Journalists tell PRs to be quicker, more tailored and ‘make it shareable’
The revolution of Australia’s news media landscape over the last 12 months has presented public relations professionals with fantastic opportunities if they can find the “sweet spot” for each publication, but many are still missing the mark, a CommsCon panel heard this morning.
Senior journalists from several of Australia’s major new arrivals including the Mail Online, Buzzfeed and Junkee, told a room full of public relations professionals how press releases are only useful to them if tailored for their websites.
Bruce Guthrie, editorial director of the New Daily, a publication backed by superannuation industry funds, said his one piece of advice to PRs would be to find the “sweet spot” in each publication – the unique point of difference that will present an angle for the stories being pitched.
He said: “It’s really, really important to understand the DNA of each of these sites because there are similarities but also significant differences in the sweet spots, and if you can identify the sweet spots its a real opportunity. If you can deliver a publish-ready story and content you stand a big chance of having it published because there’s a huge demand for material.”
The Daily Mail’s global entertainment editor Natalie Trombetta said the Mail Online is hungry for local content in Australia as it feeds the geo-targetted right rail of the website, however PR’s are not fast enough at sharing news and pictures from celebrity events here.
“If you have an event, we want the pictures and video as it’s happening and we want it up on the site that day, we don’t want to be waiting for something to trickle in a couple of days later,” she said.
“I have noticed locally there has been a bit of a lag. I don’t know why that is because we have a desk here and people writing stories around the clock, so don’t sit there and wait. If you have something that can be added for a new angle we can move quickly to change it.”
The position of the New Daily is trying to be a life-advisor, Guthrie said, so advised PR’s to pitch stories about how to live.
And Buzzfeed Australia editor Simon Crerar said press releases are useful if tailored specifically for the site. The test, he said, is whether the story is shareable: “Just ask yourself if it’s something you would share on Facebook.
“If it doesn’t hit you in the gut it won’t hit us in the gut and it won’t hit our readers in the gut.”
Brands already involved in conversations in social media and with followings online are also stories for BuzzFeed, Crerar said.
Steph Harmon, managing editor of Junkee also stressed the importance of shareabilty.
“It’s one thing to get a video up on a site but it’s not going to do you any favours if there’s nothing shareable about it,” she said.
And she recommended this slideshow on how to make content viral from Upworthy.
Journalists across the panel stressed the importance of pictures and video, and Trombetta said standard press releases no longer work as an online publication is “three dimensional”.
“A lot of releases are missing the mark,” she told the room of PRs. “But we have a lot of good relationships with PRs already. Good PRs have come to us and understand the importance of forging these relationships.”
Guthrie said public relations professionals should also take advantage of the new media landscape.
“It’ a unique time in Australia,” he said. “We all have points of difference this is a fantastic opportunity to build relationships with all of them.”
However understanding digital media is most important, Guthrie said.
“We still don’t understand how any PR people don’t think pictures. It’s quite extraordinary that you can get a 15 paragraph release and when you ask about pictures they say I’ll see what I can do. You have got to think not only text but pictures, video and audio. We are experimenting with all devices to tell our stories and you should too.”
Megan Reynolds
Don’t know what PR professionals are doing these days, but when I studied PR it was adamant that you tailored your release for the publication in which you want it picked up. It’s common sense really.
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I can count the good press releases I’ve gotten in the last month on one hand, and I get around 30 a day.
Although, devil’s advocate, poor practice from the vast majority of PR agencies make journalists dig out the good info and find their own angles, so in a round-about way it improves journalistic practice.
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@Yael Excellent point. Presentations like this one — ‘the conventional media release is dead, break it up into audio and video and little chunks’ are great advice if you are pitching a story about your new FMCG or celebrity.
If you’re the Treasurer of Australia and you’re making a major announcement of government policy, you’re probably not going to start off by working out how to make a buzzy viral video.
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@B didn’t Obama just make a number of Buzzy viral videos about major government policy?
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@Alex He made a statement on the South Lawn with Marine One in the background, which his press office then typed up and issued as a statement. It even had ‘for immediate release’ at the top.
It could have been President Eisenhower, except some of the vision was cut into chunks for Youtube.
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