How to create a list of journalists that will actually talk to you

How to create a list of journalists who will actually talk to you

There’s more to PR than just writing press releases and hoping a newspaper / website / magazine will feature your story. The most vital part of a PR professional’s job is the relationships they create with journalists who will feature the stories.

It’s also about more than just having good bank of ‘contacts’ in the industry. For example, you can have an entire phone book of contacts, but if you message them all about a party you are throwing, not everyone would turn up. Only the people who you have nurtured relationships with over time, would grace you with their presence. The same can be said for a PR story.

In the PR business it’s key to not waste time – your own and the journalists. Here are some of our hard-earned tips for finding and cultivating the right list of journalist contacts who will not only talk to you about the brands you represent, but potentially feature them too.

Read the publication (then read it again…)

There’s nothing a journalist hates more than getting contacted by a PR who has no idea what they write or even what their publication is about. You can’t sell a story about the hottest new exercise bike to a beauty editor, unless the bike is made of beauty products! There’s no link and if a journalist must spend time and effort finding the link, they won’t thank you for it! Knowing the publication, knowing which journalist writes what and being genuinely interested in how they write, is key to getting coverage from them. It sounds leisurely; reading lots of magazines, websites and newspapers but there’s a science to it. Differentiating what journalists write about and why it interests them is a huge part of a PR’s role and if you know this information, the journalist is ten times more likely to speak to you and more importantly, your clients.

Get to grips with a media database

These days, most PR’s use an online database of all publications to find out which journalists write for different titles. It may sound like cheating, but it is still important to know the difference between the roles in each publication. For example, pitching a story to an editor-in-chief of a major publication won’t earn you any gold stars, (unless you personally know that editor-in-chief very well and feel confident they will respond to you). Their role is too senior and they probably have a team of reporters and editors who are finding the stories for them. That’s why it’s important to read the publication and find out which journalist writes each section and who edits their pages. The features editor for a magazine house will have great oversight and strategic say in what goes into the pages, but an editorial assistant or features writer will still need to be involved in the sourcing and writing of that content – so it’s about who you form that strong bond with.

Get on the phones

It’s the number one tool in a PR’s belt – good phone manner. If you know which publication you want a story in / your brand to be featured in, the number one thing to do is call the journalist. Calling a publication and finding out who writes the section you want to be in and actually speaking to them is always the first hurdle to get over. Once they’ve spoken to you, they will be far more likely to associate your story to your voice and recall the conversation. Sometimes a PR can be just another email, and no-one wants to be remembered in that way! Get on the phone, make them laugh, brighten their day and you instantly become more relatable and they become more approachable.

Trawl through social media

Whether a journalist chooses to use social media as a platform for their professional or their private use, it’s useful to develop this medium for a PR purpose. For those that use it in a professional capacity, it’s an easy and direct way to discuss a story or idea with a journalist. See what they share on their pages, understand what makes their professional world ‘tick’ and get in touch with them once you’ve formulated something that fits their mould. If a journalist uses social media to share their social life and it’s available to see as a member of the public, simply use it as a great conversation starter.

However, at the end of the day – there are no hard and fast rules in PR. So, the more a PR can talk to journalists and find out how things work on their particular publication or programme, the better placed your brand will be.

 

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