Rethinking Media Relations

Like most good relationships, trust, respect, responsiveness, and mutual understanding are key to public relations efforts having the desired impact on key audiences. And like personal relationships, those established between your company’s public relations (PR) experts and the media, customers, employees, shareholders, and suppliers can suffer from excessive self-interest, short-sightedness, and misunderstanding.

That’s why more and more public relations and corporate communications professionals have turned their attention to refining what’s considered one of the most effective practices in the field today: cultivating and sustaining long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with their audiences.

Traditionally, good public relations consisted of the production and placement of attention-garnering messages for client organizations—messages that often leaned on salesmanship instead of on attempts to enlighten or educate. But increasingly, what’s considered shrewd PR—gaining visibility and crafting positive reputations for organizations—involves putting the media’s best interests on par with clients’ interests, and building enduring relationships with journalists.

Cultivating media relationships is essential, even if it doesn't result in immediate or near-term news coverage.

Press coverage is typically viewed as the most credible way to get readers or viewers to notice your company because journalists are traditionally seen as objective parties who gather facts but don’t promote specific interests. But how communications pros interact with the media can make all the difference between being a go-to source for time-crunched journalists or having an adversarial relationship—or no relationship at all.

Good PR agencies know their reputation is on the line with each and every pitch they make to journalists via press release, e-mail, or over the phone. They closely study targeted media outlets, their writing style and tone, and take pains to understand what kind of story ideas appeal to the media and their audiences. Now, PR firms are adding context and broad industry perspective to their communications with the media, rather than just hyping the accomplishments of client organizations.

Brant Skogrand, senior media relations specialist with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a financial services company in Minneapolis, regularly phones business reporters who cover his company with story ideas that fit their beats—regardless of whether those ideas include his own company. For example, when a Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter was working on a story about artwork displayed in corporate headquarters, Skogrand alerted her to a collection that ranks among the best in the country at Regis Corporation, a hair care services and cosmetology company in Minneapolis.

When a Time magazine reporter was looking to write a story about Twin Cities executives involved with nonprofit enterprises, Skogrand introduced him to real estate firm Welsh Companies’ CEO Dennis Doyle, who launched the local charity Hope for the City, an Edina organization that collects overstock from companies and distributes them to people in need locally and around the world. While Skogrand’s intention is to help the media, his main goal is to keep Thrivent top of mind should the time come for reporters to cover his industry.