A communications firm emails a reporter a story pitch. The reporter pitches the idea to managers and producers at a morning news meeting. One of the producers expresses interest, but it’s unclear if her interest will lead to a story airing.
Fast forward two and a half weeks. A story in the news now makes that idea from weeks earlier timely. During the morning news meeting, the same producer tells the reporter she wants to shoot the story. She wants to shoot that day. She wants to shoot it at 2:30 in the afternoon.
The reporter calls and emails the communications firm. Several phone calls are exchanged, but the client at first can’t be reached. Then the client is not available to shoot the story especially on such short notice. Trying to pull off this story idea under these circumstances might seem to PR pros like trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat. But this is how the news game is played. The producer expected that story at 2:30 that afternoon. She didn’t think an act of magic was in order. If anything, she thought she might be working with another communicator who didn’t understand the TV news business and how deadlines aren’t scheduled days or weeks in advance.
I’ve listened to reporters who are assigned a story in the morning, call a series of people in public relations and are baffled when they call back at four in the afternoon to make arrangements. As my hip friends like to say, don’t hate the player. Hate the game. To win the game, make clear to clients to prepare at a moment’s notice for the media’s call. Most often, you don’t schedule the media for next week between meetings. The client obviously wants to be on TV or in print. Clients need to understand when opportunity knocks, they better open that door. What’s news today is old news tomorrow. Everyone should essentially be on-call. If this plan of action is impossible, communicate that early to the reporter. Don’t build a reputation of pitching stories and then not pulling the rabbit out of the hat.
In this example, the communications firm got a second chance. The client was available the next day and the producer was still interested. But typically, you don’t get a second act to put on your magic show and you lose an audience of thousands.
Have you had clients who have pulled disappearing acts on the media? How have you counseled them? We’d love to hear your stories.
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