An inside view: tips on being a great press officer

There are some great press officers out there, but plenty who don’t always seem to grasp the editorial consequences their decisions could have.

So here are some of my top tips to new press officers – written from the journalists’ side of the fence.

I’ll admit I don’t have the experience from the press-office side. I also understand that some press officers’ hands are genuinely tied by those above them, or by the poor media-policies of the company for which they work.

The importance of the relationship

Ultimately it’s about building a relationship with the broadcaster. A good relationship between your press office and a broadcaster is worth more than anything else, because it will effect everything you do. If you have an excellent relationship, you’re more likely to be able to ‘use’ and work with the broadcaster to publicise your achievements/events/campaigns/messages – as they will attach merit and worth to your press releases and phone calls.

It also means that when you come in for a bit of bad publicity, the broadcaster will only land the punches it absolutely needs to – but there’s so much damage limitation done before this bad publicity even arises if you’ve got that great relationship.

This is all because, ultimately, it’s personal. If I genuinely know you and get on with you, if I want to run a negative story about your company, I have more to weigh up.

If there’s significant editorial or public benefit to running the story, it will get run regardless – that’s the job of a journalist. However, there will always be options to consider. Here’s a hypothetical example:

Do we run a series of negative stories of relatively low public benefit, about a particular public body or company that has done something wrong? It’s still interesting stuff...but it’s borderline...so do we cover it or not?

If we have a good relationship with the press office: No, maybe not. If it’s not a story that we have a ‘duty’ to report, it may be that it’s more beneficial for us to preserve the great relationship we have with that organisation’s press office, rather than approach it with a series of ‘less important’ stories where it feels like all we’re doing is ‘having a go’. This way, we might have more cooperation when a story of greater public significance comes along.

If we have a bad relationship with the press office: Yes, definitely. We have absolutely nothing to lose, and we can get some good editorial content by laying out the failings of your organisation. It’s not a consideration to us whether it annoys you – because you were never going to help us out with anything in the future anyway.

Top tips

If you want to know more about any of this: tim@radiotim.co.uk

Most of these tips feed directly into building that ‘special relationship’ mentioned above.

- Don’t reject tough interviews

“Hi...so we’re running this story in the morning about your organisation...you’ve basically done this terrible thing which we have proof of and we’d like someone to come on and talk about it.”

When press officers get that call, a lot of them have a similar reaction. They get ‘huffy’. Stop being defensive. Remember – you’re on our side – we’re best friends! So just listen to what we’re asking for and then see if you can help.

So – a lot of people/organisations think that staying quiet on difficult subjects is the best things to do. I totally disagree. First off – if you always stay quiet – you quickly fail at building any kind of ‘special relationship’ with the media. Secondly, it’s rarely in anyone’s interest to avoid the tough questions. Remember: the broadcaster has to balance a story – this means if we have a mountain of evidence and radio/tv content stacking up against your company, our only obligation is to ask for your response, and include some of that when we broadcast. A couple of scenarios:

#1 – you’re clearly in the wrong. Perhaps you’re a local council and you’ve wrongly discriminated against a worker on the grounds of a disability. Or maybe your boss-boss has embezzled millions of pounds from the charity you represent. In this scenario, put someone up to say sorry. It’s easy, and might alleviate some of the public bad-feeling the story will bring.

#2 – it’s a negative story where no matter what you say the public will still perceive you as the villain. Perhaps you’re a huge company that due to the recession has had to lay off a thousand workers. Or maybe you’re a police force whose annual stats show a rise in crime. Possibly you’re an ISP that cuts off customers for file-sharing but sometimes gets it completely wrong and disconnects ‘innocent people’. On countless occasions, press offices tend to shut down at the vaguest whiff of a negative story. From then on, it’s like drawing blood from a stone.

It’s an amazingly familiar story: when I’m planning for the next morning, last thing the day before, a statement finally arrives in my inbox from the company Iapproached for an interview.

