Pitchin' to the Media - How to get good press

By Tom Lacock, WBC

I just flew in from Baltimore and my arms aren’t the least bit tired. I spent three days this week at the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (typical editors put the “E” before the “W” in the title of the organization) Conference on the east coast.

While the job duties are a lot more specific, it is basically my job to help people say pretty things about Wyoming in print or television and SABEW lets me hear specifically what the media is looking for.

Spencer Ante, an editor at Business Week, opened his playbook and offered his checklist of how he decides who he is going to cover. He won’t listen to a pitch without knowing about:

Management - He wants the story on a company interested in getting ink to tell him who the managers are, what is their story, why did they arrive where they have? Who have they surrounded themselves with to insure success?
Level of innovation - Sure you have a new product, but how is this changing people’s lives?
The company they keep - Who is using this product or who are the investors?
Evolution of their business plan - They might be innovative, they might be making money, but where are they as opposed to where they want to be and how they intend to get there.

If you can answer those four questions in a way that is fun or interesting, let me know and we can find a publication to plug you in.

Sounds easy, but here comes the tough part. Any lemonade stand can knock through those first four. You have to be willing to back your story up with solid financials - doesn’t mean you have to make money, doesn’t mean you have to be getting close, it just means you have to be willing to open your books.

Here we have a personal space alert just like that time in second grade gym class when the girl behind you got into your bubble and her glasses went flying across the room because she had no idea you were about to do a helicopter. This is personal, this is closer than we want to let someone in.

Granted, I don’t walk around with my credit score on a t-shirt or tell anyone on the street my amount of credit card debt, because it is personal. It’s a pretty personal thing to have your entire life on bank statements and just show that to a guy you just met. The flip side to that is a reputable reporter isn’t going to risk his/her rep for someone who isn’t about to show that off. Keep in mind, the financials aren’t necessarily going into the story, but it will legitimize you.

In a lot of cases you can talk to the reporter about using percentages of growth in a story or another measure that doesn’t necessarily give away a financial position to a competitor.  Think about it like this - if someone is writing for the Denver Post, Business Week or any other reputable publication, they are probably a smart cookie and didn’t get where they are by putting a knife in the back of the businesses they write about.