Meeting media needs

For effective PR

Marketing is all about meeting needs. And PR is no exception.

Editors, producers and journalists have needs too! They need stories and features to fill space and time.

And they need these to, wait for it, meet the needs of their audiences!

Many people are very wary of journalists. This is largely due to their apparent power to misquote us or give us bad press. But as a rule, unless you are a celebrity or public figure dealing with the paparazzi, they are not there to get us or to catch us out.

The key is to remember that they are (generally!) human beings just trying to do their job. Like the rest of us, they have targets and deadlines to meet.

If we can understand this, then we are in with a very good chance of being able to work with them to our mutual advantage.

The journalists targets
To fill space (or time in the case of radio or TV) with newsworthy, topical, relevant information that is of interest to its audience.

How can we help? By providing items, whether this be a news story, feature or comment, which meet this criteria. And if we can do so in a way that will allow the journalist to differentiate from its competitors - then we are definitely onto a winner!

The journalists deadlines
Disregard this at your peril!! There are deadlines that can move - and those that can't. Print day, or on-air time are part of the can't move crew. If you call a journalist two hours before print time to try and sell in an article, the chances are your idea, no matter how brilliant, will not be welcomed. Why? Because Mr Journalist has only two hours left to complete his story.

The key is to find out the critical times and avoid them (unless of course you have some highly topical breaking news which has to go in this week's edition). A quick phone call is the best way to find out print days.

Never forget that journalists, editors and producers jobs are generally highly stressed and pressured. Help them and you could have a friend for life. Hinder them - and you hinder your chances of getting some really good PR exposure.

Armed with this knowledge you can start to build a relationship with your target media and begin to really profit from PR.