Last night I had t
he pleasure of touring the offices of Bloomberg, housed right here in NYC at One Beacon Court. While Bloomberg’s core business is their news terminal subscriber service, they are also one of the world’s most renown financial news organizations, with titles including Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg TV and Radio.
While their offices were certainly impressive, I really enjoyed the sit down with Bloomberg’s New York bureau chief, Karen Toulon. While it was interesting to hear all of her tips on pitching the outlet, one of the most revealing things Karen described was about the PR people she works with most frequently. “It’s not necessarily that they’ve provided me with the best story ever,” she said. “I work with them because they are steady, trustworthy, and pleasant.”
In other words, it’s about the relationships! While a huge market moving story will always get covered, having a strong relationship with a reporter will absolutely help get your story in front of the right people in the end.
- Be upfront with reporters – don’t overpromise and under deliver, especially when it comes to availability of your spokesperson
- Offer true exclusives, and when you can’t, be upfront that you’re working with another station too
- Follow reporters on Twitter, but not just to spam them pitches. Re-tweet relevant stories, even if they aren’t about your client
- Send over industry trends you think might be of interest, even if they may not lend to your client
- Always, always respond immediately – if a reporter does get back to you, never leave them hanging. If you can’t immediately confirm something, let them know you’re working on it. This lets the reporter know you’re busy getting them what they need
Any other tried and true relationship building tips? Add them in the comments!
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