For Clients and Friends of Potomac Communications Group, Inc.
Getting Media Attention for Your CEO:
Interview with Dina Temple-Raston of Bloomberg's
ant to help a national journalist get your CEO featured prominently five different ways the same day in this ever-evolving interactive, multimedia world?
Then heed these 10 tips from Bloomberg Correspondent Dina Temple-Raston, who took time out recently from covering national economic and international news out of the White House for a chat with PCG’s Jim Pierobon for Communications Impact.
1. Return calls promptly and be sure to ask what the journalist’s deadline is. Then do your absolute best to help her meet it. “We’re often sitting by the phones waiting for information. If you can’t help, please say so.”
2. Even if you cannot help a journalist on deadline, try to provide leads that might help. “You gain a lot of credibility and you’re more likely to get journalists to write the story you want if you can give them some guidance on others who can help or hints about how the story ought to develop if you can’t be completely open,” she said. Something like, “you’re on the right track but I can’t tell you more. Or you could say, you’ve got a lot of the right elements, but I’m not allowed to talk about it.”
3. Act like a journalist, instead of a “flack,” and the journalist can come to respect you. That means doing your homework about the questions journalists are most likely to ask. Few things disappoint her more than a business source unable to answer a predictable question such as how much a deal is worth. “If I don’t have the basic facts for a story, my editor’s going to come back to me and ask, ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’ It wastes everyone’s time.”
4. Write quotes in your press releases to truly reflect the CEO’s style and approach to business. “We don’t take press release quotes because they sound clunky and legalistic. They should be short and show some of the personality of your CEO and make some news. Otherwise, I have to call your CEO as if I am starting from scratch.”
Plan Something New
5. Prepare your CEO or executive to assert something new and not restate a position he’s held for a long time. Better yet, prepare him to talk not just about the subject of the day, but about two or three other topics that interest him. Such an interview could produce quotes in two or three other stories.
6. Don’t even think about lying in your dealings to shield a CEO.
7. Become a resource to reporters. One way to tell: do they call you back for no particular reason to share information? The best p.r./journalist relationships are two-way streets.
8. If you want exclusive-type treatment, do enough homework. Include lots of details in your story pitch. If a deal includes a price tag, be sure not to leave it out, and compute it the way Wall Street values a transaction. And be prepared to answer such questions as: Will it dilute the share price? How will the company pay for the acquisition? How much cash is involved or what kinds of securities might be sold?
9. Leverage your government affairs contacts in Washington to share information with journalists about regulatory and international trade developments that affect your clients. People in Washington have access to many resources. By sharing some of that information, you can strengthen your relationships with journalists.
10. If you need to be protected as a source, be certain to say so. But unless there are special reasons for confidentiality, allow a strong on-the-record quote. “Have something your client can say on the record and be prepared to put it in context, even if the context is on background,” Ms. Temple-Raston says.
After graduating from Northwestern University in 1986, Ms. Temple-Raston helped to create a national magazine about the Internet. After about three years, she seized an opportunity to work for the governor of Liaoning Province in northeast China to study and write about economic and political reform programs there.
In 1990, Ms. Temple-Raston accepted a post in Hong Kong covering the Pacific Rim for Asia Week magazine, published by Time, Inc. By then, Michael Bloomberg was rapidly expanding his information network of computer terminals launched in 1981 for security analysts, investment bankers and chief financial officers. In 1991, he hired Ms. Temple-Raston as one of the “original Bloombergers” in Hong Kong. She has since returned to the U.S. with her husband, a Navy pilot, and two children.
“Every story I do has to have a business angle – a real- world reason for being,” she says. “We try to keep our eye on the ball.”
Over a typical week, Ms. Temple-Raston reads about a dozen magazines principally to look for fresh sources and generate story ideas. “If someone says something smart, I’ll write down the name, get their (telephone) number and put it in my list. It already shows me someone’s willing to talk to the press.”
She catalogues her cadre of news sources and contacts on her office computer organized by subject. Currently, the list spans about 45 printed pages, single-spaced.
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