WHY WOULD A NATIONAL JOURNALIST WRITE ABOUT YOU?

WHY WOULD A NATIONAL JOURNALIST WRITE ABOUT ME OR YOU? PICTURE BY BARBARA LEATHAM

I often get told by business owners who want PR (well the media relations bit of PR any way) that they only want national press. They will often say ‘my product or service is national, my brand is national, so I’m not interested in local or regional’.

Today if I get that vibe or if I explain why that’s a crazy way to think of media relations — and the business owner still doesn’t agree with me I conclude with one of two responses:

• Excellent, I hope you’ve got a budget to spend of at least £100,000 a month and I can then fulfill your demands. Of course they never have, because a business which spends that kind of money will have its own inhouse marketing & PR team (unless of course they are a bit rubbish and they avoid doing the media bit of PR, which is really common).
• I’m not the right fit for you. In fact, I’d be wary of any PR company which claims it can consistently guarantee this unless they have personal connections, that they hold considerable influence over, in every newsroom of your preferred publications, programmes or series.

It’s important to understand this in your business, however big or small it is or in your charity or in your back bedroom working as a therapist that the national press is a body of journalists who work to an agenda set by a news editor or producer or…