Dan Schwartzberg
Dan Schwartzberg

An assassination attempt, an incumbent presidential candidate dropping out of the race just weeks before the national convention, a Vice President put forward as the new candidate for President – to say that the news cycle has been unprecedented is truly an understatement. Throw in summer staffing, vacation time and the Olympics, and we’ve got a recipe for a very crowded news environment.

As a media relations professional, you may be feeling overwhelmed by the pressure to get your story on the air and heard by your audience. Having some tools in your MR toolbox for approaching the media with respect, empathy and patience will get you much further in this news landscape than breaking under the pressure and possibly harming your relationships.

We asked our in-house media relations team about their experience pitching this month and if they’d have any advice for other professionals in this space. Here’s what we learned:

Adapt and manage expectations.

As with any breaking news, be prepared to adapt. Sometimes priorities may change with a reporter in a short time frame or even mid-interview. Going into this type of news cycle with that expectation is half the battle – and rolling with the changes will help preserve your relationship with the journalist. They still have air time to fill and need to cover a wide variety of stories – but it may not be on the exact timeline that you first anticipated.

Be prepared to reschedule – possibly even multiple times – and proactively gather any information the journalist may need so you can provide it with short notice. Know the options for out-of-window interview availability of your spokesperson(s) and manage their expectations in advance so that no frustration comes through when it’s (finally) time to deliver your message.

If you’re working with a client, this is an opportunity to be a differentiator in your relationship with them as well. Prepare them to expect change and pre-plan with them the same way you would for your own interviews. If everyone is calm, adaptable and ready to pivot, you’ll greatly improve your relationships with both the media and your client.

Pins & Needles

This past month, there was lots of anxiety hitting “send” during the busy news cycle, not wanting to bother the journalist or seem out of touch. Pitching already comes with a potential for rejection, but follow the same best practices you would in any pitching scenario. We found success by crafting short and meaningful pitches (particularly important when time is of the essence and there’s so much competition for air time) and highlighting any added flexibility with the spokesperson’s time. This allowed for easy and effective communication and unbothered scheduling a majority of the time.

Locally sourced

With plenty of national news and reactions to national news, taking the extra time to hyper-localize our clients’ stories was well-received and led to more easily scheduled interviews. Tying a topic to a local business or public figure, sharing a spokesperson or company’s tie to the area, centering the pitch around a local event or tradition or anything else that could make viewers in that area see the story as something of local interest falls under the “localize” strategy. We also successfully used insights and analytical tools to show even more relevance and add timeliness to the topic. If there was new, relevant data to share on a topic, that often boosted the news value for the journalists.

“Assignment desk, please…”

Since time was short and reporters’ time even shorter, we spent more time on the phone but less time talking with journalists, pitching stories and scheduling interviews to save time on emailing or texting. Of course, it’s important to adhere to journalists’ preferences when they’re known, but finding ways to make covering the story as low maintenance as possible was crucial in gaining media interest.

Break out that planner

For all the golfers out there, sometimes there’s a pivotal moment when you have to decide to reach for that club or realize it’s a time for leaving it in the bag. While most stories were able to find a place in the news cycle, there were some instances where we left the pitch in the bag to take a different approach at the shot. Just as with timing and possible rescheduling, changing the approach to a pitch requires proper counsel to clients and an honest and transparent discussion about expectations. This is as important to the adaptability mindset as anything else. Even if you have a clever pitch, don’t forget to read the room and know if it’s the right time for that pitch. Sometimes the answer may be to wait. Other times, it may be to take a different approach. Either way, working WITH the media and FOR the audience will go a long way in being heard.

Longer ─ but useful ─ working hours

One of the truths of media relations is there are no working hours ─ only hours that you’re working. While work/life balance is a must, spending additional time monitoring scheduled interviews and media tours allowed for needed troubleshooting and provided another layer of assistance for reporters. When producers and journalists can rely on timely responses to meet their changing needs, everyone can benefit.

No pitch count

Paying close attention to the news and how the media was covering it while also making sure pitches were relevant, short, timely and useful, we did not have any delays in media tour scheduling or a loss of interviews that were not quickly rescheduled.

Despite the breaking news, quick adaptations to pitching cadence and story structure allowed for proper and cordial media correspondence. This meant the appropriate stories reached the right journalists, and with patience and a little luck, we were able to break into the news cycle. We witnessed the resilience of journalists who ─ despite great pressure ─ found a way to communicate with us effectively and provide quality news stories to their ever-growing news outlets.

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Dan Schwartzberg is EVP, Media Strategy at 4media group.