Why you should never try these PR tricks on journalists
We already discussed why some journalists ignore your PR pitches.
One of the most exciting moments for startup founders or PR peeps is getting a response from a reporter and then seeing a piece of coverage. However, journalists don’t always see it the same way — whatever the reason, it sometimes feels like they send PR emails straight to the bin.
That’s when it gets sour. Newsmakers may think that the problem is not the news and not the subject line — especially if they followed advice on how to craft a catchy one. Instead, they take it personal.
They think journalists only cover those whom they already know.
That’s not exactly true. Indeed, being a journalist means meeting a lot of PR people every day, including startup founders and corporate C-suite. Reporters are also meant to reach out to different sources to gather comments and news. And sources are not limited to corporate people — those might be professors, working moms, hr consultants, manatee trainers, and so on. However, strongly believing that journalists only talk to their pals, a newsmaker tries a trick number one:
Pretending they already met the reporter before.
What is the worst thing one can do:
Putting RE: in the subject line, pretending this is a reply;
Faking the whole thread, pretending there was a dialogue;
Faking you were forwarded to a reporter by their editor;
All these won’t fool even the recent journalism grads who just joined the newsroom. No need to say - this will put an end to the relationships before they start. Once pitched that way, journalists will never reply and most probably tweet the email revealing the company rep’s name.
But let’s say, your seem-to-be-personal pitch got through and a reporter dives into this email. Here comes another misconception that they definitely will run the story. And if they don’t, some PRs try another black hat trick.
2. Trying to add value to the pitch by a fake exclusive.
Meet another relationship breaker — offering a fake embargo or an exclusive. The worst thing that could happen here - the story is never gonna happen. Obviously, it’s a total no-go and a red flag. Some also pretend the story is urgent and will be shared by others soon, creating a fake FOMO. It might be shaped as:
Last-minute embargo, also used when a story has some undesirable for disclosure moments;
20 min exclusive, meaning the story will be publicly available in 20 min, basically, this is saying ‘your media outlet is very important — but not really’;
exclusive to many, when a reporter thinks they got an exclusive, but then see the story in other media outlets. Newsmakers might say — oh, we meant you will be the only tech outlet, or the only one in San Francisco. This won’t stick!
If you have truly breaking news, like some kind of a unicorn or decacorn M&A deal, a reporter might accept the nasty terms and run the story. However, this is likely the last deal you’ll make with them. Better not to use it and avoid disappointment later.
Along with some other crucial DON’Ts which startup founders and publicists should never do when building media relations, these are the tricks which are just not worth it. Keen to know how to start your PR in an ethical, yet effective manner? Reach out to PR Guy for advice.
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