Archive for October 27th, 2008
Sometimes, The Magic Word Is “No”
I was on a very interesting conference call last week set up by Peter Shankman, who is known in PR circles these days for his HARO (Help A Reporter Out) e-mail service. HARO is like Profnet in that it helps match PR people with media people looking for story sources, but it’s free and is a little sassier than Profnet. (And I mean that as a complement.)
The call featured a quartet of media people from high-profile news sources (think New York Times, AP), talking about what they liked and disliked about PR people. It reinforced some things we already know about media attitudes toward PR — they like us generally, they wouldn’t be half as informed without us, but we do some things that annoy them. We can be pushy. They really hate getting pitches on topics completely unrelated to what they cover. They can see when we’re calling them via the magic of Caller ID, and if we call them a lot, they tend to notice that. They obviously can’t get to every email, even though they’d like to respond. They all seemed to agree that if it’s been a week and they haven’t responded, it’s because they’re not interested in the story.
Principled PR practitioners know all this, but without hearing a “no” from a reporter or producer, we have to assume the answer is “maybe,” or we’ve sent them the rare e-mail that has fizzled into the ether before reaching its destination, or that they seemly have missed it in the barrage of e-mail they typically receive.
Why do we keep going until we hear the word “no?”
In a word: thoroughness. You want to honor your client. You have researched media outlets and media directories to come up with a list of people you believe will at least want to hear your pitch. You know that PR is sometimes beholden to the law of averages — many will hear the pitch and find it interesting, but only a few have the space and the editorial calendar and the gut feeling allowing them to move forward and transform your pitch into coverage.
I’m fine with “no.” I don’t take “no” personally. It’s disappointing to hear sometimes, especially when I see how happy my client and the media outlet would be together, but it’s part of the information I need to do my job efficiently — and perhaps more importantly, to help the media do its job efficiently.
I promise you that if I hear “no” on a story idea, I won’t come back tomorrow with some “fresh new angle” I didn’t think of earlier. I know that would land me in, as one of my colleagues coined it, the “bozo bin.” I don’t want to be there. No self-respecting PR person wants to be there.
It’s okay to tell me “no.” Of course, I’d prefer to hear “yes.” I’m even fine with “I’ll hang onto it and might use it later.” I’ll even believe you mean that! But hearing nothing is harder than hearing “no.”
