By Mark Macias
Friends always ask me for email addresses to reporters like it is the gift that will launch their PR campaign. It doesn’t work like that with the media. You can have the email address to the editor or producer, but if you don’t have a strong narrative or angle, you aren’t getting coverage.
Media strategy is more than contacts and it is bigger than ideas. A successful media campaign requires critical thinking, an understanding of the news cycle and insight into the journalist’s mind. It requires an understanding of the news consumer for that specific publication because not all newspapers or magazines are pitched the same. A successful media campaign requires continual follow-up, even when you’re best friends with the reporter. And don’t forget the time it takes to find those targeted reporters. If you take short-cuts during that research, you’re almost guaranteed to fail.