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Dear Journalists,

It'southward me, PR. I wanted to write to yous today as someone who has read countless manufactures on how I am supposed to grab the attention of journalists like y'all; hogtie you, intrigue you, pitch you lot, persuade you lot, befriend you, understand yous ... and a manner of other items.

What these articles neglect to mention is how I tin can work with you lot-- especially when it's mutually beneficial. You see, you write smashing stories, and I have clients that have corking stories. We're like peanut butter and jelly, really.

While there may be countless manufactures on how PR professionals can best piece of work with journalists, there are very few on how journalists can piece of work well with PR. I call back there are some keen benefits to a mutually supportive relationship, especially in today's rapidly changing media climate where we have a lot of sway with audiences straight.

Here are a few ideas for how journalists tin can help and support their PR counterparts.

1) Permit us know when y'all run an commodity based off a pitch. No bells or whistles needed; just a ping.

I'g going to start with the bare-boned explanation: Nosotros assist increase your audience. Y'all already know that the publication you work for is most probable making nearly of their profit through advertisements. This means that the more than targeted audience members who read and interact with your posts/manufactures/stories, the more earnings your publisher sees -- and the more than you testify your position and deliver your well-written content.

I want to help with this, and as a communications professional person, I have a lot of tools to do so. When we find out that you penned an commodity that involves our clients, it'due south like Christmas morning. We want to telephone call all of our friends and prove 'em what we got.

At the very least, we want to spread that article via social media, newsletters, posts, comments, and blogs. Then right later, we want to tell our clients to spread it even further. So at the very least, let the states know! Nosotros'll endeavour and go far as good for yous as it was for usa.

2) Don't leave us hanging.

I understand you go pitched a lot, and too ofttimes, I understand information technology'south untargeted. I also recognize that you may not accept the time to answer. I'thou actually completely okay with that and respect information technology. But if you lot reach out and respond and I answer back, I'd at to the lowest degree capeesh you lot either following up with the conversation or conspicuously ending it.

It'due south non just nearly practiced manners -- clear boundaries mean fewer annoyances for me. Not to mention it's the way to solidify a great relationship. The adjacent time I'm working with a visitor with incredibly heady news, or when you recall I might have a great sectional, I'll recollect our relationship. I promise!

We have a lot of sources we can accept our materials to -- just similar you have a lot of pitches yous can cull from -- simply sometimes, we see one that'due south truly special, and a little mutual respect goes a long way. And so a quick "thanks, that was bully!" or "no thanks, but I capeesh the info" might be the easiest writing yous do all day.

iii) Be clear about your intentions.

Await, nosotros've both got jobs to do, and we're both accountable to other people. While I'm certain you've had some experiences with PR folks who have been less-than-totally-honest about their intentions, many PR folks accept been led astray by journalists likewise.

We can build from this distrust. If nosotros're working with a client you lot've already developed negative opinions about, let us know! But doing something like asking interview questions then spinning responses into negatives is just every bit bad as a PR person spinning a story to intentionally requite a dishonest view.

In the end, both of usa have failed, and all it creates is a pretty funky media climate. It's piece of cake to spin a story, and it'southward just as easy to spin an interviewee'south response. Just usually neither actually digs into the truth.

4) Do your homework, besides.

We typically effort our best to deliver you equally much data every bit possible by doing our homework. If we're delivering a stat, a quote, or exploring a new angle for our clients, you can bet that we're going to hand it to you in a tight, well-researched package. Nosotros're expecting you to do the aforementioned when yous research that story.

At the end of the mean solar day, nosotros don't have to always like each other (although cordiality is preferred), but nosotros have to respect each other. We're dependent on each other. Working together is better than working apart.

We're aware that journalism is going through an industry shakeup, simply did you know that the PR manufacture is going through something similar? Public relations is making an ambitious shift toward content relations, bringing disjointed marketing communications together once more. Nosotros're striving to weave corporate stories together beyond multiple mediums, constructing ane compelling, unified story.

If both journalists and PR professionals recognize these positive changes in 1 another, mayhap information technology will bring almost a common shift in how nosotros see each other and how we work with each other in the future.

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Originally published Sep 26, 2014 12:00:00 PM, updated February 01 2017