Putting the relations back into Public Relations

The importance of building genuine relationships in the realm of PR and just how this approach can drive long-term success and results

A short [recent] history of PR 

Since the turn of the century PR has had to evolve from engaging ‘traditional’ media to the world of online dominance. Newspapers, magazines, radio and TV have all had to adopt more digitised options to engage readers that are more likely to look at their phone than buy a newspaper. 

Even 24 hour rolling news is now suffering to compete with the speed of the likes of X (formally Twitter), Instagram and Facebook. The focus on almost real-time communication and direct audience engagement has made the world of PR more diverse with digital PR strategies to target audiences across any number of different channels. 

In more recent years, the rise of influencer marketing and leveraging social media personalities to reach targeted demographics has added to the debate over what is real and what is fake. In 2024, the use of AI and machine learning has meant that PR tactics have had to evolve further to allow for more personalised outreach efforts. 

Technology is great! (Says the man working in B2B technology PR), and these changes have undoubtedly made PR more dynamic, interactive, and data-driven - fundamentally altering how organisations can now communicate with their target audiences​. 

However, what does all this technology advancement mean for a core human desire - interaction with other human beings! 

Building Trust with journalists

At ITPR, we’re firm believers that Trust is something that you earn. It’s part of our values and is at the forefront of everything we do and how we operate. So it should be no surprise that we spend a lot of time and effort to earn the trust of the journalists that we work alongside. 

We go about that in various ways, the first of which is making sure we’ve done our research on who is the right journalist for the right piece of content. In a world of hyper-personalisation, spray and pray media distributions are a sure fire way to annoy journalists. 

But beyond this we also do our best to remember that journalists are people too! They have good days and not so good days. They get inundated with countless emails, DMs and/or IMs from PROs all vying for their attention and for them to write about their client. 

Which is why we value an old-fashioned approach - using the telephone to speak to people. Call me out of touch and a dinosaur, but a well crafted pitch over the phone can really pay dividends, especially if you’ve done your research. Creating a targeted media engagement strategy means that you’re going to be pitching to key journalists on a regular basis, so it makes sense to put the effort in. Phone calls also give you the opportunity to find out bits of information about the journalists that will make the call more personable and memorable the next time you pitch. 

I am not professing to have unlocked the key to great media relations or to have found the secret sauce. I’m also not claiming that because we speak to a journalist on a regular basis that we can call in a favour to get our story published. The rule still stands that if your story isn’t newsworthy, then it isn’t going to get published. However, even when you get a ‘Thanks, but no thanks’, you’ve still had an opportunity to slowly build a relationship with said journalist. 

Honing this skill over time and improving your interactions with journalists on a regular basis builds a relationship, and if you’re providing journalists with newsworthy content they can then begin to trust in the fact that you aren’t hawking a product release - you’re actually pitching news.  

Is there a strategy for building good journalist relationships?

Yes, 100% there is - and here it is:

1. Do your research on the journalist - what do they write about and have they written a similar story to what you’re pitching recently. If they have, this lowers your chances of success
2. Do your research on your own story - what are the stand out news hooks and start with those. Your client’s key corporate messaging can wait
3. Don’t give up - some people call it tenacity or determination, others call it ‘bloody mindedness’. Whatever you want to call it, don’t give up and make notes. All comments from journalists - good or bad - are worth taking on board 
4. Give them all the information they need - after you’ve spoken to a journalist and they’ve agreed to either search for your original email pitch or for you to resend your email pitch make sure that all the information is in one place. I.e. the news, supporting imagery, information on the client or organisation and whatever else you deem necessary to support your story. 
5. Remember they are only human - I used to build up a negative image in my mind that journalists are just waiting by the phone to roast a young press officer like me who might falter on my pitch. Thankfully this couldn’t be further from the truth. 99% of the journalists I’ve gotten to know are lovely people. 

What should you do the next time you speak to a journalist? 

Congratulations! If you’re speaking to them you’re already halfway there. Our advice would be to give them the headlines, get to the point, tell them why their readership would be interested. If you can cover those three things in your opening then you shouldn’t go far wrong.  

Be polite and courteous, obviously [I hope] and always ask if you can follow up with more information on email. For any semi-experienced PR Executive or Press Officer this is a ‘Duh’ moment and I would expect this to be standard practice. However, expectations and reality are two different things entirely. Be true to yourself, your client and your employer and put the effort in to do your research. The results will soon begin to speak for themselves as you become trusted by the media and your peers.