The Public Relations Blog

Transform your media relations with these four principles of communication.

The ability to effectively communicate and build relationships with journalists is paramount in PR. The 4 R’s of media relations — responsive, resourceful, rapid, and respect — serve as a guiding principle for PR professionals to foster positive relationships with the media. 

Manage your responses more effectively with these pointers.

Reporters use a variety of ways to reach companies and their spokespeople. Some rely solely on relationships they’ve made for their story sources. Others take to social media to pose a question and let the public help direct them to sources, or they may utilize media relations query tools. These tools allow reporters to pose questions and get a variety of responses from sources, as well as search for spokespeople who may have knowledge that applies to a story they’re working on. Public relations professionals use resources like these, so here are our top five tips for responding to reporters’ queries. 

In this episode, guest Bob Wiltfong joins host Jason Mudd to discuss how you can build and maintain media relationships. They describe how to use newsjacking to your advantage in creating the right pitch as well as the importance of leveraging local news on behalf of your brand. 

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Positive media attention can make or break a company. It can increase brand recognition, attract new customers, and generate revenue. But earning that media coverage can be difficult. So, what’s the key to success? Knowing when to pitch the right story to the appropriate contacts at the appropriate outlet at the right time. Let’s dive into what a "done for you" story pitch is and how it can help your company garner positive media attention.

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. 

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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.

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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.