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Here Pussy, Pussy: Catting Around for Placements
By Brenda Clevenger, ABC
You can lead a journalist to milk, but you can't make him write about it. Journalists are like cats -- they'll come to you when they damn well please. And, when they do answer your call, don't try to force-feed them anything. You'll end up with claw marks across your face or vital organs.
They're independent, feisty little vixens who I find -- after 16 years of story pitching -- bite on the stories that I least expect and spit on story ideas that should be the equivalent of catnip.
It's infuriating at a minimum to research and write what you believe to be a perfect pitch only to receive the feline silent treatment. No licks, no calls, no interest.
Coming On the Hour
Then there's the coveted open-a-can-of-tuna effect. Such was the case last week when I least expected it. Media calls starting coming in on the hour in response to a no-brainer release I distributed about officer Major Moser -- a Grandview, Mo., police officer who was flying to New York City to participate in a Law Enforcement Torch Run.
Now the uncanny thing is, I had also distributed a release on another client who is keeping art alive in America (really!) and being backed by the Andy Warhol Foundation of the Visual Arts because of it. Seems pretty significant to me. No licks, no calls, no interest.
And, I had distributed a release about another client who had just injected millions of restoration and tourism dollars into the local economy because of the completion of six high-profile historic preservation projects. No licks, no calls, no interest.
It blows my mind daily what news flies and dies in eyes of the media. If I could figure out the media's pussy patterns, I'd be the most sought-after PR person on earth.
The Call of the Wild: Getting Journalists to Jump into Your Lap
Why does one pitch generate more calls than the Pentagon, while others get shot down upon receipt?
Just like the game of cat and mouse, the media want stories with legs on them.
"Quickly moussy run away, pussy cat wants a meal today." In her book On Deadline, Wilma Mathews, ABC, recommends pre-screening your pitches for their newsworthiness by asking these six questions:- Is the story local?
- Is the information unique or unusual?
- Is the material timely?
- Is it timeless (topics like AIDS or the environment)?
- Does the information concern people?
- Does the material create human interest, pathos, or humor?
My Major Moser release met five of Mathews' six criteria, thus the heavy media interest. The other two releases met only two of the six criteria, thus the lack of interest so far.
Making a Reporter Hot
We can save a lot of trees and energy by running our pitches through a battery of objective tests, rather than guessing what might make a reporter go into heat. In other words, herding cats is only possible on SuperBowl commercials. If you want the media to come running, listen to Mathews or James Lukaszewski of the Lukaszewski Group.
Lukaszewski uses a slightly different set of criteria to justify news. If you can ensure your news pitch hits many of these nine key indicators, you'll be feeding the media what they want to cover, he says.- Surprise -- Things turning out differently than the public expected.
- Affect -- Striking an emotional appeal.
- Effect -- Showing a result (death, injury, homelessness).
- Secrecy -- Media want whatever the world isn't supposed to know.
- Conflict -- News is about conflict from insiders, outsiders, organized opposition, or unprepared spokespersons.
- Reporter interest -- The closer it hits home, the better (Did the reporter's wife work at the plant that closed?).
- Mistakes -- Corporate America is supposed to function like a machine. When it doesn't, it's news.
- Change -- Newsworthy by definition.
- Editor's perspective -- News is what the editor thinks it is.
No. 9 is the one that stumps most of us.
Using Psychological Tricks
Tapping into the hidden psychology of media editors wasn't a course I was offered in J-school or during my master's program in media communications. However, Paul Krupin of Trash Proof News Releases says he has a handle on this challenge. Though Paul doesn't reveal any of his self-proclaimed secrets on his Web page, Charles Pappas of Yahoo Internet Life magazine had this to say:
Before I read Trash-Proof Press Releases, editors welcomed my press releases like they were subpoenas wrapped inside overdue bills. Now after reading the clear, easy and inspiring 100-plus proven releases in Trash-Proof, I've used its techniques on everything from publicizing Net events to electronic newsletters. The editors who once treated my releases with the respect dogs do fire hydrants, now open and read them like they were the winning prize notification form Publishers Clearinghouse. Getting Head
Beyond calling editors and producers to ask what they're working on, the next best thing to getting in the media's head is to start by getting outside of yours. Forget your agenda, your clients, and your perspective. Instead, think of the great, timely stories that aren't being covered that fit the outlets you're pitching perfectly, then work backwards.
With the story or angle clearly in mind, see how you can tie your client, product, or service into the picture as a source, sidebar, anecdote, or roundup article. In fact, try to make your pitch read more like a finished article and less like a corporate release and you're halfway home.
The best media relations people rarely call the cat. The cat comes, because he knows where to get the good stuff.
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