If you are using the phone to make your initial contact, or if you are following up a mailed release with a call, find out first if the journalist is free to talk, and then be brief and to the point.

Gimmy Park-Li, public service manager for KNBR Radio in San Francisco, says, “I appreciate someone who comes right to the point. I’m always pressed for time, but some people go on for five minutes. I have already determined in the first 90 seconds whether this is something for my station.”

If you’re calling a journalist about a story for the first time, your goal is to find out:

• That you have reached the right journalist for your story.
  
• If he’s free to talk with you now.
  
• Whether he wants to talk about the story on the telephone or have you send written material first.
  

When you make an exploratory call to a journalist, Bob Seltzer advises that you should “try to have three or four different story ideas so if the first one is shot down, you’ve got the next three ready to go. If you have only one door and it’s closed, you don’t have an alternative.”

If you’re following up on material you’ve already sent, be very careful. Journalists don’t like to be asked if they “got that press release.” "I am … very tired of people who phone to tell me they have sent me an e-mail!" says Louise Kehoe, the Financial Times Bureau Chief in San Mateo, CA as quoted in Soft•letter.

On the other hand, if you have some new information you can offer them, there’s a good possibility you can spark their interest. In fact, you might deliberately withhold some intriguing facts that aren’t critical to your story, but will give it an interesting twist -- and use them as bait when you follow up by telephone.

Whatever the purpose of your call, “always identify yourself when you’re calling -- even if you talked with me this morning,” says Bill Howard. “Editors forget who you are very quickly, because we talk to hundreds of people. If someone just says ‘Hi, this is John Jones,’ I can’t remember if he’s looking for a job, if he’s a creditor, or if he’s a publicist.”

From Chapter 2, The Publicity Handbook

The Publicity Handbook Table of Contents
How to Choose the Best Press Clipping Service
Electronic Photos: When and How to Use Them
Secrets of Writing Newsworthy Press Releases
Webcast Planning Made Easy

Copyright ©2001 by David R. Yale. All rights reserved. The content of this site is for your personal use only. It may not be copied, reprinted, excerpted, edited, sold, anthologized, or included in any Web site, publication, or training manual, paper-based or electronic, without prior permission.

For permission to reprint or license this material in your publication, on your Web site, or for other use, contact david@publicityhandbook.com The design of this Web site may not be copied for any purpose or in any format. Site design by Richard Murdock.