Approaching journalists properly

Journalists receive a great deal of material and almost none of it is relevant to them. Being the exception is straightforward and rare.

The five-minute preparation

Read their last three articles. Note the subject, the angle, and the kind of sources they use.

That preparation lets you write a first line that shows you know who they are, which immediately separates you from everything else in their inbox.

The pitch

One paragraph. Four sentences at most.

1. What the story is, in one line.
2. Why it matters to their readers, specifically.
3. What you can provide: data, access, a photograph, an interview.
4. Your contact details.

Not attached. Not preceded by two paragraphs about your company. Not addressed to Dear Sir or Madam.

What journalists actually need

Speed is the one most underestimated. A journalist on deadline needs an answer now. Being reachable and responsive is how a source becomes a regular source.

Be useful when you want nothing

The strongest media relationships begin with an offer of help on a story that has nothing to do with you.

Offering background, explaining a technical point, suggesting someone else worth speaking to, correcting a misunderstanding politely. None of it produces coverage immediately and all of it produces the call next time.

What damages the relationship permanently

Asking to see the article before publication. Complaining about the angle. Contacting the editor over the journalist's head. Sending irrelevant material repeatedly. Offering advertising in exchange for coverage. Going silent when a story is unfavourable.

Each of those is remembered, and the media community in any region is small.

Exclusives

Offering a story exclusively to one publication substantially increases the chance and prominence of coverage.

The rules: offer it to one at a time, state the deadline for their decision, and honour the exclusivity absolutely. Offering the same exclusive to three publications is discovered quickly and ends the relationship with all three.

When the coverage is wrong

Factual errors can be corrected politely, in writing, with evidence, addressed to the journalist. Disagreement with the angle is not an error and complaining about it achieves nothing except the reputation for complaining.