PR Newbies: Tips from Editors on The Sun, Metro, Telegraph and Sunday Mirror:
At the time the "Inconvenient PR Truth" kicked off, I spoke to various, editorial level national newspaper staff about the subject of PR spam.
I asked - "As an editor on a national news publication, what are your thoughts on press release emails and what tips would you give to PRs looking to achieve national coverage?"
Useful comments from Chris Pharo (The Sun) Jane Hamilton (The Sun) James Day (Metro) and Andy Bloxham (Daily Telegraph).
I have also today added comment from the Sunday Mirror's James Scott...
James Scott. Deputy Editor. Sunday Mirror:
“As a Sunday paper journalist, it amazes me how many PRs call up with press releases that have already been to the Daily papers and failed to get in. My first question is: If it wasn’t good enough for them, why is it good enough for us? If you want to target the Sundays make it specific to us by understanding who we are and who our target market is. Don’t recycle releases.”
Chris Pharo. Head of News. The Sun:
‘'We are bombarded with badly written press release emails all day. It is about time PR people spent a bit longer reading the newspapers to try and get more of a grip on what sort of stories we run on a daily basis. We are often called just before conference, a time when myself and everyone else on the desk has much bigger fish to fry''
Jane Hamilton. Consumer Editor. The Sun:
DO:
• Sum up the story in the subject line.
• Send ideas early - not at gone 11am when it is too late for conference.
• Know the publication, which days it has certain sections etc
• Enjoy the job, try hard and be more creative. Journalists love really good PRs as you help us come up with great stories - but there are not enough truly excellent PRs around.
DON'T:
• Send a completely irrelevant idea - think whether you can honestly see it in that publication first.
• Send huge attachments or press releases in a word document. We don't have time to open them up - just put the details in the email.
• Never ever send a press release as a PDF as we cannot cut and paste from it.
• Ring and ask if we got the press release. If it hasn't bounced back to you then we have. We will contact you if you like it. I have over 40 calls a day from PRs asking if I've received the release which can take up to an hour of my time.
• Do boring surveys and call them 'quirky'. We know supermarkets sell a lot of BBQs in the summer - that is not news.
• Just send statistics - think of the story behind it. Why have sales gone up, what does it mean, is it a new trend or celeb-led?
James Day. In Focus Editor. Metro:
"While I appreciate PRs have a very stressful job role and are expected to get results, trying to hoodwink journalists with lazy tactics such as entitling releases as 'breaking news' is neither original, inspired or in any way inventive.
Honesty is always the best policy and if what you are trying to plug is strong enough or of interest we will take notice and give it the coverage it deserves.
If we've not spoken before don't act like you're my best friend or make jokes about the weather. Keep things tight and professional and direct it personally. Do your research and make sure what you're sending is relevant to the publication and warrants coverage in a particular section."
Finally, calling my landline, mobile, landline, mobile then landline again in quick succession won't make me want to pick up the phone any quicker. I'm probably busy, so please leave me a message or send me an email. We do pick them up and more regularly than you would imagine."
Andy Bloxham. Night Editor. Daily Telegraph
‘'I would advise PR people to call first and say something like ‘I am calling with a story for tomorrow's paper' - not "Hello, My name is Shanice from TinPot PR" or whatever.
Please get to the point. Also it's better if you don't try and explain to me what your client wants the story to say as I'm not interested in that.
Give me a good intro or a nice fact which will make a headline. You have to remember I am not interested in products, I am interested in stories.''
By Harriet Crosse
72Point Blog
72 Point are national news PR & survey specialists. Achieving daily print & online news exposure for the UK’s largest brands and PR agencies.
November 15th, 2010 - 10:33
great article. I work on a national news desk and am amazed with how badly most releases are written. I’m also fed up with people who simply think running a marathon is newsworthy.
November 15th, 2010 - 13:19
BREAKING NEWS: I’ve left a comment.
I must admit, the idea of putting breaking news in the title of an email to a journalist made me laugh out loud. Mainly with incredulous derision.
November 15th, 2010 - 20:29
This is really interesting. I’m a final year PR student and did some work experience in the summer for a PR agency. It is surprising how many ‘Don’ts’ are common practice in an agency and are things I took as standard. For example, most days I was asked to chase up a press release by phoning the journalists at each publication. I understand how this could be frustrating from a journalist’s point of view, but PRO’s have got to do their job somehow, surely?
November 16th, 2010 - 11:21
The whole ‘have you got the release’ phonecall is really bad practice and always due to poor organisation on the PR side.
Much more effective and sensible is to call a day or two before the release goes out, saying I have this story coming up, would you like the release when its ready?
It saves you time and it saves the journalist time, and you can get lots of confirmed interest before the release even goes out, meaning you don’t have one of those ‘high pressure ’shit we need coverage’ sell ins’.
November 16th, 2010 - 11:43
Some great points here - although introducing yourself to the journalist helps to establish a relationship with the them. In the long run is a better strategy for getting coverage than just being a ‘talking press release’.
November 16th, 2010 - 11:53
Great article, at Handmade UK we live by these rules but its good to see journalists supporting what we believed to be true. If all PR’s used these rules journalists would have more time to create better content and so in turn helping the PR industry produce better results for their clients…everyone can win.
November 17th, 2010 - 01:02
I like to start with complimenting or commenting on a piece written by a reporter. This shows that I am paying attention - TO THEIR WORK. Much of P.R. is in the details. If I show that I care, perhaps he will extend the same to me.
November 22nd, 2010 - 11:35
James from the Metro says it well “Honesty is always the best policy”
The PR industry is shitting on its own doorstep from all angles with so many lies emerging from PR’s in their ‘do whatever it takes’ pitch to get the story. The sad part is the loop hole is that most journalists don’t have time to do a full background check on every fact/press release/detail they receive. And then once published its generally too late because the reader is hardly likely to start a revolution should they know what they are reading is false.
The situation is made 10 x worse with so many inexperienced start up PR managers/companies emerging. If you can spell and have a computer/phone you’re a PR these days.
November 23rd, 2010 - 10:42
“Never ever send a press release as a PDF as we cannot cut and paste from it.”
Oh perish the thought that a hack might actually have to type something out or - even worse - put a piece of information in his or her own words. In fact, fuck journalism, just bundle together the 20 most interesting press releases and call it a newspaper.
January 11th, 2011 - 12:01
Seriously, how many more articles like this can be published?! Sure, there are obviously enough shit PRs out there to make journos feel the need to keep drilling the same ‘don’t follow up a press release’, ‘don’t tell me your client expects a full page story’ regurgitated rubbish over and over on every PR 101 blog and at every PR / Journo panel. Perhaps we should assume said shit PRs aren’t reading such blogs or attending panels to better their practice, so how about offering some real, original advice. Heck, maybe next time you could even answer your phone or respond to the shit PRs and let them know their approach isn’t working / right / good enough and do yourself, your fellow hacks, the PR and their client all a favour…
January 11th, 2011 - 13:36
i used to edit the Innovations section of the Sunday Times and all the above points are really good - the amount of untargeted rubbish i’d get (and still do) which would have had to be ignored for half a week by the dailies for me to be able to use it was incredible
the funniest calls i used to get were for a forward features list - i used to direct people to the astrology page where they may find out what was going to happen in the coming weeks as i couldn’t see past this Sunday
January 11th, 2011 - 14:47
I’ve worked on both sides of the fence and have seen so many ‘churnalists’ who don’t give PRs enough credit for helping them to do their jobs. Without PRs they would have to find a lot more news themselves. But equally, there is a lot of dross being sent out and a nose for news among PRs is invaluable.
October 5th, 2011 - 19:53
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