The Public Relations Blog

Know how to best share your company’s message

Earned media coverage is built awareness about your company through efforts like media relations (connecting with reporters), blogger relations, influencers, and word-of-mouth. It’s counterpart is paid media, which is advertisements that you or your company creates or pays for about itself. We have many clients ask us the difference between earned and paid media, and in the same breath, they also ask us to create a press release to earn media coverage.

Don’t make this distribution mistake when pitching to the news media

PR and marketing departments get busy. They know they need to share their company’s news with the media but far too often, they simply get caught up in day-to-day tasks. When your PR and marketing departments get busy, then they can get lazy about distributing news to the media. Here’s a mistake your team may be making, why it’s a mistake, and the right way to handle it. 

What to do if your executive/spokesperson/client isn’t fit to be the face of the organization

As public relations professionals, we’ve worked with a plethora of companies, clients, and spokespeople. Some are perfect spokespeople while others need a few spokesperson training sessions, and then there are the ones that shouldn’t or can’t be the face of the company. 

Finding a spokesperson for your company can be a daunting task, and having a conversation with a spokesperson who truly isn’t the best fit to represent your company is even more difficult. As an outside PR firm, having the conversation with a client about who the best spokesperson is can be easier than having the conversation internally with a superior. So how do you navigate that difficult conversation? 

Be a better resource for the media

As newsrooms continue to shrink, they rely more and more on their reporters to write for print and online as well as take their own photos and videos. With reporters doing more, newspapers also rely on PR professionals and a company’s PR and marketing department to submit stories – in an inverted pyramid style – and images for publication. 

Story ideas and submissions are relatively easy to provide to a media outlet. Many companies struggle with submitting photos that newspapers and magazines will and can use. Here are some tips that will help you and your team submit quality photos the media will use. 

Pitches must be newsworthy and succinct for outlets to pick them up 

Whether it’s your first time pitching to the media, your 100th time, or your 5,000th time, you need to make sure there are things you consider and keep in mind. When you're getting ready to pitch to the media, you need to be clear on this: what's the actual story you're pitching? 

Ensure external communications appeal to media with copy editing

As a public relations firm, we believe it’s important to provide you with a white-glove experience. One of the ways we do that is by offering comprehensive PR solutions and value-added services at no additional cost. One of those services is copy editing all content and documents that we share with the media, post on a newswire, or otherwise submit on your company’s behalf. 

Eleven tips to assist your tax prep in obtaining coverage

There’s more than one way to release company news. If you’re starting out in the public relations industry or you work for a company that wants to earn media coverage, it’s important to know the best way to share news. Here, Axia Public Relations describes the difference between distributing news and pitching it.

Journalists want evergreen content; pitch stories that stay relevant

Evergreen is a term in journalism and public relations that means the content isn’t time sensitive. It’s news your company shares that doesn’t have a shelf life and won’t go stale. Evergreen stories are perpetually relevant and always interesting to readers. It’s not breaking news or specific to a season or holiday. 

Getting media coverage for your company can seem daunting, especially for a newbie or someone who doesn’t understand how the news media works. It’s possible to earn media coverage without writing a news release; you just need to make sure you’re pitching your company the right way. Here’s a list of 21 mistakes you might be making when you pitch your company to the news media.