How a Phone Call Earns Media Coverage

Every month dozens of clients depend on PR agencies like Peak to help them earn media coverage. One of the most effective tools for PR practitioners is neither a fancy new media list service nor the latest social media app. It’s the phone – tried, true and still critical to the success of any campaign.

It sounds simple, but calling a reporter/editor/producer can mean the difference between placing a story in the paper and watching it die a silent death at the bottom of a thousand unopened emails in an assignment editor’s inbox. The power behind the phone call is it gives you precious seconds to establish a relationship with your pitch recipient. In that short time, you can demonstrate you are credible and organized enough to get the resources (background info, interviews, visuals, etc) they need to make the story happen.

In addition to establishing yourself as a good source of story ideas, the phone call is also, far harder to ignore than a stray email or tweet. An assignment editor at one of Vancouver’s daily newspapers or news shows receives several hundred news releases and pitches every day. Ultimately, you need to ask yourself how are you going to highlight your story?

Pitching a news desk can be an intimidating prospect for many people.  I know senior consultants with dozens of years of experience in PR who refuse to do it. It’s understandable. Rejection hurts. Every once in a while you get a prize turkey on the line who yells at you about their deadline and slams the phone down. Even worse is the concern that you are somehow “annoying” the busy journalist with the call.

The reality is, there is no other way to broadcast your message through all the clutter. Indeed many busy assignment editors appreciate a quick, concise pitch to remind them of good stories that otherwise might have slipped by them. Others appreciate the relationships cold calls can (eventually) generate and the news that often comes out of them. The vast majority of journalists I pitch on a weekly basis are decent and busy people. Cold calling these  people can be tough to do at first, but the more you do it, the easier (and dare I say it – more enjoyable) it becomes.

So the next time you’re looking to get your story on the news, do what the pros do. Pick up the phone. Do it enough and I promise you, you will not be disappointed.