The problem with this for you as a press officer is how it sounds on air. For radio, for example, we’ve covered our bases – we’ve done what we can to get a response from you. All we have is a brief statement. So what happens is that on our breakfast show, we have three full-length quality interviews, including case-studies and moving personal stories, all painting an emotional account of a story where you are the big bad villain. Appended to back of these is the familiar audience switch-off line of “they sent us a statement, saying blah blah blah”.

No-one cares what your statement says. It’s absolutely worthless. When read by the presenter and preceded by “they sent us a statement”, in comparison to full-length ‘real’ stories – you are the ultimate villain of villains. What’s a real shame in all of this is that so often the organisation in question has some really valid points to make – and making these through a coherent spokesperson would have turned the broadcast into a real debate, providing a far greater defence.

- Be nice

Some press officers actually become rude when you’re asking them for something that they don’t personally deem positive or beneficial for their organisation. Don’t be rude. This is utterly self-defeating and will quickly get you hated and gossiped about by an entire region’s media. Socialising with people from a variety of media outlets in the region – it’s amusing how we all share the same bad feelings and horror stories of particular press offices and officers. Don’t be one of them! Surely not the best approach if part of your job description is to build a great press relationship with the media?

- Have fun

Journalists put in loads of calls to press officers every day. Press officers receive loads of calls every day. They don’t have to be a chore. If you make or receive any of these calls – you’re part of this odd little press-mircocosm. Just step back and take it for what it is, and maybe don’t always take yourself so seriously. Be professional, do what you need to do, but it’s also ok to have fun or a bit or a chat with the person on the other end of the phone.

Of course, plenty of journalists are grumpy and have far too great a sense of self-importance...in which case this one doesn't apply!

- Keep giving updates – time is short

Ok - perhaps this one is asking too much, but if you have enough time in your day...

This is a great tip – because so few press officers do it, so it can be a quick way to make you stand out. When you get a call requesting an interview, a lot hangs on it for the broadcaster. For you, it’s just another call saying “can we have this guest at this time please”. For the broadcaster, they are already intricately planning the order of their stories, their timings and their guests for the next day’s programme – or waiting for your comment for immediate use in news bulletins. If you’re going to turn round at the end of the day and say “sorry we can’t put someone up”, then we’ll need to find someone else (probably with only five minute of office-hours left), and really not be happy with you for leaving it so late to tell us.

So: every time you get that call wanting an interview – we’re watching the clock waiting for you to phone us back (even if it’s for the next day). The top tip is to phone us back on a regular basis to give updates – even if you have absolutely nothing to say. Honestly, we will love this. If it’s midday and we’re after an interview for the next morning, ring us back every half hour (or at least each hour) to tell us what’s going on. It may be that you’ve put the calls in that you need to. It may be to let us know that someone you need to speak to is on their lunch break. Give us an honest assessment of how likely you think it is our request will be met. Short and frequent phone calls will make us think you understand and are in-tune with the way we work, which of course you should be!

- Think carefully about your press releases

First, go and read my whimsical musings on writing press releases.

Don’t just send a press release to all of your media contacts every time someone in your organisation has something to promote. You need to think really carefully about what they say, and how to add value to them for the broadcaster. You want to be the press officer that sends the emails every journalist reads because they know it might be good – not one of the many that sends the releases most journalists know they can safely delete without missing anything important. I should really emphasise how true this is – there’s limited time in the day, and so many emails and press releases. When I’m busy and a new email comes in and the preview box flashes up – if it’s from certain people I’ll just go and delete it right from the preview box, because I know they normally just churn out dull releases.

Don’t get me wrong – press releases do get read – but perhaps some only get read by one person. If you’re a great press officer, you might be in a position where the maximum number of journalists and programme makers read your releases – and the more people that read it, the more likely someone will want to cover it.

Press releases need to make a good ‘story’. There are some great tips from Cambridge University press officers on the Sense About Science website about getting your story right (and the whole page is worth a read). Here’s something they picked up from a training course, and is a mnemonic for what a good press release needs:

T if it’s topical or timely - that’s what makes a news story
R if it’s relevant to an audience
U is if it’s unusual or even better unique
T again, is trouble - we all know that makes a news story
H is human interest.