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.”
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.
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.
@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.
@B didn’t Obama just make a number of Buzzy viral videos about major government policy?
@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.