06 Mar Media Relations Tip #5: Don’t ask to see it
You can’t see it before it’s’ written. Ever. That’s called an advertorial. Any journalist worth their salt will say, “no” and, likely never call you again.
Now, not sure the journalist is “getting” what you are saying? Afraid you may have misspoke or worse, inadvertently lied? Try these steps:
- If you make a mistake, lie, or otherwise fail to tell the whole-truth-and-nothing-but: Admit your error; journalists loathe errors in their work as much as you do. Flub a fact? Admit it, move on, look up the real information, and get to to the journalist as soon as possible.
- Ask the journalists if they require “clarification” on a specific point. Provoke additional questions by simply asking “do you have another question about that point; I’m sure I’m forgetting something.”
- Never, ever ask for a statement to be off-the-record after uttering it; this only leads them to print it. Usually the request to strike it from “the record”will result in the request being published as well. There is no such thing as off-the-record. Ever.
I’ve been enjoying these tips, Ian. But I must respectfully disagree that you’re never allowed to see a piece. Perhaps the “rules” are different with the swath of media we’re generally dealing with – those focused exclusively on the B2B markets to which our clients speak. Rather often we are provided with a piece prior to its being printed, but not to review necessarily for marketing messages but rather for factual accuracy as we’re usually dealing with very technology dense/technologically complex companies and products. In hard news or in consumer-based media coverage, I can see where your tip is more universally the case.
I couldn’t agree more with your third point above though, and this is a topic which we’ve covered repeatedly on our blog, both with regards to clients – http://inmedialog.com/index.php/archives/the-interviews-never-over/ and how it pertains to us PR folks – http://inmedialog.com/index.php/archives/revisiting-a-few-recent-posts/