Read all about it...news etiquette

MMUPR students were yesterday treated to a talk on media relations by leading financial PR, Jenny Challenor. Her main argument was that media relations is not dead but the rules of the game have changed and if future PR's are going to develop meaningful relationships with journalists then they need to learn the rules, and be ready to apply them.

Hospitality and lavish gifts are out, grabbing a quick coffee with at least three solid story ideas to offer is in.  Bribery legislation is making journalists more wary of accepting gifts and hospitality so PR practitioners must be able to demonstrate a real understanding of what journalists want and need.

Jenny demonstrated how twitter is growing in importance as a communication tool for journalists and PRO's but she cautioned students on knowing twitter etiquette and understanding its limitations.

But the key to establishing good relationships with journalists, argued Challenor, is reading the papers and keeping abreast of what the key issues are and what has previously been covered on a subject.  In a snap poll only 2 out of the audience of 50 students admitted to reading an actual newspaper, most saying that they read online editions of papers alone; this is not good enough for PRO's, she argued, as online editions don't reflect the full offline content.

Jenny's key tips for good media relations:

- read the papers and watch the news; good PR's keep abreast of the news and can spot good angles and opportunities
- understand how the papers' operate; know deadlines, lead times, preferred contact methods
- don't bombard journalists with press releases or meaningless gifts; untargeted releases and random freebies just undermine your credibility in the long term
- finally, if you don't know what a journalist does, just ask! You might learn something new ;)