The Public Relations Blog

We asked some of the nation’s most successful media relations practitioners to share their best practices.

Earning media coverage is becoming more and more challenging and competitive for public relations and corporate communications professionals. That’s because traditional newsrooms are shrinking, and positive media coverage is now more precious than ever before. While the best PR pros are still getting ink for their employers and clients, it’s always helpful to uplevel your game.

In this solocast, host Jason Mudd describes why it’s important to continue to invest in PR during a recession and provides ways to keep your company in consumers’ minds. 

Tune in to learn more!

Forbes magazine is one of the most trusted sources for businesspeople and executives and is known for its lists of the world’s richest individuals. Forbes caters to business management professionals and those aspiring to a position of corporate leadership. The magazine covers successful companies, individuals, industries, marketing, law, taxes, technology, computers, communications, investments, and management performance. People who read Forbes want to stay on top of today’s business news and are interested in wealth.

In this episode, Greg Galant, CEO and co-founder of Muck Rack, joins host Jason Mudd to discuss the origin of Muck Rack, the current state of journalism and PR reports, best practices for pitching media, and what journalists need from PR professionals. They also discuss how you can use Muck Rack’s technology to find insightful data on what you should be pitching to the media.

Tune in to learn more!

Most companies want to be the best of the best — the first in innovation, the biggest company in a field — and consumers want to know who the best is. If you look at the news, you might notice that media outlets give special attention to stories with these extremes. That’s because such superlatives have great news value, and they can help your company earn media coverage if you demonstrate them honestly.

Your company’s unique, entertaining stories can communicate your mission through earned media coverage.

When you think of news, you might imagine serious, consequential topics. While these make up a large part of news coverage, it’s important to remember that not all news has to be dire or grave. News is “what’s new,” and extraordinarily unique, odd, and novel events can be newsworthy.

Newsrooms look for stories that demonstrate news value, so if you want to generate earned media coverage for your company, you must incorporate the elements of news journalists look for in your media pitches. News consumers are more likely to care about and interact with news stories that contain these elements.

In this solo episode, Jason Mudd explains the process of submitting stories to news outlets. Jason explains how to start writing stories, what you should focus on in them, what they should include, how long you should write them, how to select news outlets to pitch to, and how to pitch to those news outlets.

Tune in to learn how you can pitch a byline article to a news outlet!

Showcase your company’s personality by pitching feature stories for earned media coverage.

With much of the news consisting of timely, serious stories known as “hard news,” people can find relief in “soft news,” which covers topics like lifestyle, arts and culture, and human interest stories. While emotion-based human interest stories (also called features) may seem weak compared to fact-heavy hard news stories, they serve an important purpose in journalism and have great news value.

If you’re looking to earn media coverage for your company, it’s important that your story ideas are newsworthy. Newsworthiness is a factor newsrooms use to determine which stories to pursue and publish. A newsworthy story depends on important news values — elements of news that make audiences care about your story.

Earn more news media coverage by pitching stories with conflict.

Everyone loves drama. Yes, even you. Look at the news — story after story includes some sort of physical or emotional conflict, from sports rivalries to company comparisons to celebrity face-offs. The truth is that news consumers love reading about drama, which is why conflict can add great news value to a story.

When a story has more news value, it becomes more newsworthy, meaning news consumers are more likely to care, interact, and engage with it. Newsrooms look for stories with great news value, so it’s important to incorporate elements of news in your pitches when trying to gain earned media coverage.

To interest journalists, pitch stories with news that will greatly affect target audiences.

When you think about what you see and hear in the news, you may generate a negative image. Extremely serious and urgent news stories often find priority in the news cycle, and these stories can often leave an emotional impact on news consumers. One reason for this emotional impact is because news consumers recognize that these stories carry consequence. When you know that something could change your life, in many cases negatively, you’re more likely to care about it and pay attention.