Establishing Media Partners

How to Work with Journalists  

The gatekeepers of traditional media are journalists. Many journalists have a mixed relationship with public relations professionals. They complain that press officers are pushy, don’t return calls, or fail to understand how busy they are. It isn’t enough to assume that you will have a good professional relationship with important journalists just because of your job; you have to work at it. Below are some practical tips on how to develop solid relationships with journalists.  

• Share information. Journalists will be interested in talking to a source they know is familiar with their area of interest.  
• Take your time and don’t expect instant returns. Make clear the terms under which you are speaking to them. Agree what “off the record”, “on the record”, “on background”, etc. mean.  
• Develop a personalised, friendly relationship with journalists. For example, try to take advantage of any special interest you may share with them (music, sports, etc.).  
• Check which journalists other NGOs are speaking to, for possible contacts. Review newspapers/trade magazines/ websites for who is writing about your area of expertise.  
• Keep your promises. If you promise a journalist material, access or an exclusive interview by a certain time, deliver on it; or at the very least call to explain why you cannot.  
• Meet journalist contacts face to face. Take them out for coffee and lunch. The better they know you, the more likely it is that they will use your material. Don’t just call when there is a big story. Call in quiet times too. 

“Sometimes a friend, always a journalist” is a useful saying.

Remember – your agenda is to promote your organisation/campaign or cause, their agenda is to publish or broadcast a story that is interesting. Whether it is positive or negative about your cause is not the point. 

Journalists are busy people, the typical working day for a journalist is quite structured. It is a mistake to think that the word “news” implies that journalists are sitting around, waiting for “new” things to happen. Although there are sudden, unexpected events (plane crashes, for example), those “breaking news” items form only one part of the news day. 

Pitching Stories to Journalists 

Once you have got hold of your journalist you have to get their attention. That means giving them a story that they can get past their editors and into the bulletin or newspaper. There is no point complaining that journalists should care about your story because it is important, and it matters. To a journalist with a full inbox and an editor shouting at him or her, your story will not stand out unless you sell it hard, and you don’t make the journalist work too hard to find out what the story actually means.  

If you speak to a journalist, or contact them in other ways, you need to make “a pitch”. A pitch is a description of a potential story idea that you want to be used. A pitch lays out why a story matters. It essentially makes the case for doing a certain story at a certain point in time. A good pitch should quickly and succinctly summarise the story the author wants to write and explain why that story matters to the journalist or society, not why it matters to you.  

The time to make your pitch is not the day an announcement is made, or a report comes out. Do it the day before, two days before, a week before, so that the journalist can make plans and get a marker down for space in the relevant issue or bulletin.  

A news peg is what makes the story timely or newsworthy now. You may have been running a vaccination campaign for months, but then the government releases infant mortality data. That is the element that makes the story timely and important now. This is what will make journalists want to use your story. Most journalists need some kind of news peg before they can consider using your story idea. If there isn’t an obvious one, you must try to find one or risk your hard work being rejected as irrelevant, and random. The lack of a news peg is one of the fastest ways to make journalists lose interest in your story.  As well as the releases of new data, there are other kinds of news pegs. For example, a celebrity coming to visit one of your projects, or a change in policy, or new funding.  

Journalists also need a “sound bite” or a “golden quote”. It doesn’t matter how profound your message is, if you don’t give it to them in a 20-second clip, they won’t be able to use it. This is particularly true of television and radio. It doesn’t have to come from you – in fact it’s usually better if it doesn’t – a specialist or a front-line aid worker or activist carries more credibility than a public relations official. But one way or another, you have to provide that material for them.  

You might find this short “sound bite” approach to be superficial, and feel your subject needs more time and depth – but the reality is that the attention span of news audiences will not support long pieces. Documentaries and features will give you a longer period of time to get your message across, but they are expensive and time-consuming so news organisations cannot do many of them.