Peter Spurway’S Practical, Powerful and Effective Guide to Media Relations: Get Past the Fear and Use the Control You Don’T Realize You Have to Deliver Your Message Effectively, Every Chance You Get

Copyright © 2017 by Peter Spurway.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2017902966

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5245-8672-0

                Softcover        978-1-5245-8673-7

                eBook             978-1-5245-8674-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 03/14/2017

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Contents

A

Accessibility

Accuracy

Acronyms (Use of)

Adversary

Advisors

Agenda

Aiding and Abetting

Anger

Anticipation

Attribution (Not for)

Availability

B

Background (See also Patience)

Basics

Brevity

Bridging

C

Changing Face of the Media

Clarity

Clips

Comment?

Comments (Online)

Commitments

Communication (Test of Effective)

Complaints

Conflict

Control

Corrections/Clarifications

Creating your own Content

Credibility

Crisis and Opportunity

D

Deadlines

Deafness

Delivery

Double-ender

E

Educating Reporters

Editorials

Ego

Energy and Emotion

Engaging the Media

Equal Treatment

Errors (Omission, Commission)

Examples

Exhaustion

Exit Strategy

Experience

F

Facts

Fairness

Found Information

Friends

Full Disclosure

G

Guarantees

Goal

Grammar

H

Heart

Honesty

I

Interview

Introduction (Your)

Issue versus Crisis

J

Jargon (Use of)

K

Key Messages

Know the Audience

Know Your Stuff

L

Language (Vocabulary)

Legal Advice

Legs

Lies

Listen

Long Form Interview

Luck

M

Managing Expectations

Media

Media Conference

Media Relations

Monitoring

Multiple Interviews (Same day, Same topic)

N

Newsworthy

No Comment

Nuance

Numbers

O

Objectivity (and Unicorns)

Off the Record

On the Record

P

Paranoia (Healthy)

Patience

Person

Permanence

Personality

Pitch and Pace (and Tone)

Practice

Press

Preparation (General)

Preparation (Specific)

Print

Proactive versus Reactive

Q

Questions

R

Radio

Recording the interview

Refusing

Relationship

Role of the Media

S

Saying No, Thank You

Scrums

Simplicity

Social Media

Speculation

Speed

Staking Your Claim

Stereotypes

T

Take Five

Take Two

Ts (The Three)

Thank You

The Rule

The Rule for Communications Advisors

Tone

Traps and Tricks

Trust

Truth

Two Voices

U

Unusual

V

Vacuum Theory

Verbal Cue

Video (TV, Podcast, Skype, etc. versus Print)

Visualization

W

When You Get It Wrong

When You’re Not Your Best

Who Speaks When?

Why Care?

X

X-Rated

Y

Yes or No

Z

Zen

Dedication

To good communications advisors who understand the value of a solid working relationship with the media and who respect reporters and the difficult job they do.

To good reporters who pursue the truth with fairness and accuracy and who understand that organizations don’t exist to provide them with stories.

As Dan Rather so eloquently wrote:

Be skeptical but not cynical, dogged but not disrespectful, confrontational but not oppositional. Your job is to try to get to as close to a version of the truth as is humanly possible. Pull no punches. Do not succumb to fear or favor. Present what you have found to your readers, listeners and viewers and let them draw their own conclusions.

Introduction

Way too many people are afraid of the media.

What do they want? What will they ask? Why can’t they just leave us alone?

Be not afraid. The answers to these and many other questions are inside.

You can discern the media’s motives. You can anticipate what they’ll ask. And you can be well-prepared to answer their questions and advance your agenda.

And it’s not half as hard as you might think.

The fact of the matter is that a solid, professional working relationship with the media is in your company/organization/brand’s (COB’s) best interests – especially when things go wrong. And they will go wrong.

This solid, professional working relationship also comes in very handy when you want to talk about your latest/greatest product/service.

This practical, powerful, handy, simple and effective guide will show you how to use the control you don’t realize you have to manage your relationship with the media to your benefit and theirs.

You will learn how to prepare and deliver your messages effectively, even in a hostile environment when the chips are down.

Why this Relationship Matters

Effective media relations is critical to building awareness about your company/organization/brand (COB). Supportive media stories can be valuable third party endorsements and can position your COB as a valuable contributor to the life and growth of your community, with so much more credibility than any advertising you may do.

Your goal is not simply to supply useful, newsworthy information to media outlets, but to build trust and good faith in your working relationship with them.

A good relationship with the media is based on trust and honesty. There will be the odd reporter who may violate these principles, but they can be managed.

Good reporters are always looking for help in understanding the situations about which they are reporting. If you can provide that help in a trustworthy, timely and straightforward way, you are in a position to develop a good working relationship with reporters and help them understand what your COB is all about.

Your goal is to manage your relationship with the media, because you cannot control it.

You are one half of a relationship, and you have complete control of your side of the equation. Use that control to your advantage. You have what they want - and they have access to audiences valuable to you.

How to Use this Book

This book is in aphabetical order.

You should be able to find any topic listed in the Contents within a few seconds.

Or you can open it anywhere.

On second thought, start by re-reading the Introduction and Why this Relationship Matters. That’ll help establish the base on which the book is written - that your relationship with the media is a relationship worth the investment.

Important themes will be repeated throughout the book, appearing in several places.

A

Accessibility

If you or your COB (company/organization/brand) issue a