krish here, doing my prac at PPR in Perth.
Near the end of week three, only one more week to go! Just like everyone seems to say - time is absolutely flying!
For the past week or so I've been working on the media relations for Lit Fest 09. Over three days at the end of March, All Saints' college will host a festival celebrating reading and promoting literacy. They are getting loads of famous kids and YA authors to come (Andy Griffiths, Jackie French, Sally Morgan etc ) and hold sessions with the kids, to excite them about the power of storytelling.
I've been writing mountains of media releases targeted at the relevant author's community newspaper, as well as towards education and parenting media. I've gotten great feedback for my writing from the consultants here, which was really nice. Also, the community papers seem to love the story, and we've already got coverage, which hopefully should pick up as we head towards March. See this week's Melville Times!However, the education and parenting papers have been a bit more difficult. I was given the task to pitch to them (which was nerve-racking but exciting), and they all seemed to love the story - of course they would as recent literacy trends in Australia have been a bit alarming. The problem is that they are all published monthly or bi-monthly, which means we may have gotten in a little too late to get meaningful editorial coverage. They all said the same thing: "Love it, will squeeze it in if we have room."
So now, I have to ring around again on Friday and kind of pitch in again, to try and ensure coverage! I do feel a little bit pushy though, as they've already told me that they will do what they can. One of the senior consultants said to me "Follow up is the key to getting into most publications." But where do you draw the line? Do you push like one of those nagging telemarketers, so they feel pressured into publishing your story? Or do you back off, leave them in peace, but run the risk of not getting any coverage at all?
I think you have to draw the line somewhere in the middle. For publications like the West who get 1000s of emails everyday, you obviously have to follow up fairly strongly to get your voice heard. For smaller, independent media, a decent story might only need an email and a phone call, and a willingness to arrange things like interviews and photos opps.
I think also it is about the relationship you have with the journalist. One thing I have learnt during work and prac is that the media isn't one big scary faceless entity - it is made up of people, often pretty nice ones, just like you and me! If you are friendly and professional, have interesting stories and follow through with the right amount of insistence, you'll be okay.
Okay, enough of all my sage-like advice. I don't know everything, not by a long shot. But its fun to start to work it all out. Have fun in the wide world of PR!
Krish How
Bentley Campus
3 comments:
Hey Krish,
Sounds sooo interesting! Congrats everyones loving your writing style. I totally sympathise with you and the calling back of people. It's sooo scary that first call to a paper or radio station, i was wetting myself. But you are right, as long as you are professional and trying to help them with a good angle it all works itself out.
Hope the call went well today with the papers.
One week for me left too!
Hurrah!!
Hi Krish,
Being from Mauritius it is very interesting to have another point of view of media relations. Here there are max 20 important newspapers and magazines, so of course we need to follow up but an email or a phone call are sufficient. My country is so small I think it is fairly easier to have media coverage. Sometimes the media lack so much crispy news that they even phone the company to cover an event. However for me the key is the relationship you have with the media. From what I have been able to observe from my internship; networking is very important as well as being constant in your relationship; that is always being here to help and give info to the journalist even in bad times. I think you are right when saying that there need to be a limit, and I wonder whether being too aggressive does not goes against you, as how it may become exasperating for the journalist, particularly if you have more than a 1000 reminder.
Hi Krish,
It’s good to hear you have been writing loads of media releases and having media relations activities. Media relations is a vital aspect in the public relations industry. As far as public relations is concerned, its main function is to achieve publicity. Publicity is usually achieved through the media because its activities are visible.
Though you said the task of pitching to the media was nerve-racking, and exciting as well, I hope it wasn’t only that, I guess you also got the experience of pitching to the media which might turn to be helpful to you in the future. I can assure you that you made the right decision in making follow-ups with your media contacts even though they told you they loved your story. Yes, they can love it but end up not publishing it for other reasons, so it’s always good to do follow-ups and get updates if there are changes.
I have to agree with you that the relationship you have with the journalist is important to get your story up, but I can also add that it doesn’t have to be just a relationship, but a GOOD WORKING RELATIONSHIP.
Good to hear from you and wish you the best in your internship, your final report and your career in the industry.
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