Greg Langston

There are many ways to work with Journalists. Below we recommend a few that work effectively:

First, we assume you are doing public relations or have been drawn to public relations due to your facility with the language and your innate sense of tact. So it is probably unnecessary to recommend that you avoid off-color jokes, politically controversial topics or hazard critiques of the picture accompanying a writer's byline.

There are, however, two mistakes that are all but guaranteed to set an editor's teeth on edge.

No matter how many advertising dollars you sink into a particular publication, NEVER insist on commensurate editorial coverage. First, there are clear lines of demarcation between advertising and editorial departments. Second, editors take their editorial mission seriously and view any suggestion of linkage between coverage and advertising as an insult to their professionalism and editorial independence.

Claiming or accusing a writer of bias because of your perception (real or imagined) that they have given play to your competitors is also guaranteed to backfire -- for the very reasons stated above. If a writer does seem to give a competitor repeated play and appears to be unbalanced in his or her reporting, simply keep at it. More often than not, the imbalance is more a function of aggressive public relations on the part of your competitor than bias on the part of the writer.

Remember that Patience, Persistence, Consistency. Public relations is about developing a core message, communicating that message creatively and consistently, and understanding that success comes over time. Remember that you can't cure cancer or world hunger in a day! The same is true for public relations.